Approved 10-6-16

Members Present:  Bruno Browning; Aaron Crandall; Jenny Dahlberg; Sarah Kuba; Michael Moscicke; Mallory Musolf; Robert Newsom; Kevin Niemi, Chair; Deb Shapiro

Guests: Heather Daniels, Marsha Mailick

The meeting was called to order at 2:02 p.m.

The minutes of September 22, 2016, were approved.

General Reports

Chair Kevin Niemi met with Mark Walters, Patrick Sheehan, and Don Schutt, along with Heather and Bruno, to discuss several issues. Kevin received confirmation that the bonuses through the DCF program are WRS eligible. The OHR review of FLSA recommendations will be completed on September 30, and there will be forums in October on FLSA changes. Patrick Sheehan will come to the next ASEC meeting to discuss a policy regarding minors on campus. The TREMS rollout seems to be proceeding smoothly, and there will be training for those who will be working with it. Kevin reported on a meeting with the chairs of the other governance groups to discuss the shared governance values statement and the committee that was called for in the charge. He also reported on the first academic staff chat of the new academic year, which was on professional development for academic staff. The next chat will be in November.

Secretary of the Academic Staff Heather Daniels also brought up with OHR the issue of schools/colleges/divisions making pay adjustments for everyone, regardless of funding source. She reported that the Ad Hoc Committee on Category B Salary Compression met today, and that Ilia Guzei and Jeannine Nicolai-Heckmann were elected co-chairs. Heather also mentioned that UW System announced its annual call for award nominations, and the teaching award remains unchanged. Kevin will discuss with the System reps the issue of giving instructional academic staff the chance to win a Regents Award.

Liaison Reports

SMPH CASI: A presentation was given to the CASI on SMPH’s plans for rolling out lump sum payments/DCF. There were concerns raised over penalizing employees for their supervisors not completing performance reviews for them. There was also an update on the ongoing issue of the halt on rate and title changes from late last year.

Faculty Senate: The Senate endorsed the new campus-wide diversity statement, approved all changes to the academic calendar except for those to the grading period (which will remain the same), and voted to move RSP under the auspices of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education.

Business

•    Revised Statement of Committee Participation

ASEC resumed discussion of motion to adopt language proposed by Moscicke. Motion failed.

Motion to adopt language proposed by Browning, which would direct ASEC and the Nominating Committee to adopt operating procedures to avoid conflicts of interest for committee appointments (Browning). Seconded.

Motion to amend proposed language by striking everything after “interest,” which gave examples of types of conflicts of interest (Moscicke). Seconded. Approved.

Motion approved as amended.

•    Letter regarding WSLH Search and Screen Committee

ASEC discussed the selection of the search and screen committee for the Director of the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene and a letter to Dean Golden regarding the lack of shared governance involvement in the selection process. ASEC will look at a revised draft of the letter at the next meeting.

•    Data regarding staff job security at universities in the Big Ten Academic Alliance

ASEC reviewed available policy information on job security at other Big Ten universities that was collected by Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Michael Bernard-Donals.

Guest: Marsha Mailick, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education
Marsha discussed the history of Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP) being situated within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration for resource reasons. The University Committee and the University Research Council discussed the organization and set up a committee to investigate whether that was the right place for RSP. After investigation, it was found that RSP should move back within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education. The Faculty Senate voted to move RSP to the Office of the VCRGE at its meeting on October 26. The planning process for this is in progress.

•    Open Letter to Wisconsin Taxpayers

Charlie Hoslet will attend the ASEC meeting on October 27 to provide ASEC with updates from University Relations and could also discuss the draft of the letter. Kevin will discuss the notion of this at a system level. ASEC discussed further revisions and providing sources for the data. Kevin will mention the draft at the October 10 Assembly meeting.  

•    October Assembly Meeting

Motion to approve the October agenda (Browning). Seconded. Approved.