Minutes for July 18, 2022

UC members present: Bernard-Donals, Li, Papp (chair), Tejedo-Herrero

Others: Greg Bump, Gideon Elliott, Michelle Felber, Lesley Fisher, Jennifer Noyes, Jake Smith

Chair Papp called the meeting to order at 1:02 pm.

Papp motioned, and it was seconded, to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss rule waivers and grievances at 1:03. A tenure clock extension was approved.

Bernard-Donals motioned to reconvene in open session at 1:08.

UC member Ellen Zweibel is unable to attend meetings this fall due to an unavoidable course conflict. Susan Babcock has agreed to fill in. In her absence, Chiao-Ping Li agreed to handle up to two waivers in a meeting with additional requests being handled by Lauren in Sept, Fernando in Oct, Mike in November and Sue in Dec.

The UC discussed whether to hold a planning meeting this year as well as potential changes to the dual role waiver program and Faculty Policies and Procedures.

The minutes for the meeting of July 11, 2022, were approved with one correction.   

Dean of the Graduate School, Bill Karpus, reported on the Minority serving institution partnerships program. The Graduate School made 4 awards and hope to generate applications from more social sciences and arts and humanities programs. Each award provides funding for two years.

The Council of Graduate Schools held their summer meeting and talked about efforts to recruit international students from Southeast Asia, South America and the sub-Saharan countries, places traditionally not heavily represented in graduate school populations in the United States. Other universities have been most successful when there are existing faculty contacts in these countries.

Dean Karpus shared that the Graduate School will be purchasing a new application system and is considering whether to keep the current practice of allowing applicants to apply for three different graduate programs under one application fee. The UC thought it was a good idea to keep this option if possible.

Interim Chancellor Scholz shared that incoming chancellor Mnookin will be meeting with campus, community, elected official, businesses, leaders at other local educational institutions, media and alumni as she begins her tenure at UW-Madison.

The UW System budget document will go to Governor Evers this fall. It is likely to include pay increase requests and a base budget increase to help keep up with inflationary costs. The capital budget will also be sent at some point, and there should be a couple UW-Madison projects including the Engineering Building. The Board of Regents will approve the capital budget request at their August meeting.

In regards to COVID, they are planning to continue COVID protocols including consultation with local health officials. PCR testing will be available with a slightly longer turn around and antigen tests will be available. There will be limited quarantine and isolation space set aside. They will continue with contact tracing and the dashboard.

Papp adjourned the meeting at 2:52.