Approved 10-23-2025

ASEC Minutes

1:00 – 3:30 p.m. Thursday, October 9, 2025

https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/97722653207?pwd=QfVbSx9nmGFEsxW6rvqFffNw3Josn5.1

Members Present: Aaron Crandall, Richard Barajas, Hanna Blazel, Alissa Ewer (chair), Albert Muniz, Diane Stojanovich, Nola Walker

Members Absent: Terry Paape and Nicole Senter

Guests: Danielle Gest, Allison Lynch, Kurt McMillen, Zach Smith, Kent Weigel, Scott Wildman

The meeting was called to order at 1:04 p.m.

The minutes of October 2 were approved.

General Reports

ASEC Chair Alissa Ewer reminded ASEC that subcommittees will give an update on their work at the next meeting. The Budget Approach Coordinating Committee will meet on October 13. If there are questions about the budget approach, please email Alissa.

Secretary of the Academic Staff Mallory Musolf reported on a response from the Office of Human Resources (OHR) regarding ASEC’s interest in a self-paced curriculum identical to Kauffman Seminar. The seminar is focused more on experiential learning and cannot be duplicated for a self-paced curriculum. OHR encouraged interested individuals to explore the following opportunities: Coaching Circles (https://hr.wisc.edu/professional-development/programs/coaching-circles/), a Fully Prepared to Lead course titled Understanding Organizational Politics (https://hr.wisc.edu/professional-development/programs/fully-prepared-to-lead/understanding-organizational-politics/), and all available Communities of Practice on campus (https://hr.wisc.edu/professional-development/communities/).

Liaison Reports

Aaron Crandall reported that the School of Education Committee on Academic Staff Issues (CASI) discussed events they are planning for the fall, ways to learn about workplace climate from staff, and LinkUW.

Nola Walker reported on the International Division CASI. They discussed their mentoring program, Lunch and Learn events for the academic year, Internationalization Framework Survey, and advocacy and support for staff impacted by federal funding loss. The Campus Planning Committee will reduce the cadence of meetings for the 2025-26 academic year. The Mentoring Committee discussed chair/co-chair service for the academic year.

Guest: Kurt McMillen, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor and Director, Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP)

Interim Director of RSP McMillen started his interim role in January 2025 and was asked to step into the role to address RSP stabilization and service delivery to campus. He met with school/college/division associate deans for research and other stakeholders as part of a listening tour. Feedback from those engagements were shared with RSP staff and together, they collaboratively worked through the feedback to develop a plan. In April, there was a RSP staff meeting to discuss RSP’s mission and values and establish major goals. This culminated in a strategic plan with four primary goals: 1) building a high-performing, adaptive organization; 2) leveraging technology to transform research administration; 3) improving contracting efficiencies and turnaround times; and 4) strengthening partnership and engagement within the research community.

Guest: Kent Weigel, Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Affairs (VPFSA)

Assistant Vice Provost Kelly Rupp in the VPFSA office is working with Vice Provost and Chief Data and Analytics Officer Allison La Tarte to start thinking about the next iteration of the staff climate survey. Past surveys included academic staff governance input and ASEC emphasized continued engagement with future surveys. Torsheika Maddox and Luis Piñero recently joined the VPFSA office. Maddox’s role will focus on faculty recruitment, including the Dual Career Couple Program. Piñero will focus on workplace climate, including leadership of the Graduate Assistants’ Equity Workshops and support to units following compliance investigations. VPFSA Weigel expressed appreciation for the Ad Hoc Review Committee on Academic Staff Research Professor Titles report. The report helped to underscore how the title is being understood and utilized in various ways across the campus. He looked forward to continuing discussion of the recommendations. The Ad Hoc Committee on Age in the Workplace report recommended the campus join the Age-Friendly University Global Network (AFU GN). VPFSA Weigel was interested in exploring this and thought it would be helpful for our campus to connect with member institutions to learn how they leverage the AFU GN.

Recessed at 2:38 p.m.

Reconvened at 2:46 p.m.

Business

• November Assembly Agenda

ASEC reviewed the November Assembly agenda. They discussed having a state and federal relations update.

• Topics for guests

Interim Provost: feedback about topics in the classroom

VCFA:  government shutdown and impacts; Workday update

OHR: tuition remission for employees; pay accuracy with transition to Workday; government shutdown

Meeting adjourned at 3:19 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Mallory Musolf, secretary of the academic staff