Approved minutes for February 5, 2018          Approved February 12, 2018

UC members present: Amasino, Bowers, Litovsky (arr. 1:05), Ventura, Wanner (chair), Warfield

Others present: S. Smith, J. Richard, M. Felber, J. O’Meara, H. Daniels, M. Aust, J. Brown, C. Springer, M. Mayrl

Chair Anja Wanner called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. Barb Bowers reported on the most recent meeting of UWS faculty and other shared governance representatives. Wanner called attention to a blog post by the chancellor on sexual misconduct, a letter from the graduate school dean about reaccreditation, and a student article about faculty-student contact. The latter prompted the UC to exhort the secretary of the faculty to re-extend an open invitation to ASM leadership for collaboration. The minutes of the meetings of January 22, 2018, and January 29, 2018, were approved.

Jack O’Meara reported on meetings with the governor’s office about the “Mark Cook” bill and the status of other bills and actions. Barb Bowers 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 1:10 p.m. The UC discussed several recent grievances, their resolution, and appropriate follow-up with Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Michael Bernard-Donals. Ruth Litovsky moved to reconvene in open session. The motion was seconded and passed at 1:51 p.m. Heidi Zorb (co-lead on the UW System restructuring process at UW-Madison) filled in for Casey Nagy to provide an update on the Extension-Madison merger. Discussion followed.

Chief Diversity Officer Patrick Sims provided an update on the Diversity Liaison Project, which is an effort to establish a faculty and staff cohort group to serve as resource for broader campus. The group, which includes the UC’s own Litovsky, held its first meeting after about a year and a half of planning. With funding from the chancellor’s office for partial buyouts, the DLP dovetails nicely with other programming, such as the Diversity Inclusion Advocates in SMPH and the appointment of diversity chairs in CALS departments. Sims also reported on the release of the campus climate survey data, which happened last fall as part of the diversity forum, but which more recently included school/college data. Trends at those levels are the same as at the aggregate, for the most part, portraying differing experiences of majority students and others across all measures. The data consistently highlighted the different experiences of students of color, LGBT students, and students with disabilities. Sims is now working with his counterpart at Michigan, which conducted a similar study with similar results, on a peer survey. Sims noted that February 22nd is the Outstanding Women of Color celebration and March 20th is the Women in Leadership Summit. Sims concluded by previewing a 2019 deans diversity retreat and the discussion followed.

Chancellor Rebecca Blank reported on her briefing with Paul Robbins, Cathy Middlecamp, and David Darling on sustainability issues. Campus is currently doing the necessary groundwork in order to request a STARS rating. Blank recommends a longer and deeper conversation with those three, even prior to the filling of the currently vacant director of sustainability position. Hope is to have that new person complete our first annual sustainability report. Blank also reported that applications are “out of the roof” at an estimated increase of 23% (8% in-state). This may be due in part to the Common App (for out-state) and the WI Prime outreach (for in-state), but is not a trend that holds for the rest of UWS. Discussion. First major alum event in Madison during Blank’s tenure is upcoming, as is WI Counties Association meeting, the launch of SucessWorks (the L&S career services initiative), and the Madison-hosted Board of Regents meeting. There was some discussion and Wanner adjourned the meeting at 2:44 p.m.