ASEC MINUTES 
2:00-4:30, Thursday, December 6, 2012
Bascom Hall, Room 67

Members Present: Daña Alder, Vice-Chair; Marwa Bassiouni, Heather Daniels, Past-Chair; Denny Hackel, Heather McFadden, Jeff Shokler, Chair; Erin Silva.

Members Absent: Jim Maynard, Robert Newsom.

Guests: Jenny Dahlberg, Compensation and Economic Benefits Committee (CEBC); Russell Dimond, Ad Hoc Committee on Budget Issues, Policies, and Strategies (BIPS); Steve Stern, Associate Vice Chancellor.

The meeting was called to order at 2:03 p.m.

The minutes for the ASEC meeting on Thursday, November 29, 2012, were approved.

ANNOUNCEMENTS/Good Works: 
ASEC congratulated Daniel Harton, Senior Scientist in the Department of Physics, who has been named a fellow of the American Physical Society.

General Reports: 
Chair: Jeff Shokler: ASEC members should complete the Qualtrics survey if they are interested in serving on the Diversity Ad Hoc Committee. The Academic Staff Assembly (ASA) resolution on the HR design has been sent to the Board of Regents (BOR). 

Interim Secretary of the Academic Staff: Jo Ann Carr: Andrea Poehling has been named Secretary of the Faculty. ASEC members are encouraged to attend the CASI/ASEC meeting on December 11, 2012, from 11:30-1:00 p.m. in the Pyle South Dining Room. PDRC has received 87 proposals for professional development grants. Ten academic staff members have already completed the Qualtrics survey for the Diversity Ad Hoc Committee. 

Administrative Excellence: Heather McFadden: Today’s meeting was adjourned early due to lack of attendance. 

U.W. System Academic Staff Representatives: Heather Daniels reported that UW Oshkosh suspended new rolling horizon appointments in 2004 and terminated all the existing ones last Thursday morning. The U.W. System Administration (UWSA) will ask for the flexibility to have the BOR approve pay plans.

Assembly Standing Committee Chair Reports: No reports.

Guest: Steve Stern, Associate Vice Chancellor: Steve anticipates receipt of the raw data on Critical Compensation Fund (CCF) in the next week. Russell Dimond shared the plans for evaluation of the CCF with a kick-off meeting on Wednesday, December 19, 2012. ASEC inquired about the impact of the flat funding from the Madison Initiative for Undergraduate (MIU) on salary adjustments within MIU funded programs. Steve responded that this same issue has been addressed with the cluster hire funding. Philosophically there is a commitment to equity and to not creating a situation in which some classes of employees get raises and other classes do not. 

Steve noted that this week marks a big milestone for HR as all governance groups have officially begun this journey in which there is much work yet to be done. In response to Steve’s inquiry about the status of the flu vaccine issue, ASEC responded that, although not fully resolved for this year, they would work toward a more nuanced policy in 2013. ASEC also inquired about strategies for demonstrating ways in which governance is working and for communicating with deans about the role of Academic Staff Governance.

Steve reported that the data integrity failure is being resolved and the campus is making headway in race ethnicity identification. 

ASEC updated Steve on the status of the UW System code of conduct. The UW System Administration (UWSA) has indicated that this code would apply only to UW System, but there is interest from some at UWSA in having a code of conduct that applies to all employees. 

Steve also indicated he wanted to work with ASEC and governance in looking at human sustainability issues during this time of high stress. ASEC noted that unevenness in the respectful treatment of staff and the lack of job security impact human sustainability. Steve noted that the innovation in EI is not only reinventing how we teach but also looking at how we can provide more support for faculty to work more effectively. Daña thanked Steve for his support of academic staff during her time on campus.

Business:

• Discussion of assembly engagement: ASEC discussed ways in which to evaluate and increase engagement of the Assembly representatives in academic staff governance as well as communication with academic staff as a whole. Jeff posed these questions: What should academic staff governance look like in times of great stress? What does the ASA need to look like three years from now?
• Statement on academic staff for Chancellor’s search committee (Deferred)
• Decision regarding December 10 and December 27 ASEC Meetings-Cancelled.
• Decision regarding January 14 ASA meeting-ASEC will present a motion to ASA to cancel this meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:44: p.m. 

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