Academic Staff Document #281
March 19th, 2001

                                                                                        UFAS Proposal to Academic Staff Assembly

Background:
Under current Academic Staff Policies and procedures, University of Wisconsin Academic Staff who lose their jobs due to a funding loss or program change are entitled to a “nonrenewal notice period.”  This notice period varies from 3 months for staff who have fewer than 2 years of academic staff service, to one year for staff with 10 or more years of service.  In relatively few chase, the loss of funding may be so severe or student that it is not possible for a given program to provide the full notice period to academic staff.  In these situations, academic staff are “laid off” and receive drastically reduced notice periods.

                                  Minimum Notice Period - Layoff versus Nonrenewal
                         Academic Staff Policies and Procedures, sections 3.04 and 5.04

UFAS Proposal:
The UW-Madison should establish a contingency fund sufficient to provide all academic staff who lose their jobs through funding loss, budget decisions, or program change the full nonrenewal notice period as provided under Academic Staff Policies and Procedures section 3.04.

Discussion Points:

A layoff is a “broken contract” in which the employee is not provided with the full term of employment as specified in their contract.

If a supporting grant does not have sufficient funds to provide full and proper notice, the university should still honor its contract with the academic staff member.

Research academic staff pay a share of their grant funds as overhead funds to support the university, but if their supporting grant is not renewed, those funds are not available to support the staff member.

As the university faces the prospect of state budget cuts, it is imperative that we provide support for academic staff who may be facing layoffs.