Academic Staff Executive Committee Minutes 03-03-16

Approved 3-10-16

ASEC Minutes
2:00 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3, 2016
67 Bascom Hall

Members Present:  Bruno Browning; Aaron Crandall; Trish Iaccarino; Sarah Kuba; Michael Moscicke; Heather McFadden, Chair; Robert Newsom; Kevin Niemi; Deb Shapiro

Guests: Marsha Mailick, Jake Smith

The meeting was called to order at 2:01 p.m.

The minutes of February 25, 2016, were approved.

General Reports
•    Chair Heather McFadden mentioned the University Research Council draft language indicates academic staff must have permanent PI status to be a member.  ASEC feels that this is too small a pool of people, and there are many good researchers who are not permanent PIs.  The shared governance values statement will be voted on by Congress a month earlier than planned.  This may lead to different groups voting on different statements.  The PVL for the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration has been released.  The Vice Chancellor for University Relations announcement regarding Charlie Hoslet was sent out to the shared governance chairs.  

The Budget Advisory Committee draft language will be discussed at the Faculty Senate.  Additional changes that were made at the University Committee meeting on Monday include a change to the name so it doesn’t start with University, and the selection of the chair was added.  ASEC will wait to hear the Senate discussion on Monday and then discuss these issues further next week.

Heather McFadden talked with Jackie Hank regarding the posting of the PVL for the men’s basketball coach with several questions about the process.  The hiring committee from the Athletic Board will be meeting later in the afternoon.  Jackie is on the hiring committee.  Heather D. will see if Jackie is able to attend next week’s ASEC meeting.

Joanna Gurstelle would like academic staff governance to forward an appointee to serve on the ASM Meyerhoff award selection committee.  Heather D. will send a solicitation to the Academic Staff Assembly Representatives.  

At the University Committee meeting, the Provost discussed the upcoming climate survey in the fall.  She also talked about the possibility of a shared governance committee to focus on sexual assault.  The UW-Madison tenure policy will go to the Board of Regents Education Committee in April.  

•    Secretary of the Academic Staff Heather Daniels reported that the idea of streaming Assembly meetings is on hold at the moment.  There have been some concerns expressed by various parties.  She will be sharing these concerns with the Ad Hoc Committee on Assembly Engagement tomorrow.  Dates have been identified for the finalist visits for the Dean of the School of Nursing.  Members of ASEC should check their calendars for availability for the governance session during the visit.

Guest: Marsha Mailick, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education (VCRGE)

The first round of UW2020 proposals were mapped to show the breadth of collaboration across campus.  

The University Research Council (URC) Faculty Policies and Procedures language will have a first reading at the Faculty Senate on Monday.  Approval will be at the April Senate meeting.  The composition will be 8 faculty with 4 elected and 4 appointed, two academic staff, one university staff and one member of the University Committee.  When asked about the requirement for academic staff to hold permanent PI status, Marsha replied she thought this was an addition the University Committee made.  She would have no problem with the removal of this requirement.  

The current URC is working well and meeting twice a semester.  They have been involved in the ongoing Center reviews.

The Arboretum review has been completed.  They first did a self-study followed by a review by an appointed review committee.  There were five recommendations from the review committee.  A search and screen committee will be appointed shortly for the search for a permanent director.  The Aquatic Science Center and WID reviews will be the next to be completed by the end of summer.

The WARF board meeting went well.  They continue to increase their annual contributions to the campus.  The majority of the allocation is stable (4%) with an additional .5% fluctuating depending on stock market returns.  The board is currently searching for a new director of WARF.  

The Office of the VCRGE is going to conduct a survey of PIs who have had a new Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol within the past 12 months regarding their experience with the IRB process.  The PIs can also designate others to take the survey.  The survey will solicit feedback on what is working well and identify pressure points where things are not working well.  The plan will be to institutionalize a survey to provide ongoing feedback.  The survey will assist the IRB infrastructure in finding out how the PI is experiencing the process.  

Business
•    March Assembly Agenda
ASEC discussed whether the agenda would allow time for the Ad Hoc Committee on Assembly Engagement to discuss the streaming issue if they asked.  ASEC decided the issue could be brought up as a committee report.  Motion to approve the agenda (Shapiro). Seconded. Approved.
•    Degrees for academic staff positions
ASEC reviewed a charge for this ad hoc committee.  Motion to approve the charge (Browning). Seconded. Approved.  Heather D. will solicit members for this committee from the Assembly.
•    WISELI survey
ASEC finished reviewing the survey for changes to make it academic staff specific and also made a couple additions.  They will review the final draft as a future meeting and also meet with Jenn Sheridan to discuss the draft.
•    Tom Zinnen’s request
ASEC discussed the email from Tom Zinnen regarding the Budget in Brief booklet.  They will wait to see what the response is from the administration before taking any action.

Meeting adjourned at 4:22 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff