University Committee

Minutes for January 4, 2021

Approved January 11, 2021

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

Also present, besides those mentioned below: Juliana Bennett, Michael Bernard-Donals, Greg Bump, Gideon Elliott, Michelle Felber, Lesley Fisher, Amol Goyal, Erin Gretzinger, Lilly Gullickson, Yvonne Kim, A.M., Matt Mayrl, Kelly Meyerhofer, Matthew Mitnick, Julian Nazareth, Jack Phillips, Lourdes Puig, Lori Reesor, Jane Richard, Angela Riehle, Pranav Srivastava, Bill Tishler, Crystal Zhao, John Zumbrunnen

Chair Wolf called the meeting to order at 1:01 pm.

Minutes of December 21, 2020 were passed by automatic consent.

Secretary of the Faculty Heather Daniels provided an update on pass/fail for the fall semester. There are concerns about equity given that the drop deadline was extended and students may have dropped courses instead of opting for pass/fail if it were available.

Jack O’Meara from PROFS shared that he had received some concerns from faculty regarding maintenance funding from the state. PROFS is advocating for tuition authority to be given back to the Board of Regents. 

Tracy moved to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss and a grievance. Seconded. Passed at 1:17 pm.

Tracy moved to convene in open session. Seconded. Passed at 1:54 pm.

Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, Steve Ackerman, and Karl Scholz, Provost, presented a draft conflict of commitment policy that covers both faculty and academic staff. It sets a de minimis amount of time that can be spent on services related to employment responsibilities, although the Dean can approve time spent beyond this. Reporting will be integrated into the outside activity report. The University Committee did not raise any objections to the policy.

Chancellor Rebecca Blank reported that the next two weeks would be busy preparing for the upcoming semester and the new COVID-19 testing regime. UW-Madison received 1000 doses of the vaccine today and will get another 1000 next week. Those eligible in this first round to be vaccinated include students in clinical settings, University Health Service staff, staff in dorms, and testing staff.

She received and accepted the final recommendation from the Campus Planning Committee on how to address the request to remove Chamberlin Rock (the rock itself had picked a derogatory name in the last century). The committee will move forward with removing the rock from Observatory Hill and a new plaque to honor President Chamberlin will be placed elsewhere on campus.

Papp moved to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss a grievance. Seconded. Passed at 2:51 pm.

Sandgren moved to convene in open session. Seconded. Passed at 4:46 pm.

Adjourned at 4:50 pm.

Submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Faculty