Approved 10-21-21

ASEC Minutes

2:00 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, October 7, 2021

53 Bascom Hall

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

Members Present: Donna Cole; Jenny Dahlberg; Tim Dalby, chair; Stephanie Jones; Mallory Musolf; Leslie Petty; Lindsey Stoddard Cameron; Bill Tishler

Guests: Heather Daniels, Lesley Fisher, Alyson Kim, Karen Massetti-Moran, Beth Meyerand, Mark Walters

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

The minutes of September 30 were approved.

General Reports

Tim Dalby, ASEC Chair, provided feedback in the meeting of the chiefs of staff, chairs, and secretaries regarding the recent email on accommodations and differentiating between ADA accommodations, workplace flexibilities, and remote work agreements. COVID cases are continuing to decline, and non-compliance is also decreasing with respect to required testing or reporting of vaccination status. Tim also shared his draft of the ASEC activities report for members’ feedback.

Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff, provided an update on attendance at the Resource Fair. The listening sessions for the UW System Presidential Search were held on September 30 and October 1. There was a mix of in-person and online attendance. Jake reported on the October 4 Faculty Senate meeting with regard to discussions about meeting modality as well as changes to terms on shared governance committees. The latter changes codified existing practice. Jake also met with members of CASIs for Wisconsin Public Media, the College of Engineering, and the Division of Extension to discuss a variety of topics.

Liaison Reports

Jenny Dahlberg reported that the School of Veterinary Medicine CASI elected her as co-chair for the group. They are also working on revising their CASI website intranet page and will include an external-facing page as well.

Leslie Petty met with the new co-chairs of the International Division CASI and discussed her role as liaison and upcoming activities for the CASI.

Mallory Musolf followed up on her report at the last ASEC meeting on the UW System Reps, who are curating an inventory of shared governance processes and practices for academic staff across all of the campuses to highlight areas of both similarity and difference.

Business

·       ASEC Goal Planning Discussion

ASEC reviewed their individual suggestions for goals and broke into subgroups to finalize them. The goals fall into general areas related to communication, supporting CASIs, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Subgroups will meet in the next two weeks and return with their finalized goals for the next ASEC meeting.

Guest: Beth Meyerand, Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Affairs

Vice Provost Meyerand discussed the compensation plan. Last year, there was no money for discretionary compensation funding due to the pandemic. Exact details of the pay tools will be shared more broadly after the next Board of Regents Meeting, and more information will come out of the Provost Office.

Regarding the curriculum committee for diversity education and training, the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Educational Achievement is hiring a dedicated staff member in this area to assist with this project. Once that individual is hired, Vice Provost Meyerand will circle back to ASEC for potential members for an ad hoc committee on curriculum and implementation.

Vice Provost Meyerand reported on the status of professorial titles. The School of Medicine and Public Health CASI is having another meeting with Nancy Raymond and Jon Audhya to discuss the status of the research professor title in the school. The Nelson Institute has recently had its guidelines for teaching professor and research professor approved. The professor of practice title is also now ready to be used by schools/colleges/divisions, and individual school/college/division guidelines are being worked on.

Vice Provost Meyerand’s office has had interactions with emeritus faculty and staff during the pandemic in terms of systems access, building access, and other resources. She has not worked with those who might have access to labs via grants. She is thinking about ways to advise emeritus employees about resources, including engagement with the UW Retirement Association. The Retirement Issues Committee is also looking at liaisons to shared governance committees to see potential areas of overlap.

She is also in the process of discussing a group to look at supervisory training across campus and is looking forward to having resources to address this.

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

Mark and Karen discussed the TTC Appeals process. A tentative timeline has been developed, with the informal resolution process identified as starting in September. The HR reps in the schools/colleges/divisions have been maintaining documentation for those individuals who haven’t received a resolution by November 22. At that point, they can go to the next level, which is divisional HR review. OHR is collecting feedback from HR Reps on areas including non-appealable situations, gaps in the standard job description library, or missing responsibilities from SJDs. Step 4 of the TTC Appeal process will involve an HR rep from a different division, a member of the OHR compensation team, and a representative appointed by shared governance. Appeals can be filed through December 31, with employees on leaves of absence being addressed as needed.

OHR will be providing statistics on employees who are over the maximum of the salary range as well as those below the minimum. The salary structure will be iterative with recalibration happening to adjust for problems. Market data will involve a blending of higher education data and private sector data.

Regarding the compensation plan, performance bonuses will occur from October through December, and base increases from the Discretionary Compensation Fund will be allocated as early as December and through March 2022. OHR is working with UW System to figure out issues connected to implementation of the state pay plan in conjunction with this program.

Responding to a question about legacy benefits, this regards employees switching employee categories and is a coding issue related to preserving existing leave allocations and benefits. Current university staff members don’t have to move to academic staff, or vice versa. The Employee Choice Program will still exist, and these coding changes are being put in place for current employees.

UW-Madison does not have a centrally administered catastrophic leave program. This is driven at unit level for situations where an employee may need leave and colleagues can donate their vacation leave to that individual to cover absences. ASEC also provided feedback on better messaging around the issue of exhausting vacation balances before being able to use sick leave for COVID-related school/daycare closures or quarantine/isolation.

Business

·       October Assembly Prep

The Chancellor had an unexpected conflict arise and informed Jake and Tim that she would not be able to attend the ASEC meeting. The Chancellor’s Chief of Staff, Matt Mayrl, is available to attend in her stead to offer brief updates. Jake also discussed the process for voting with the hybrid modality for the meeting. Motion to revise the October Assembly agenda to reflect the change in guests (Dahlberg). Seconded. Approved.

·       November Assembly Meeting Agenda

ASEC reviewed an initial draft of the November Assembly agenda. The hope is that Chancellor Blank will be able to reschedule for the November meeting. This should be confirmed by the end of next week.

·       Topics for Guests

Provost: update on the Deans’ working groups; plans for enrollment in relationship to other System campuses; update on short-term study abroad programs and reactivating engagement in this space coming out of the pandemic

OHR: more info on base increases, progression/promotion, TTC appeals, specific stats on remote work, how are people working remotely vs. in person (register of hotel spaces), safety and security at different times of day

Meeting adjourned at 4:12 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff