Compensation and Economic Benefits Committee 
February 16, 2011 
1:30 p.m., Room 350 Bascom

MINUTES

Present: Ana Araujo, Robert Purvis, Dennis Ray, Miriam Simmons, Karen Tusack, Eliza Waters, Beth Workmaster 
Guests: Heather Daniels, ASEC Chair; Megan Jeffers, HR Specialist

1. December minutes approved.

2. 2010 Academic Staff Promotional Review Summary – Megan Jeffers, UWHR

Megan presented the summary data, broken down by categories A and B, as well by reason code. Across the campus less than a third (n=99, 31%) of those identified as eligible for promotion by the survey (n=319) were successfully promoted. Primary reasons given for non-promotion inlcuded base adjustment to be granted within the next 12 months (n=39), or nonfulfillment of campus promotion criteria (n=54). In 59 cases no response was given from the department (these cases occurred in only five divisions). Most cases of eligible Category A individuals were at the entry level to associate level, whereas among Category B staff, most eligible individuals identified by the review were mid-level to no prefix.

The HR Office request for promotional review information currently is made to departments in early March. Is there a better time for this request? Ana pointed out that in order for promotions to take effect by the end of the year, the paperwork needs to been submitted by the end of July, so that requesting the information by the end of the fiscal year would be appropriate and that this should help in planning. Megan also mentioned that she is interested in preparing a document or program tentatively titled “How to plan for academic staff promotions” that would provide some suggestions and guidelines to faculty and department managers, particularly in cases where positions are funded on soft money. Beth indicated that the Horticulture department has been working on this recently and may be able to provide some direct feedback to Megan. Beth will follow up with the Horticulture Academic Staff Committee.

3. Academic Staff Data Summary Relevant to 4th Step or Distinguished Promotion – Heather Daniels, ASEC Chair 
Heather reported on Steve Stern’s favorable response to the summary data, noting that although action on this is very unlikely for this coming biennium, that it is possible for something to work out for the subsequent biennium at a cost range of $150-300k per year. This dollar range was based on scenarios of either a fourth step promotion (assuming 10-20% of annual cohort of AS with senior title for ten or more years qualifying for 5-10% raises). Heather also mentioned Steve Stern’s comment that even if this was done across System, the cost to UW-Milwaukee and all other campuses combined would be ca. $52k and ca. $80k, compared to $300k for UW-Madison.