Approved 10-30-25

ASEC Minutes

 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. Thursday, October 23, 2025

https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/97722653207?pwd=QfVbSx9nmGFEsxW6rvqFffNw3Josn5.1

Members Present:  Aaron Crandall, Richard Barajas, Hanna Blazel, Alissa Ewer (chair), Albert Muniz, Terry Paape, Nicole Senter, Diane Stojanovich, Nola Walker

Guests: Emily Beach, Rob Cramer, Lucien Gerondeau, Patrick Sheehan, Scott Wildman, John Zumbrunnen

The meeting was called to order at 1:02 p.m.

The minutes of October 9 were approved.

General Reports

ASEC Chair Alissa Ewer shared updates from the Budget Approach Coordinating Committee meeting. Campus has a robust website on the budget approach (finadmin.wisc.edu/budgetapproach/). Several task forces are working on different parts of the budget approach. At the next meeting, the committee will hear from Dean of Extension Karl Martin, who leads the Wisconsin Idea Task Force, to provide an update on their work. ASEC Chair Ewer met with other shared governance chairs. The Associated Students of Madison’s (ASM) Justice, Equity and Belonging Committee (JEB) statement was discussed. JEB is meeting biweekly, and no activities are underway at this time. Academic staff governance representatives met with leadership to discuss LinkUW. Phase 1 of LinkUW will roll out in early November. Campus communication is anticipated following the rollout. ASEC Chair Ewer sent a message to all academic staff regarding the ACT 15 instructional workload requirement.

Secretary of the Academic Staff Mallory Musolf reported that the Committee on Academic Staff Issues (CASI) Fall Meeting is scheduled for December 3. Finalists for the Associate Vice Chancellor and Executive Director of the Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub position will give public presentations in late October and early November.

Liaison Reports

Nicole Senter reported that the Compensation and Economic Benefits Committee (CEBC) is working on updating a document on the campus layoff process. CEBC asked ASEC to elevate a question about furloughs to the chancellor at the October 30 ASEC meeting.

Albert Muniz reported that the College of Letters and Science CASI brainstormed priorities for the future. The CASI remarked positively about the work of ASEC and Assembly Representatives to communicate issues to staff and would like to do something similar. Dean Eric Wilcots suggested the possibility of town halls.

Diane Stojanovich reported that the University Academic Planning Council discussed the reorganization of existing units into a prospective school for computer, data, and information sciences. Relating to ACT 15, they also discussed the Universities of Wisconsin implementation of transfer of core general education requirements.

Hanna Blazel reported that the Extension CASI discussed federal and county funding impacts. They also discussed the referral priority program and the possibility of expanding it to the other campuses within the Universities of Wisconsin. Extension received approval from OHR to establish titles that are more relevant to their work that do not exist in the current Title and Standard Job Description Library. They formed a titling committee to work on this effort.

Guest: John Zumbrunnen, Interim Provost

The Universities of Wisconsin Administration continues to work on the draft Regents policy addressing the instructional workload requirement. The draft policy will likely come out next week. The draft policy will work at a high level and will be more general in nature.

Guest: Rob Cramer, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration (VCFA)

It is week four of the federal government shutdown. Federal funds provide the largest share of the campus budget. Campus continues to monitor the budget situation and related impacts. Campus-wide furloughs are best suited for short-term and understood fiscal challenges as opposed to a long-term solution or one to address uncertain matters.

Progress is being made to address the backlog of expense reimbursements in Workday. The estimated processing time for new expense reimbursements is down to 15 days. The goal is to bring that to 8-10 business days. Reporting in Workday is an identified pain point. Campus is thinking through short-term and long-term solutions to be responsive to reporting needs.

Guest: Patrick Sheehan, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), Office of Human Resources

Benefits Open Enrollment is available through October 31. My Insurance Benefits (MIBs), the Employee Trust Funds (ETF) administered system, is a new tool employees will use to enroll in, change, or review their insurance benefits. CHRO Sheehan encouraged employees to use their personal email address when signing up for a MIBs account. He is aware of issues with the new system including concerns with ID verification and the absence of a benefits summary after completing enrollment. The OHR benefits team is available to support employees during open enrollment. Employees can also seek support by visiting the OHR benefits webpage: hr.wisc.edu/benefits/.

Tuition remission benefits are a valuable recruitment and retention tool. Implementation of this benefit would require partnership with the Universities of Wisconsin. CHRO Sheehan is interested in continuing discussion of this topic with academic staff governance, including workable tuition remission models given our current environment.

Convene in Closed Session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to discuss appointments to the Ad Hoc Academic Freedom Committee (Paape). Seconded. Approved.

Motion to Reconvene in Open Session (Paape). Seconded. Approved.

Business

• Appointments – for vote

Motion to appoint Shannon Casey and Shawn Peters to the Ad Hoc Academic Freedom Committee (Paape). Seconded. Approved.

• November Assembly Agenda

ASEC reviewed the November Assembly agenda. Vice Chancellor for University Relations Craig Thompson will give an update on state and federal government relations.

• Topics for guests

Chancellor: Federal grant update; furloughs; Wisconsin Exchange; strategic visioning process; ACT 15

• ASEC subcommittees update

The subcommittee on amplifying shared governance compiled models of shared governance at Big Ten institutions and the other Universities of Wisconsin campuses for ASEC to review. For next steps, the subcommittee will focus on having a more robust engagement with the shared governance groups on campus. The subcommittee on reskilling opportunities for academic staff anticipating layoff status contacted OHR about their career management series. The series is well received and will continue. Due to bandwidth issues, it will not be available in the spring.

Meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Mallory Musolf, secretary of the academic staff