Approved 09-09-21

ASEC Minutes

2:00 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, September 2, 2021

https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/93936751067

Members Present: Donna Cole; Tim Dalby, chair; Stephanie Jones; Mallory Musolf; Leslie Petty; Lindsey Stoddard Cameron; Bill Tishler

Guests: Elizabeth Covington, Heather Daniels, Lesley Fisher, Beth Meyerand, Karl Scholz

The meeting was called to order at 2:02 p.m.

The minutes of August 19 were approved.

General Reports

Tim Dalby, ASEC Chair, reported that the orientation for new members of the Academic Staff Assembly was held on August 20. Tim, Lesley, and Jake met with Mark Walters for their regular meeting with OHR. Issues around the testing process were discussed. Tim and Jake attended the Fall Leadership Summit on August 25. About 50% of the attendees were in-person, and Tim shared the materials with ASEC. Topics at recent ASEC listening sessions include questions around schools and colleges imposing their own criteria for TTC titles and concerns around return to onsite work. Tim met with other shared governance chairs for their monthly meeting. Issues around masking and vaccination, the caste resolution from ASM, concerns about quarantine at Eagle Heights, and goal-setting were discussed. At the recent meeting with the chiefs of staff, it was discussed that there will be 5 testing sites open for the fall. As of this report, there is a 91% employee vaccination rate, with a 93% rate for students in dorms, and 86% for students not in dorms. Lectures in the Chemistry Building have been relocated, and they are working on what to do with labs as well.

Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff, reported on the Chancellor’s response to a report from the UW System Caregiving Task Force. There has also been a set of recommendations sent to the Chancellor and other members of administration from the UW-Madison Ad Hoc Committee on Caregiving. Announcements about University Roundtable and the Assembly Skills Workshop will be going out soon. The SOAS Office has found some issues with the new website, and those should be resolved soon. Deputy Secretary Lesley Fisher reported on the meeting of the Special Regent Committee on Governance Issues. Jake also reminded ASEC members of the Mentor Match Program, which is currently asking for mentors and mentees for this year’s program.

Guest: Karl Scholz, Provost

Provost Scholz reported that there will be additional funds beyond the state pay plan for faculty and staff. There will be an allocation of $4 million for staff, with an additional $1 million+ to be used to bring staff up above minimum pay ranges for TTC. Details are coming on how these funds will be administered. There will also be an allocation of $5 million in bonus funds.

According to the latest data as of August 31, there have been 34 total requests related to remote teaching. There are 13 requests that are still in progress, and accommodations have been made in roughly half of the cases. Approximately 2/3 of the requests are from faculty, with a smaller number from academic staff and graduate assistants. Administration wants to be responsive to these situations and is making sure that communication is clearer around these processes.

Campus has seen approximately 5000 remote work agreements. There are still a large amount of these that are in progress, with a vast range of outcomes in this area. Provost Scholz surveyed the deans, and the sense is that a majority of the agreements that have been finalized are those with 1 or 2 days onsite. When thinking about these agreements, supervisors need to think about the individuals but also equity and issues among teams. In the next stage of the Title and Total Compensation Project, there will be continued careful thought about overall compensation, including flexibilities to work remotely.

Due to issues with the new Chemistry Building as well as an issue with ductwork in the old building,  Administration has worked to relocate classes and is exploring options for lab sections. Research spaces are also being looked at.

Provost Scholz discussed his goals for the coming year. The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring is off to a great start, and Vice Provost John Zumbrunnen continues to move that initiative forward. There is also the professional development initiative for diversity, equity, and inclusion that will create a baseline training in these areas for employees, with more localized training to follow. Provost Scholz would like to make more progress on climate and belonging. He also wants to see schools/colleges/divisions continuing to work successfully to create the life-changing opportunities available through this institution. He highlighted Washington Monthly’s recent ranking of UW-Madison as the top public university in the country (and in the top 5 overall).

Guest: Beth Meyerand, Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Affairs

Vice Provost Meyerand has recently had discussions with John Zumbrunnen and Mark Walters earlier this week regarding enactment of accommodations for instructors. She has heard feedback from PROFS in this space as well. There is work happening on maximizing greater uniformity on flexibilities.

Vice Provost Meyerand updated ASEC on the diversity, equity, and inclusion curriculum initiative. Deputy Vice Chancellor Charleston’s office wanted to sample the baseline training that campus will be using, with an eye toward adding videos at the beginning and end to make it more specific to UW-Madison. She will meet with him on September 9 to talk about the results of those discussions, as well as populating the curriculum committee. There was discussion of the notion of including end users as well as curriculum design experts on the committee. ASEC recommended including end users and consulting CTLM for instructional designers.

Motion to Convene in Closed Session Pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to Discuss Appointments to the University Academic Planning Council and the Working Group on Policy and Process Regarding Access to Electronic Files (Stoddard Cameron). Seconded. Approved.

Motion to Reconvene in Open Session (Stoddard Cameron). Seconded. Approved.

Business

·       Appointments

Motion to appoint Nathan Jung and Stephanie Jones to the Working Group on Policy and Process Regarding Access to Electronic Files (Stoddard Cameron). Seconded. Approved.

Leslie Petty was elected as the ASEC appointee to the University Academic Planning Council.

Recessed at 3:49 p.m.

Reconvened at 3:54 p.m.

Business

·       September Assembly Agenda

Motion to approve the September Academic Staff Assembly Agenda (Petty). Seconded. Approved.

·       Shared Governance Letter

ASEC reviewed and approved a revised draft of the letter. Jake will send the letter to the University Committee for its review as well.

·       Topics for Guests

Provost: first week update, enrollment counts, class composition

Dean of Extension: overview of and reflection on the transition to UW-Madison, top-3-5 issues

OHR: TTC, data on remote work agreements, compensation plan, vacation balance issue

Meeting adjourned at 4:24 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff