Approved 10-27-22

ASEC Minutes

2:00 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, October 20, 2022

53 Bascom Hall

https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/93936751067

Members Present: Donna Cole; Stephanie Elkins; Alissa Ewer; Julie Hunt Johnson; Stephanie Jones; Albert Muniz; Mallory Musolf, chair; Lindsey Stoddard Cameron

Guests: Aaron Crandall, Karen Massetti-Moran, Jennifer Mnookin, Jennifer Noyes, Patrick Sheehan

The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m.

The minutes of October 6 were approved.

General Reports

Mallory Musolf, ASEC Chair, reported on the most recent shared governance chairs meeting. ASM is working on issues related to housing costs and availability, as well as a long-term strategic plan for ongoing issues in general. Like the Assembly, ASM also passed a resolution supporting continuation of the Public History Project. Mallory, Donna, and Jake met with Kim Moreland and Mark Sweet from Research and Sponsored Programs. They wanted to hear from them about issues related to RSP that ASEC has heard from various constituents. They discussed communication around RSP’s staffing and space challenges and the learning curve necessary for some of the open positions. These issues will be acknowledged at the Research Administrators Conference next week as well.

Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff, reported that he attended a meeting with Vice Provost John Zumbrunnen and other members of administration related to religious observances for students. There was a discussion about how to better communicate best practices and expectations in this space. The Committee Interest Survey was sent out this week, and all academic staff are invited to submit or update their interest in serving on shared governance committees.

Liaison Reports

Stephanie Elkins reported on the Wisconsin Public Media CASI meeting. They discussed a land acknowledgment statement that was put together with WPM and the Educational Communications Board, to be worked into broadcasts at various times.

Stephanie Jones reported that the Professional Development and Recognition Committee is looking at different programs that would offer academic staff opportunities for personal enrichment as well as professional development.

Lindsey Stoddard Cameron reported that the Districting and Representation Committee held their first meeting of the year. They are hard at work on using an updated data set to figure out how to better map titles to districts.

Alissa Ewer reported that the Compensation and Economic Benefits Committee has discussed its priorities for the year, including priorities around addressing issues coming out of TTC, putting together resources on job security, and wanting to do analysis on academic staff survey data when it becomes available.

Guest: Jennifer Mnookin, Chancellor

Chancellor Mnookin received the Assembly’s resolution supporting the continuation of the Public History Project. The project has provided impressive and thoughtful engagement around our history and efforts to bring about change. The Office of the Chancellor is in conversation with several parties, including Kacie Lucchini Butcher, about the process of how to carry on the work of the project. ASEC emphasized the opportunities for students as well as for faculty and staff in the continuation of this work beyond June 2023. ASEC also appreciated the breadth of scope and the approachability of the project’s work. This project is a model in higher education, and the goal is for it to continue to be. The project could live in many different areas of campus, with possible collaboration with departments for proposals for courses. While there are complex questions related to how the project moves forward, it is clear that this should not be an endpoint for looking at these issues.

Chancellor Mnookin has been meeting with a number of stakeholders and community members to listen and learn about their interests, successes, and concerns. In the last week, she has visited with members of the College of Engineering, the School of Business, and the Division of Continuing Studies. She is taking the time with her office to see how comments that she is receiving at her various events fit with what she’s learning from different areas of campus. It is important to keep in mind that Chancellor Mnookin has not yet reached the 90-day mark in her time as Chancellor. She wants to continue to work with shared governance to implement initiatives. Chancellor Mnookin believes strongly in the Wisconsin Idea and the Wisconsin Experience, as well as the culture of shared governance at this institution. Other issues that have come to her attention include the balance between centralization and decentralization, engagements with our budget model, staff diversity and growth, paid family leave, hybrid work, and industry partnerships.

Motion to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to discuss appointments to the Dean of Students Advisory Committee, Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee, and Professional Development and Recognition Committee (Stoddard Cameron). Seconded. Approved.

Motion to reconvene in open session (Cole). Seconded. Approved.

Business

• Appointments – for vote

Motion to appoint Michele Smith to the Dean of Students Advisory Committee, Karina Ward to the Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee, and Amy Arbogash to the Professional Development and Recognition Committee (Stoddard Cameron). Seconded. Approved.

• Planning Subcommittee Updates

The transportation subcommittee is working on which issues to move forward with and will be meeting with academic staff members of the Campus Transportation Committee to get a sense of what the committee is working on this year. The diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging subcommittee started by talking about the recommendations from the recent report of the ad hoc committee. The group will work to connect recommendations in the report with work going on between a subgroup of deans and ASEC members, as well as what can be done in both the short and the long term. There was also discussion of professional development for ASEC in this space, which the committee will discuss further at the next meeting. The CASI subcommittee discussed opportunities for best practices for both CASIs and deans/directors in engaging one another, as well as more formal orientation mechanisms, the development of which is in progress.

• November Assembly Meeting Agenda

ASEC discussed the November agenda. Stephanie Elkins will be putting forward the motion on approving the recommendations of the ad hoc committee.

Guests: Patrick Sheehan, Interim Chief Human Resources Officer; and Karen Massetti-Moran, Director of Total Rewards, Office of Human Resources

OHR is pursuing a survey related to remote work and is discussing this with executive leadership. Remote/hybrid work continues to be an essential mechanism for recruitment and retention. ASEC reemphasized the importance of conducting such a survey at a central level. Learning and Talent Development continues to provide resources to supervisors on managing remote employees and teams as well.

OHR has put together a draft document on salary progression within range, which will be shared with ASEC for feedback. OHR continues to work on this with respect to those employees on soft money. The Compensation Center of Excellence will also be scanning schools/colleges/divisions regularly to see where salary adjustments are and are not being made, including equity, parity, and compression reviews. Some divisions are doing total reviews of all employees to build a plan that will identify where people need to receive adjustments, particularly for those staff in the first quartile of their salary range. The idea is to align this process with evaluation processes as well as future compensation fund exercises, with budget planning integrated so that funds are consistently allocated to move individuals to the right spaces in salary grades.

ASEC inquired as to how the HR reps across campus are doing. Coming out of a crunch over the last two years, they are highly engaged in conversations related to remote work and to a challenging job market. We are seeing multiple runs for some recruitments, which creates additional work. There is a lot of energy around future initiatives as well, and inroads have been made to recruit and retain new HR reps as well. OHR is thinking about how to build capacity, with additional expansion of the job rotation program being considered.

Karen provided an update on TTC appeals. Currently 8 appeals are at the Step 5 level for Patrick’s consideration. 22 have been denied at the Step 4 level. Barring other scheduling changes, the hope is that all Step 4 appeals will be complete by the first week of November.

OHR is continuing to strategize around benefits as a part of Phase 2 of the TTC implementation. The Chancellor is very engaged on this topic as well, and OHR has had positive conversations in finding a unified approach with UW System. Eventually, OHR would like to share proposals with shared governance for consideration.

Business

• Topics for Guests

Provost: engagement with Deans about CASIs; change in COVID protocols for the spring; deeper dive on ad hoc report in advance of the Assembly meeting; question of engagement with staff as criterion for deans’ reviews

VCFA: UW System reserves and potential uses for funds that haven’t been allocated to other projects; communication/advocacy on use of reserves on critical projects; follow up on conversation around ATP governance mechanism considered by the ATP steering committee; potential impacts of ATP on budget planning and budget allocation processes; feedback out of public meetings on west campus district plan

Meeting adjourned at 4:40 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Jake Smith, Secretary of the Academic Staff