Academic Staff Assembly Minutes 04-10-17

Approved 5-8-17

ACADEMIC STAFF ASSEMBLY MEETING MINUTES
272 Bascom Hall
Monday, April 10, 2017
3:30 to 5:00 p.m.


Provost Sarah Mangelsdorf called the meeting to order at 3:33 p.m.  

Memorial Resolution for Wolfgang Hoffmann
Diane Doering read the memorial resolution for Wolfgang Hoffmann.  

Automatic Consent: The Academic Staff Assembly minutes of Monday, March 13, 2017, were approved.  

Academic Staff Excellence Award Winners

Chris Lupton, member of the Professional Development and Recognition Committee, introduced the 2017 Academic Staff Excellence Award Winners.  They are: Karen Solheim, Chancellor’s Hilldale Award for Excellence in Teaching; Mo Fayyaz, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Service to the University; David Tobin, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research: Independent Investigator; Roger Brown, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research: Critical Research Support; John Street, WAA Award for Excellence in Leadership: Individual Unit Level; Eve Fine, WAA Award for Excellence in Leadership: College, School or the Larger University Community Level; Steve Pomplun, Robert and Carroll Heideman Award for Excellence in Public Service and Outreach; Susan Carpenter, Martha Casey Award for Dedication to Excellence.  

Report: Ad Hoc Committee on Category B Salary Compression

Jeannine Nicolai-Heckmann and Ilia Guzei, co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Committee on Category B Salary Compression shared the committee’s report with the Assembly.  The committee was charged with gathering and analyzing information on compression of academic staff salaries within Category B and making recommendations to the Academic Staff Assembly concerning policies and procedures that can be used to minimize and mitigate this inequity. Category B academic staff include those involved directly in instruction and research.  The committee defined salary compression as “lack of salary advancement from initial base salary based on years of experience within a single discipline after factoring in merit.”  They found salary compression to be primarily due to three factors: lack of state pay plans coupled with increased benefit costs; absence or failure to follow campus-wide policies governing the timing and implementation of pay adjustments; and market factors.  The committee recommends an equity study for Category B titles; compliance with new performance management policy; using existing policies and tools to look at promotions and job security; and uniform campus-wide guidelines that describe who pays for pay adjustments.  

ASEC and Standing Committee Election Results
Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff, announced the election results.  Bruno Browning, Beth Giles, and Mallory Musolf were elected to three-year terms on ASEC.  Jim Rogers was elected to a one-year term.  Yael Gen, Robyn Perrin and Lori Wilson were elected to the Communications Committee.  Emily Clark, Russell Dimond and Bob Glover were elected to the Compensation and Economic Benefits Committee.  Robin Kurtz and Gene Masters were elected to the Districting and Representation Committee.  Mark Marohl, Frank Rooney, and Sarah Sebrosky were elected to the Mentoring Committee.  Sophia Erb, Jacob Hahn and Benjamin Heidke were elected to the Nominating Committee.  Carlos Lozano, Dorothea Salo, and Meredith Smith were elected to the Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee.  Steven Cantania, Jim Lacy, Eva Rakasz, and Christine Schulz were elected to the Professional Development and Recognition Committee.

Guest: Chancellor Rebecca Blank

Chancellor Rebecca Blank expressed optimism that the current state budget proposal will include additional money for the UW System.  The Joint Finance Committee will consider the budget first.  It will then be passed by both houses of the legislature and then sent to the governor for his signature.  The UW Lobby Day is scheduled for Wednesday, April 12.  Alumni from all UW System schools will lobby the legislature.  

State pay plans for employees have been weak.  The Governor’s proposal includes two 2% increases with the first in September of 2018 and the second in May of 2019.  The increases for UW System employees depend on savings generated by self-insurance.  UW-Madison is advocating for UW System employees to be included in the regular compensation pool.

In regards to the capital budget, there was no maintenance money last year.  This year’s proposal does include maintenance money, but none of the UW-Madison facilities proposals were approved.  This includes projects that would be funded with program revenue.  These are very low-risk projects as the revenue from the project pays back the construction amount.  

For the federal budget, it is completely unclear what will happen.  There are deep cuts proposed to agencies that are important to UW-Madison like NSF, NEA, NIH, NOAA and Pell grants.  UW-Madison is working directly with its congressional delegation as well as member organizations.  

There is new state legislation proposed that would allow concealed carry without a license or training.  The current proposal would still allow the university to prohibit concealed carry weapons in campus buildings.

UW-Madison has launched two initiatives in regards to diversity and campus climate: Campus Climate Survey for students and the Diversity Inventory Project.  Chancellor Blank expects to have results from both of them later this spring.  The Our Wisconsin program launched to a limited population last fall.  It will be rolled out to all freshmen this fall.  The program concentrates on questions around identities.  A training program for Teaching Assistants on culture competence is being developed.  University Health Services has added mental health programs.  The Chancellor has appointed a community advisory committee to advise her on diversity issues.  She asked units to do something around diversity or inclusion in their units during this academic year.  She will ask units to do a follow up next year.   

Standing Committee Reports
Kevin Niemi, ASEC chair, reported that the ASEC report was distributed at the door.  ASPRO and PROFS will hold a forum on the proposed switch to self-insurance on Thursday, April 13 at 4 pm in the Plenary Room of Grainger Hall.  ASEC as a stakeholder group will meet with Mercer Consulting regarding the Titling and Total Compensation (TTC) study on April 12. Topics will include total compensation philosophy, attracting and retaining staff, and project outcomes.

ASEC created an Ad Hoc Committee on Title and Total Compensation Academic Staff Communications.  Nominations for that committee are due next week.  Marsha Mailick, the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, reported that the analysis for the IRB PI survey is nearly complete.  A report will be issued to campus around May 1.

Business
Motion Regarding Academic Staff Assembly District Size Corrections and Districting Logic
Discussion resumed from previous meeting.  Motion was approved.  

Report: Academic Staff Worklife Survey Working Group
Russell Dimond presented the white paper from the Academic Staff Worklife Survey.  The work group identified a picture of how academic staff unrecognized work, compensation and state politics can influence retention and morale, which affects the effectiveness of UW-Madison. Survey data showed that 31% of academic staff respondents indicated they were unlikely to leave UW-Madison.  These data also showed a strong relationship between unrecognized work to their likelihood of leaving and their happiness with compensation.  Those who reported doing unrecognized work very often reported working 8 hours more a week than those who didn’t.  The report recommends that the university formally and informally recognize all the work that academic staff do and that their job duties align with reality; devote internal resources to compensation, recognition and other efforts to counteract the effect of state politics on retention and morale; and change academic staff expectations for the future by creating and continuously communicating a credible long-term compensation strategy that first stabilizes compensation at its current level and then increases it to competitive levels.

Provost Report
The Provost suggested that both reports given at the Assembly meeting today be given to the consultants from Mercer working on the Title and Total Compensation study.  The Board of Regents approved the UW-Madison Post-tenure Review Policy.  There will be a June Board of Regents meeting that could include a discussion on the state budget.  

Adjourned at 4:43 pm.

Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff


KeywordsASA Minutes   Doc ID73226
OwnerLesley F.GroupThe Office of the Secretary/ Academic Staff
Created2017-05-10 13:18:29Updated2020-07-13 15:06:48
SitesThe Office of the Secretary/ Academic Staff
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