Minutes for March 3, 2025

UC members present: Bernard-Donals, Jones, Kendall, Li, Stein, Zweibel

Others present: Greg Bump, Michelle Felber, Lesley Fisher, Becky Jacobs, Camren Livermore, Jack O’Meara, Mallory Musolf, Taylor Odle, Julie Scharm

Chair Li called the meeting to order at 1:10 pm

Taylor Odle from the Department of Educational Policy Studies will be serving as the UW System Representative. The faculty reps wrote a white paper on the future of higher education and have been asked to identify 4-6 recommendations for UW System to work on. At the last meeting President Rothman gave a report. He expects the state budget will be later in the spring as well as an audit of DEI spending. UW System administration has implemented a hiring freeze and additional review of travel requests. UW System would like to do a faculty/staff climate survey similar to the one they gave students around academic freedom and freedom of speech.

The minutes from the February 24, 2025, meeting was approved by automatic consent.

The University Committee discussed planning for the upcoming town hall. They plan to have a short presentation followed by lots of time for questions and discussion.

Kent Weigel, the new Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Affairs, introduced himself. He has been a long-time department chair in CALS. Right now, he is taking an inventory of what the office does. He has established a faculty affairs associate deans group that met for the first time. He hopes to share best practices and talk about issues that happen infrequently with this group. 

He is hoping to establish a dedicated dual-career couple program coordinator and external awards coordinator possibly through internal reallocation of resources or emerit faculty. He is also looking at issues regarding CHS/clinical faculty and the new unified HIB policy.

Stein motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss waivers at 2:03 pm. One dual-role was approved.

Stein motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to reconvene in open session at 2:28 pm.

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin indicated a message had been sent to campus on Friday, and she was willing to answer any questions. They are handling federal matters day by day. The Department of Education issued a FAQ regarding the Dear Colleague letter. It reiterated some aspects of the original letter and also contained some reframing especially in areas of academic freedom and coursework. They are modeling a variety of fiscal circumstances.

In regards to the Dear Colleague letter from the Department of Education, a small group looked at what we were doing to see if it was in line with current law. There are a few programs the group identified that may not be in line and require further review.  

Li adjourned the meeting at 2:58 pm.