Executive Summary 
Survey of the UW-Madison Academic Staff 
Administered by the Communications Committee of the Academic Staff Assembly 
May-July 2010 

 

From May to July of 2010, the UW-Madison Academic Staff community was surveyed with the primary purpose of obtaining a snapshot of some current themes, trends and issues of the academic staff. A goal of the survey will be to help aid academic staff governance bodies, which include the Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC), the Academic Staff Assembly and its standing committees, with their priorities and initiatives. From a communications standpoint, an outcome of the survey will be to guide an effective and transparent communications process (on the relevant themes and issues) between the academic staff governance bodies and the greater academic staff community.

 

The Communications Committee wishes to thank and acknowledge the following individuals and groups for their time and efforts in making the creation and distribution of the survey possible:

•Bob Ash and Bob Rettammel, communications committee members, for the initial design and creation of the survey. 
•Communications Committee members for editing. 
•Donna Silver, Secretary of the Academic Staff, for administering the survey (through Qualtrics Survey Hosting Service), fielding queries from the academic staff in consultation with Renee Meiller and Greg Iaccarino (co-chairs of the Communications Committee in 2009-2010). 
•The Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) and the Academic Staff Assembly for its endorsement. 
•Academic Staff members that took the time to complete the survey and provide relevant and constructive feedback to aid with the process. 
•Sonya Sedivy, communications committee member, for analyzing and summarizing the results in this report.

 

A final note is that the results of this particular survey can serve as an initial step to help guide academic staff governance with its priorities in the upcoming 2010-2011 academic year and beyond. The Communications Committee is open to suggestions, feedback, and modifications, which can include future surveys to selected portions of the academic staff (e.g., instructional academic staff, research academic staff, etc.). In addition, there can be recommendations to survey Academic Staff Assembly Representatives and Alternates. Feedback on the methodology and process of the survey is welcomed, as well.

 

Highlights from this survey and future directions are outlined below.

Highlights:

•Of the approximately 7,200 Academic Staff whom the survey was sent to via e-mail, 869 (12%) surveys were returned through completion on Qualtrics Survey Hosting Service at UW-Madison. 
•Half of the respondents reported that they knew who their Academic Staff Representative is. 
•Approximately 62% of the Academic Staff receive communication from their representative. Of those who have received communication from their representative, 48% receive it on at least a monthly basis. 
•However, 71% have never contacted their Assembly representative. 
•Most Academic Staff prefer to receive our communications from their Assembly Representative or in the form of a newsletter. 
•Only 40% are aware of the Academic Staff website. 
•The top five concerns of the Academic Staff are: salary, job security, merit salary increases, furlough days, and leave. 
•Performance reviews and awards/recognition were viewed as two of the least important concerns of the Academic Staff. It is unclear if the Academic Staff actually view these issues as unimportant or if there needs to be a more effective and transparent communications flow about opportunities for recognition (e.g. awards, etc.). In addition, there may be an opportunity to better communicate the importance of performance reviews and how they can be beneficial when it comes to merit reviews and salary considerations. 
•More detailed results are described later in this report.