Topics Map > Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) > 2015-2016 > 01. July
Academic Staff Executive Committee Minutes 07-23-15
Approved 8-13-15
Members Present: Bruno Browning; Aaron Crandall; Trish Iaccarino; Sarah Kuba; Heather Mc Fadden, Chair; Michael Moscicke; Kevin Niemi; Robert Newsom; Deb Shapiro
Guests: Kathi Kilgore, Marsha Mailick
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m.
The minutes of July 9, 2015, were approved.
Guest: Kathi Kilgore, ASPRO
Kathi provided an update on the state budget and distributed ASPRO’s latest newsletter to ASEC. The legislature made only one change from the Joint Committee on Finance, which was to allocate $25 million to be a lapse instead of a cut, which will be part of the base budget in 2017-19. The governor’s vetoes preserved indefinite appointments for academic staff and eliminated some flexibilities, including those around procurement. Funding for the new chemistry building stayed in the budget. The final language for layoffs for faculty reads that chancellors and faculty will be involved. ASPRO has requested a meeting with UW System President Cross as to how that will work and to urge inclusion of academic staff in that process.
Regarding pay plans, the Joint Committee on Employee Relations approved a 0% pay plan, but it does not impact UW employees. There are no expectations of a pay plan increase, though merit pay is now a possibility.
The shared governance task force will not be meeting. The tenure task force will meet in August, with the expectation that decisions will be made by the April 2016 Regents meeting.
General Reports
Convened in Closed Session Pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to discuss appointments for Ad Hoc Committee on Selection Criteria for Committee Appointments/Nominations by ASEC and nominations to the Area Review Committee – Physical Sciences/Engineering and the Nominating Committee (Moved. Seconded. Approved.)
Reconvened in Open Session (Moved. Seconded. Approved.)
Motion to nominate Tracy Drier and Brian Jicha to the Area Review Committee-Physical Sciences/Engineering. Seconded. Approved.
Business
Vice Chancellor Mailick discussed the research cores initiative, which is an interdisciplinary, cross-divisional, campus-wide initiative for shared research facilities with governance structures and access that have historically been locally driven. A task force of faculty and staff was established under Rick Moss to identify the research cores on campus, 2/3 of which have been identified. The task force developed recommendations for governance, access, and to group resources into clusters with an overall cluster committee to provide coordination. Control would still rest with local units in schools/colleges/division, and participation would be voluntary. An advantage would be the possibility of co-funding new equipment and core services (not operational expenses) to participants as a community of research cores.
Vice Chancellor Mailick also discussed the plan for regular center reviews. There are 17 centers in the VCRGE, which are part of the organization for historical reasons. Part of the discussion has been about defining criteria for VCRGE centers, which is difficult due to the interdisciplinary nature of some centers. A group led by Jan Greenberg and Norm Drinkwater worked with center directors to develop an outline of a process for self-study. The plan would be to review centers every 5 years to ensure financial resources, institutional support for grant renewals, and optimized facilities. For centers on external funding, VCRGE reviews would be coordinated with funding reviews to save on effort. The 5-year timeline was chosen due to some of the grant cycles, but that timeline may change going forward.
Business
ASEC Minutes
2:00 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, July 23, 2015
67 Bascom Hall
Members Present: Bruno Browning; Aaron Crandall; Trish Iaccarino; Sarah Kuba; Heather Mc Fadden, Chair; Michael Moscicke; Kevin Niemi; Robert Newsom; Deb Shapiro
Guests: Kathi Kilgore, Marsha Mailick
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m.
The minutes of July 9, 2015, were approved.
Guest: Kathi Kilgore, ASPRO
Kathi provided an update on the state budget and distributed ASPRO’s latest newsletter to ASEC. The legislature made only one change from the Joint Committee on Finance, which was to allocate $25 million to be a lapse instead of a cut, which will be part of the base budget in 2017-19. The governor’s vetoes preserved indefinite appointments for academic staff and eliminated some flexibilities, including those around procurement. Funding for the new chemistry building stayed in the budget. The final language for layoffs for faculty reads that chancellors and faculty will be involved. ASPRO has requested a meeting with UW System President Cross as to how that will work and to urge inclusion of academic staff in that process.
Regarding pay plans, the Joint Committee on Employee Relations approved a 0% pay plan, but it does not impact UW employees. There are no expectations of a pay plan increase, though merit pay is now a possibility.
The shared governance task force will not be meeting. The tenure task force will meet in August, with the expectation that decisions will be made by the April 2016 Regents meeting.
General Reports
- ASEC Chair Heather McFadden reported on the University Committee meeting that was held after the statement was released regarding Professor Sara Goldrick-Rab. The tenure group at UW-Madison starts meeting on Monday, and it is possible that an academic staff member will be added. The search for the new Vice Chancellor for University Relations will launch mid-September. The Provost announced reviews for some of the deans will be occurring in the near future.
- Deputy Secretary of the Academic Staff Jake Smith reported that the names of the Classified Staff Executive Committee and the Classified Staff Congress had recently been changed to the University Staff Executive Committee (USEC) and the University Staff Congress. Additionally, he announced that Linnea Burk had been elected as co-chair of the Mentoring Committee and that Brian Deith is now the chair of the Districting and Representation Committee. Jake also confirmed that he would be the facilitator for the upcoming priorities meetings.
UW System Reps Kevin Niemi confirmed that there would be six meetings this year, which matches the previous year’s number.
VCRGE CASI Deb Shapiro mentioned that Bob Lavigna and Harry Webne-Behrman reported to the CASI on the status of HR Design and also discussed performance management. Deb informed the CASI that Robert Newsom would be taking over as their ASEC liaison in September. There was also discussion of a CASI specific to the Graduate School.
SMPH CASI Aaron Crandall reported on the CASI’s meeting with its new delegate from the dean’s office.
Ad Hoc Committee on Faculty Supervision Bruno Browning reported that the committee planned to meet on Friday to discuss survey results.
Convened in Closed Session Pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to discuss appointments for Ad Hoc Committee on Selection Criteria for Committee Appointments/Nominations by ASEC and nominations to the Area Review Committee – Physical Sciences/Engineering and the Nominating Committee (Moved. Seconded. Approved.)
Reconvened in Open Session (Moved. Seconded. Approved.)
Motion to nominate Tracy Drier and Brian Jicha to the Area Review Committee-Physical Sciences/Engineering. Seconded. Approved.
Business
- Professional Development Sessions for ASEC
- ASEC discussed further specifics on the requested sessions on Robert’s Rules and with Vice Chancellor Bazzell. There was also a desire expressed to understand more about how the offices of the Chancellor and the Provost work on a day-to-day basis.
- ASEC Chair, Vice Chair and Member Duties
- ASEC reviewed the updated version of the duties list and requested no further changes/updates.
- Priority Survey Results
- ASEC discussed the revised report of the survey results from Robert and Jake and the methodology of their data analysis. The locations of the planning sessions were announced as Memorial Union and the Pyle Center. Additional examples of specific areas on the survey will be added in advance of the document being distributed.
- Shared Governance Discussion
- ASEC discussed the goals of academic staff governance on campus. ASEC decided to have a separate meeting to discuss this issue. Jake will send a Doodle poll to determine the best time.
Vice Chancellor Mailick discussed the research cores initiative, which is an interdisciplinary, cross-divisional, campus-wide initiative for shared research facilities with governance structures and access that have historically been locally driven. A task force of faculty and staff was established under Rick Moss to identify the research cores on campus, 2/3 of which have been identified. The task force developed recommendations for governance, access, and to group resources into clusters with an overall cluster committee to provide coordination. Control would still rest with local units in schools/colleges/division, and participation would be voluntary. An advantage would be the possibility of co-funding new equipment and core services (not operational expenses) to participants as a community of research cores.
Vice Chancellor Mailick also discussed the plan for regular center reviews. There are 17 centers in the VCRGE, which are part of the organization for historical reasons. Part of the discussion has been about defining criteria for VCRGE centers, which is difficult due to the interdisciplinary nature of some centers. A group led by Jan Greenberg and Norm Drinkwater worked with center directors to develop an outline of a process for self-study. The plan would be to review centers every 5 years to ensure financial resources, institutional support for grant renewals, and optimized facilities. For centers on external funding, VCRGE reviews would be coordinated with funding reviews to save on effort. The 5-year timeline was chosen due to some of the grant cycles, but that timeline may change going forward.
Business
- Next ASEC Meeting, August 13, 2015 – for decision
- Topics for Provost: University calendar discussion; summer session funding restructuring
- Guests: Provost Mangelsdorf; Bruce Maas, CIO and Vice Provost for Information Technology
Meeting adjourned at 4:25 p.m.
Minutes submitted by Jake Smith, Deputy Secretary of the Academic Staff