Topics Map > Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) > 2014-2015 > 11. May
Academic Staff Executive Committee Minutes 05-21-15
ASEC Minutes
2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Thursday, May 21, 2015
67 Bascom Hall
Members Present: Marwa Bassiouni; Bruno Browning, Trish Iaccarino; Sarah Kuba; Heather McFadden, Chair; Michael Moscicke; Robert Newsom; Deb Shapiro
Guests: Darrell Bazzell, Martha Kerner, Dan Langer, Patrick Sheehan, Laura Van Toll, Mark Walters
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m.
The minutes of May 7, 2015, were approved with no changes.
General Reports
- ASEC Chair Heather McFadden reported the University Committee voted on a new chair Monday. It will be Beth Meyerand. They are not planning to meet very often this summer.
- Secretary of the Academic Staff Heather Daniels reported that 518 Assembly Reps/Alts and ASEC members attended the Assembly meetings during the academic year that just ended. This is the most attendees by about 30 since records have been kept starting in 2011. Also 481 emails have been sent to Assembly districts from Assembly Reps/Alts. This is far above last year when 306 emails were sent. She attended a pilot workshop on SMART goals. She will be working with OHRD to conduct another pilot with research and instructional academic staff. Lastly, Bill Tishler has asked ASEC to open part or all of the annual planning meeting to Academic Staff Assembly Representatives.
365 Degree Review Committee-Bruno Browning
Bruno reported that Grant Petty has prepared a draft report that will be presented to the University Committee.
Faculty Supervision-Bruno Browning
The next meeting of this committee will happen soon. A survey was sent out to PIs and department chairs. The committee will review the survey results.
Guests: Patrick Sheehan and Mark Walters, Office of Human Resources
ASEC was given information regarding the number of positions in each school/college/division that will be eliminated due to budget cuts. These numbers were collected from a survey. The document reflects eliminations during the next two years. The numbers are a moving target and will change depending on circumstances within each unit. The Office of Human Resources is working with school/college/division human resource representatives on layoffs. Approximately 16 of the 31 academic staff layoffs have been processed.
Guests: Martha Kerner and Dan Langer, Office of Business Services
UW System is now exempt from the state travel guidelines. They are now able to create their own travel policies. There are three changes that have been proposed: adjustments to reimbursement rates for meals, adjustments to reimbursement rates for lodging, and adjustments to the campus travel policy to comply with the IRS accountable plan rules.
The rates for meals that are being proposed are the federal government rates. These will be a per diem rather than a meal by meal rate.
The rates for out of state lodging will not change. The lodging rates for in state may change slightly. The current exceptions to the maximum rate will still apply. UW System is also planning to negotiate special rates with some national hotel chains.
In order to be considered an IRS accountable plan, the purpose of the travel and receipts must be submitted and substantiated within a reasonable time period. If it is not an accountable plan, then reimbursements could be taxed. UW-Madison’s peers have requirements of reimbursement from 60-120 days after travel and then a putative policy if reimbursements are not done within that time period. The proposal from UW System would be to require reimbursement submission within 90 days of the end of travel. Late expenses submitted for reimbursement would not be reimbursed.
Business
- CASI Interest Survey Results
- ASEC looked at the results of the survey. There was consensus that it might worth trying to work with a couple of divisions individually to establish new CASIs. ASEC will consider how best to do this and revisit this issue in a few weeks.
- Provost Topics
- ASEC would like to discuss the Category A Maxima resolution, update on the budget and shared governance in Chapter 36.
- FPP Chapter 6 Proposed Changes
- This draft was discussed at the Faculty Senate meeting in May. ASEC discussed what to do with this draft. There were many suggestions, but no consensus. ASEC will revisit this issue next week.
- Next ASEC Meeting, May 28, 2015 – for decision
- Finish discussion on Chapter 6 FPP
- Priorities Survey Results
- Guests: Sarah Mangelsdorf, Provost
Reconvened in Open Session (Moved. Seconded. Approved.)
Motion to approve the appointment of Academic Staff Assembly Representatives Benjamin Duval, Melissa Behr, Yvette Egan, Sarah Jedd, Scott Troyan, Christine McWilliams, Denise Smith, Ross Treddinick, Susan Wielgus, John Bogdanske, Jenny Dahlberg, Christopher Harrison, Shannon DiMarco, Sandra Black, Mindy Kendrick, Carmen Hotvedt, Peter Mann, Caitlin Tefft, Sir Williams, Tom Durkin, Tori Richardson, Jim Rogers. Seconded. Motion passes.
Guest: Darrell Bazzell, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration
Darrell Bazzell reported that he has asked Bob Lavigna to send out the Performance Management policy as is. He has decided not revisit the policy with the purpose of making exemptions.
Regarding the budget, the question is to what extent is the legislature willing to re-prioritize to reduce cuts to UW System. The Transportation and UW System budgets still have not been considered by the Joint Finance Committee. The UW System budget should be within the next two weeks. It sounds like the Joint Finance Committee will amend Chapter 36 rather than using the governor’s amended version. Ray Cross has been openly saying that tenure will look different, and this will happen at the UW System level. Darrell also mentioned that they should be able to get more information regarding specific cuts to governance groups in the next couple weeks.
Darrell Bazzell discussed a possible shared governance budget committee. He mentioned that the two things he believes led to the demise of the last budget committee were that the people on the committee did not have the necessary budget expertise to be able to give input, and it wasn’t nimble enough to move quickly when needed. He thought that a budget committee could deal with mid to long term budget issues.
Meeting adjourned at 4:31 p.m.
Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff