Minutes for April 7, 2025

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin called the meeting to order at 3:31 p.m. with 187 voting members present (107 needed for quorum). Memorial resolutions were offered for Professor Emeritus Bernard Cohen (Faculty Document 3228), Professor Emeritus Robert Booth Fowler (Faculty Document 3229), Professor Emeritus Charles O. Jones (Faculty Document 3230), Professor Emeritus Thomas A. Lipo (Faculty Document 3231), and Professor Emeritus Donald W. Novotny (Faculty Document 3232). 

The 2025 Hilldale Awards were presented to four faculty members representing each of the four divisions: Arts and Humanities Division: Professor Gregg Mitman (History and Medical History & Bioethics), Biological Sciences Division: Professor Emily Stanley (Integrative Biology), Physical Sciences Division: Professor Brian Fox (Biochemistry), Social Sciences Division: Professor Claire Wendland (Anthropology).

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin shared that campus leadership continues to evaluate executive orders and directives from the federal government, and to advocate for the university, including with its congressional delegation. The Office of Legal Affairs has been working to support lawsuits and administrative appeals challenging various executive orders and agency actions. The university is a participant in six lawsuits filed by the Wisconsin attorney general in response to wrongful termination of approved federally funded projects and delays to grant application reviews and efforts to cut previously negotiated indirect rates. Some of these lawsuits have resulted in court orders blocking the federal government from executing the directives until further legal judgment is reached. These kinds of terminations and delays have potentially devastating impacts on the university and on researchers, but also on our broader communities, harming the university’s ability to pursue projects of importance to Americans, to make lifesaving critical discoveries, and to have as many opportunities to train and inspire students and to give them the skills they need to go out and make a difference and in the workforce. Funding cuts and delays, should they stay and or increase, will inevitably lead to challenges and interrupt the progress of graduate and professional students, impact undergraduate experiences, and much more. The inflation likely to be induced by tariffs will raise costs in a number of areas, including research, where parts for high tech lab equipment are often imported from other countries including China, Mexico, and Canada.

Due to the current uncertainty, campus leadership recently sent an email to all employees detailing some budgeting scenarios under consideration and asking that for the remainder of this fiscal year, all schools, colleges, and divisions implement some degree of additional fiscal controls applying to 101 and 150 funds. Campus units are also being asked to take steps to reduce non-essential spending on travel supplies, equipment, and events. This is an effort for deans, in consultation with department chairs and others, to carefully consider the need for positions.

Recent federal actions have had an impact on international students and scholars across the country. The university is not aware of any UW–Madison community member being apprehended or detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), nor has there been ICE activity on campus or in the immediate environs in any unusual way. Very recently, however, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System service records of several current and former international students have been terminated by the U.S. government. The university played no role in those record terminations and was not even directly notified of any of these actions. The university has no reason to believe that the record terminations have had anything to do with political speech or protest activity. The university has a strong belief in the First Amendment and freedom of speech on campus. International faculty, staff, and students are an enormously important and integral part of life on campus and have been for more than 100 years, not only for the perspectives that they bring to the teaching, research, and engagement mission, but in all the ways they enrich lives and the live out the Wisconsin idea, both here and in all corners of the world.

Governor Evers introduced his capital budget, which included top buildings and facilities priorities for the university’s academic and research missions. It included funding to demolish the Humanities Building and to relocate the art and music programs by expanding existing buildings. It also included substantial program revenue supported borrowing (i.e., permission for the university to borrow), in order to grow additional housing on campus. The State Building Commission deadlocked on the governor's proposal, and it was forwarded without a recommendation to the Joint Finance Committee. Campus leadership is actively engaged in meeting with legislators to demonstrate the impact of UW–Madison despite all of the uncertainty.

A visioning committee of faculty, staff, students, and alumni led by Provost Charles Isbell and Professor Lauren Papp began its work and created initial concepts to inform recommendations for the next strategic framework. These concepts were shared with the broader campus community for feedback, along with an invitation to all faculty, staff, and students to participate in community conversations.

Former UW–Madison Chancellor and Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and Jim Sensenbrenner, alumnus of the UW–Madison Law School and former Wisconsin congressperson who served the longest congressional tenure in state history, will be granted honorary degrees at the May 9, 2025 commencement ceremony.

Professor Li Chiao-Ping, University Committee chair, shared that the University Committee

is hosting a second faculty town hall on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, from 3:30pm-4:30pm, in the Virginia Harrison Parlor in Lathrop Hall. The town hall will provide an opportunity to share priorities and issues of concern. The University Committee also identified a need for a special Faculty Senate meeting, to provide enough time for pending business, which will be held on Monday, April 28, 2025 at 3:30 p.m.

The University Committee learned that two new processes for deans were recently introduced: executive coaching for new deans in their first year and a half and 360 reviews for deans in their third year, the latter of which will provide some expectations for the fifth-year review to be measured against.

During the question period, faculty senators asked questions about how the university plans to join other higher education institutions to coordinate a response to federal changes. The chancellor shared that a substantial set of conversations and engagements are taking place between universities to navigate current times. Regarding the Rutgers University Senate resolution calling for the universities in the Big Ten Academic Alliance to form a "Mutual Defense Compact" in order to protect and defend "Academic Freedom, Institutional Integrity and the Research Enterprise," UW–Madison, as a state institution, has defined and limited powers and authority and has rules and regulations that limit the broader level of how the university can advocate more effectively and collectively for the common good; however, it’s an important question for administration and the Faculty Senate to consider and to ask what might have the best impact and a chance of success.

Faculty senators asked questions about visa revocations for international students, potential changes to the Multicultural Student Center, the plans for central administrative budget cuts, as well as athletics budget cuts, relative to the cuts faced by departments, and if feedback from town halls is being shared for action. The chancellor shared that in emergency situations for international students, her understanding is that faculty have the discretion to offer certain kinds of accommodations to allow a student to finish out a semester. While immigration counsel is not something the university can provide, each affected student is being contacted to provide information and resources, to the best of the university’s ability. The chancellor shared her belief in the contributions of multicultural student centers, and that there are not plans to remove them or stop them from existing. The chancellor indicated that each administrative unit is being asked to plan for budget cuts and a shared responsibility in considering administrative efficiencies in order to support the core activities of teaching and research as much as possible. Athletic programs are self-funded and are operating narrowly in the black, but will need to consider the budget situation as well. Lastly, the chancellor shared that there are many efforts in communication, both in terms of feedback and in terms of being as communicative and transparent as possible, while knowing that small teams are trying to navigate a lot at once.

Professor Li Chiao-Ping, University Committee chair, moved to suspend the rules to allow for immediate consideration of agenda items #9, #10 and #11, old and new business items. The motion was seconded and approved by unanimous consent.

Professor Keith Woodward (Geography, district 57) moved approval of the Resolution Concerning the May 1, 2024, Police Violence Against the Protestors on UW–Madison Library Mall (Faculty Document 3214). The motion was seconded.

Professor April Haynes (History, district 60) moved to allow anyone present at the meeting to speak. The motion was seconded. Faculty senators shared their perspectives on the motion, from the importance of prioritizing faculty voices on the resolution versus the need to hear everyone’s perspectives. The motion was approved by a hand vote of 75 yes, 68 no.

Some speakers to the resolution conveyed concern and condemnation for the administration-directed police action and physical engagement with those at the encampment on May 1, 2024. There was concern about the removal of protest review teams from policy and the need for transparency and codification of such teams. There was a call for a need for the Faculty Senate to act, express their objection to police violence, to support free speech, and to restore faculty governance over such issues.

Other speakers spoke to factual errors in the preamble of the resolution, missing facts, and missing data to support claims in the document. Some shared that the administration made a clear request to protestors to remove the encampment, that the police intervention was not the first action taken, and that there was violence against police as well. There was call for a need to maintain decorum and abide by the law to protect UW–Madison’s dedication to the idea of “sifting and winnowing.” Sentiments were shared to support the chancellor and to be united during this particularly challenging time.

Professor Kassem Fawaz (Electrical and Computing Engineering, district 36) moved a call to question. The motion was seconded and approved by the required 2/3 vote.

Voting on the Resolution Concerning the May 1, 2024, Police Violence Against the Protestors on UW–Madison Library Mall (Faculty Document 3214) was conducted via written ballot due to a formal request from ten senators, as permitted under FPP 2.10.C. Senators voted by paper and electronic ballot and after voting closed, stood at ease during the counting of the ballots. The motion was approved by a vote of 78 yes, 52 no. (These official numbers are from verification of the ballots following the meeting.)

At 5:35 p.m., Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin transferred the role of presiding officer to Professor Li Chiao-Ping, University Committee chair, for the remainder of the meeting.

Professor James Stein, University Committee member, moved to postpone the remaining agenda items to a future meeting. The motion was seconded and approved.

Professor Li Chiao-Ping, University Committee chair, adjourned the meeting at 5:46 p.m.

Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Faculty