UC Chair Kris O’Connor reported that he will be attending the Board of Regents (BOR) meeting in LaCrosse later this week. The BOR will be considering the UWS proposal for a pay plan and salary increases. UC Chair O’Connor will touch base with others in UWS regarding the Program Productivity Monitoring Policy proposal. He was contacted last week by the Wisconsin State Journal regarding the response to this by UWM Faculty Senate, comments of which were included in an article published yesterday. Chair O’Connor will ask UW System President Ray Cross to attend a Faculty Senate meeting in spring. He also met with the Chancellor’s Advisory LGBTQ Task Force; they are looking for additional members.
Provost Johannes Britz attended, and reported that he will be attending the Provosts’ meeting in LaCrosse on Wednesday, and anticipates discussing the restructuring of UW-Stevens Point, and the UWS Freshwater University proposal – faculty hires, student internships, and research opportunities and the partnerships are a key part of this proposal. Many UWS campuses are involved, including UWM. He also explained the process he is using to work with the schools and colleges in reviewing their budgets, in preparation for implementation of the new budget model.
The Provost will attend the BOR meeting later this week; several new programs (doctoral program in Occupational Therapy, Masters in African Diaspora Studies) will be discussed. The Dean search for the Lubar School of Business will be wrapped up this week; the comment period ends today. The Dean search for CHS is moving along. The searches for the Dean of the College of General Studies and the Library Director will begin shortly.
Awards and Recognition Committee Chair Joe Rodriguez attended to discuss concerns regarding observations of candidates for Undergraduate Teaching Awards from UWM-Waukesha and UWM-Washington County. Like other standing committees, the committee will seek to change the charter to also include members of the new CGS division. Preference sheets for nominations to this committee will include reference that travel to other campuses is a responsibility of committee members.
UC member John Reisel reported that the Economic Benefits Committee will be meeting in December to find out more about the rationale for the Benefits survey content and structure.
UC member Bettina Arnold reported that meetings of the Provost and APBC members with academic units on implementation of the new budget model continue. The committee is concerned with confidentiality in discussion about the budget model, and has consulted with Legal for guidance on this issue.
UC member Kathy Dolan reported that the CHS Dean search is progressing. Semi-finalist candidates have been identified, with whom Zoom interviews will be conducted in the early part of January.
UC member Laura Otto-Salaj reported that the Affirmative Action in Faculty Employment Committee (AAFEC) met to discuss the results of the climate survey conducted by the committee two years ago. Results underrepresent faculty of color and LGBTQ faculty, so the committee will conduct targeted data collection to increase the information gathered from those groups. This will occur sometime in spring.