Minutes for January 22, 2024

UC members present: Bernard-Donals, Jones, Li, Tejedo-Herrero, Thibeault (chair), Zweibel
Others present: David Berland, Lesley Fisher, Haley Rogers, Julie Scharm

Chair Thibeault called the meeting to order at 1:01 pm. 

Jones 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 1:01 pm. Two tenure clock extensions and three dual role waivers were approved. 

Jones motioned to reconvene in open session at 1:12 pm. It was seconded and approved.

Michelle Felber and Jack O’Meara provided an update on the bills currently circulating in the state legislature. There is one, which would ban guns on campus, that they have been working on as well as another to allow classes to start at UW schools on Sept 1. The second bill is slated to go to the committee that looks at minor technical changes. Bills are also coming forward that would uphold the legislature’s side of the deal negotiated between Robin Vos and the Universities of Wisconsin. The Engineering project has been introduced, but not yet approved. PROFS is also continuing to work with the lawsuit that was brought in to regards to the pay plan and other issues. PROFS weighed in and supported the nomination for Dept of Administration Secretary that is now before the Senate. There is also a new bill prohibiting so called loyalty pledges that is being circulated for co-sponsorship. 

PROFS is planning a forum for mid to late April regarding flagships. Panelists and dates are being worked out. 

Kevin Black, Budget Committee chair, shared information on the Budget Committee annual report. The committee was constituted in 2016 and its main purpose is to advise leadership on budget issues. The committee had several leadership presentations in the 2022-2023 academic year, including with the vice chancellor for finance and administration, state relations, University Health Services, and the vice chancellor for finance and administration. UHS wanted to increase their services, including COVID vaccinations and mental health services which required an increase in fees; UW-Madison is one of the only places that has overall segregated fee model instead of pay-per-service model. Committee members shared concerns about student-related budget items, including graduate student segregated fees. The Budget Committee is now educating itself about the budget model, to prepare for campus leadership developing a new budget model; the Budget Committee will be involved in one of the new budget model subcommittees. 

Paul Seitz, director of strategic initiatives in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, provided a presentation of the administrative quality survey. The first administrative quality survey was sent out in 2022 and asked about central administrative services in eight different administrative areas: Communications, Facilities, Finance, General Administration, Human Resources, Information Technology, Student Services, and Research Adminitration. Key ideas and actions taken from the results of that survey were to focus on improvement in procurement and travel in the finance area, work on TTC related concerns in human resources and to focus overall on employee safety and wellbeing. 

The next administrative quality survey will be sent out in 2024 in the same administrative areas, except student services will be removed. Questions will be around experience with these areas followed by qualitative feedback. There will be a custom question will be around administrative burden. The survey will be launched April 9 and close on April 30. Quantitative results will be available in mid-June and full results will be available in September.

Patrick Kass, director of transportation services, presented an analysis on models for salary-based parking. About every three to five years, Transportation Services conducts an analysis on the parking system. University leadership and shared governance groups requested a report on a salary-based permit model for UW-Madison and UW Health. The purpose was to analyze equity in parking permit fees, not to increase revenue. Transportation Services tested multiple salary-based pricing scenarios, including banded, percent of salary, and reduced cost models, based on daytime permit parkers. 

The limitations of salary-based parking are increases in parking demand, price variability, high administrative cost, and perceived inequities. Salary-based parking would only benefit 12-30% of employees (depending on the model).

The minutes from December 18, 2023, were approved by automatic consent.

Julie Scharm, deputy secretary of the faculty, presented the major changes in reapportionment. This report will be provided to the Faculty Senate in February under automatic consent. There were a number of districts where senate membership changed. There are two districts that due to size (less than 6 faculty) were the recommendation is to combine districts and another that has grown and the recommendation is to establish a new district. 

Chair Thibeault shared an email from John Zumbrunnen in regards to the scheduling of finals. Currently, a final is scheduled for every class regardless of whether it is needed. He is working with a group to gather data to see whether there are opportunities to do a better job of scheduling and thus perhaps reduce the number of days needed to accommodate finals.   

Thibeault adjourned the meeting at 2:57 pm.