Minutes for November 25, 2024

UC members present: Bernard-Donals, Jones, Kendall, Stein, Zweibel

Others present: Greg Bump, Michelle Felber, Mallory Musolf, Jennifer Noyes, Julie Scharm

Chair Pro Tem Jones called the meeting to order at 12:30 pm.

Zweibel 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 a waiver at 12:31 pm. One tenure clock extension was approved.

Stein motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to reconvene in open session at 12:40 pm.

The minutes from November 18, 2024, meeting were approved by automatic consent.

Dom Zappia and Ashley Hagen from ASM reported on the situation regarding the sex wise module for students. After being taken down because of a complaint, it is now available again. Several students had spoken during public comments about it not being available. ASM has formed a new black affairs committee to provide input and guidance to ASM.

ASM heard about a number of concerns regarding the recent student conduct hearings from the encampment. There were complaints about the thoroughness of investigations. In addition, many students declined to serve on the panels.

ASM continues to remain concerned about student governance being consulted as early and often as it should be. They also have heard from people fearful about speaking out on campus.

Dietram Sheufele, Chair of the Committee on Honorary Degrees, provided an update on the change in process for the nomination process. The previous procedure resulted in a small number of nominations that typically reflected the institution. The new procedure will help the committee put forward some nominations with higher prominence and impact. They are creating a process that should serve UW into the future.

Elmo Rawling, co-chair of the Budget Committee, reported that the committee primarily discussed and learned about the new budget approach during the last year. Kevin Black, who served as co-chair of the committee last year, served on the coordinating committee. There have been some concerns expressed by members of the committee including siloing and impact it may have on student learning/student experience on campus. The committee welcomed input from the University Committee regarding anything it should look into specifically.

Bill Karpus, Dean of the Graduate School, discussed the named options policy that come forward to the University Academic Planning Council recently. There was a lot of concern about the policy primarily because the core wasn’t well defined.

In regards to stacking of graduate assistant appointments, there are about 70-80 students each semester that would be affected by the inability of Workday to identify these appointments as qualifying for tuition remission. The Bursar’s office should be able to grant tuition remission to these students every semester.

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin reported that the November election was the first held under the new maps in the state. The democrats picked up seats in both houses, and there are a lot of new legislators on both sides of the aisle. Governor Evers has signaled that funding for the Universities of Wisconsin will be a significant portion of his budget request. UW-Madison has needs in deferred maintenance, more student housing, and new homes for music and art. She welcomed input from the University Committee on their budget ideas.

At the federal level, the APLU (Association of Public Land-Grant Universities) and AAU (Association of American Universities) are working to think about possible policy changes and impacts. It is unclear what the priorities of the new administration will be.

In NSF HERD rankings, UW-Madison moved up two places to number 6 and was very close to number 5. This is the first time UW-Madison has moved up since it dropped out of the top 5 in 2018.

The Chancellor indicated she was moving forward with a plan to work on refreshing the university’s strategic framework. She plans to create a visioning committee that would include some mix of faculty, academic staff, university staff, students and alums. It would likely be co-chaired by the Provost and a member of the faculty. The committee would think about vision and opportunity making use of feedback received by the chancellor during her first year.   

Provost Charles Isbell presented the annual reports for the University Academic Planning Council (UAPC) and Campus Planning Committee (CPC). He is pleased to have Kent Weigel start as the new Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Affairs. He expects Kent to help the office be prepared to face upcoming challenges like dual career services and support for new RISE hires.

Jones adjourned the meeting at 3:09 pm. 

Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, secretary of the faculty