University Committee

Minutes for November 9, 2020

Approved November 16, 2020

UC members present: Masters, Papp, Sandgren, Tracy, Wolf (chair)

UC member absent: Halverson

Also present, besides those mentioned below: Greg Bump, Jenny Dahlberg, Michelle Felber, Lesley Fisher, Kevin Jacobson, Yvonne Kim, Allison La Tarte, Kelly Meyerhofer, Peter Miller, Jack O’Meara, Noel Radomski, Jane Richard, Jack Smith, Bill Tishler, Scott Wildman

Chair Wolf called the meeting to order at 1:30 pm.

Sandgren moved approval of the minutes of November 2, 2020. Seconded. Approved.

PROFS reported that neither house in the state legislature reached a veto-proof majority in the recent elections. PROFS will discuss supporting a federal bipartisan bill, the Endless Frontier Act, that would add $100 billion over 5 years into regional technology hubs.

Bill Karpus, Dean of the Graduate School, reported a 26% response rate (so far) for the graduate student survey regarding fall semester. The data will be parsed by discipline, school/college, and Masters versus PhD. Preliminary results indicate that challenges include: limited networking and interaction with fellow students (all); collecting face to face data (social sciences); accessing field experiences (arts and humanities and social sciences); access to the library (arts and humanities); accessing office space (all); access to research labs (biological and physical sciences) and mental health (all). There was an open text box for comments. The data will be used to plan the spring semester. Final results will be posted on the Graduate School webpage.

Karl Scholz, Provost, reported that his office is conducting two dean reviews this year: Linda Scott and Jeff Russell. They are putting together a search and screen committee for the Chief Diversity Officer. It will be a national search.

He received a letter from a group of Big Ten student leaders asking that fall grading practices be altered similar to the spring 2020 semester. Six Big Ten peers are not doing this. The University Committee agreed that not altering grading policies would be best.

Cluster hires for round 4 that were announced last spring are being postponed for a year. There are still some open positions from rounds 1-3, and departments are being given the option to move forward with those searches or delay.

The Board of Regents approved a contract with a company out of the University of Illinois to conduct an additional 70,000 COVID-19 tests per week, which would put UW-Madison’s capacity at 80,000-90,000 tests per week. An app will allow test scheduling and results notification.

Pete Miller, chair of the Athletic Board, presented their annual report. It highlights the impressive academic outcomes of student athletes, which are distributed among sports and across majors. There were no level I or II NCAA violations last year and 14 level III violations. The Finance, Facilities, and Operations Committee was looking at a number of large projects, but financial challenges from COVID-19 put the south Camp Randall end zone and Kohn Center projects on hold. The Equity, Diversity, and Student Welfare Committee has been very busy this past year to address student needs stemming from the pandemic.

Mark Walters, Chief Human Resources Officer, relayed information about the UW System initiative to move to a single payroll cycle of every 2 weeks. This discussion began 1.5 years ago and then stalled during the pandemic. The plan is to implement in January, but there are challenges to such a short lead time—many specific to UW-Madison.

Tracy moved to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss waivers, grievance and committee appointments. Seconded. Passed at 3:10 pm. Two dual role waivers and one tenure clock extension were approved.

Tracy moved to convene in open session which was seconded and passed at 3:46 pm.

The University Committee reviewed the memo on Post-Tenure Review.

Adjourned at 3:54 pm.

Submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Faculty