Topics Map > Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) > 2014-2015 > 04. October
Academic Staff Executive Committee Minutes 10-09-14
Approved 10-23-14
Members Present: Marwa Bassiouni; Bruno Browning; Denny Hackel; Trish Iaccarino; Heather McFadden, Chair; Kevin Niemi, Vice-Chair; Robert Newsom
Guests: John Biondi, Alice Gustafson, Carl Hampton, Kevin Helmkamp, John Lucas, Patrick Sims, Jake Smith, Laura Van Toll
The meeting was called to order at 2:01 p.m.
The minutes of October 2, 2014, were approved with no changes.
Guest: John Biondi, Director D2P (Discovery to Product)
John Biondi introduced himself to ASEC and provided an overview of the D2P initiative, which commercializes innovations that come from campus, and discussed demographic information from the initiative (projects by school/college, technology, faculty/staff/student participation, etc.). He mentioned that D2P had received a $2.4 million grant, which has allowed D2P to refocus its mission, working with 15 projects out of 170 proposals (plus 44 incorporated projects) to develop business models for them.
ASEC raised concerns regarding lower numbers of academic staff applications and asked about the outreach process. John committed to looking at this for the next recruitment drive (including making sure language was inclusive of staff) and providing ASEC with a breakdown of participation of academic staff by school/college/division. John then discussed the future of D2P, discussing creating a stream of funding, along with other sources of money for using campus as an incubator for these projects. There was also discussion of the composition of the board, with a desire from ASEC to see greater diversity on the board.
General Reports
John and Alice presented the results of the internal communication team and recommendations for improvement. The main recommendation is a greater commitment to internal communications, with the notion of a statement on communications and transparency similar to the recent campus-wide shared governance letter. They are also thinking about ways to ensure equal access to information for people across employee classification. Another recommendation revolved around shared responsibility around information, with central admin making it available and accessible, and an expectation of employees that they will inform themselves and be an active partner in decisions on campus. Other recommendations include a central info hub, working with DoIT to make the news section of the portal more robust, removing costs around mass e-mail, standards around campus communications and lists. John and Alice are setting up workgroups around each of the recommendations. Heather Daniels will be working on campus commitment workgroup. ASEC additionally mentioned that they want to ensure staff are mentioned in both internal and external communications along with faculty and students.
Guest: Kevin Helmkamp, Dean of Students Office
Kevin Helmkamp came to address issues discussed by ASEC in a previous meeting. ASEC had raised concerns about accessibility and code with respect to the women’s bathroom on the ground floor of Bascom being closed after 4:30 on weekdays. He explained that Room 70 is locked for security reasons, but he will inquire about possible code issues.
He also addressed the recent remodeling in the Dean of Students Office, explaining that the reception area had been lacking and needed to be improved in response to students and families. The funding for the remodel is reflective of a directed reserve drawdown. Kevin also re-articulated the role of the Dean of Students Office and their many duties throughout the calendar year, working with students across all aspects of their lives at the university.
Business
Reconvened in Open Session (Moved. Seconded. Approved.)
Motion to appoint Nichole Boyd to the Access and Accommodation in Instruction Committee (Moved. Seconded. Approved.)
Guest: Patrick Sims, Interim Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate
The Chancellor tasked Patrick with developing a diversity implementation plan within the next 6-12 months. The focus is on the framework document, where 30 recommendations were narrowed to 14 representative recommendations. Six committees have been identified to respond to the goals. CDCC will respond to the remaining 16 recommendations. ASEC inquired as to how the committees would be constituted. Patrick will be reaching out to us for names. The committees will be comprised of 8-10 people. ASEC indicated that it would send out a Qualtrics survey with the goals framing the charge of each committee to determine possible candidates. March 1 is the speculated completion date for the committees’ work. Patrick will be sending documents to ASEC by end of day Friday, and is looking at a target date of early November for initial committee meetings.
Meeting adjourned at 4:49 p.m.
Minutes submitted by Jake Smith, Deputy Secretary of the Academic Staff
ASEC Minutes
2:00 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, October 9, 2014
67 Bascom Hall
2:00 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, October 9, 2014
67 Bascom Hall
Members Present: Marwa Bassiouni; Bruno Browning; Denny Hackel; Trish Iaccarino; Heather McFadden, Chair; Kevin Niemi, Vice-Chair; Robert Newsom
Guests: John Biondi, Alice Gustafson, Carl Hampton, Kevin Helmkamp, John Lucas, Patrick Sims, Jake Smith, Laura Van Toll
The meeting was called to order at 2:01 p.m.
The minutes of October 2, 2014, were approved with no changes.
Guest: John Biondi, Director D2P (Discovery to Product)
John Biondi introduced himself to ASEC and provided an overview of the D2P initiative, which commercializes innovations that come from campus, and discussed demographic information from the initiative (projects by school/college, technology, faculty/staff/student participation, etc.). He mentioned that D2P had received a $2.4 million grant, which has allowed D2P to refocus its mission, working with 15 projects out of 170 proposals (plus 44 incorporated projects) to develop business models for them.
ASEC raised concerns regarding lower numbers of academic staff applications and asked about the outreach process. John committed to looking at this for the next recruitment drive (including making sure language was inclusive of staff) and providing ASEC with a breakdown of participation of academic staff by school/college/division. John then discussed the future of D2P, discussing creating a stream of funding, along with other sources of money for using campus as an incubator for these projects. There was also discussion of the composition of the board, with a desire from ASEC to see greater diversity on the board.
General Reports
- Chair Heather McFadden discussed requests for slates of candidates and informed ASEC that she and CSEC Chair Russell Kutz will be meeting with Becci Menghini, Carole Kolb, and Eden Inoway-Ronnie to discuss needs of the governance groups going forward. Along these lines, the soonest that names will be considered for the VCRGE Search and Screen Committee will be the October 30 meeting. She also brought up the success of the shared governance reception as well as the shared governance letter, which was praised for its clarity and strength in communication. There was discussion of an ASEC highlights document for Assembly, which ASEC suggested using the existing draft and making format changes based on Assembly response. Heather M. informed ASEC that the Faculty Compensation Commission is looking at parental leave policies. Amy Wendt asked if ASEC could recommend contact from HR Design benefits team, and this will also be sent to the CEBC for an academic staff rep. Heather M. discussed the letter from grad school regarding the Dean of the Graduate School Search and Screen Committee. ASEC decided to draft a response, with further discussion to occur on Monday, October 13.
- Deputy Secretary of the Academic Staff Jake Smith reported that Heather Daniels had spoken to legal regarding voting processes, and clarified that while discussion of personnel matters is acceptable during closed session, voting should occur in open session going forward. He asked the committee if the Secretary’s office should schedule a follow-up visit from Vice Chancellor Bazzell regarding the new budget model; the committee did not need one at present. There was also discussion of the benefits fair, about which there was general agreement that it was worthwhile to have continued ASEC presence there.
- Librarians Assembly: Trish Iaccarino reported that there were discussions around the budget exercise and peer comparisons in the last meeting. There were also concerns raised over communication issues which have since been resolved.
John and Alice presented the results of the internal communication team and recommendations for improvement. The main recommendation is a greater commitment to internal communications, with the notion of a statement on communications and transparency similar to the recent campus-wide shared governance letter. They are also thinking about ways to ensure equal access to information for people across employee classification. Another recommendation revolved around shared responsibility around information, with central admin making it available and accessible, and an expectation of employees that they will inform themselves and be an active partner in decisions on campus. Other recommendations include a central info hub, working with DoIT to make the news section of the portal more robust, removing costs around mass e-mail, standards around campus communications and lists. John and Alice are setting up workgroups around each of the recommendations. Heather Daniels will be working on campus commitment workgroup. ASEC additionally mentioned that they want to ensure staff are mentioned in both internal and external communications along with faculty and students.
Guest: Kevin Helmkamp, Dean of Students Office
Kevin Helmkamp came to address issues discussed by ASEC in a previous meeting. ASEC had raised concerns about accessibility and code with respect to the women’s bathroom on the ground floor of Bascom being closed after 4:30 on weekdays. He explained that Room 70 is locked for security reasons, but he will inquire about possible code issues.
He also addressed the recent remodeling in the Dean of Students Office, explaining that the reception area had been lacking and needed to be improved in response to students and families. The funding for the remodel is reflective of a directed reserve drawdown. Kevin also re-articulated the role of the Dean of Students Office and their many duties throughout the calendar year, working with students across all aspects of their lives at the university.
Business
- Process for appointments to Campus Planning
- ASEC discussed whether the rep to the CPC should be from ASEC or via a call through the Nominating Committee. ASEC agreed that the rep should be someone who has a broad understanding of and perspective on academic staff. Laura Van Toll will discuss this issue with the Nominating Committee at its next meeting, but in the meantime, it will be pulled from the survey until the process is clarified.
- Hostile and intimidating behavior legislation
- The legislation was discussed in the Faculty Senate and will come for a vote in November. The language for academic staff parallels the faculty’s, but the new part is Part II, which articulates both formal and informal processes for resolution. The legislation will come back to the next ASEC meeting to discuss further.
- November Assembly Agenda
- Moved forward to next meeting
- Next ASEC Meeting, October 23, 2014 – for decision
- November Assembly Agenda
- Hostile and intimidating behavior legislation
- Guests: Sarah Mangelsdorf, Vince Sweeney
Reconvened in Open Session (Moved. Seconded. Approved.)
Motion to appoint Nichole Boyd to the Access and Accommodation in Instruction Committee (Moved. Seconded. Approved.)
Guest: Patrick Sims, Interim Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate
The Chancellor tasked Patrick with developing a diversity implementation plan within the next 6-12 months. The focus is on the framework document, where 30 recommendations were narrowed to 14 representative recommendations. Six committees have been identified to respond to the goals. CDCC will respond to the remaining 16 recommendations. ASEC inquired as to how the committees would be constituted. Patrick will be reaching out to us for names. The committees will be comprised of 8-10 people. ASEC indicated that it would send out a Qualtrics survey with the goals framing the charge of each committee to determine possible candidates. March 1 is the speculated completion date for the committees’ work. Patrick will be sending documents to ASEC by end of day Friday, and is looking at a target date of early November for initial committee meetings.
Meeting adjourned at 4:49 p.m.
Minutes submitted by Jake Smith, Deputy Secretary of the Academic Staff