Approved 02-10-25

ACADEMIC STAFF ASSEMBLY MEETING MINUTES

272 Bascom Hall

Monday, December 9, 2024

3:30 to 4:45 p.m.

Provost Charles Isbell called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m.

Guests: Missy Nergard, Director of Institutional Sustainability; Nathan Jandl, Associate Director of Sustainability, Office of Sustainability; and Brad Herrick, Director, Lakeshore Nature Preserve The Office of Sustainability provided progress updates on Chancellor Mnookin’s environmental sustainability goals: 1) achieve Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS) Gold by 2025; 2) all interested students have access to sustainability educational experiences by 2030; 3) establish the Sustainability Research Hub by spring 2024; 4) net-zero emissions (procure 100% renewable electricity by 2030 and decarbonize campus operations by 2048); 5) achieve a zero waste campus by 2040 through sustainable material management.

Brad Herrick, the new director of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve, provided an overview of the Preserve. With a focus on ecological sustainability, the Preserve is a 300-acre natural area supporting research, outreach, and teaching on campus.

The Green Fund is the longest running sustainability research, education, and engagement program on campus. It provides funds for student-initiated projects aimed at improving campus sustainability. The Green Fund currently manages 83 projects.

The Office of Sustainability is actively involved in supporting sustainability in capital design and construction. The Universities of Wisconsin recently released an inaugural set of sustainability guidelines, and the office is planning guidance implementation. 

Automatic Consent Business

The Academic Staff Assembly minutes of Monday, November 11, 2024, were approved.

Reports

ASEC Chair Albert Muniz presented the ASEC report. Albert reminded attendees to complete the Committee Interest Survey to be considered for academic staff governance opportunities. Nominations for the Academic Staff Excellence Awards are being accepted until January 27, 2025.

Academic Staff Professionals Representation Organization (ASPRO) Board President Jenny Dahlberg presented the ASPRO report. ASPRO will be tracking the state budget process and support for higher education next spring.

Resolution Urging Implementation of a Separate, Paid Funeral or Bereavement Leave Category for UW–Madison Employees (ASA #839)

Nicole Senter, ASEC Member, presented the Resolution Urging Implementation of a Separate, Paid Funeral or Bereavement Leave Category for UW–Madison Employees for a first reading. The resolution requests creation of a separate leave category with a separate allocation for bereavement for all employees. It also requests the development of support materials of how to assist someone suffering from a loss. Currently, UW–Madison employees must use vacation, banked leave, personal holiday, or accrued sick leave to take an absence from work because of a funeral or bereavement time. The resolution is sponsored by the Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee (PPPC). Additional feedback on the resolution is due to ASEC or the Secretary’s office by January 14. A vote on this resolution is anticipated at the February Assembly meeting.

Provost Report

Provost Isbell reported that UW­–Madison moved up two places to be sixth out of 920 public and private universities in the United States in university research expenditures, according to the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) annual rankings. For the first time, the university has topped $1.7 billion in research expenditures.

Winter 2024 Commencement will take place December 15, 2024, at the Kohl Center. The commencement speaker will be Milwaukee restaurateur and Top Chef season 21 runner-up, Dan Jacobs.

As a reminder, Workday will go live in July 2025. Workday is a cloud-based software platform that will standardize finance, human resources, and research administration processes at UW–Madison and across the Universities of Wisconsin. Activities relating to the transition to Workday will ramp up in the coming months.

Regarding ongoing administrative searches, the dean of the School of Medicine and Public Health and vice chancellor for medical affairs finalists’ visits concluded and a decision will be announced soon. The chief information officer and vice provost for information technology search is underway. Provost Isbell encouraged attendees to participate in the January 2025 finalist visits for the dean of the College of Engineering search and provide feedback. Professor Kent Weigel was appointed the vice provost for faculty and staff affairs (VPFSA). The appointment begins December 30. Provost Isbell thanked Beth Meyerand, outgoing VPFSA, for her leadership.

Meeting adjourned at 4:33 pm.

Minutes submitted by Mallory Musolf, Secretary of the Academic Staff