Approved 03-31-22

ASEC Minutes

1:55 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 24, 2022

53 Bascom Hall

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

Members Present: Donna Cole; Jenny Dahlberg; Tim Dalby, chair; Stephanie Elkins; Mallory Musolf; Lindsey Stoddard Cameron; Bill Tishler

Guests: Jessica Beckendorf, Elizabeth Covington, Rob Cramer, Lesley Fisher, Kevin Graeme, John Horn, Karl Scholz, Patrick Sheehan, Jennifer Tishler, Joanna Wang, Scott Wildman

The meeting was called to order at 1:56 p.m.

The minutes of March 10 were approved.

Guest: Karl Scholz, Provost

UW-Madison lifted it mask requirements as of March 12. There was some anxiety around this change, but we have also seen the lowest case counts on campus since the start of the pandemic. Provost Scholz discussed this issue with Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning John Zumbrunnen, and there have not been any reports of issues in classrooms thus far. There have been some requests from instructors for their classes to wear masks, and they are seeing good compliance with those requests. Testing resources will continue to be available through the end of the semester.

Regarding issues around hostile and intimidating behavior, the hope is attempts at informal resolution will be successful. If not, a formal process can be pursued, with an investigation conducted within the particular school/college/division. The investigation would return findings as to whether the behavior rises to the level of HIB, with various considerations for next steps based on employee category. As an institution, we are always looking for ways to improve. Bystander intervention training is an important piece of this, and there will be a climate survey for all academic and university staff going out on April 12, which should provide additional useful information. There were also discussions of the possibility of mediation services, as well as a more unified policy around HIB.

Regarding the events in Ukraine, statements have been issued from various centers on campus, and there has also been direct outreach to members of the community where possible.

Guest: Patrick Sheehan, Interim Chief Human Resources Officer

Training on how progression works post-TTC is starting with the HR community through a series of learning events, the first round of which is coming to a close. After this, resources and more centralized support will be provided to supervisors/managers. The change management around this is significant, since TTC has changed the way we look at progression and promotion. We want to make sure that units aren’t rolling out training prematurely, but rather to ensure as much consistency as possible via a train-the-trainer model. ASEC expressed concern about ensuring consistency in progression/promotion when there have been examples of inconsistent application of titles reported. It is important to decrease the amount of jumping between jobs in schools/colleges/divisions, which creates additional issues in cost and institutional knowledge gaps. OHR shares these concerns and is looking at a macro-level approach to look at any areas where potential mistitling might have occurred. With regard to future initiatives related to benefits, ASEC also emphasized the need to be mindful of colleagues in Extension and those who are working remotely.

ASEC expressed concerns regarding ageism within academic staff, specifically those individuals who are between mid-career and retirement. There is the notion of individuals being forgotten for things like professional development, with the thought being that they might not need it based on where they are at in their career. From an OHR perspective, there are many reasons to address this beyond the more fundamental issues. This is also an area for future supervisory training.

There are continuing conversations occurring on the remote work policy within senior leadership. Concerns remain around equity, as well as financial and non-financial impacts to employees who are working on campus (e.g. parking, caregiving). Patrick has been discussing this issue with peers at other institutions on a regular basis. There are also conversations with respect to facilities, specifically open floor plans vs. enclosed office spaces.

Guest: Rob Cramer, Interim Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration

Interim Vice Chancellor Cramer introduced Joanna Wang, the new ATP Chief Technology Officer and Program Executive. She will be providing leadership to the ATP team across all of the institutions, with 24 major functional areas in HR, finance, and research. The contract with Workday was signed last year, and the ATP kickoff planning phase began in January of this year. We are doing well from a planning perspective, though there are some resource challenges. The design phase should take 8-9 months, with testing and training phases taking place in 2023 and deployment after users are fully trained.

On the question of the role of the newly formed Office of Administrative Innovation and Planning, ATP has to work at UW-Madison, and we want to ensure that individuals are engaging in the right places at the right time. To some extent, the work of this office is picking up from the ATOM Project (Administrative Transformation Operating Model). Nick Tincher is leading this office and will be looking at a number of models for organization of services. We also want to be sure that communication and change management are pushed to campus strategically. The second aspect within the administrative area is to have more intentional continuous improvement activity, and there is work to build out a small group to determine how we can improve end user experience with our processes. The third aspect is strategic planning on where processes need to be several years from now. It will be important to help units engage in conversation around the many systems that we have and to assess the scope of those systems to determine whether Workday can replace them or not. SIS will be in scope at some point but isn’t right now, because the cloud-based systems aren’t ready. Regarding shared governance involvement, we need to ensure that the right voices are in the room and that governance is apprised of progress. The strategy will be to use existing communication channels that work well as opposed to creating new ones. ASEC also emphasized the need to have governance involvement earlier in the planning and design phases.

General Reports

Tim Dalby, ASEC Chair, reported on the recent meeting of a group of deans and ASEC members in an ongoing discussion about diversity, equity, and inclusion for staff. Patrick Sheehan was also in attendance to provide his perspective around a number of areas that the group is looking at. Applications for the Chancellor posting closed on March 11, and the number of finalists should be available the week of April 26. Tim, Mallory, Jake, and Lesley met with Patrick for their monthly meeting. Topics included greater diversity in recruitment, the job rotation program, improved marketing and communications within OHR, and exploration of tuition benefits for faculty and staff. Tim attended the Letters and Science CASI meeting. Discussion focused on remote work agreements and pay equity issues within the advising job group.

Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff, reported that OHR sent a message to members of the IT job group informing them that the review of titles and salary grades under the IT job group has been completed, with the necessary changes communicated. The Faculty Senate has been working on standardization of membership for shared governance committees in Faculty Policies and Procedures. As a result, term lengths for some committees have been extended to four years instead of three. The SOAS Office has communicated these changes to impacted committee members. On the topic of administrative searches, ASEC will have future discussions about questions for upcoming sessions with chancellor, VCFA, and CALS dean finalists.

Liaison Reports

Donna Cole reported that the Engineering CASI heard from the new DEI director in Engineering, Chris Castro. David Noyes has also been liaising with the CASI.

Jenny Dahlberg reported that the CALS CASI is continuing to work on its internal review. They are also monitoring concerns from the advising community related to TTC. The Vet Med CASI has approved its new website for publication. Jenny also updated them on legislative action that was covered in the ASPRO report at the last Academic Staff Assembly meeting.

Stephanie Elkins reported on the WPM CASI meeting. A working group on TTC is getting underway to look at where staff are in terms of quartiles. Work is also continuing on review of the ethics guidelines for the division.

Lindsey Stoddard Cameron met with the Nominating Committee to have a discussion related to the DEI subcommittee of ASEC. There will be a follow-up meeting with the SOAS Office to discuss outreach strategies, communications, and greater diversity in committee representation.

Motion to Convene in Closed Session Pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to Discuss Appointment to the University Research Council (Stoddard Cameron). Seconded. Approved.

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

Business

·       Appointment and Nominations – for vote

Motion to appoint Alfonso Del Rio (Dalby). Seconded. Approved.

·       April Assembly Meeting Agenda

ASEC reviewed a first draft of the agenda for the April Assembly meeting. Patrick Sheehan and Karen Massetti-Moran have agreed to give a presentation and take questions. The agenda will be voted on at the March 31 meeting.

·       Topics for Guests

CDO – pick up threads on ASA presentation (concrete examples of how issues bear out), transition/new hires in the division, DEI education, degree to which s/c/d’s consult with his office and how formal that process is

VCRGE – remote work philosophy, RSP staffing, how he’s thinking about ATP with relation to the research enterprise

Meeting adjourned at 4:45 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff