UC members present: Bernard-Donals, Li, Papp (chair), Tejedo-Herrero, Thibeault, Zweifel
Others: Lesley Fisher, Julie Scharm, Jake Smith

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

The minutes for the meeting of January 13, 2023, were approved.

Rob Cramer discuss the state budget process that will take place from March until June of this year. The governor’s budget announcement will be in February. UW-Madison has 3 priorities including increasing general purpose revenue, a compensation plan fully funded by the state of 4% each year of the biennium and reducing the cost and time for select campus building projects by allowing UW-Madison to borrow money or issue bonds for building projects that are fully university funded. This are aligned with some of the UW System budget requests. 

The University Committee received an email from a faculty member concerned about faculty being excluded from the 2% raise in January due to non-completion of the cybersecurity training or sexual violence and sexual assault training. There were just under 50 faculty overall who didn’t receive raises. Secretary Daniels will look into how governance participated in the policy creation for these trainings. 

Jack O’Meara and Michelle Felber, PROFS, reported that several members of PROFS met with the governor’s office last week. They discussed the upcoming state budget and family leave as a priority. There may be something about family leave in the governor’s budget. 

Bill Karpus, Dean of the Graduate School, shared information that the Chips Act requires federal agencies to do Responsible Conduct of Research training for faculty in addition to existing training for students and postdocs. They are working to update the Citi training modules. NIH has not yet released what’s required for their RCR training for faculty members. There is also a requirement for research mentor training. UW-Madison has a lot of resources in this area and should be in a good position to be responsive to the requirements. In addition, NSF will soon start requiring an individual development plan (IDP) for graduate students. IDPs are currently required by NIH. 

Dean Karpus also reported on a discussion he held with 10 biological sciences/biotechnology companies about graduate student internships. They plan to add 10 such internships and hope to expand the effort in future years. This is modeled on the internship required by the Biotechnology Training Grant program. 

Karl Scholz, Provost, indicated that an email went out to all instructors about ChatGPT to highlight resources. The Teaching Academy will be holding a February event on AI, and there is a website on Using AI in the classroom.
The results from the Menards survey will be announced soon. In the UW-Madison student survey, students could identify themselves as liberal, conservative and moderate. The survey showed no difference by political affiliation in student satisfaction, and students feeling welcomed, respected, exclused, safe, belonging, respect of comments in class by faculty or other students and how respectfully they were treated. There were differences in how they felt students with their views were treated. 

Charlie Hoslet, Vice Chancellor for External Relations, and Carrie Olson, Campus Events and Special Programs Manager, reported on plans to celebrate the 175th anniversary of UW-Madison. 

The celebration will begin on July 26, which is the date the bill creating UW was approved by the legislature and signed by the governor. The celebration will last through May 2024. They will focus on the last 25 years acknowledging both the success and challenges of UW-Madison with a hope to spark curiosity of what the next 25 years will look like. 

They are requesting that each school and college do at least one event during the course of the 9 months. There are various committees working engaging with students, alumni, the community and the state. Extension and the alumni association are involved in holding events in every county in Wisconsin. Important dates are July 26 (kickoff), Oct 7 (homecoming), Oct 27 (signature celebration), Feb 5 (Founder’s Day), and May (campus open house). 

Papp motioned, and it was seconded, to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss waivers at 2:46. One dual role waiver was approved. 

Papp motioned to reconvene in open session at 3:44. It was seconded and approved.

Papp adjourned the meeting at 3:45.