University Committee Meeting Minutes

Approved Minutes for May 13, 2019          Approved May 20, 2019

UC members present: Amasino (chair), Bowers, Campagnola, Wolf
UC members absent: Ventura, Warfield

Others present (in addition to those mentioned below): S. Smith, J. Richard, E. Sandgren, M. Felber, A. Goyal, J. Smith, H. Daniels, G. Bump, M. Mayrl

Chair Rick Amasino called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. The minutes of the meeting of May 6, 2019, despite the absence of Terry Warfield, were approved. PROFS lobbyist Jack O’Meara reported that the JFC is starting to take votes on the budget, one of which was to remove Medicaid expansion, creating a $320M hole in the budget. UW items will probably be towards late May, early June. There was another public hearing on the Mark Cook bill, which appears to be moving ahead.

UW-Madison Chief Information Officer Lois Brooks and College of Letters & Science CIO (retired) Bruno Browning provided several updates on campus IT matters. Brooks reported on efforts to eliminate barriers to grant success through centrally funded storage. Budget support forthcoming, although details yet to be worked out. ITC has been key in designing this. Brooks also reported on the closing of the brick and mortar tech stores, which were not financially viable, which will be shifted over to walk-in help desks. Much discussion throughout, particularly on this latter point. Browning addressed changes being made to governance structure . Some details remain to be resolved, but DTAG and ITAG have already voted to stop meeting. Focus on creating CIO’s cabinet as more of a deliberative than an informative body. Brooks indicated that this will be accompanied with a full financial restructuring internally, which will include an examination of the fee assessment structure over coming year.

The UC discussed what the requirements might be for a unit/office/group to “effectively represent” graduate students. Chancellor Rebecca Blank reported on commencement, her upcoming trip to China, and other items. There was some discussion about searches and Kohl Center acoustics. After Blank left, the UC discussed potential upcoming searches, debriefed on past searches, and possible changes to the search process going forward. Amasino suggested this might be a useful topic of focus in the coming year.