University Committee Meeting Minutes 2026-01-12

Minutes for January 12, 2026

UC members present: Bernard-Donals, Chui, de Leon, Jones, Kendall, Mathieu

Others present: Emily Beach, Greg Bump, Lesley Fisher, Sabine Martin

Chair Jones called the meeting to order at 1:00 pm.

Jack O’Meara and Michelle Felber, PROFS, indicated that JCOER approved the instructional workload policy. They also had a meeting with Senator Cabral-Guevara about the faculty leadership bill. The legislature is in full swing and planning to finish their regular session by the end of February. There is a bill ending race-based university scholarships that PROFS has registered against. It looks unlikely that a change to the school start date will get through the legislature this session.

 Lori Reesor, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, presented some preliminary data from a basic needs survey that was conducted from February-March 2025. It was sent to a random sample of students including graduate and professional students and generated a 27% response rate. The data shows that UW-Madison is in line or a bit above national statistics regarding food and housing insecurity.

Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, Rob Cramer, reported on next steps following the Deloitte study. The next phase is called the Operational Excellence Advancement Program. There are three areas they will be working on including an operating model prototype for HR and Finance, Enterprise Risk Management, and redesigning processes. There will be working groups in each of these areas as well as an advisory committee that includes department chairs and shared governance chairs and secretaries. An update on this project will go to the Board of Regents in February with operating model and ERM framework expected to be developed by March.  

John Zumbrunnen, Interim Provost, indicated that a tiger team is working on a draft policy on instructional workload for campus. It will be a high-level outline of tools that can be used for compliance and general guardrails about how they can be used at the school/college level. A draft will be shared with the ad hoc work group. He plans to give an update to Faculty Senate at their February meeting and use time at the Academic Leadership breakfast for feedback. He suggested that a town hall after the Leadership breakfast would be best. The UW System policy hasn’t been released yet.

 A set of recommendations for general education will go to UAPC this week. There are no surprises in the recommended mapping and still a lot of work to do at the school/college level.

The proposal for the new college is also going to UAPC. They are working to form an administrative transition team.

 In regard to merit and market funding in Act 15 for faculty in high demand fields, UW-Madison will receive approximately $7.4M for salary increases and associated fringe benefits. The money will be distributed to deans as has been done in the past. An additional $2 million will go to UW-Madison to support faculty in the foundation of free markets and diversity of thought. They are still working on how to implement this provision.

The University Committee discussed the idea of an advisory committee to help campus understand how the new college could fit into campus.

The minutes from December 15, 2025, meeting were approved.

The University Committee expressed interest in holding three town halls this spring. They will discuss details at a future meeting.

Kendall 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 and committee appointments at 3:26 pm. Four tenure clock extension requests and two dual-role waivers were approved.

Chui motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to reconvene in open session at 4:14 pm.

The University Committee reviewed the Faculty Senate agenda for February. There will be a first reading for the 2030-2031 academic calendar and a first reading for a revision to the Fall 2027 calendar. The revision will move up the start date to September 2 so finals can finish earlier than December 23.

Jones adjourned the meeting at 4:30 pm.

Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, secretary of the faculty.