Provost Sarah Mangelsdorf called the meeting to order at 3:34 p.m.  

Automatic Consent: The Academic Staff Assembly minutes of Monday, December 10, 2018, were approved. 

There has been an increase of active shooter incidents across the country. The FBI Active Shooter Tracking Database indicates that there were 248 active shooter incidents between 2000 and 2017. The UW-Madison Police Department is conducting active shooter training. In 2018, they held 76 sessions and trained about 2800 individuals. This is a three-fold increase over 2017.  The training is one hour and includes information about the prevalence of active shooter incidents, characteristics of these incidents, UW-Madison resources, tactics and techniques and what to expect from the police response to an incident. They are also developing an online training module. Trainings can be requested for campus groups.

They have also been working with Facilities Planning and Management to increase classroom security. This past summer, they identified 600 classrooms across campus that have high capacity, and they are systematically putting locks on the doors to those classrooms that don’t have locks. She cautioned instructors against taking their own measures to secure doors due to ADA compliance and other issues. To date they have made progress on 200 doors so far.  They will be updating 1800 doors throughout campus with this project.

They just updated their active shooter video this past summer. It was produced in partnership with other school police departments so it can be used broadly. The video is available on the UW Police Department website.

UW Police Department continuously trains for these incidents.  One of the trainings is offsite with actors.  They partner with Madison fire and police.  The training has shifted.  For example, officers are now trained to go in immediately rather than waiting for additional assistance.

The purpose of the Madison Academic Staff Network is to connect academic staff with each other as well as campus. They have several events planned this spring.  These are good opportunities to meet others on campus and learn about interesting things on campus. The speaker for the spring luncheon this year will be Dr. Beverly Hutcherson.

The Mentoring Committee oversees the Academic Staff Mentoring Program. There are 60 participants in the program this year including both mentors and mentees. They are always looking for additional mentors.  They do several events throughout the year for the program including a kickoff, fall speaker, and a panel in the spring. They are working on transitioning mentees to mentors to build their mentoring community.

Mallory Musolf provided the ASEC report. The program for Division of Continuing Studies course grants will be announced during the week of February 11. The Academic Staff Institute (ASI) registration will go live this week.  ASI will be held on March 27 with Erin Barbato, Director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic, as the keynote speaker.  Chancellor Rebecca Blank will be at the next Assembly meeting.

Some highlights from ASEC include looking at a draft of digital education principles that apply to online only courses and program with Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Steve Cramer. The principles will be used to vet proposals at the UAPC (University Academic Planning Council) and GFEC (Graduate Faculty Executive Committee). ASEC met with Laurent Heller, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, and discussed impacts of the partial federal government shutdown and updates on the Enterprise Resource Planning project. Leadership from the Office of Human Resources provided an update on the Title and Total Compensation Project including review of the Standard Job Descriptions and restructuring of the TTC Advisory Council. Michael Bernard-Donals, Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff, met with ASEC to discuss the development of a Staff Target of Opportunity program. The program would address recruitment and retention of diverse academic staff and university staff. ASEC and Vice Provost Bernard-Donals are collaborating to form a working group of academic staff and university staff to develop recommendations for this program.

Jenny Dahlberg provided the report for ASPRO. ASPRO hires a paid state lobbyist for academic staff.  Governor Tony Evers plans to release his budget on February 28. The governor’s budget will go to the legislature for consideration.

Alissa Oleck, co-chair of the Nominating Committee, read the names on the ASEC election slate.  They were Jenny Dahlberg, Tim Dalby, Alfonso Del Rio, Stephanie Elkins, Benjamin Schultz-Burkel and one additional person to be named following approval by the Nominating Committee this week.

Mallory Musolf (ASEC) read the names on the Nominating Committee slate.  They were Dan Barnish, Arturo Diaz, Karyn Matchey, and Alissa Oleck.  No nominations were added from the floor.

Without objection, these slates were moved to the March 11, 2019 Assembly meeting.

Russell Dimond (District #469) moved that the Academic Staff Assembly approve the resolution. Seconded. Motion approved.

The Provost announced that she is becoming the next President at the University of Rochester. The search for the next Provost is already underway with the goal of having someone start in the summer or fall at the latest. She is currently the second longest serving Provost in the Big Ten and the third longest serving Provost amongst UW System schools. 

UW-Madison has to go through reaccreditation every ten years. We have been preparing for reaccreditation during the past five years. The accreditors are coming the last week of March for a site visit. Jocelyn Milner is the lead on this project.

There is a new Dean of the School of Business, Vallabh Sambamurthy, who will join UW-Madison on August 1. There are also three finalists for the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education visiting campus in mid-February and early March. The talks will be videotaped for reviewing, and she encouraged everyone to watch the presentations and send in their feedback.

Adjourned at 4:52 pm.