For Wisconsin and the World: Focusing a Great University on its Core Mission, Public Purpose, and Global Reach

Fourth-Year Progress Report

Recruit and retain the best faculty and staff, and reward merit. Enhance diversity to ensure excellence in education and research.

Several top leadership positions were announced at the university during 2012–13: Soyeon Shim, dean of the School of Human Ecology; Mark Markel, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine; Ian Robertson, dean of the College of Engineering; and John Karl Scholz, dean of the College of Letters & Science.
Goals for the Wisconsin China Initiative — an effort designed to ramp up engagement of the campus with the Greater China region — include building partnerships across the campus, within the state and in China, where UW–Madison has strong alumni and academic connections.
The campus’s annual Diversity Forum, held in October, offered breakout sessions on diversity priorities, such as religion, the faculty diversity initiative, the human resources redesign project and Native American student achievement.
An Ad Hoc Diversity Planning Committee representing students, faculty and staff, as well as the greater Madison community, has been appointed to develop a comprehensive proposal for a new diversity plan for the university.
The university has made it easier to report incidents of hate and bias via new tools, which include a Web form and office locations for reporting. The steps are designed to aid in preventing and responding to such incidents, furthering a commitment to a safe, inclusive and respectful environment.
During the 2011–12 academic year, the university granted 6,452 bachelor’s degrees, 2,104 master’s degrees, 810 research doctorates, and 709 professional/clinical doctorates — the second consecutive year that degrees have totaled more than 10,000.