UC Chair N. Rothfels reported:  1) The needed replacement faculty senator from the Professions has been appointed, and a faculty vacancy on the APBC has been filled; 2) The Compliance and Ethics position (in Legal Affairs) finalist interviews are underway; and 3) He will be attending the Assoc VC for HR finalist interviews, which are starting soon.

Provost J. Britz provided the following updates: 1) The new VSIP is expected to be very targeted and much more focused than the previous one; 2) The faculty diversity hiring initiative continues to be developed—the UC responded by stressing the urgent need to broadly rebuild UWM’s faculty; and 3) UWM’s GPR increase initiative is still moving forward with the BOR.

The UC met with Director of External Relations K. Duce to discuss campus initiatives to improve student voting rates, especially how increased faculty involvement may help.  The UC suggested that it was critical for the Provost to provide official guidance on proper procedures to facilitate this to the faculty.

In other business, the UC:  1)  Will not plan to invite the UW-System President to address our Faculty Senate this Spring, given the timing of the transition; 2)  Will draft a Faculty Senate resolution of thanks for the service of interim President Thompson; and 3) Will provide a resolution endorsing the “Climate Action-Carbon Resilience Plan” that will be presented to the Faculty Senate in tandem with the presentation by Director of Sustainability K. Nelson.

Member E. Bornstein noted that AAFEC met and is continuing discussion on fostering faculty diversity, and Member J. Snethen reported on several actions taken at the recent APC meeting.