ASEC Minutes
2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Thursday, December 1, 2016
53 Bascom Hall
Members Present: Bruno Browning; Aaron Crandall; Jenny Dahlberg; Sarah Kuba; Michael Moscicke; Mallory Musolf; Kevin Niemi, Chair; Deb Shapiro
Guests: Jambul Akkaziev, Alyssa Franze, Jenny Hackel, Laurent Heller, Marsha Mailick, Parthy Schachter, Jake Smith, Carol Van Hulle, Mark Walters, Tom Zinnen
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m.
The minutes of November 10, 2016, and November 17, 2016, were approved.
General Reports
Chair Kevin Niemi announced that the Provost was unable to attend today’s meeting. He reported that he will be attending a meeting late next week along with Heather Daniels to work on a charge for the instructional titles ad hoc committee. The UW System Academic Staff Representatives will be meeting tomorrow and discussing distinguished prefixes, hate/bias incidents on campus, campus carry and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). He will be reaching out to the other shared governance chairs on campus to meet again. They have only met once this fall.
Secretary of the Academic Staff Heather Daniels reported that she received a thank you from the Chancellor regarding the pay plan resolution passed by the Assembly. This year’s Academic Staff Institute conflicts with an advising conference that is being held later than usual. Heather spoke with the advising office about this, and neither group is able to move this year’s date. Heather met with the UW Scientists Network to answer questions they had. She has provided some data to the group. Heather served on a panel aimed at postdocs and talked about things to consider when searching for and taking a staff scientist position.
Two open meetings are being held this week on the change to Assembly district sizes. The first meeting was held on Monday and had four attendees. The second meeting was held on Thursday and had six attendees. Heather plans to send out the ballot regarding the change next week on Tuesday. Heather shared the letter sent to ASEC by Associate Dean Rick Moss in the School of Medicine and Public Health in response to ASEC’s concerns regarding the State Lab of Hygiene Search and Screen process. Heather also shared that she is serving on an informal committee assisting Michael Bernard-Donals with implementation of a website and other things for Hostile and Intimidating Behavior.
Business
• January Assembly Meeting Agenda
ASEC reviewed a draft agenda for the January meeting. There were no action items on the agenda, but there was one report and one discussion item. ASEC suggested canceling the meeting due to the lack of business and a problem with quorum. There was a suggestion to change the January meeting into a social occasion for Assembly Representatives.
• December Assembly Agenda
Motion to approve the Resolution on Solidarity with Students, Staff and Faculty Experiencing Discrimination and add it to the Assembly agenda (Moscicke). Seconded. Approved.
Motion to approve the Resolution to Support UW-Madison Undocumented Students and add it to the Assembly agenda (Browning). Seconded. Approved.
Motion to approve the December Assembly Agenda (Moscicke). Seconded. Approved.
Due to a lack of business, ASEC recessed for 10 minutes at 2:45 pm while waiting for the arrival of guests. ASEC came back in session at 2:58 pm.
Guest: Marsha Mailick, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education
Marsha Mailick announced that Jo Handelsman will serve at the new director of the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery (WID). She will begin on February 1.
In regards to the NSF research rankings, the total research expenditures for campus have been down the last three years. Other universities have surged ahead of UW-Madison. The UW2020 program is intended to help address falling research dollars by motivating/incentivizing new areas of research that don’t exist currently on campus. The UW2020 award comes with an expectation that there will be an extramural funding application by the end of the grant period. UW2020 is also enhancing research infrastructure on campus.
Isabelle Girard is the new research core facilities director. She has visited over 60 core research facilities so far. She is working on cataloging them as well as coming up with common tools.
The Research Technology Advisory Group (RTAG) that oversees IT governance in research has their first meeting. The committee has faculty and staff representatives who have expertise in research IT. The committee decided they need to have a definition of research IT and also a way to identify topics that are best handled through RTAG. For instance, the topic of handling of controlled unclassified information could be an example where RTAG would provide internal campus procedures for protecting this data.
Guest: Laurent Heller, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education
Laurent Heller reported that any changes in regards to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) have been put on pause due to the temporary injunction. Because of this, the new rule is no longer a viable reason to give pay adjustments to employees. NIH is moving ahead with changes to the minimum salary of postdoctoral trainees/fellows. Because of equity and competitiveness, UW-Madison is moving forward with changes to postdoctoral salaries/stipends.
ASEC provided information to Vice Chancellor Heller regarding the minimum salary for Faculty Assistants, which is now below the Teaching Assistant salary. Faculty Assistants do similar, if not identical work to Teaching Assistants. There are approximately 60 Faculty Assistants on campus with the majority in English and Chemistry. Mark Walters will have his titling and compensation team look at this issue and report back before winter break.
The Budget Committee met for the third time. The committee is trying to figure out what it is, what it should do and how to weigh in on different issues. Laurent Heller felt that the committee should provide annual input and guidance to central administrative staff on budget priorities for the coming year.
Motion to Convene in Closed Session Pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to discuss a nomination to the Director of Purchasing Services Search and Screen Committee (Crandall). Seconded. Approved.
Motion to Convene in Open Session (Crandall). Seconded. Approved.
Business
• Nomination
Motion to nominate David Teske and Verda Blythe to the Director of Purchasing Services Search and Screen Committee (Dahlberg). Seconded. Approved.
Meeting adjourned at 4:14 p.m.
Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff