Vice Provost Michael Bernard-Donals called the meeting to order at 3:33 p.m.  

The Academic Staff Assembly minutes of Monday, April 9, 2018, were approved.  

Beth Giles shared that she has been spending a great deal of time thinking about the practice of shared governance on campus.  Some of the myths of shared governance include that is slows down the process of decision making, is a way to preserve cushy work schedules and getting out of work or  enables faculty, staff and students to thwart the agenda of the Board of Regents.  She thanks everyone for their service to shared governance and the University.

Wayne Guthrie provided the Assembly with an update on the Title and Total Compensation Study (TTC).  TTC is in its second year.  There are five phases of the study.  The job framework was finalized in early 2018 and that includes job groups, sub-groups and levels.  There are 8 levels in each career path (organizational contributor and manager), but most title series will have 2-5 levels.  This is an iterative process where adjustments will continue to be made to the titling structure as it evolves.  One of the major changes will be in how position duties are documented.  There will be a standard job description for each title and the position can be customized by adding a few other specific duties.  Some of the advantages of this are transparency about career advancement, the ability to match position responsibilities to the labor market, less time spent on creating job descriptions and legal compliance with FLSA and ADA.  The descriptions will be created by end of June/July.  They will then be reviewed by subject matter experts and governance.  Managers will receive training in late August and employees and managers will review and convert job descriptions in the fall.

The Office of Human Resources held 12 in person job description orientations in the spring attended by over 2000 people.  Concerns expressed during these sessions included unique job functions being lost; supervisors not knowing what employees are actually doing; and every position needing to be placed in a single job group/sub-group. 

Other things happening this summer include the formation of an overarching committee to examine possible use of the Professor title and a survey about benefits going out to everyone.  

Bruno Browning, ASEC vice chair, reviewed some highlights from the ASEC report.  ASEC met with UW Police Chief Kristen Roman to discuss security on campus, especially with regard to classrooms. ASEC discussed the UW-Extension Years of Service issue, which the Assembly will be voting on today as well as meeting with Casey Nagy about the transition of UW-Extension to UW-Madison.  They participated in a review of the Graduate Assistant Policies and Procedures and met with Mark Walters for an update on the TTC.  In addition, ASEC nominated or appointment a large number of people to fill upcoming committee vacancies.

Bret Larget, the outgoing faculty co-chair of the Committee on Women, presented the Committee on Women in the University’s annual report for 2016-17.  Activities of note this year include communications with leadership to increase availability of early childhood education as well as affordability, increase the publicity and availability of lactation spaces on campus, and participation in the development of curriculum and presenters regarding Hostile and Intimidating Behavior.

Discussion resumed on this resolution which was postponed from the February Assembly meeting and originally introduced at the November Assembly meeting.  Resolution was approved with amendments.

Deb Shapiro (ASEC) moved to approve the resolution.  Seconded. Approved.

Lindsey Stoddard Cameron (ASEC) moved to approve the resolution.  Seconded. Approved with amendments.

Vice Provost Michael Bernard-Donals provided an update on implementation of the Hostile and Intimidating Behavior policies.  Workshops have been held this spring aimed at campus leadership.  The informal group working on implementation will regroup at the end of May and evaluate how things went in the spring.  There will be workshops available for anyone who wishes to attend, and there will be sessions for 2nd and 3rd shift employees.  Workshops will also be available upon request.  He is also working to have the website translated into commonly used languages on campus.

The Academic Staff Chats are designed to bring together members of the academic staff to discuss an issue or matter of concern.  Some sessions involve experts who present to the academic staff and some just involve a general discussion.  Michael Bernard-Donals reported on a couple of issues that resonated with him this year.  These include campus climate issues, unevenness of performance evaluations, lack of professional development for academic staff and issues with movement in UW-Madison’s current personnel system.  

Michael thanked the Assembly for participating in shared governance.  Shared governance is only as strong as the participants who are in it.  It takes everyone to be involved to make UW-Madison work.  

Adjourned at 4:45 pm.