August 19, 2025-University Committee (UC)-Minutes

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August 19, 2025 – University Committee

Time: Tuesday at 1:00 p.m.
Location: Lubar N456 and Microsoft Teams

Attendance

Present: Professors M. Kavanaugh, K. Kirshtner, R. Leson, L. McHenry, W. Otieno, G. Rodger, M. Schwartz
Excused: None
Guests: None

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by M. Kavanaugh at 1:03 p.m.

Persons Who Wish to be Heard

None

Approval of Minutes

The minutes of May 13, 2025 meeting were approved. 

Chairperson’s Report and Announcements

  1. There was a hacking incident in the University Staff Senate meeting today, which is being investigated.  (As this was being discussed, the UC meeting Teams link was hacked, and the incident was quickly managed.)
  2. There was a meeting of grant principal investigators organized by VP Ali Abedi.  The meeting covered changes to federal grant writing and changes to indirect cost returns.  There was also a discussion of how much advocacy can be done by individual investigators.  Finally the latest budget model was discussed.  The UC indicated strong interest in meeting with VP Abedi in a future meeting.
  3. Regarding the legislature’s workload directive, the UW System has convened a workload policy workgroup.  The workgroup is gathering information from individual campuses, and will submit a report to the legislature by December.
  4. There are ongoing UW System discussions regarding General Education Requirements and the similarity of requirements on different campuses.  The ability to transfer GER credits between campuses is also a concern.
  5. M. Kavanaugh met with both the Chancellor and the Provost.
  6. Multiple individuals have expressed concerns to M. Kavanaugh about Workday.  There is not much that can be done regarding problems with Workday other than to report them.

Members’ Reports

  1. L. McHenry reported on the campus faculty workload policy workgroup’s work.  They have developed a proposed revision to the faculty workload policy that clarifies issues in the current workload policy as well as specifying required actions by executive committees.
  2. G. Rodger reported that the APBC has met over the summer, discussing budget issues and methods for dealing with program closure notifications.

New Business

  1. Committee assignments
    G. Rodger will serve as the UC representative on the APBC. 

Old Business

None.

Personnel Matters

Per Wis. Stats 19.85(1)(f), it was moved and seconded to go into closed session to discuss personnel matters. Upon voice vote, closed session began at 1:57 p.m. The committee reconvened in open session at 2:15 p.m.

Future Agenda Items

The next scheduled UC meeting is August 26 at 1:00 pm. 

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 2:27 p.m.