ASEC Minutes
2:00 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, August 25, 2016
67 Bascom Hall
Members Present: Bruno Browning; Aaron Crandall, Jenny Dahlberg; Sarah Kuba; Michael Moscicke; Robert Newsom; Kevin Niemi, Chair; Deb Shapiro
Guests: Greg Bump, Eric Giefer, Rafael Lazimy, Michael Lehman, Bruce Maas, Sarah Mangelsdorf, Jake Smith
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m.
The minutes of August 11, 2016, were approved.
General Reports
Chair Kevin Niemi reported on the meeting he and Bruno had with the Chancellor and Provost. They talked about the following topics: 1) This fall, there will be a state outreach effort out of Charlie Hoslet’s office to ask faculty to go back to their Wisconsin home towns and give talks. The Chancellor would also consider senior academic staff to do the same thing. 2) There will be information regarding compensation coming out soon. 3) The Provost and Chancellor are willing to work with the legislature on metrics. 4) There will be an email encouraging units to have conversations regarding Orlando and other national events that took place over the summer in regards to climate. 5) Michael Lehman will be continuing as a consultant working on IT issues.
The Academic Staff Assembly Representatives/Alternates Orientation was held on Tuesday. Approximately 20 new representatives/alternates were in attendance.
Kevin, Bruno and Heather met with Mark Walters and Patrick Sheehan in the Office of Human Resources. There was discussion about FLSA next steps. Schools/Colleges/Divisions have received a list of employees, who will be affected by the change. The new application system TREMS is moving forward and will be implemented this fall. ASEC asked if OHR could provide a list of assistant scientists who are near the FLSA salary threshold so if postdoc salaries are increased, ASEC will have an idea of the number of academic staff who might be below the postdoc salary.
Michael Bernard-Donals met with Russell Dimond, Kevin and Heather to discuss the work life survey results. Michael is very interested in assisting as needed. The first step will be to write a short white paper regarding compensation. Kevin, Robert, Jenny and Sarah agreed to assist with this task.
There was a Titling and Total Compensation Advisory Committee call on Wednesday. Heather McFadden attended for UW-Madison academic staff. UWS and UW-Madison presented the revised RFP, which should be out by the end of the month.
Kevin is meeting with Ray Cross tomorrow as part of the ASPRO delegation.
• Secretary of the Academic Staff Heather Daniels gave updates on several items. The maximum salary for level 1 pay range will be increased to the minimum FLSA rate when the FLSA changes take effect. Matt Kussow has left UW-Madison as Director of State Relations and is now the Executive Director of the Badger Advocates. The Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Staff Degrees met for the first time on Monday. They are requesting that human resources staff attend their meetings. The Provost and Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education approved the ability of the Secretary of the Academic Staff office to provide salary support for time research staff spend serving on appeals panels.
Heather met with the Postdoc Office Director about several issues that overlap between postdocs and research academic staff including policies around academic staff serving as supervisors for postdocs.
Heather announced 67 Bascom Hall will no longer be a conference room. ASEC will meet in 260 Bascom next week and 53 Bascom in the following weeks.
Liaison Report
Michael Moscicke reported on the Board of Regents meeting. The Business and Finance Committee discussed the first ever update to HRS, which will take place in February. UW System ended the previous fiscal year with a $78 million dollar surplus. There was discussion on unrestricted gifts and how to use them as well as the new Amazon pick up location at UW-Madison.
Guest: Sarah Mangelsdorf, Provost
The Board of Regents budget request was $42.5M connected to the UWS strategic plan. It is unclear at this point what the four different priorities mean exactly and what the request would mean for individual campuses. The Board will also ask for a compensation plan in December. UW System is looking at changing the budget allocation model that UWS uses to distribute funds. UW-Milwaukee would like more funding.
The RFP for the Titling and Compensation Study will go out next week.
The Chancellor will be sending an email regarding listening, discussion and dialogues about climate. It will be optional for units to hold these. There will be guidance for facilitated discussion if units/departments want to do this.
Guest: Michael Lehman, Consultant
When Michael first arrived at UW-Madison, he wanted to know the IT costs for the campus. He put together a committee to look at this issue, and they figured out an amount for fiscal year 2015 that didn’t include depreciation, amortization, etc. It also doesn’t separate capital expenses from other expenses. The question is whether the money is being spent effectively.
They will need to do same exercise for the fiscal year that just ended and remove capital spending.
IT is loosely governed here. Michael presented a preliminary IT governance proposal that would receive broad input and recommendations from broad groups from research, instruction, and administration in addition to the Information Technology Committee.
Business
• Resolution Calling on UW President and Board of Regents to Action
ASEC discussed the resolution. ASEC will decide whether the resolution comes from Robert or ASEC at the next meeting.
• September Assembly Agenda
ASEC reviewed a draft agenda. Heather will find a guest who can discuss proposed changes to the academic calendar.
• Membership of Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Staff Degree Requirements
Two members of this committee have left the committee so ASEC could add additional members. The committee wanted to have members from the library, student services and outreach community if possible.
• Committee Membership Language
ASEC looked at draft language and made some changes. It was discussed that the language should be added to ASPP. Heather will coordinate having the Nominating Committee and Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee review the language.
Motion to convene in Closed Session Pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to discuss appointments to Ad Hoc Committee on Category B Salary Compression and Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Staff Degree Requirements. (Crandall). Seconded. Approved.
Motion to Convene in Open Session (Newsom). Seconded. Approved.
Business
• Nominations/Appointments
Motion to appoint James Babb and Kimberly Kile to the Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Staff Degree Requirements (Kuba). Seconded. Approved.
Motion to appoint Angel Abruña-Rodriguez, Gabriel Cornilescu, Heather Hardin, Ron Harris, Peggy Hatfield, Beverly Aagaard Kienitz, and Jeannine Nicolai-Heckmann Ad Hoc Committee on Category B Salary Compression. (Dahlberg). Seconded. Approved.
Meeting adjourned at 4:55 p.m.
Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff