Minutes for March 21, 2016

UC members present: Broman, Edwards, Meyerand (chair), Wanner, Wendt

UC member absent: Litovsky

Others present: S. Smith, J. Richard, O’Meara, Felber, Moscicke, Daniels, Mayrl, Bump, Hampton, McFadden

Chair Meyerand called the meeting to order at 1:01 p.m. Secretary of the Faculty Smith announced that the open access resolution will be withdrawn from the Senate and resubmitted in the future after more study. He also announced that the FPP Chapter 6 overhaul has been postponed indefinitely. Wendt briefed the UC on her participation in the faculty governance meetings, attended by faculty leadership from all over the country. Panels and discussions loosely centered on erosion of faculty rights around the country in different ways. Another focus was how Title IX investigations are being run on different campuses. UC agreement to bring Piñero and new investigator in to talk about this on our campus. Minutes of the meeting of March 14, 2016, approved.

PROFS lobbyist Jack O’Meara said legislature claims regular session is over although May 18 is really adjournment date. PROFS moving forward with other initiatives, including positive relations with legislators and staff and April 13 lobby day event. Robin Vos has expressed feels for our cut. 

Director of Campus Planning Gary Brown, following up on his visit of a year ago at start of master plan process, provided an update on that process a little past the halfway point. Slides were projected, discussion was had, and opinions were expressed on pretty much everything. Complete information available at masterplan.wisc.edu.

Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education Marsha Mailick provided updates on several topics. The IRB survey is coming together. UW2020 selections have been made and will be public first week in April. Awards are well distributed across campus, primarily to faculty. Workload may be prohibitive for two rounds next year, but effort was a success in terms of innovation, methodological novelty, collaborations, and discussions. Arboretum review completed and PVL for new director about to be posted. First complete review of OVCRGE era worked really well; some tweaks needed to process, but procedures generally solid. Aquatic Science review committee charged; working on WID review committee. Book subvention program to be expanded with WARF funding. All of above will be part of VCRGE presentation to April Senate, along with some discussion of retention efforts. Ample discussion, mostly on latter point.

L&S Associate Dean Sue Zaeske reiterated 2013 request to recognize Religious Studies as a tenure home. Zaeske summed up July 2013 meeting seeking department-like status and tenure-granting authority for CJS and RS. Broman moved formal approval of RS as tenure home, noting irony that his own department and others have been deemed too small. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

The UC discussed the charge of the new shared governance budget committee. Consensus that review of individual budget items, allocations, requests, and the like are VCFA duties and not shared governance responsibility. Such detailed involvement in budget creation and allocation would also be overly time consuming for committee members and slow the process. Decisions rest with senior administration, committee should serve as sounding board and resource for long-range and strategic planning, in addition to consulting on specific campus-wide budget topics. Committee should be structured so as not to hamper administration or school/college APCs and budget processes. Most important aspect is having voice in budgetary processes and acting where most impactful, which is long-range planning and strategic thinking. Ample discussion. Agreement to collapse more detailed elements into broader parts of charge, with emphasis on communication and transparency. SOF will incorporate suggestions from UC, other governance bodies, faculty into document to be discussed with VCFA and chancellor prior to Senate.

University counsel Ray Taffora briefed UC on status of campus tenure policies. UWS counsel Stafford will propose amendments to make our language compatible with his interpretation of conformance. Some tension between System attorney’s emphasis on conformance and Madison emphasis on not being impermissibly inconsistent. We want to maintain as much local legislative leeway as possible. Some amendments make sense and are nearly purely cosmetic, others are more complicated. Very ample discussion. Broman reports that other campuses have said they will chain their policy to ours. Edwards and others pointed out that we had been told repeatedly that language was permissive and that Madison has its own HR authority and context; this seems to have changed. All made more difficult by uncertainty and inconsistent voices between System and Board members. UC feels strongly that someone should be speaking for FPP at April Board meeting. This is a role typically held by the provost, who will be there. Strong consensus that it is not in our interest to have Regents amend FPP, but options are limited. Possibility of having Regents remand with comment (but no decision) raised.

Chief Diversity Officer Patrick Sims provided a handout (information also available on website) and discussed progress on diversity framework. Much progress to report, including upcoming climate survey and inventory project. Ample discussion. Sims feels faculty could be most helpful on messaging, and would still like faculty for advisory group, the goal of which is to create accountability and shape collective thinking, moving diversity discussion forward. Discussion of overlap with hostile and intimidating behavior group’s work, especially in terms of resources. Sims pointed to hate bias incident reporting tool and ways to increase communication and transparency. Discussion of spate of recent incidents and faculty role in addressing them and moving conversations forward. Diversity and inclusion is not a fundraising priority.

Edwards moved to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss personnel matters. Motion seconded and passed at 3:29 p.m. UC discussed appointments to Athletic Board and Honorary Degrees Committee. Edwards moved to open. Motion was seconded and passed at 3:39 p.m. Meyerand adjourned the meeting at 3:39 p.m.

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