Minutes for September 18, 2023

UC members present: Bernard-Donals, Jones, King, Tejedo-Herrero, Thibeault (chair), Zweibel

Others present: AJ Butler, Lesley Fisher, John Horn, Julie Scharm, Jen Young

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

Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration (VCFA) Rob Cramer said UW-Madison has been participating in STARS and has been ranked silver the last two years. They hope to be rated gold in 2025.

They are in the planning process to look at decarbonation of campus (both fossil fuels and electricity). They are hoping to reach this goal for electricity by 2030 with the help of MG&E. Heating and cooling is a major challenge, but they are planning to finish the fossil fuels decarbonation by 2040 at the latest.

In other sustainability news, they diverted 100,000 pounds of material from the landfill during student move out last spring and approximately 50% of food waste during the last year by bringing it to the West Campus Ag Station for composting. They have also introduced electric riding movers to campus.

For the west campus planning, they have not gotten into any details yet regarding sustainability, but are looking at energy efficient buildings, storm water management and transportation. They are also working with the Ho-Chunk Nation.

The University Committee discussed ideas with Vice Chancellor Cramer about how to solicit feedback from faculty on concur and travel. Susan plans to mention the issue during her comments at the October Faculty Senate meeting.

Michele Felber and Jack O’Meara from PROFS indicated that PROFS is continuing to advocate for JCOER to meet and approve the pay plan for UW System employees. Speaker Vos has been quoted as saying he doesn’t want to approve the pay plan until there is an understanding about DEI. PROFS continues to work on parental leave and are looking into guns on campus and the weak penalty if someone is caught carrying a gun on campus.

The minutes from September 11, 2023, were approved by automatic consent.

The University Committee reviewed the VCFA draft strategic plan and provided some feedback. They also reviewed the most recent version of document regarding the Graduate School Reporting Line and asked Secretary Daniels to send to the Provost Office, Dean Karpus and Interim Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education Czajkowski for additional feedback.

The University Committee reviewed a list of committee chairs that they currently appoint and decided to continue to appoint chairs for Budget, Financial Emergency, Honorary Degrees and Athletic Board. Heather will work with others in the office to draft changes for FPP and bring them to the Faculty Senate. They also reviewed and were supportive of a proposal to reduce the size of the Honorary Degree Committee.

The University Committee discussed the history of complaints they have been receiving regarding International Faculty and Staff Services. They discussed how to move forward in discussing these.

Secretary Daniels discussed results from a survey to find out who participates in the hiring of tenure-track faculty. She found a large number of departments that allow assistant faculty members to vote on hires. There were a very small number of departments who allow academic staff and a couple where the chair makes the decision. The University Committee will discuss this further once they have some more details.

Bernard-Donals motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss committee appointments at 2:31 pm.  

Tejedo-Herrero motioned to reconvene in open session at 2:51 pm. It was seconded and approved.

Thibeault adjourned the meeting at 3:05 pm.