Minutes for December 11, 2023

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

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

Chair Thibeault called the meeting to order at 1:00 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, a personnel matter and a committee appointment at 1:00 pm. Three tenure clock extensions, one committee appointment and one tenure home transfer were approved.

Jones motioned to reconvene in open session at 1:23 pm. It was seconded and approved.

The minutes from December 4, 2023, were approved by automatic consent.

The Board of Regents met on Saturday and did not approve the deal that was negotiated with the legislature. This deal included over $800 million in funding for the Universities of Wisconsin including pay raises, $32 million in GPR, and money for the new Engineering Building. In exchange among other things the Universities of Wisconsin would freeze the number of administrative positions and DEI positions over the next three years, and automatically admit some students at the top of their high school classes.

The University Committee discussed the idea of removing appointment responsibilities from the Divisional Committees except for the Faculty Consultative Committee on Financial Emergency. Currently, the Committee on Committees does the work of identifying faculty to serve and for some committees, the divisional committees have approved them by consent. The University Committee was in favor of moving forward with this proposal. 

The Provost discussed issues with professional programs being lumped in with graduate programs for the purposes of academic planning. These include the minimum stipend policy and the limit of number of transfer credits. Provost Isbell argued it may make sense to have a different committee or subcommittee for academic planning of professional programs. Professional programs could be defined as ones in which there are external accreditation.

Provost Isbell also discussed the reorganization of his office. He currently has 32 or 33 direct reports. Some of the entities reporting to the Provost Office have outward facing WI Idea type missions including the Chazen, Public Media, etc. It is possible there would be a new Vice Provost position created to oversee these organizations.

The visit schedules for finalist dean candidates have changed to be two full days. Finalists will give a talk at the beginning of day one and then participate in a series of 45 min or-1-hour meetings.

He has also changed the process for dean evaluations. There will be a survey asking for feedback on performance of a dean followed by meetings with constituents. Anyone may also request a one on one meeting with the chair of the review committee.

Nancy Lynch, Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs, Brian Vaughan, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs, Jaimee Gilford, Director of the Office of Compliance, Lauren Hasselbacher, Title IX coordinator, and Megan Dzyuba, Director of Workforce Relations in the Office of Human Resources, presented a draft Hostile and Intimidating Behavior institutional policy and asked for feedback. It uses the pieces of the existing policies. 

Thibeault adjourned the meeting at 3:18 pm