Approved 10-6-22

ASEC Minutes

1:55 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, September 29, 2022

53 Bascom Hall

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

Members Present: Donna Cole, vice chair; Tim Dalby; Alissa Ewer; Stephanie Jones; Albert Muniz; Lindsey Stoddard Cameron

Guests: Felipe Gacharná, Karen Massetti-Moran, Patrick Sheehan, Jana Valeo

The meeting was called to order at 1:57 p.m.

The minutes of September 22 were approved.

Guests: Felipe Gacharná and Jana Valeo, Co-Chairs, Ad Hoc Committee on Academic and University Staff Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The co-chairs and ASEC discussed how the report will be presented to the Assembly. The focus will be on the executive summary and spotlighting the overall recommendations. Mallory will mention the report in her remarks at the October meeting, with the report to be distributed in advance of the November meeting. This will allow more time for review by representatives and more questions at the November presentation. ASEC discussed ways to reconcile the report with the ongoing work with the deans on DEI for staff. The co-chairs emphasized the recommendation on the better data access and tracking where possible. ASEC also discussed sharing the report with several shared governance committees at their joint meeting in January. ASEC asked Jake to share the report with Chief Diversity Officer Charleston and Provost Scholz in advance of their visit to ASEC next week. The ASEC subcommittee on diversity, equity, and inclusion will convene to talk about other next steps with the report in advance of the November meeting.

General Reports

Donna Cole, ASEC Vice Chair, reported on the first UW System reps meeting of the new academic year. Two members of the Board of Regents were present and discussed the political landscape with respect to higher education. UW System Government Relations talked about its outreach to new candidates running for state office.

Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff, reported that the Resource Fair will be held on October 3, and academic staff governance will have a table at the event. Jake reported on the UW System Reps meeting with President Rothman regarding the UW System Strategic Plan, and Jake shared a draft with ASEC for their discussion. Jake also took additional feedback on the draft survey on student free speech. ASEC had questions about how the data will be used, how respondents will be identified, and how questions could be better structured. Jake reported that the Executive Education Grant program call went out, and the deadline for submissions is Monday, October 31.

Liaison Reports

Stephanie Jones reported on the most recent meeting of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences CASI. The CASI discussed issues related to remote work and clarity around the policy. CALS also has a new dean and a new HR director.

Donna Cole reported that the School of Medicine and Public Health CASI met to discuss strategies for increasing diversity on the committee.

Guests: Patrick Sheehan, Interim Chief Human Resources Officer; and Karen Massetti-Moran, Director of Total Rewards, Office of Human Resources

Patrick discussed the talent pathways proposal, which looks at recruitment and diversity as two aspects that underpin the entire life cycle of employment experience. This proposal is intended to expand on the successes of the current job rotation program. There have been phenomenal returns on that program, and it is seen as a good pathway to bring staff members into the university and providing opportunities for recent graduates. The idea is to create a structure with multiple job rotation program managers, as well as looking at talent outreach roles that would work with community partners. Patrick will bring this back to ASEC for more discussion at future meetings.

There has been discussion of deploying a survey on remote work at a campus-wide level. ASEC provided feedback on potential questions and discussed the impact that differing implementation across schools/colleges/divisions has had on academic staff morale. There were also questions related to remote work on the staff climate survey deployed in the spring, and an initial report with those findings is expected in the next couple of months.

OHR has been pushing for paid family leave in partnership with UW System. This has been identified as the most important benefits enhancement to pursue. There are still a number of conversations that need to happen with leadership at both campus and System levels. Looking at data from TTC, most of our peers provide something in this space. The benefits focus right now is for staff and faculty. Graduate students may be looked at a later date.

Regarding TTC titles, OHR needs to define the process of title calibration and what an ongoing title review process will look like. Any titles created at UW-Madison may also impact UW System. When a draft of this process is ready, it will be provided to shared governance for input. Karen reported on the current slate of TTC appeals, with 36 TTC appeals escalated to Step 4, and 21 currently scheduled. There is one appeal that is at the Step 5 stage so far. Communication is coming on promotion/progression. OHR has vetted a process for this with the HR leads and have made edits based on their feedback. The process will illustrate the need for routine review for progression, and it’s necessary to ensure that HR professionals in the schools/colleges/divisions have the information they need to do these reviews. OHR wants to collaborate with schools/colleges/divisions in the broader review of employees for progression/promotion. OHR is also in the process of hiring a career coach for staff at UW-Madison. One existing staff member is relocating to OHR, and another will be hired as soon as possible. OHR is considering all of these areas in tandem as part of a larger-scale titling and compensation strategy.

Business

• October Assembly Meeting Agenda—for vote

Albert volunteered to provide the summary of the Assembly’s business for 2021-22. Motion to approve the October Assembly meeting agenda (Stoddard Cameron). Seconded. Approved.

• November Assembly Meeting Agenda

ASEC reviewed the first draft of the November Assembly agenda. Chancellor Mnookin is scheduled to address the Assembly on that day, and the Ad Hoc DEI Committee will also present its report. ASEC will finalize the agenda on November 3.

• Topics for Guests

Provost: thoughts on the Ad Hoc DEI report

CDO: thoughts on the Ad Hoc DEI report; discussion of chalking incident and communication around that and other hate/bias incidents; update on campus-wide DEI curriculum

VPFSA: Review of professorial title use; HIB working group update; status of mediation proposal

Meeting adjourned at 4:21 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff