May 27, 2014

Present: Bernard-Donals, Cook, Farrar Edwards, Fair, Meyerand, Petty and Members-elect: Broman and Wendt.

The final meeting of the 2013-14 University Committee began at 1:30 p.m.

1. Minutes of the previous meeting were approved as disseminated.

2. Chancellor Blank (via phone) briefly discussed aspects of the latest draft of the Labor Licensing Committee charge.  Michael will provide the Chancellor and Charles Hoslet with feedback especially the section on Procedures, item 7. relative to the Senate.  It was suggested that the Labor Licensing committee should meet regularly with governance groups.   The general topic of budget issues relative to tuition, UW System and the State Legislature were also discussed.

Grant moved (Dorothy second) to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to discuss personnel matters in closed session at 2:00 p.m.  Motion carried.

The meeting reconvened in Open Session at 2:50 p.m.

3. Provost DeLuca noted that centrally, there is no formal process in place for dealing with annual Chair ballots.  He would like to see this changed with UC assistance.  They are looking at a med school handout given to executive committees at start-up in Fall that was built from a Phil Farrell document originally.  

4. Marsha Mailick, Interim VCRGE, presented a draft PVL or set of expectations that will be used to guide the Interim Dean of the Graduate School positions.  Suggestions for revision were made.  Mark provided Michael with additional written suggestion.  Michael will forward those to Marsha. 

It was agreed that starting in July, Marsha will meet weekly with the UC in a permanent 3:00 slot.  Until then, she will meet with the UC periodically, as needed.

Marsha raised the issue of the workability of Co-Chairs of research committees.  It was explained that the goal of that structural element was to insure that neither the research side nor the grad ed. side overshadowed each other. The UC agreed that flexibility relative to the UC recommendations was important as implementation of the recommendations unfolded.  Some elements may work well, others may be too cumbersome.  The UC agreed that there needs to be time to have things play out before committed in stone or rejected.  At the same time, some recommendations were designed to meet expressed wishes of the Senate.  Working through those with the UC will be an important implementation strategy.

5. Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance Darrell discussed various budget questions related to the UW-Madison and UW System budgets with respect to the $62 mil. structural deficit imposed on the System by the Legislature. Any of those dollars that are not return will result in a dollar for dollar budget cut.

Jo Ellen moved (Michael second) to convene again in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to discuss personnel matters at 4:00 p.m.

The meeting reconvened in Open Session at 5:00 p.m.

6. Dean of Engineering Ian Robertson through Michael asked the UC’s opinion about the idea of forming a School-wide committee to conduct third year reviews and then another or the same committee to review tenure dossiers.   Michael will draft a response and send to the UC for comment before he sends it to Dean Robertson.

The meeting adjourned at 5:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

William A. Heiss, M.S.S.W.

Interim Secretary of the Faculty