Approved 5-13-19


Provost Sarah Mangelsdorf called the meeting to order at 3:36 p.m.  

Automatic Consent: The Academic Staff Assembly minutes of Monday, March 11, 2019, were approved.

Recognition of 2018-19 Academic Staff Excellence Award Winners
Steve Catania, member of the Professional Development and Recognition Committee, introduced the 2019 Academic Staff Excellence Award Winners. They are: Kim Lord Plummer, Chancellor’s Hilldale Award for Excellence in Teaching; Abbey K. Thompson, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Service to the University; Michael Westphall, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research: Independent Investigator; Paul McGuire, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research: Critical Research Support; Susan M. Nossal, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Leadership: Individual Unit Level; Karen Mittelstadt, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Leadership: College, School or the Larger University Community Level; Rick A. Strickland, Robert and Carroll Heideman Award for Excellence in Public Service and Outreach; Jeff Stevens, Martha Casey Award for Dedication to Excellence; and Bruno Browning, Ann Wallace Career Achievement Award.  

ASEC Election Results
Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff, announced the election results. Jenny Dahlberg, Stephanie Elkins and Bill Tishler were elected to three-year terms on ASEC. Tim Dalby was elected to a one-year term.  

Guests: Jean Petersen and Mike Ashmore, Ombuds Office (Annual Report)
The Ombuds Office is made up of 5 retired UW faculty and staff with nearly 150 years of collective experience on the UW-Madison campus. The Ombuds Office is a safe office for all UW-Madison employees including graduate students. They listen, explore concerns, and offer resources, options and strategies to address workplace issues. The Standards of Practice for Ombuds include confidentiality, impartiality (advocate for a fair process), informality (not an office to file a formal complaint) and independence (don’t report to anyone).  

For 2018, they served 270 visitors. Academic staff made up the largest percentage of visitors (55%). The biggest concerns of visitors was evaluative relationships followed by peer/colleague relationships. The Ombuds Office has had an increasing number of visitors, tripling over the last four years from 90 to 270). One of the reasons for the increase is outreach (including grad students) and an emphasis of reporting Hostile and Intimidating Behavior (up to 1/3 of visitors). The Ombuds Office encourages employees to see them earlier when more options for addressing problems are available.

Reports
Kevin Niemi provided an update from ASEC. UW Cooperative Extension and Public Media employees will move to UW-Madison on July 1. They are making great progress in ensuring that things are ready for the transition. There are TTC forums that will be held in mid-April. The survey results from Mercer will be ready at the end of April.

Jenny Dahlberg provided the report for ASPRO. Kathi Kilgore provided a state update at the Academic Staff Institute last month. There is a lot of discussion abut what will happen with the state budget. The capital projects were put forward to the State Building Commission. All the projects were voted down by tie votes and did not move forward as recommendations to the Joint Finance Committee.

Sara Nagreen provided the 2017-18 annual report for the Transportation Committee. This last year was year 4 in a 6-year plan to standardize parking lot rates. It was also the fourth year of the accessible shuttle service. Ridership is up on that shuttle, which is partially funded by ASM. The bus pass increased by $12. Future issues for the committee include the master plan, disabled parking policy, annual permitting process, and offsetting the rising costs of all programs.

Business
Resolution Thanking the Faculty Senate for Voting in Favor of Academic Staff Teaching Professor and Research Professor Titles
Deb Shapiro (ASEC) moved that the Academic Staff Assembly approve the resolution. Seconded. Motion approved.

Provost Report
The Provost reported the Teaching Professor and Research Professor titles were approved by the Faculty Senate. There are lots of questions on how to implement the new titles. The Professor of Practice was postponed until the next meeting. There had been an amendment to the Professor of Practice resolution that made it into a title series with progression. The amendment was approved, but making it into a series contradicted other parts of the resolution. This is where the Senate left the resolution.

The accreditation visit went very well. The exit comments from the reviewers were positive. They were very curious about shared governance at UW-Madison.

There will be finalists for the Provost position soon.

In regards to the Extension merger, the proposal for where UW-Extension tenured faculty will go has been more difficult than expected.

Adjourned at 4:28 pm.

Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff