Academic Staff Executive Committee Minutes 03-04-21
Approved 03-18-21
ASEC Minutes
2:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 4, 2021
https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/93936751067
Members
Present: Donna Cole; Jenny
Dahlberg; Tim Dalby, chair; Stephanie Elkins; Mallory Musolf;
Leslie Petty; Deb Shapiro; Lindsey Stoddard Cameron; Bill Tishler
Guests:
Benjamin Biltz,
Kristin Cooper, Lesley Fisher, Ron Harris, Jess Jones, Haley Kerkhoff, Angela Kita, Tim Markle, Karen Massetti-Moran, Ruben Mota, Sara Tate-Pederson, Mary
Thompson
The meeting was called to order at 2:03 p.m.
The minutes of February 25 were approved.
General Reports
Tim Dalby, ASEC
Chair, reported on the joint governance chairs meeting held last Friday. They
discussed issues with TTC, including availability of
forums and concerns around the implementation date. From the meeting with the
chiefs of staff, chairs, and secretaries, the COVID-19 positivity rate is
between 0.3-0.4%. Vaccinations for those individuals in Tier 1B opened up on March 1. Campus has the capacity to vaccinate
eligible individuals but not the supply. There are ongoing discussions about
whether individuals who have been vaccinated need to continue being tested.
There was a campus announcement with new guidance on larger events. On-campus
restrictions have been relaxed, but are still stricter
than the new guidance coming from the county.
Jake
Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff, reported that he had a meeting with Tim
Markle in Tim’s capacity as a member of the Committee on Disability Access and
Inclusion. In addition to the digital accessibility updates that will be
discussed later in the meeting, there are also some areas that the committee is
working on that may come before the Assembly later this spring or early fall.
Jake reported on the UW System town hall that was held on the single payroll
project as well as the town hall on UW-Madison vaccinations. Jake will send out
the recordings for these at a later date. Jake and
Jenny will also be attending a stakeholder meeting on the single payroll
project on Monday.
Liaison Reports
Mallory Musolf
reported that there was no update from UW System at this time regarding
vacation carryover past June 30.
Guests:
Jess Jones, Interim Director of the Center for User Experience, DoIT; Ruben
Mota, ADA Coordinator, Office of Compliance; and Sara Tate-Pederson, Customer
Engagement and Learning Services Supervisor, DoIT (Digital Accessibility
Policy)
Jess,
Ruben, and Sara provided ASEC with an overview on the
refresh to the Digital Accessibility Policy. There has been work on this effort
for the last couple of years, and there are a number of
different individuals and units that have been involved that serve
accessibility needs on campus, including the Office of Compliance, the Center
for the User Experience, the McBurney Center, Divisional Disability Representatives
(DDRs), and other shared governance committees. A limited knowledge of issues
around digital accessibility and the increased complexity of the digital
landscape—with programs like Duo multi-factor identification, Safer Badgers,
and building access—have driven these updates. The charge is to improve
accessibility at scale across the university. When considering approaches of
accommodation and accessibility, accessibility is the more inclusive approach.
Our current policy is out of date, narrowly scoped to the “web”, with
insufficient scaffolding for complexity, and lacks
oversight and implementation guidance. The revised policy will reduce needs for last-minute
accommodation, improve usability, establish accessibility as a shared
responsibility, align with UW System policies, and minimize legal risk. The
policy consists of three parts: the policy language itself, a set of Minimum
Digital Accessibility Standards (MDAS), and an implementation plan that will
delineate all of the activities that need to happen
around the policy and the standards. Many of those activities will go through
the Center for User Experience, and there will be a gradual rollout of the
policy. The draft is currently undergoing review by a number
of different stakeholder groups on campus.
Motion to Convene in Closed Session Pursuant
to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to Discuss Appointments to the Retirement
Issues Committee, University Research Council, and ASM
Ginsburg Award Selection Committee (Stoddard Cameron). Seconded. Approved.
Motion to Reconvene in Open Session (Musolf). Seconded. Approved.
Business
· Appointments – for vote
Motion
to approve Amanda Siebert-Evenstone to the ASM Ginsburg Award Selection Committee, Fabu
Phillis Carter and Mario Pennella to the Retirement
Issues Committee, and Brett Hoover to the University Research Council (Elkins).
Seconded. Approved.
· March Assembly Agenda Prep
Tim
will move approval of the resolution on climate divestment and procurement.
· April Assembly Agenda
ASEC discussed a first draft of the Assembly
agenda for April.
Guest:
Karen Massetti-Moran, Director of Total Rewards,
Office of Human Resources
The implementation timeline for TTC has
still not been finalized. Conversations are occurring with UW System as to the
official date, but at this point, we do know that it will likely not be July.
It will likely occur sometime in the fall, but not during the start of the
academic year. There still needs to be careful thought about the timeline with
respect to the manager-employee conversations, especially for C-basis employees.
Managers and employees should still plan for virtual conversations, due to
possible anxieties about returning to onsite work. OHR
is in the process of getting refreshed market data. On the
subject of promotion and progression, these will work differently in the
new system. Currently, time in seat is a factor in moving from one prefix to
another. With TTC, promotion will occur through a
title change. There will be an evaluation of years of experience, as well as an
evaluation of internal parity, to place employees at an appropriate place
within the salary range. HR representatives will have the tools to help make
those evaluations. Progression will provide opportunities for employees within
their existing title to help keep pace with the market and not run into
compression issues. There will be periodic evaluations to look at where people
are within the range and where they should be. HR reps should be looking at
market, parity, and merit as types of increases. OHR
has opened up compensation training for HR reps in
these areas. Regarding comparables for units on
campus that may be unionized in peer institutions or private entities, OHR is pulling data on both unionized and non-unionized
workforces and taking both into account when designing salary ranges. With
respect to benefits, this will be a conversation with UW System. There has also
been an ongoing conversation about use of vacation carryover, and there will
hopefully be a firm answer on this in the next few days.
Business
· Post-COVID Workplace Discussion
ASEC discussed three questions that were posed at
the recent Leadership Breakfast around the post-COVID campus environment. The
questions revolved around what we have learned as a campus from this past year,
what the new normal will look like, and what campus needs to do—once everyone
who wants to get a vaccination has—to facilitate a smooth transition back to
campus. ASEC provided initial thoughts and will
return to this topic in future meetings.
· Topics for Guests
Provost
– scenario planning, mental health week, plans for creating a greater sense of
belonging updates?
VPTL – instructor survey
OHR – progress on single pay, administrative
burden on grants, how are we working with our colleagues in the community to
handle this transition
Meeting adjourned at 4:40 p.m.
Minutes
submitted by Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff