Academic Staff Executive Committee Minutes 05-18-17

Approved 5-24-17

ASEC Minutes
2:00 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, May 18, 2017
55 Bascom Hall

Members Present:  Bruno Browning, Aaron Crandall; Jenny Dahlberg; Sarah Kuba; Robert Newsom; Kevin Niemi, Chair

Guests: Michael Bernard-Donals, Catharine DeRubeis, Mary Luther, Sarah Mangelsdorf, Fred Schulze, Jake Smith

The meeting was called to order at 2:05 p.m.

The minutes of May 5, 2017, were approved with one correction.

General Reports

Chair Kevin Niemi reported that he, Bruno and Heather met with the Office of Human Resources on May 10th.  They asked for feedback on the titling framework.  There are two approaches: take job descriptions that we have now and then place them into the framework or create titles and then map current positions into those titles.  Kevin and Bruno suggested to OHR that they would support creation of the titles first as it would not require everyone on campus to update their position descriptions.  There will be an appeal process for those who wish to dispute their new title. 

The governance chairs met on May 12 including Anja Wanner, the new University Committee chair, and Katrina Morrison, the new ASM chair.  They discussed the ad hoc committee on shared governance practices, inclusion and online textbooks. 

Kevin talked with Marsha Mailick on Monday about the University Research Council (URC).  The URC is now a committee in Faculty Policies and Procedures, Chapter 6.  Two new academic staff members will need to be appointed.  They also talked about the research professor title.

Secretary of the Academic Staff Heather Daniels reported she received a letter from the Scientist Network regarding their support of the addition of the title “research professor.”  She also shared that the number of assistant scientists paid below the campus postdoctoral rate has been reduced by 50%.  She provided Category B minimum salary information to Scott Mellor and Anna Paretskaya.  Heather asked ASEC how they wanted to proceed with the Chancellor’s request for members of the Ad Hoc Student Services Advisory Committee.  ASEC directed Heather to send out a campus-wide call for academic staff nominations.

Guest: Sarah Mangelsdorf, Provost

Provost Mangelsdorf said that she is working with Laurent Heller and Marsha Mailick in regards to research administrative burden.  Problems are coming in via email right now, and they are working on smoothing out and fixing particular issues. 

She reported that the Ad Hoc Student Services Advisory Committee will look at the current reporting structures for student-related units.  These are currently scattered among several different offices. 

Guest: Michael Bernard-Donals, Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff

Michael provided an update on the work regarding the Hostile and Intimidating Behavior (HIB) policies.  There are three components he is working on: website, HIB liaisons and campus training.  The website should be up soon. 

The HIB liaisons have been identified, and they are in a holding pattern until the fall.  There is a working group looking at training for the liaisons.  The training will be mostly soft skills.  The liaisons will be tasked with directing people who come to them to other resources on campus.

There is also a group working on the campus-wide training.  There are subcommittees working on pieces of the curriculum.  The curriculum will be mainly case-based.  The training will start with a case to get people thinking about HIB, what it is and what it isn’t.  There will be a piece on policies and resources followed by two additional cases at the end where people can use what they learned and apply them to actual cases. 

The curricula from both groups will be ready towards the end of the summer.  The HIB liaisons will take both trainings. 

Michael has been talking to the University Committee about the HIB policy.  The University Committee is thinking about revising the policy to include information about instances that may fall between the informal and formal processes such as letters of expectation, administrative measures, attending a training, etc. 

Michael talked briefly about the new performance management system that is being built to track performance evaluations.  The new system will not automatically link with HRS to make sure that employees have completed their performance evaluations before they get a raise. 

Guest: Mary Luther, Director of Compensation and Titling, Office of Human Resources
Mary provided a handout on job framework design strategy.  The design strategy they are considering following is one that would start with an overarching job framework that is consistent across all job functions (families).  The framework would describe increasing responsibilities and requirements for each level in a career track.  Subject matter experts would define the general duties in a specific job family.  Position description templates for titles can be created and customized for each job.  She asked ASEC for feedback on this approach.  ASEC asked that the process be explained in relation to the current system that people know and understand so that the concepts aren’t so abstract.

Motion to Convene in Closed Session Pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to discuss appointments to the Campus Diversity and Climate Committee, Information Technology Committee, Memorial Library Committee, Retirement Issues Committee, Student Panels, University Curriculum Committee, Committee on Women in the University, Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee, and Professional Development and Recognition Committee; and nominations to Area Review Committee (ARC) for Biological/Medical Sciences; Academic Staff Appeals; Distinguished Prefix Committee; and Labor Codes Licensing Committee. (Browning). Seconded. Approved.

Motion to Convene in Open Session. (Browning). Seconded. Approved.

Business

•    Motion to reappoint or renominate Meredith Luschen to the Appeals Committee, Jamie Henke to the Distinguished Prefix Committee, Sir Williams to the Campus Diversity and Climate Committee, Sue Wenker to the University Curriculum Committee and Tina Hatch to the Committee on Women in the University (Browning). Seconded. Approved.
•    Motion to appoint or nominate Christopher Snyder and John Dopp to the Area Review Committee-Biology/Medical Sciences, Mary Condon, Karen Koethe, and Melissa Smiley to the Appeals Committee, Jennifer Noyes, Tim Gattenby and Dianna Murphy to the Distinguished Prefix Committee, Julie Zachman to the Information Technology Committee, Pamela Barrett to the Labor Codes Licensing Committee, Angela Bagwell to the Memorial Library Committee, Chelsea Daley to the Retirement Issues Committee, Beth Dawson, Michael Pflieger, Kim Peterson, Lindsey DeCarlo, and James Franzone to the Student Panels, Shirin Malekpour to the University Curriculum Committee, Elizabeth Sadowski to the Committee on Women in the University, Caitlin Cleary to the Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee, and Kim Bruksch to the Professional Development and Recognition Committee (Browning). Seconded. Approved.
•    Chair/Vice Chair Election Procedures for 2017-18
Heather will send out a call for nominations to ASEC that will include a list of duties.  Elections will be held at the ASEC meeting on June 1.
•    Topics for Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration and Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education
VCFA Topics
Joint Finance Committee vote on UW System budget
Student Services Advisory Committee
Presentation on Budget
VCRGE Topics
Closing/moving research centers
Administrative efficiencies-future plan
Research Professor titles

Meeting adjourned at 4:36 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff