Minutes for October 9, 2023

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

Others present: Michelle Felber, Lesly Fisher, Julie Scharm, Jake Smith

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

Thibeault 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 and waivers at 1:00 pm. One dual-role waiver was approved.

Bernard-Donals motioned to reconvene in open session at 1:05 pm. It was seconded and approved.

The minutes from October 2, 2023, were approved by automatic consent with one correction.

Secretary of the Faculty Heather Daniels and Deputy Secretary Julie Scharm met with Jen Young in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration about gathering feedback regarding travel. They have some ideas, but need to do some checking before moving forward with anything.

Lori Reesor, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, discussed how the situation in Israel was impacting students. Hillel held a candlelight vigil last night and there was a Rally for Palestine at the State Capitol. There happen to be a couple of relevant speakers coming to campus in the next few days. International Student Services reached out to students from Israel this weekend and may offer support to specific student organizations.

She reported that they are still having a consultant look at cultural centers and are doing work around first-generation students. They did a commencement breakfast for them last spring.

She discussed the new Badger Dialogues series that is an information discussion between students from a variety of backgrounds and administrators on belonging.

Allison La Tarte, Vice Provost for Data, Academic Planning and Institutional Research (DAPIR), joined Provost Isbell to present the University Academic Planning Committee (UAPC) annual report for 2022-23. The committee met nine times and recommended numerous academic actions. They recommended the approval of two policies, one on credit-bearing certificate programs and another on tuition/service-based pricing programs. A third policy on credit by exam was discussed and expected to be approved this year.

Provost Isbell discussed next steps in the Faculty Integrative Strategic Hiring Initiative, which includes a meeting between him, the deans, and the chancellor to discuss next steps. He is working on an outline on how the process will go and hopes to have more concrete information soon.

He is working with Vice Chancellor Cramer on a new budget model, which is activity based. Right now, a very small portion of the overall budget is exposed to this type of model. Campus has done a lot of work on this already. The next steps will be to take what has already been done and see what makes sense in the current environment. He is going to ask the deans to put together small committees of various stakeholders and have them interact with shared governance and other stakeholders and make recommendations. He would expect to have a shadow budget system running in the next fiscal year with a model being implemented in FY25. He is hoping that the model will drive more entrepreneurial activities and cooperation across academic units. 

The Provost also discussed the organization of his office including 32 direct reports. He expects a reorganization to happen over the next three months or so. He is going to talk with the deans and vice provosts. John Zumbrunnen has been appointed as Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, but will also continue in his role as Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning.

Thibeault adjourned the meeting at 2:54 pm.

Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Faculty