ASEC MINUTES
2:00-4:30 Thursday, July 26, 2012
67 Bascom Hall

Members present: Daña Alder, Vice-Chair; Marwa Bassiouni, Denny Hackl, Heather McFadden (by conference call); Jim Maynard, Robert Newsom, Jeff Shokler, Chair; Erin Silva

Members absent: Heather Daniels, Past-Chair

Guests: Deb Brauer, PPPC Co-Chair; Russell Dimond, BIPS Chair; Alice Gustafson, AE/APR; Melissa Amos-Landgraf, PPPC Co-Chair; Brenda Spychalla, Mentoring Co-Chair; Debbie Weber, CNCS Chair       

The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m.

The ASEC minutes for Thursday, July 19, 2012 were approved with minor corrections

Provost Update: Paul DeLuca thanked ASEC members for their active participation in the search and screen process for the Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine. Paul appreciates receiving rankings of candidates with reasons for the rankings.  Paul also reported that he and the Chancellor had a briefing with the Administrative Excellence (AE) team to examine how a review of new ways to budget campus funds can advance quickly. This conversation needs to be out of the box by September 1 with the understanding that full implementation will take many years. The campus is also considering a review of the current tuition policy to move more closely to a per-credit tuition structure, and move away from an emphasis on the semester concept. ASEC inquired about the impact of the Penn State scandal and sanctions on UW Madison. Paul responded that the core problem at Penn State seemed to be that a very small group of people ran the university athletic program with very little communication beyond this small group. This is in contrast to UW Madison where the governance system’s checks and balances provide for open communication and a timely response to issues.

ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE CHAIR REPORTS:

Mentoring Committee: Brenda Spychalla reported that the number of mentor/mentee pairs has more than doubled from 43 in 2011-2012 to 90 in 2012-2013. The committee is using Qualtrics for matching mentors and mentees with common criteria for each member of the pair; however Brenda requested assistance in identifying two mentors who are strong in advising. At their August 8 meeting the committee will launch subcommittees and prepare for the fall kickoff event. Their other priorities for this year are: review data from the 2011-2012 satisfaction survey; grow the resources for participants; make cross campus connections with other mentoring programs; engage with OHRD orientations for new academic staff; improve the criteria used for the Qualtrics survey; and use technology wisely (including keeping a Rhinelander-based committee member involved in the committee). Their long-term goal is for each new academic staff to be matched with a mentor at the point of hire. ASEC asked that the satisfaction survey results be made public.  

GUESTS:  Alice Gustafson and Russell Dimond – Administrative Excellence (AE) and Shared Governance: Administrative Excellence (AE) and Shared Governance: Alice distributed materials to assist in clarifying the language used in the document and to show the phases of AE: identify and prioritize opportunities; stakeholder engagement to refine and develop action plans; and implementation. Alice noted that many of our peers have used companies like Huron and Bain in order that administrative structures do not use the resources needed to support the mission of the university.  Russell Dimond stressed that BIPS wants AE to succeed and feels that AE needs the best data possible to come out with best projects possible. He reiterated the concerns expressed in the document on AE and Shared Governance: in some cases the data is flawed; in others the data is not plausible; in many cases the level of certainty expressed is just not possible; and there is no separation between accounting savings and actual money saved. Alice responded that AE feels they have found sufficient data to address the needs within the constraints presented. Some immediate changes suggested in Russell’s report were: let people do their own analysis and not use the Huron process; work out the support model and rerun the costs for the analysis of email systems; give phase three teams the authority to question and make certain that their mission is to find a solution. ASEC also asked that AE consider whether there should be an outside feedback process as there was for HR design noting a mid level committee that can examine the data objectively could complement the Advisory Committee’s review of the bigger picture. Alice indicated that she disagreed with some of the statements in the report and would welcome the opportunity to meet with Russell to clarify these statements. She also asked ASEC to present recommendations regarding the best strategies for a more inclusive process.  

GUEST: Steve Lund, Academic Personnel Office – Steve presented information on the timeline for the HR Design process. UW System Administration (UWSA) will send their proposal to the other campuses on August 15 in order to provide opportunity for campus governance units to review the proposal. UWSA will include appropriate caveats regarding alignment with the UW Madison plan that will be released in mid-September. UW Madison governance feedback will be needed by November 1 as the Board of Regents would like to review proposals at the November meeting before approving at their December meeting. Steve distributed a chart showing what elements need to be in place by July 1, 2013; should be in place by July 1, 2013; and will not be in place by July 1, 2013.

ASEC discussed the timeline and processes for the Assembly’s response to the UW Madison proposal and decided to use the September 10 meeting to alert the Assembly about anticipated items that will impact ASPP; hold a special meeting on September 24 to discuss the proposal, and vote on an Assembly response to the proposal on October 8. ASEC will also need to consider how to widely engage academic staff in a discussion of this proposal through surveys, a site to collect comments from academic staff and/or information sessions.

Steve also discussed the creation of a lecturer title that is a student assistant title to be used only for   graduate assistants who are asked to be lecturers so that they may retain their benefits.

GENERAL REPORTS

Chair – Jeff Shokler: ASEC members are invited to Olin House on Thursday, November 15 for dinner with the chancellor. Jeff and Jo Ann have met with Communications and Ad Hoc Budget Impact committee chairs to discuss their work and priorities for this year. Jeff is preparing for the planning meeting on August 16 which may emphasize strategizing our work in light of the work on HR design. Jeff will be representing UW academic staff at the Board of Regents’ picnic.

Interim Secretary of the Academic Staff – Jo Ann Carr: In response to an inquiry about the value of using MyWebSpace for documents, ASEC members asked that documents be consistently titled, that full packets be prepared for ASEC members, and that a few hard copies of the agenda and major documents being discussed be available for guests.

BUSINESS

·      HR Design: The proposed resolutions on Transition and Succession and Performance Management were discussed.

·      Convene in Closed Session Pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f)

-  Committee Appointments/Recommendations: Appointed Assembly members were formally approved by ASEC as was the appointment of Erin Silva to the LTE Advisory Committee.

-  Reconvene in Open Session

The meeting was adjourned at 4:30.

Minutes submitted by Jo Ann Carr, Interim Secretary of the Academic Staff.