Approved 07-29-21

 

ASEC Minutes

2:00 – 4:15 p.m. Thursday, July 15, 2021

https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/93936751067

Members Present: Tim Dalby, chair; Stephanie Elkins; Stephanie Jones; Mallory Musolf; Leslie Petty; Lindsey Stoddard Cameron; Bill Tishler

Guests: Lesley Fisher, Angela Kita, Sarina Lotlikar, Karen Massetti-Moran, Karl Scholz, Mark Walters

The meeting was called to order at 2:02 p.m.

The minutes of June 24 were approved.

General Reports

Tim Dalby, ASEC Chair, reported on the two ASEC listening hours that he attended since the last ASEC meeting. Topics raised include reopening, feedback on TTC conversation process, and CASI engagement. At the latest meeting of the chiefs of staff, chairs, and secretaries, concerns were also raised about communications for 9-month employees regarding return to onsite work, as well as communications in general regarding concerns about the increased infection rates due to the variants. Employee appreciation days will be held on July 20, July 27, and August 4. From a survey that was conducted of students with housing contracts, 95% of respondents indicated that they were vaccinated. Vaccination rates are high in Dane County, and campus is working at the unit and individual level to encourage uploading of vaccination status to UHS. On the topic of building repairs, Humanities will require more repairs, and Van Hise repairs should be completed by November 11. The remote work agreement form will be available as of July 25. Tim met with the new ASM Chair and Vice Chair on July 7 to discuss priorities for the year ahead, and the governance chairs will be meeting monthly throughout the year.

Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff, reported on the status of the state budget, having been signed by the Governor, with $8.25 million set aside for UW System. Communication will be coming regarding earning statements on July 30 for employees switching from monthly to biweekly pay, specifically that the earnings cover July 1-17 and not the whole month. ASEC has been asked to provide appointees to a committee to look at faculty legislation regarding access to electronic files concerning instructors and researchers. The Secretary’s Office will put out a call for candidates. Campus-wide TTC forums will be held on August 10 and 11. ASEC agreed that former ASEC member Deb Shapiro should continue serving on the TTC Governance Advisory Committee until the project is implemented. Jake shared information about the remodeling of 272 Bascom Hall with regard to future Assembly meetings.

Liaison Reports

Mallory Musolf reported on the status of the UW System Presidential Search Committee as discussed by the System Reps. The Reps sent communications to Regent President Manydeeds and Regent Vice President Walsh reemphasizing the importance of governance consultation during the search process. Regent Walsh responded and stated that another academic staff member would be added to the committee.

Stephanie Elkins reported that the Wisconsin Public Media CASI is fully staffed again and is discussing a public-facing webpage. Work on ethical guidelines continues, and WPM HR also discussed CASI consultation regarding constitution of search and screen committees.

Guest: Karl Scholz, Provost

Provost Scholz announced that the new Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring exists as of July 1. Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning John Zumbrunnen and colleagues are working on the organization of the center and building the team. The center has some devoted space on Henry Mall, though physical space for the entire organization continues to be a challenge. There are 55 people who are a part of the center who have moved from DoIT, the Division of Continuing Studies, and the Collaborative for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching.

International Student Services and International Faculty and Staff Services have merged and are now part of the International Division. Ron Machoian is the new director. Physical space is also an issue for this newly merged organization, and the hope is that this issue will be resolved in the next 12-18 months.

Regarding plans for fall semester, on July 25, OHR will be providing the electronic tools to document remote work agreements. Concerns about the Delta variant have been raised, and there have been videos earlier in the week in InsideUW that address developments in this area. Information indicates that vaccines remain effective in combating the variant.

On the state budget, it included some items that benefit UW System and UW-Madison. We will continue to work with our partners in the state and make the case for why investment in public higher education is critical.

A question was raised about how Juneteenth will be recognized in the future, now that it has been made a federal holiday. As a state agency, we will take our cue from the state for how it will be handled going forward, and there will be other ways in which the institution will recognize Juneteenth as well.

In response to a question regarding technology for hybrid meetings, campus is currently doing an inventory of capacity in this space. There was also a question regarding international students. Things are easing up somewhat, but we are continuing to plan pathways for first-year international students to proceed with their education if they aren’t physically able to be here, as well as more specialized plans for other undergraduate and graduate students.

Business

·       ASEC Orientation

A brief orientation session on ASEC duties and procedures was conducted.

·       2021-22 ASEC Liaison Assignments

ASEC began discussing liaison assignments to standing committees and CASIs for the coming year. ASEC will return to this issue at a future meeting.

·       2020-21 Academic Staff Assembly Statistics

ASEC reviewed statistics for meeting attendance and communication from Assembly representatives for the 2020-21 academic year. On average, district communication was lower than last year and meeting attendance was higher.

Guests: Mark Walters, Chief Human Resources Officer; and Karen Massetti-Moran, Director of Total Rewards, Office of Human Resources

OHR has been creating remote work resources for schools, colleges, and divisions across campus to use, and these are now available. The remote work agreement form will be launched on July 25. Agreements should be executed by the end of August. After the policy was approved on May 19, there continue to be modifications, including interpretation of business necessity in the policy. There are some countries where employees may have difficulty returning to the United States. Language may also be added addressing immigration issues. Remote work agreements can be initiated at any time, and arrangements may evolve over time. There will be the ability to go back into the system and modify the agreement as needed.

We are now technically in single payroll status. A note of clarification has been added to the July 30 earning statement to say that the statement is for July 1 – July 17. We will proceed biweekly after that. OHR has received approximately 700 applications for the short-term loan program, and a spike is expected in that number soon. There was also an encumbrance issue when the data was migrated, though that issue will be fixed this coming weekend. OHR will be doing outreach to 9-month employees on single payroll impacts. There are pending questions on impacts in the research space, and OHR is looking at benchmarks for monthly processing vs. biweekly processing.

TTC conversations are proceeding, and OHR is homing in on problem areas with certain titles. On the issue of the 2.0 FTE requirement for manager titles, OHR is working with a UW System Advisory Group on a narrow exception process to this requirement. There was a question on this issue when some employees were learning about their new title and weren’t able to have a certain manager title because of that requirement. This is also partly due to the market data that was gathered and links back to the job duties for these positions. Regarding the September 10 deadline for conversations, the deadline can’t be moved due to the systematic changes that are needed for implementation. There is currently a lag between holding the conversations and moving completion records through the automated system. If conversations are not completed by that deadline, employees will be given the title they were initially mapped to, with communications to both employees and supervisors on what needs to happen at that point.

Business

·       Topics for Guests

VCSA: cumulative statement on support for students (follow-up on funds distributed to students); goals for coming year; relations with ASM; plans for recruiting/retaining Native American students

OHR: remote work policy updates, TTC updates, update on single pay loan program

Meeting adjourned at 4:17 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff