Chancellor Rebecca Blank addressed faculty retention rates and said they were “wonderful” at University of Wisconsin’s Faculty Senate meeting Monday.

Currently UW’s faculty retention rate sits at 85 percent, which Blank said was a satisfying number. There have been offers from other universities trying to poach top UW faculty members due to the tenure policy changes and budget cuts, Blank said, but many of those offers have closed and the faculty is getting fewer offers now.

“That is a wonderful number — it’s above our average retention rate on a typical year, and it is a sign that a lot of faculty have chosen to remain here at UW when given a choice,” she said.

Blank also addressed recent conversations about race on campus as well as the anti-Semitic incident in a UW residential hall. She said the university administration will follow a detailed protocol and take prompt action in solving similar issues.

UW officials respond to swastika ‘bias incident’ in campus dorm

To build a better diversity environment on campus, Blank said the university is putting together a campus-wide diversity climate survey, with slight content variations among students, faculty and staff. 

“We really need to know where we need to focus some of our efforts, and I think the climate survey will give us some of that information,” Blank said.

Administration is also planning to create another initiative that is more explicit for incoming freshmen and transfer students to help increase inclusiveness and encourage good behavior in the community, she said.

The Faculty Senate voted on several new faculty documents during the meeting. A Children in the Workplace Policy, which aims to create a family-friendly workplace in the university by giving employees more freedom to bring their children to work when needed, was met with some dispute. Some members expressed concern and said they did not want to be disturbed by children running around in the workplace. The policy eventually passed on a voice vote.

The University Library Committee proposed a resolution to support the Open Access Policy, which would mean authors would give the university nonexclusive right to disclose scholarly articles. The resolution sparked multiple concerns among faculty members regarding the authors’ rights and profitability of publishers.

The discussion was tabled until the next Faculty Senate meeting which will be in April.