Approved 11-11-24

ACADEMIC STAFF ASSEMBLY MEETING MINUTES

272 Bascom Hall

Monday, October 14, 2024

3:30 to 5:00 p.m.

Provost Charles Isbell called the meeting to order at 3:33 p.m.

Guest: David Murphy, Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance (Budget 101)

Associate Vice Chancellor Murphy provided a high-level overview of the UW-Madison budget. Fund 101 is a major piece of the university’s unrestricted revenue and is used to support academic and administrative units.

The major institutional revenue sources are federal grants; auxiliaries and other recipients; tuition; gifts and non-federal grants; and state appropriations. Murphy provided a breakdown of the fiscal year 2024 revenue budget, which totaled $4.5 billion. Federal grants were our largest source of revenue (22%).

In 1974, over 40% of revenue came from state support. Today, state support makes up about 10% of our revenue budget. We’ve made up for this loss through philanthropy and increased tuition and fees.

Over the last several years, our expense budget has been growing at an average annual rate of 6.6%.

Guest: Rob Cramer, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration (Budget Approach Update)

Vice Chancellor Cramer provided an update on the budget approach model. The draft budget approach is an activity-based model, which assigns some of the monies to activities but also has a strong central function. Benefits of the draft approach include maintaining the fiscal health of the institution; providing greater transparency and predictability; and continuing to emphasize and find ways to reward collaboration, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Vice Chancellor Cramer and the provost developed the draft approach and shared it with several task forces. Three of the task forces have provided feedback, which was discussed with the coordinating committee as well as deans and other audiences. Vice Chancellor Cramer and the provost are starting to pull together final decisions for the draft approach and will be taking their recommendations to the chancellor.

A budget approach website was launched and will continue to be updated. Workday will go-live on July 1, 2025. Because of that, the budget approach implementation has been delayed to July 1, 2026. This will give an additional year to practice what the new approach will look like.

Automatic Consent Business

The Academic Staff Assembly minutes of Monday, September 9, 2024, were approved.

Reports

ASEC Chair Albert Muniz presented the ASEC report. Mentor Match Program participants will be notified of matches by October 18. The Professional Development Grant Program and the Executive Education Grant Program are currently accepting applications. The Diversity Forum is coming up on November 13-14. Albert encouraged staff to complete the Committee Interest Survey if they are interested in participating in governance. ASEC is using a subcommittee model this year. At their annual planning retreat, three broad subcommittee themes were established: professional development; morale and climate; and engagement and outreach.

Academic Staff Professionals Representation Organization (ASPRO) Board President Jenny Dahlberg presented the ASPRO report. ASPRO will host a lunch-hour Zoom meeting on October 22 focused on past voting information and the upcoming election.

Provost Report

Provost Isbell highlighted the BadgersVote effort and encouraged attendees to reference the BadgersVote 2024 communications toolkit.

There are many ongoing administrative searches. Finalists for the dean of the School of Medicine and Public Health will be on campus next month. Airport interviews will be conducted in December for the dean of the College of Engineering, with on-campus finalist visits in January. The chief information officer search is underway. The vice provost for faculty and staff affairs search is nearing completion.

UW-Madison enrolled 8,156 new first-year students this year. This is the second largest freshmen class in our history. There were also 1,375 new transfer students enrolled. The number of underrepresented students declined.

Three Research, Innovation and Scholarly Excellence (RISE) initiatives have been announced: RISE-AI (Artificial Intelligence), RISE-EARTH (Environment: Adaptation, Resilience, Technology, and Humanity), and RISE-THRIVE (Transforming Healthspan through Research, InnoVation, and Education). The first RISE faculty hires have been made. The inaugural RISE summit was held on September 20.

Meeting adjourned at 4:56 pm.

Minutes submitted by Lesley Fisher, Deputy Secretary of the Academic Staff