UC members present: Campagnola, Sandgren, Ventura, Warfield (chair), Wolf

UC members absent: Halverson

Others present (in addition to those noted below): Heather Daniels, Jake Smith, Jack O’Meara, Michelle Felber, Amol Guyol, Bill Tischler 

Chair Warfield called the meeting to order at 1:16. Sandgren moved to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss personnel matters. The motion was seconded and passed at 1:17 p.m. The UC approved a dual role waiver and identified possible committee members for the Law School Dean and L&S Dean Search and Screen committees. Sandgren moved to reconvene in open session. The motion was seconded and passed at 1:40 p.m.

Sherry Boeger from the Employee Assistance Office (EAO) talked about the impact of the new service, LifeMatters (link: https://hr.wisc.edu/employee-assistance-office/lifematters/). The plan to relay the information about it to faculty via the December 2 senate will be to provide the LifeMatters brochure as a handout and in the agenda materials, and for Boeger to present a little more detail in her presentation of the EAO annual report. This will be a good combination with Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Reesor’s presentation. 

The minutes of the meeting of October 28, 2019 were approved as corrected. Wolf reported on the University Research Council meeting which discussed the “research professor” title details, and there was a UW System faculty representatives meeting with much conversation regarding chancellor searches, and the system president, which made everyone there unhappy because there is no faculty (or staff) representation. Wolfe will ask system faculty reps to write a resolution. The UC is on record as opposing System’s search and screen rules when they were instituted (document sent to System 10/2/2017)

Vice Provost for Libraries and University Librarian Lisa Carter gave overview of libraries (download handout). The shared governance committees are working to update Faculty Policies and Procedures regarding University Library Committee (ULC) and Memorial Library Committee (Archives Committee will be later). ULC is also working on: the library strategic plans; transforming libraries spaces by combining various department libraries: off-site storage is key to changes to facilities; UW Press has moved into Memorial Library. She is looking for how to get user/faculty feedback. ULC exploring how to get conversation going, for instance, their representative divisions. Carter will report back on the discussions on open access to publicly funded research (UW has no policy, currently). A thoughtful discussion ensued. Carter gave an update on the Big Ten Alliance Libraries: inter-library loan, digitization, preservation, and interdependent collections.

Chancellor Rebecca Blank noted the big jump in attendance for the Diversity Forum. She is on the search and screen for System President. A lively discussion ensued about the policy to include/not include faculty and staff members. She talked about the Wisconsin State Journal article and the School of Engineering student suicide and his professor’s hostile and intimidating behavior. The HIB policy was not yet implemented, but existing structures weren’t used. Processes are being tightened up, including anonymous complaints.

Warfield adjourned the meeting at 2:48 p.m.