Topics Map > Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) > 2016-2017 > 09. March
Academic Staff Executive Committee Minutes 03-23-17
Approved 3-30-17
Members Present: Bruno Browning; Aaron Crandall; Jenny Dahlberg; Michael Moscicke; Mallory Musolf; Robert Newsom; Kevin Niemi, Chair; Deb Shapiro
Guests: Wayne Guthrie, Ron Harris, Matt Kussow, Mary Luther, Marsha Mailick, Jeannine Nicolai-Heckmann, Anna Paretskaya, Jake Smith, Mark Walters
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m.
The minutes of March 9, 2017, were approved.
Guest: Matt Kussow, Executive Director of Badger Advocates
Matt explained he was the first Executive Director of Badger Advocates. Badger Advocates formed in 2011 when there was an attempt to split UW-Madison from UW System. The organization is focused on securing the necessary resources to maintain UW-Madison as a first-rate research university. He is a registered lobbyist, and the group also has a PAC. It is likely the legislature will use an omnibus package for higher education funding in the budget as they have in past years.
Badger Advocates is focused on five areas for the budget: tuition, performance metrics, compensation, program revenue bond authority, and general purpose revenue funding. Matt indicated that there is not much support in the legislature for the tuition cut. He also indicated that new money approved by the state may be less than is proposed. The raises proposed for UW System employees are in jeopardy as they rely on savings from self-insurance. Self-insurance may not be approved. The performance metrics that are proposed do not take into account the many differences between UW System schools. Matt mentioned that the metrics for the technical schools were developed and implemented over a two-year period. In relation to program revenue bonding authority, there is some incentive for the state to remove bonding for projects that will be paid for by program revenue. This authority is not currently included in the governor’s budget bill. Matt also mentioned that there are three bills regarding fetal tissue ban. At this point, nothing has been introduced regarding campus carry.
Guest: Marsha Mailick, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education
A survey of all Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol holders during the last two years was conducted this fall. They had a 46-47% response rate and about 20% of respondents were academic staff. There were approximately 100,000 words of text in the open-ended questions. The UW Survey Center conducted the analysis of the answers. A report will be presented to the campus community on May 1. The results indicate problems with the campus processes. They are also looking at peer institutions for their IRB processes. Unlike most campuses, we don’t pay for the IRBs centrally, but rather they are funded by SMPH and L&S.
Vice Chancellor Mailick clarified a question she was asked at a previous ASEC meeting about the decline of WARF funding. WARF funding to the VCRGE office has not been declining. Expenditures and overall WARF funding does vary from year to year depending on funding for special projects.
She has proposed an Initiative on Reducing Administrative Burden in Research to Vice Chancellor Heller and Provost Mangelsdorf. They would invite the UW community to tell them where there are problems and try to solve them. She also touched briefly on the idea of having a central Large Grants Office to handle complex proposals.
Guests: Mark Walters, Wayne Guthrie and Mary Luther, Office of Human Resources
Mary Luther, Director of Titling and Compensation for the Office of Human Resources provided ASEC with a brief introduction to the Titling and Total Compensation study. The project is in the beginning of the study design phase. They are collecting and reviewing relevant background data, information and documentation and getting Mercer acclimated to the university. Mercer is the consulting firmed hired by UW System and UW-Madison to complete the study. They will be conducting stakeholder meetings in mid-April including a meeting with ASEC. Mercer will create a draft total compensation philosophy based on their interviews that will be redefined throughout the process. This process will continue until May. There are 2 consultants from Mercer assigned to the UW-Madison part of the study. In addition, Mercer has two people who will only be working on communication and change management.
The next phase of the project will be developing the job family and levels framework and will start in June and end in February 2018. Once the titling structure is complete, the compensation part of the study will commence. The benefits structure will be a stand-alone study and completed early on in the two-year timeframe. The last phase of the study is the implementation phase, which will take approximately 7 months.
Academic staff governance has one seat on the campus collaboration team. There will also be functional teams for each job family. These teams would be made up of HR people as well as people in that job family. Kevin suggested that ASEC appoint members to these functional teams.
Guests: Jeannine Nicolai-Heckmann and Ron Harris, Ad Hoc Committee on Category B Salary Compression
Kevin thanked the committee for all their work on this issue. The committee found that the general causes of compression in Category B were lack of pay raises; absence of policies and/or lack of applying existing policies regarding pay adjustments (including promotions), and market factors.
The committee recommends that a pay equity study be conducted for those in Category B; use annual reviews as a mechanism to assist with assuring that people are being promoted appropriate; developing written guidelines on who pays for pay adjustments; and auditing policies and the use of pay tools.
It was mentioned that Category B academic staff are unlikely to be able to move to different jobs to raise their salaries. That means they are more dependent than Category A academic staff on pay raises within their unit.
General Reports
Chair Kevin Niemi reported that he met with the other shared governance chairs earlier in the day. There will be a Faculty Assistant resolution on the Faculty Senate agenda similar to the one that passed the Assembly. ASM is against the opt out proposal for allocable segregated fees in the governor’s proposed budget bill. The chairs are still working on the charge for the Ad Hoc Committee on the Practice of Shared Governance. The purpose of the committee will be to catalog and document past practices in shared governance and discuss how to continue to carry these out into the future.
United Faculty and Academic Staff sent a survey to all ASEC candidates asking them to answer particular questions. This is the first time that this has been done. The UW System Representatives discussed how they can get involved in the Titling and Total Compensation study.
Secretary of the Academic Staff Heather Daniels reported that the promotional review has been sent out to schools/colleges/divisions. The Office of Human Resources will run an audit this summer and then follow up with schools/colleges/divisions on those who have not been promoted. A website will be ready soon for ASEC to review on Hostile and Intimidating Behavior. A CASI brownbag has been scheduled for late April, and ASEC is invited to attend. Both the Standing Committee and ASEC election ballots have been sent out. Anne Massey from Indiana University was announced as the new Dean of the School of Business.
Liaison Reports
SMPH CASI-Aaron Crandall reported that the SMPH CASI met and discussed the SMPH bylaws that were sent out in a school-wide newsletter. The bylaws included other governance committees, but did not include the CASI.
Business
• April Assembly Agenda
ASEC took another look at the April Assembly Agenda. The agenda includes presentation of the Excellence Award winners, a brief speech by the Chancellor and presentation of the Category B Salary Compression Report. The districting motion from the March meeting will be the only item up for a vote.
• Spring Assembly Meetings Schedule
The Secretary’s office distributed a list of possible upcoming resolutions that need to be taken up by the Assembly. ASEC may need to consider holding a June meeting.
• Preparation for Chancellor visit
The Chancellor will be visiting ASEC next week. ASEC would like to hear about the budget, the allocation of GPR funds to UWS campuses, and what a successful titling and total compensation study looks like.
• Topics for Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration
Amazon update and budget model for next year on UW-Madison campus
• Appointment for Campus Collaboration Team for Titling and Total Compensation Study.
Motion to appoint Heather McFadden to the Campus Collaboration Team (Browning). Seconded. Amendment to appoint an additional person to the Campus Collaboration Team in addition to Heather McFadden (Newsom). Amendment withdrawn without objection. Original motion approved.
Motion to appoint other people to the Campus Collaboration Team (Newsom). Seconded. Motion withdrawn without objection.
Motion to form an Ad Hoc Committee on Titling and Total Compensation Academic Staff Communications (Crandall). Seconded. Approved. Heather and Bruno will draft a charge for the next ASEC meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 4:57 p.m.
Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff
ASEC Minutes
2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Thursday, March 23, 2017
55 Bascom Hall
2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Thursday, March 23, 2017
55 Bascom Hall
Members Present: Bruno Browning; Aaron Crandall; Jenny Dahlberg; Michael Moscicke; Mallory Musolf; Robert Newsom; Kevin Niemi, Chair; Deb Shapiro
Guests: Wayne Guthrie, Ron Harris, Matt Kussow, Mary Luther, Marsha Mailick, Jeannine Nicolai-Heckmann, Anna Paretskaya, Jake Smith, Mark Walters
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m.
The minutes of March 9, 2017, were approved.
Guest: Matt Kussow, Executive Director of Badger Advocates
Matt explained he was the first Executive Director of Badger Advocates. Badger Advocates formed in 2011 when there was an attempt to split UW-Madison from UW System. The organization is focused on securing the necessary resources to maintain UW-Madison as a first-rate research university. He is a registered lobbyist, and the group also has a PAC. It is likely the legislature will use an omnibus package for higher education funding in the budget as they have in past years.
Badger Advocates is focused on five areas for the budget: tuition, performance metrics, compensation, program revenue bond authority, and general purpose revenue funding. Matt indicated that there is not much support in the legislature for the tuition cut. He also indicated that new money approved by the state may be less than is proposed. The raises proposed for UW System employees are in jeopardy as they rely on savings from self-insurance. Self-insurance may not be approved. The performance metrics that are proposed do not take into account the many differences between UW System schools. Matt mentioned that the metrics for the technical schools were developed and implemented over a two-year period. In relation to program revenue bonding authority, there is some incentive for the state to remove bonding for projects that will be paid for by program revenue. This authority is not currently included in the governor’s budget bill. Matt also mentioned that there are three bills regarding fetal tissue ban. At this point, nothing has been introduced regarding campus carry.
Guest: Marsha Mailick, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education
A survey of all Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol holders during the last two years was conducted this fall. They had a 46-47% response rate and about 20% of respondents were academic staff. There were approximately 100,000 words of text in the open-ended questions. The UW Survey Center conducted the analysis of the answers. A report will be presented to the campus community on May 1. The results indicate problems with the campus processes. They are also looking at peer institutions for their IRB processes. Unlike most campuses, we don’t pay for the IRBs centrally, but rather they are funded by SMPH and L&S.
Vice Chancellor Mailick clarified a question she was asked at a previous ASEC meeting about the decline of WARF funding. WARF funding to the VCRGE office has not been declining. Expenditures and overall WARF funding does vary from year to year depending on funding for special projects.
She has proposed an Initiative on Reducing Administrative Burden in Research to Vice Chancellor Heller and Provost Mangelsdorf. They would invite the UW community to tell them where there are problems and try to solve them. She also touched briefly on the idea of having a central Large Grants Office to handle complex proposals.
Guests: Mark Walters, Wayne Guthrie and Mary Luther, Office of Human Resources
Mary Luther, Director of Titling and Compensation for the Office of Human Resources provided ASEC with a brief introduction to the Titling and Total Compensation study. The project is in the beginning of the study design phase. They are collecting and reviewing relevant background data, information and documentation and getting Mercer acclimated to the university. Mercer is the consulting firmed hired by UW System and UW-Madison to complete the study. They will be conducting stakeholder meetings in mid-April including a meeting with ASEC. Mercer will create a draft total compensation philosophy based on their interviews that will be redefined throughout the process. This process will continue until May. There are 2 consultants from Mercer assigned to the UW-Madison part of the study. In addition, Mercer has two people who will only be working on communication and change management.
The next phase of the project will be developing the job family and levels framework and will start in June and end in February 2018. Once the titling structure is complete, the compensation part of the study will commence. The benefits structure will be a stand-alone study and completed early on in the two-year timeframe. The last phase of the study is the implementation phase, which will take approximately 7 months.
Academic staff governance has one seat on the campus collaboration team. There will also be functional teams for each job family. These teams would be made up of HR people as well as people in that job family. Kevin suggested that ASEC appoint members to these functional teams.
Guests: Jeannine Nicolai-Heckmann and Ron Harris, Ad Hoc Committee on Category B Salary Compression
Kevin thanked the committee for all their work on this issue. The committee found that the general causes of compression in Category B were lack of pay raises; absence of policies and/or lack of applying existing policies regarding pay adjustments (including promotions), and market factors.
The committee recommends that a pay equity study be conducted for those in Category B; use annual reviews as a mechanism to assist with assuring that people are being promoted appropriate; developing written guidelines on who pays for pay adjustments; and auditing policies and the use of pay tools.
It was mentioned that Category B academic staff are unlikely to be able to move to different jobs to raise their salaries. That means they are more dependent than Category A academic staff on pay raises within their unit.
General Reports
Chair Kevin Niemi reported that he met with the other shared governance chairs earlier in the day. There will be a Faculty Assistant resolution on the Faculty Senate agenda similar to the one that passed the Assembly. ASM is against the opt out proposal for allocable segregated fees in the governor’s proposed budget bill. The chairs are still working on the charge for the Ad Hoc Committee on the Practice of Shared Governance. The purpose of the committee will be to catalog and document past practices in shared governance and discuss how to continue to carry these out into the future.
United Faculty and Academic Staff sent a survey to all ASEC candidates asking them to answer particular questions. This is the first time that this has been done. The UW System Representatives discussed how they can get involved in the Titling and Total Compensation study.
Secretary of the Academic Staff Heather Daniels reported that the promotional review has been sent out to schools/colleges/divisions. The Office of Human Resources will run an audit this summer and then follow up with schools/colleges/divisions on those who have not been promoted. A website will be ready soon for ASEC to review on Hostile and Intimidating Behavior. A CASI brownbag has been scheduled for late April, and ASEC is invited to attend. Both the Standing Committee and ASEC election ballots have been sent out. Anne Massey from Indiana University was announced as the new Dean of the School of Business.
Liaison Reports
SMPH CASI-Aaron Crandall reported that the SMPH CASI met and discussed the SMPH bylaws that were sent out in a school-wide newsletter. The bylaws included other governance committees, but did not include the CASI.
Business
• April Assembly Agenda
ASEC took another look at the April Assembly Agenda. The agenda includes presentation of the Excellence Award winners, a brief speech by the Chancellor and presentation of the Category B Salary Compression Report. The districting motion from the March meeting will be the only item up for a vote.
• Spring Assembly Meetings Schedule
The Secretary’s office distributed a list of possible upcoming resolutions that need to be taken up by the Assembly. ASEC may need to consider holding a June meeting.
• Preparation for Chancellor visit
The Chancellor will be visiting ASEC next week. ASEC would like to hear about the budget, the allocation of GPR funds to UWS campuses, and what a successful titling and total compensation study looks like.
• Topics for Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration
Amazon update and budget model for next year on UW-Madison campus
• Appointment for Campus Collaboration Team for Titling and Total Compensation Study.
Motion to appoint Heather McFadden to the Campus Collaboration Team (Browning). Seconded. Amendment to appoint an additional person to the Campus Collaboration Team in addition to Heather McFadden (Newsom). Amendment withdrawn without objection. Original motion approved.
Motion to appoint other people to the Campus Collaboration Team (Newsom). Seconded. Motion withdrawn without objection.
Motion to form an Ad Hoc Committee on Titling and Total Compensation Academic Staff Communications (Crandall). Seconded. Approved. Heather and Bruno will draft a charge for the next ASEC meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 4:57 p.m.
Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff