Approved 09-08-2025

ACADEMIC STAFF ASSEMBLY MEETING MINUTES

272 Bascom Hall

Monday, May 12, 2025

3:30 to 5:00 p.m.

Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Affairs (VPFSA) Kent Weigel called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m.

Memorial Resolution for Ted Tweed (ASA #848)

Heather Daniels presented the memorial resolution for Ted Tweed.

Recognition of Academic Staff Excellence Award Winners

Abbie Hartzell, Professional Development and Recognition Committee co-chair, announced the winners of the 2025 Academic Staff Excellence Awards. The winners are Scott Mellor (Chancellor’s Hilldale Award for Excellence in Teaching), Jeff Henriques (Mary Lucy Clark Distinguished Teaching Award), Lindsey Stoddard Cameron (Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Service to the University), Michelle Kelly (Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research: Independent Investigator), Andrew Ruis (Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research: Critical Research Support), Ron Kuka (Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Leadership: Individual Unit Level), Emily Hall (Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Leadership: College, School, or Larger University Community Level), Charles Konsitzke (Robert and Carroll Heideman Award for Excellence in Public Service and Outreach), Jenni Hart (Martha Casey Award for Dedication to Excellence), and Betsy Teigland (Martha Casey Award for Dedication to Excellence).

Guests: Cheryl Adams Kadera, Operational Readiness Strategy Lead, Administration Innovation and Planning; Karen Massetti-Moran, Deputy Chief Human Resources Officer, Office of Human Resources (OHR); Patrick Sheehan, Chief Human Resources Officer, OHR (Workday Update)

The Administrative Transformation Program (ATP) is dedicated to standardizing finance, human resources, and research administration business practices and implementing Workday. Workday is an integrated, cloud-based technology system for all thirteen campuses at the Universities of Wisconsin. Workday will bring administrative tasks into a single platform. The end result will be a more resilient administrative environment with simplified processes that advances the Universities of Wisconsin mission of research, teaching, and outreach. Subject matter experts from UW–Madison and the other Universities of Wisconsin have worked closely with the ATP team to redesign many administrative processes and provide feedback on the new Workday tool to make sure that it works across the needs of the impacted institutions. Workday implementation started in May 2019. Workday go-live will be July 7, 2025.

Employee Trust Funds, the group that manages the campus’ employee benefits programs, is modernizing their system collecting benefit information. This system will launch on July 1, 2025. Employees will use the My Insurance Benefits System (MIBs). UW–Madison OHR Benefits is collaborating with the Universities of Wisconsin Administration and ATP on this implementation. More information will be shared in June 2025.

UW–Madison OHR created Workday introductory videos that walk-through various activities in Workday to support employees. With the transition to Workday, MyUW will not go away. MyUW tiles linked to HRS, self-service, and personal information will go away. These tiles will be replaced by the Workday tile in July 2025. Most staff performance reviews will be completed in Workday. Instructional academic staff and clinical staff will continue to complete reviews in the Performance Management and Development Program (PMDP). All employees receiving performance evaluations in Workday will follow the same timeline: July 1 to June 30. The ratings will also change. PMDP currently has six ratings. In Workday there will be five. The PMDP “developing” rating will no longer be an option. Remote Work Agreements will be referred to as Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA), and will be completed in Workday. For fiscal year 2026, FWA requests will be due September 30.

Workday will also offer a learning management system. When Workday goes live, some current courses will be available and tracked in the tool: Preventing Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence, Responsible Employee, HIPAA, Campus Security Authority, and Ergonomics: Setting up your Workstation. Cybersecurity Awareness Training will be available on August 15, 2025. The OHR Professional Development website will continue to provide a list of their courses and registration information for employees.

Regarding finance impacts, expense reports and most procurement will be handled in Workday. There will be a Workday mobile app to streamline the gathering and submission of expense receipts.

For Workday readiness it will be important to plan ahead for work and resources that need to occur during the critical cutover period (June/July). Prioritize time for knowledge building and training. Also watch for communications from your local HR, finance, or research staff to help facilitate a smooth transition to Workday.   

Automatic Consent Business

The Academic Staff Assembly minutes of Monday, April 14, 2025, were approved.

Academic Staff Standing Committee Election Results (ASA #849)

Secretary of the Academic Staff, Mallory Musolf, presented the 2025 Assembly standing committee election results. Brian Lucas, Caelin Niehoff, and Sarah Probst were elected to the Communications Committee. Dean Ladwig, Sushmita Lotlikar, and Adrienne Pagac were elected to the Compensation and Economic Benefits Committee. Kristopher Stewart and Cindy Waldeck were elected to the Districting and Representation Committee. Holly Fosher, Barney Gallagher, and Jamison Wendlandt were elected to the Mentoring Committee. Nicole Jennings, Nathan Jung, and Kelly Krein were elected to the Nominating Committee. Kendra Ramthun, Angie Rosas, and Scott Wildman were elected to the Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee. Jeff Armstrong, Kim Grocholski, Justin Kotoris, and Cate Urbas were elected to the Professional Development and Recognition Committee. Terms of office are from July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2028.

Reports

ASEC Chair Albert Muniz presented the ASEC report. Albert reminded the Assembly about the upcoming special meeting to consider a resolution for establishing a mutual defense compact for the universities of the Big Ten Academic Alliance on May 15. Albert announced he will be continuing on ASEC next year but plans to step down as chair of the committee.

Rescind Hostile and Intimidating Behavior Legislation (ASA #546)

Nicole Senter, ASEC member, moved approval to rescind ASA Document #546. Motion seconded. Approved.

Vice Provost Report

All 27 international students and recent graduates had their terminated SEVIS records restored to active status.

Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, Derek Kindle, recently accepted a position at the University of Oregon. Scott Owczarek will assume the role of interim vice provost for enrollment management.

Catherine Golden was announced as the next associate vice provost and senior director of the UW–Madison Office of Strategic Consulting. She is currently serving as the assistant vice provost for academic initiatives at Purdue University. Catherine will start on July 9. VPFSA Weigel thanked Charles Meyer, interim associate vice provost and director of the Office of Strategic Consulting for his service.

VPFSA Weigel recently joined the RISE Core team. About 25 campus funded faculty have been hired. A number of searches and offers being negotiated are underway. 35-40 campus funded hires are expected by the end of the year. RISE scholarly collaboration leads will be hired to help with coordinating and supporting collaboration within the RISE focus areas (AI, EARTH, and THRIVE). These positions are for current tenured or tenure-track faculty.

VPFSA Weigel thanked Albert Muniz, ASEC chair, Alissa Ewer, ASEC vice chair, and the ASEC committee for their service.

Meeting adjourned at 4:44 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Mallory Musolf, Secretary of the Academic Staff