Minutes for November 6, 2023

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

Others present: Greg Bump, Michelle Felber, Lesley Fisher, Julie Scharm, Jake Smith and Monica Welke

Chair Thibeault called the meeting to order at 1:45 pm.

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 waivers at 1:45 pm. One tenure clock extension and one dual-role waiver were approved.

Bernard-Donals motioned to reconvene in open session at 1:54 pm. It was seconded and approved.

The minutes from October 30, 2023, were approved by automatic consent.

Secretary Daniels asked the University Committee about putting forward a resolution about the pay plan at the December Senate meeting. She also asked whether the UC would be interested in meeting with new deans as they start on campus. The UC has not done this recently.

The University Committee reviewed the Faculty Senate agenda.

Lois Brooks, Chief Information Officer, attended with Jami Gutkowski, Director of User Services, and Tamara Walker, Director of Academic Technology. Jami Gutkowski talked about file storage programs switching from a free to paid model. For Google, individual limits of 25GB will begin to be enforced in summer of 2024. Tamara Walker discussed Data Empowered Education Practices (DEEP), which is looking at data and how it can be used to enhance student outcomes. They are looking at how to facilitate making data available to faculty. They also have partnered with faculty on some mini-grants to use data to improve student outcomes.

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin shared that the Vice Chancellor for Research search committee is holding their first meeting this week. She is working on a sustainability initiative that has meaningful goals, but is not groundbreaking. This would be the first time the campus has clearly articulated sustainability goals.

She has met with both Jewish and Muslim students over the past several weeks. While there have been protests in front of Hillel, the incidents in a viral tweet about cutting an Israeli flag and chants are not true.

In regards to the engineering building, a number of large Wisconsin business took out a full page ad with a letter to the legislature in support of the building. They are also continuing to work on the pay plan.

Thibeault adjourned the meeting at 3:07 pm.