University Committee Meeting Minutes 2026-03-16
Minutes for March 16, 2026
UC members present: Bernard-Donals, de Leon, Jones, Kendall, Mathieu
Others present: Greg Bump, Becky Jacobs, Genevieve Lamber, Sabine Martin, Jennifer Noyes
Chair Annie Jones called the meeting to order at 1:01 pm.
Vice Chancellor Rob Cramer and Vice Provost Allison La Tarte presented metrics that can be used to monitor institution-wide impacts of the budget approach. These include retention and graduation rates and time to degree, student to faculty ratio, primary academic group and credits taught in the school/college as well as extramural expenditures. The UC discussed other possible metrics to look at including double majors, certificates offered, and cross listed courses.
Michelle Felber and Jack O’Meara from PROFS shared that the last senate sessions will take place on Tuesday, March 17. There are a number of bills on the floor that would affect UW-Madison including shared governance change and the NIL bill. It would provide funding for debt relief and add wording about NIL to state statutes. Legalizing sports betting is also on the docket as well as removing the ability to use race-based factors for financial aid and a bill on antisemitism.
For the spring forum, PROFS is looking to put together a panel to discuss issues at the forefront of higher education.
Dean Bill Karpus from the graduate school indicated that there were about 1,000 fewer applications for PhD programs and 2,000 fewer applications for master’s programs. It is unclear whether this will affect admissions offers. They will begin tracking offers and acceptances in mid-April. There continues to be concern about a possible 4-year limit on visas.
Faculty senators April Haynes, Aireale Rodgers, Annie Menzel and Marla Ramirez discussed the resolution they are bringing forward to the Senate regarding preparations for the possibility of immigration officials on campus. The UC made some suggestions for edits and also requested that the group consider removing the Flock clauses and bringing that information to the May Senate meeting. Chief Plisch is able to come answer questions at the May meeting, but is unable to attend in April.
Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin discussed the finalists and outcome of the provost search. In regards to onboarding, she continues to work with Dean Wilcots. Provost Zumbrunnen will be reaching out for nominations for the interim dean of the College of Letters and Science this week.
UW-Madison is part of the Third Coast Foundry with seven other midwestern universities (both private and public): Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Ohio St, UIUC, Washington University, University of Chicago, and Purdue University. This provides a shared workspace near venture capital firms in San Francisco as a place to engage in entrepreneurial activities. The funding for UW-Madison’s participation is coming from WARF. The initial commitment is for 2 years with a joint decision on whether to continue. The space will also be available for a broad array of use.
The NIL legislation will be taken up by the state senate. It provides debt relief for athletic facilities at UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee and UW-Green Bay, which will free up funding that could be used for NIL. It also establishes state-wide NIL regulations, which mirror what UW-Madison is already doing. It secures some NIL information for privacy and competitive reasons.
The University Committee previewed the Faculty Senate agenda.
The minutes from March 9, 2026, meeting were approved.
Crystal Potts, Director of State Relations, and Craig Thompson, Vice Chancellor for External Relations, shared that the state senate will have 90 bills before them this week. They are working to get some bills approved and signed into law and also working to surface concerns with other bills.
They are supporting the NIL bill because it affects the overall finances of the university. There is also a budget correction bill for a state building project at UW-Madison. There are bills that would restrict academic and research partnerships as well as software restrictions on government devices that would create issues for the university. There are also bills on admissions, sports by gender, financial aid, shared governance and free speech.
Nick Curtis, Director of the Office of Assessment and Ralph Grunewald, chair of the Student Evaluation of Teaching Ad Hoc Committee, shared an ideas document that has been shared with APCs across campus to collect feedback. The committee is in the process of drafting a policy that incorporates the feedback from the APCs.
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 committee appointments at 4:02 pm. Three tenure clock extensions were approved.
Bernard-Donals motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to reconvene in open session at 4:41 pm.
Jones adjourned the meeting at 4:49 pm.
Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, secretary of the faculty.