ASEC MINUTES 
2:00-4:30 p.m. Thursday, February 28, 2013 
67 Bascom

Members Present: Marwa Bassiouni, Heather Daniels, Past-Chair; Heather McFadden, Vice-Chair; Jim Maynard, Robert Newsom, Jeff Shokler, Chair; Erin Silva

Members Absent: Denny Hackel

Guests: Aaron Bird Bear, Steve Lund, Anjali Sridharan, Steve Stern.

The meeting was called to order at 2:02. Heather McFadden made a motion that ASEC re-order the agenda to move business to earlier in the agenda for the remainder of this fiscal year. (Seconded by Robert Newsom. Approved)

The ASEC minutes for Monday, February 21, 2013, were approved as amended.

Business

• Review March 11, 2013 Academic Staff Assembly agenda. ASEC was asked to identify specific Office 365 issues to be addressed by the AE team in preparation for this Assembly discussion.
• Convene in closed session pursuant to Wisconsin Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to consider Nominating Committee slate and committee appointments (Moved by Robert Newsom. Seconded by Jim Maynard.) 
  -   Motion to approve the slate for the Nominating Committee as presented. (Moved by Marwa Bassiouni. Seconded by Robert Newsom. Approved) 
  -   Motion for reconsideration of the motion. (Moved by Heather McFadden. Seconded by Marwa Bassiouni. Approved.) 
  -   Motion to table the review of the Nominating Committee slate until March 21. (Moved by Heather McFadden. Seconded by Marwa Bassiouni. Approved.) 
  -   Motion to approve the nominations for committees as forwarded by the nominating committee. (Moved by Heather McFadden. Seconded by Jim Maynard. Approved.)
• Reconvene in open session. (Moved by Heather McFadden. Seconded by Robert Newsom. Approved.)
• Discussion of academic staff assembly engagement [deferred until March 7]
• Discussion of Chancellor’s Search: Heather Daniels recommended that ASEC members assist in due diligence by contacting colleagues at other universities who have worked with the finalists. The Search and Screen Committee will share collected information at their Friday, March 15 committee with the Board of Regents Special Committee. ASEC members who will participate in meetings with the finalists for Chancellor were also identified.
• Discussion of University Committee response to LLPC: ASEC unanimously supports the recommendation that LLPC become a shared governance committee with all members appointed by governance groups rather than representing specific entities.

Provost Update: The Provost indicated that the impact of sequestration could, if fully implemented, reduce the research budget by 5% as well as impact other extramural support. The Provost indicated he would look into the impact of CourseHero on intellectual property rights. Paul has appointed a committee, chaired by Mark Cook, to review copyright issues. Paul also addressed issues of domain names with the implementation of a new email system.

Guest: Steve Stern, Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty and Staff: Steve reviewed his meetings with campus leadership and Academic Staff Governance since his February 11th meeting with ASEC. He requested ASEC’s assistance in developing a strong strategy to make implementation of a CCF like tool or a supplemental pay plan more successful in the future. He asked ASEC to identify four to six key places and players for targeted education and communication. ASEC suggested that some of the reporting forms used for pay plans or for other targeted personnel decisions be adapted to this new environment. Steve agreed that clarification of reporting requirements, accountability, and transparency are essential elements for future compensation exercises. ASEC reiterated the need to make these exercises as transparent as possible for employees and discussed the potential of removing caps on salary ranges. ASEC also suggested that the information campaign include helping employees understand the scope and intent of the compensation exercise. 

Guest: Steve Lund, Academic Personnel Office: Steve began his remarks by indicating that salary ranges will be part of the discussion as new titles are implemented. He then introduced Anjali Sridharan, the Project Manager for HR Design and reviewed the upcoming priorities for HR Design. Steve asked for a small workgroup to map classified exempt titles to existing academic staff titles or, if no parallel titles exist, to create a new title and new range. ASEC recommended that the new titles not perpetuate the issue of titles that have no prefixes and therefore do not provide salary progression. Steve indicated that budget changes support changes to chapter 36 that include performance as a reason for salary increases and establishes Board of Regents’ (BOR) responsibility for establishing compensation plans. Steve will be bringing more program policies to ASEC prior to BOR in April.

General Reports

• Jeff Shokler, ASEC Chair: The Resource Allocation Committee has not yet been established.
• Jo Ann Carr, Interim Secretary of the Academic Staff: Slates for ASEC and the Standing Committees and plans for the election are being prepared. The nine Excellence Award recipients should be named in the coming week. Jo Ann is reviewing ASPP for information on the election process and Assembly engagement issues.

The meeting adjourned at 4:30.

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