University Committee Meeting Minutes 2026-05-11

Minutes for May 11, 2026

UC members present: Bernard-Donals, Chui, de Leon, Jones, Kendall, Mathieu Others present: Michelle Felber, April Haynes, Derek Johnson, Julie Scharm

Chair Jones called the meeting to order at 1:30 pm.

Chair Jones welcomed April Haynes, who starts as a member of the University Committee on June 1.

Mathieu motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(a)(c) and (f) to discuss waivers and a grievance at 1:31 pm. Two tenure clock extensions and two dual-role waivers were approved. Mathieu motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to reconvene in open session at 1:43 pm.

The minutes for May 4, 2026, were approved by consent.

Provost John Zunbrunnen shared that 75-85% of the RISE hiring will be complete at the end of this academic year. The THRIVE HQ will be announced later this week, which complete the leadership for all three areas. In regards to the new hires in the College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, funding for about half of those hires will be covered by UW-Madison and the other half through philanthropy. A significant number of the new positions will be joint hires. The University Committee also discussed some of their concerns about the proposed reorganization of the VCR and concerns about the current hostile and intimidating behavior complaint process with the Provost. Following discussion, the University Committee unanimously approved the following statement “Given the info we have now about the intention to eliminate the divisional AVCs for Research who are point of connection for chairs and associate deans with the OVCR, and replace them with advisory faculty fellows, the UC is concerned that this particular part of the restructuring will narrow that point of connection. For this reason, the UC cannot endorse this part of the restructuring.” and will include it in a letter they will send out next week to the Vice Chancellor for Research.
Kent Weigel, Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Affairs discussed mentoring needs on campus. The Women Faculty Mentoring Program has ended, and his office along with Secretary Daniels’ have been struggling with figuring out how to move forward with something that is meaningful and also scalable. A mentor match program is not scalable. Kent also discussed a leadership and supervision project that he is undertaking with the Chief Human Resources Officer, Patrick Sheehan. Jones adjourned the meeting at 3:56 pm.

Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, secretary of the faculty.