Approved 07-14-22

ASEC Minutes

2:00 – 4:15 p.m. Thursday, June 23, 2022

260 Bascom Hall

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

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

Guests: Monica Esquibel, Alissa Ewer, Lesley Fisher, Lynn Haynes, Peter Johnson, Olyvia Kuchta, Jackie Lee, Stephanie Metzger, Albert Muniz, Casey Pellien, Emily Reynolds, Becca Raven Uminowicz, Jennifer Wang

The meeting was called to order at 2:03 p.m.

The minutes of June 9 were approved.

General Reports

Tim Dalby, ASEC Chair, attended a reception for Chancellor-Designate Mnookin on June 15. She engaged with a variety of campus leaders and offered brief remarks. Tim, Mallory, Jake, and Lesley met with Patrick Sheehan for their monthly meeting and discussed the compensation memo for faculty and staff, as well as concerns raised over requirements in some schools and colleges for current supervisors to be references when applying for internal positions. They also discussed the new leave policy for postdocs. President Rothman held a strategic planning meeting with the UW System Representatives, which was facilitated by the Office of Strategic Consulting. President Rothman discussed ideas with shared governance representatives around three pillars: creating the successful and impactful university system of the future, enhancing the student experience, and serving every corner of the state. Tim and ASEC expressed their appreciation for the service of outgoing members Jenny Dahlberg, Shane Hubbard, and Bill Tishler.

Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff, reported that Vice Provost for Academic Operations Jennifer Noyes has been named Interim Chief of Staff for the Chancellor’s Office. Jake shared the announcement regarding the compensation funds for 2022-23, which are increased from previous years for academic and university staff. Jake discussed delays in processing TTC appeals within OHR. OHR has communicated with affected parties and will also be communicating with Step 4 appeals panelists. Jake and Lesley met with DRC committee members and DoIT to discuss a plan for further refinement of the districting logic over the coming year.

Liaison Reports

Lindsey Stoddard Cameron reported on her meeting with Jake, Lesley, and Nominating Committee Chair Alissa Oleck. They discussed strategies for greater diversity and inclusion in the committee selection, nomination, and appointment process.

Jenny Dahlberg provided an update from ASPRO, which will be conducting an in-person planning meeting in August.

Guests: Felipe Gacharná and Jana Valeo, Co-Chairs, Ad Hoc Committee on Academic and University Staff Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Felipe and Jana presented a draft report of the committee’s work. The genesis of the committee was the notion of looking at a “target of opportunity” program for staff similar to the one that exists for faculty. The committee was initiated by former Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Affairs Michael Bernard-Donals, and both academic and university staff members served on the committee. In looking at all areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion for staff, the charge proved to be a challenge due to its breadth. Access to data was one of the key challenges that the committee faced, as it proved difficult to look at data holistically around DEI for staff in a cohesive campus-wide way. Some areas of campus do an excellent job of tracking these data, but it is challenging to make decisions/recommendations without better data access. The committee stressed the importance of differentiating issues for staff as compared to faculty or students, and more data are needed to establish that differentiation quantitatively. ATP presents an opportunity in this space. The committee asked ASEC for feedback on the draft as well as ASEC’s consensus in how to put the recommendations forward to the administration.

Guest: Lori Reesor, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs

Vice Chancellor Reesor discussed Chancellor-Designate Mnookin’s time on campus during the previous week. She did a pop-in speech at SOAR that was well received, and she also had her first meeting with student leaders from ASM and other organizations.

ASM held an emergency meeting on Monday night related to the recent attacks on Asian/APIDA students. Campus continues to respond based on additional information as it comes in.

There is excitement about the new class coming in for the fall semester, though we don’t know what this means specifically for services needed. Mental health will continue to be a challenge. There will likely be more freshman students off-campus, and Student Affairs is determining what additional support systems may be need as a result of that.

Regarding the campus climate survey for students, there is a 30-person committee processing and analyzing data. They are also looking at the data in relation to recommendations coming out of the 2016 survey. The committee hopes to finalize the report with recommendations in August. It will also be important to connect the results from the student survey with the recent WISELI and staff surveys that were distributed.

Chief Diversity Officer Charleston, Vice Provost Zumbrunnen, and Vice Chancellor Reesor are taking a look at issues related to religious identities after last year’s conflict with Rosh Hashanah in the academic calendar. They participated in a year-long program run out of Hillel, with training on best practices and opportunities for addressing anti-Semitism. This cascades into issues for other identity groups, as well as for engagement and cultural identity spaces. Student Affairs is bringing back a master space plan toward these ends, which was paused at the onset of the pandemic.

There is excitement around Wisconsin Welcome this fall. The Center for the First-Year Experience and University Housing pulled together a restart, with a phased approach to determine what students need and when. The program will offer a Fifth Quarter/Traditions event run by staff, and there are efforts to build in more service projects. There will also be a speaker on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues for the Our Wisconsin program.

The Student Affairs organization is working on its strategic plan and initiatives and will be sending around to campus stakeholders when it is ready. Part of this is looking at how the reorganization of the Student Affairs area has been working.

There is the question of how students who are not on campus are involved, with access to Wiscards being an example of this. Wiscard is working on a new system, but there is no further update at this time.

Motion to Convene in Closed Session Pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to Discuss Nominations for Area Review Committee—Biological and Medical Sciences; Area Review Committee—Humanities and Social Sciences; Area Review Committee—Physical Sciences and Engineering, and Appointments to the Memorial Library Committee, Mentoring Committee, Recreational Sports Board, Student Panels, and the University Research Council (Stoddard Cameron). Seconded. Approved.

Motion to Reconvene in Open Session (Stoddard Cameron). Seconded. Approved.

Business

·       Nominations and Appointments – for vote

Motion to nominate Christoph Mans to the Area Review Committee—Biological and Medical Sciences, Scott Mellor to the Area Review Committee—Humanities and Social Sciences, and Mark Friesen to the Area Review Committee—Physical Sciences and Engineering (Stoddard Cameron). Seconded. Approved.

Motion to appoint to Quinn Fullenkamp to the Memorial Library Committee, Peter Kinsley to the Mentoring Committee; Katie Effertz to the Recreational Sports Board; Jessica Coburn, Nicholas Hill, and Amy Zwaska to the Student Panels; and Alfonso Del Rio to the University Research Council (Stoddard Cameron). Seconded. Approved.

·       DEI Report Debrief Discussion

ASEC debriefed on the presentation of the draft report from the ad hoc DEI committee. ASEC agreed that it should be presented to the Assembly in the fall. They also discussed sharing some of the information with the deans working group on staff diversity, equity, and inclusion. It will be important for OHR to see the info with respect to equity/parity reviews, as well as ideas around exit interviews and capturing retention info. ASEC discussed the possibility of a resolution endorsing the recommendations once the report is finalized.

·       IRB Feedback Discussion

ASEC discussed issues that had been brought forward regarding staffing issues at the IRB. The discussion revolved around disparities between other R1 institutions that are allowing fully remote employment within their IRBs. Currently, fully remote employment is not an option within the IRB here. This appears to be connected to current retention issues. ASEC discussed bringing the issues to the attention of Vice Chancellor Ackerman as well as Interim Chancellor Scholz.

·       Topics for Guests

Interim Provost: discuss the work of the ad hoc DEI committee

OHR: frustration around TTC appeals timeline, rolling horizons and education for HR reps, status of HR data and shared services; update on UWS TTC team around benefits; envisioned next steps for equity/parity/compression studies

Meeting adjourned at 4:14 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff