Academic Staff Assembly Minutes 09-11-17

Approved 10-9-17

ACADEMIC STAFF ASSEMBLY MEETING MINUTES
272 Bascom Hall
Monday, September 11, 2017
3:30 to 5:00 p.m.



Vice Chancellor Laurent Heller called the meeting to order at 3:32 p.m.  

Memorial Resolution for Mara McDonald: Patricia Becker read the memorial resolution for Mara McDonald.  

Memorial Roll Call: Vice Chancellor Laurent Heller read the Memorial Roll Call.

Automatic Consent: The Academic Staff Assembly minutes of Monday, May 8, 2017, were approved.  

Guest: Matt Kronberger, President-Elect, Madison Academic Staff Network

The Madison Academic Staff Network exists to connect academic staff with one another and to the campus.  Upcoming events include the Welcome Breakfast on Thursday, September 28 at the University Club from 8-9 am.  You must be a member to attend.  There will also be a tour of Camp Randall on Wednesday, October 11 at 2:30 pm.  Interested attendees will need to RSVP for this event.

Guest: Mary Luther, Office of Human Resources (Title and Total Compensation Study)
Mary Luther provided the background on the Title and Total Compensation Study.  The goal of the study is to allow employees to success in their careers, have titles that are comparable to other academic institutions, and have market data for all titles.  The study won’t result in any job loss or reduction in employee pay, and employees will not see an immediate increase in pay due to the study.  The study is currently in Phase 2, the development of the job framework (families and subfamilies) and the mapping of the positions to the job framework.  Phase 1 of the study was the planning phase.  Mercer was hired to consult on this project.  They met with various stakeholders during the first phase of the study, including many academic staff as well as the Academic Staff Executive Committee.  Phase 3 will include taking job titles and matching them to market data and creating a compensation structure.  Phase 4 is happening alongside Phases 2 and 3 and is the part of the study concerning benefits.  The implementation of the study results will happen from August 18, 2018, through March 19, 2019.  

The campus is currently working on job families.  A Job family is a group of jobs that may have similar duties and competencies.  The job families likely will have sub-families underneath them.  The job framework shows how all the jobs fit together.  The campus will be hosting forums in the next couple months on the job families.  There will also be Job Family Functional Teams that will look at the draft families and sub-families and refine their definitions and structure.  Each of these functional teams will include an academic staff representative.  They will hold forums in November.  After job families and sub-families are determined, the next step will be to determine the number and type of levels for sub-families.  In February and March employees along with their supervisors will update job descriptions online.

Guest: Ching-tzu Chien and Eric Alborn, Division of Information Technology (VOIP)
Ching-tzu Chien and Eric Alborn provided an overview of the Voice over Internet Protocol switch that is happening for telephones across campus.  The decision to switch was made in fall of 2016.  It is for voice and voicemail, but may include chat, screen sharing, and video conferencing in the future.  They have transitioned approximately 3000 lines so far and hope to transition 80% of lines by June 2018.  Everyone will need new phones, including conference phones.  The 5-digit phone numbers will no longer work for numbers that have been transitioned.  They are working with each school/college/division on the migration.  Questions should be directed to the unit.  The project website is http://voip.it.wisc.edu.  

Standing Committee Reports

Kevin Niemi, ASEC chair, shared that ASEC had met twice a month during the summer.  He introduced the two new ASEC members, Jim Rogers and Beth Giles.  He also welcomed all new and returning members of the Assembly.

Kevin highlighted some current issues that ASEC is tracking and providing input on.  The top issue for governance right now is the Title and Total Compensation Study.  ASEC also hopes to do a bit more evaluation of the Worklife Survey results.  The team who wrote the initial whitepaper presented the information at a Deans’ Council meeting in early summer.  The Ad Hoc Committee on Family Leave is also being tracked as well as looking at data regarding the Discretionary Compensation Fund.  

Kevin also provided an update on the Academic Staff Professionals Representation Organization (ASPRO).  This group has academic staff members from across UW System and hires a lobbyist to advocate on behalf of academic staff.  Mallory Musolf and Heather McFadden also sit on the ASPRO board.  The budget has been finalized by the Joint Committee on Finance.  Both houses are able to modify it.  The governor can use his full and partial veto to also modify the bill.  

The pay raises scheduled in the second year of the biennium were moved up by several months to July 1, 2018, and January 1, 2019.  Language was also reinserted about tracking instructional loads for faculty and instructional academic staff.

Business
Academic Staff Committee Member

The Academic Staff Assembly voted to elect Lindsey Stoddard Cameron to the Academic Staff Executive Committee.

Vice Chancellor Report

Laurent Heller remarked that he just finished his first year at UW-Madison.  He is very impressed by the staff, and thinks it is great that there is such as a body as the Academic Staff Assembly that represents non-tenure track staff on campus.  He finds it very valuable to have groups like ASEC.  
At the beginning of fall semester there is the Academic Leadership Summit for department chairs, deans and other leaders on campus.  The Chancellor spoke about where UW-Madison is headed.  She talked about good things that are happening at UW-Madison, but also places where UW needs to invest.  Her strategic priorities included enhancing the educational experience, improve student access, maintaining and growing faculty and staff excellence, and expanding and enhancing UW-Madison’s research portfolio.  

The Chancellor also discussed six different strategies the campus has been pursuing in regards to revenue growth.  Vice Chancellor Heller mentioned that he put together a data comparison of UW-Madison against peers.  UW-Madison looks good in a lot of areas, but is behind in revenue growth.  He plans to come back and discuss more details with the Assembly later in the fall.

The Chancellor also announced several investments.  The Faculty Cluster Hire Program will be relaunched starting with proposals this fall.  The Discretionary Compensation Funds will continue this year with faculty block grant program at $3.5 million; money for staff increases at $4 million and $4 million in the bonus funding program.  

In the capital budget portion of the state budget, there is money for deferred maintenance.  In addition, several projects were approved by the Joint Committee on Finance.  These include a new parking lot in front of the Veterinary Medicine building, and a utilities project on Bascom Hill.

The Amazon pick-up point was relocated from the Red Gym to space in Sellery Hall that was unenclosed.  It will open in October and generate some revenue back to the University.

Vice Chancellor Heller mentioned that he has been working on creating a one-page “all funds view” for schools/colleges/divisions.  It will have total column as well as totals for different types of funds.  

Adjourned at 4:49 pm.

Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff


KeywordsASA Minutes   Doc ID77256
OwnerLesley F.GroupThe Office of the Secretary/ Academic Staff
Created2017-10-10 09:06:36Updated2020-07-13 15:06:48
SitesThe Office of the Secretary/ Academic Staff
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