Minutes for March 23, 2020

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

Also present, besides those mentioned below: Michaela Aust, Greg Bump, Tim Dalby, Michelle Felber, Amol Goyal, Yvonne Lee, Matthew Mitnick, Jack O’Meara, Jane Richard, Jake Smith, Bill Tishler

Chair Warfield called the meeting to order at 1:31, and the UC went over the ground rules for virtual meetings.

Michael Bernard-Donals, Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff, went through the recent edits to the proposed changes to Faculty Policies and Procedures 7.18, Promotion to the Rank of Full Professor. There was a lively discussion, primarily focused on external letters and the role of departmental executive committee in the process.

Provost Karl Scholz reported that summer session enrollment schedule remains the same at this point. He solicited the UC’s opinion on managing the tenure clock for assistant professors during the pandemic and its disruptions to research, teaching, and service. After a thoughtful discussion, the UC expressed a slight preference for granting automatic tenure clock extensions. Another question is how to deal with grades and pass/fail options. Many schools/colleges have their own rules around pass-fail grades. The Provost invited the University Committee to appoint someone to the group looking at how this would work. He reported that on this first day of instruction, online instruction is going well and nearly every class is ready to go.

J.J. Andrews, co-chair of the Committee on Undergraduate Recruitment, Admissions and Financial Aid (CURAFA), asked for feedback on the committee’s letter suggesting more diversity initiatives in the area of recruitment and admissions. The committee will likely include the letter as a prominent part of their annual report.

Joe Salmons, current chair of the Information Technology Committee (ITC), with Shawn Green, incoming chair, presented their annual report to the UC. They outlined the ITC’s transition to how it interacts with DoIT as the committee has become much more involved in the initial phases of policy development.

Alfonso Morales, chair of the Immigration and International Issues Committee, presented its first ever annual report (the IIIC was only formed a few years ago). He outlined the learning curve of the fledgling committee, from familiarity with the campus community dealing with these issues, to the related activities, to the current recommendation to recommend that the UW-Madison become a full member of the US Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) which facilitates overseas research.

The announcements and updates were almost exclusively about the many search and screens in process. A lot of activity, as well as many extended deadlines. There was some discussion about the last two faculty senate meetings of this session.

Wolf moved to approve the University Committee minutes for March 9, 2020. The motion was seconded and approved.  

Sandgren moved to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss a tenure clock extension. The motion was seconded and passed at 3:22. The UC approved one dual rule waiver and appointed a committee member.

Sandgren moved to convene in open session which was seconded at 3:47 when Chair Warfield adjourned the meeting.