Academic Staff Executive Committee Minutes 06-01-17

Approved 6-15-17

ASEC Minutes
2:00 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, June 1, 2017
55 Bascom Hall

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

Guests: Rebecca Blank, Isabelle Girard, Sarah Mangelsdorf, Matt Mayrl, Jake Smith

The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m.

The minutes of May 25, 2017, were approved.

Guest: Rebecca Blank, Chancellor
Chancellor Blank discussed ways that UW-Madison could become more entrepreneurial in the coming years.  She discussed continued growth in summer session offerings and enrollment.  She mentioned the flexibilities provided by the Board of Regents lifting the out of state cap for undergraduate enrollment as long as at least 3,600 Wisconsin freshman are enrolled in each class.  Another way to continue revenue growth is through alumni giving.  The current campaign at the UW Foundation will raise $3.2 billion mostly through deferred gifts.  In addition, there is work being done to grow research funds including UW 2020. 

Guest: Sarah Mangelsdorf, Provost
Provost Mangelsdorf reported that the state budget is still looking pretty good.  The current draft of the bill calls for performance metrics that will be determined by the Board of Regents instead of in state statute.  The pay plans for state employees are still in the budget.  She also mentioned that UW System is continuing to look at changing their formula for distributing state funding to campuses.

Guest: Isabelle Girard, Director of Campus Research Cores

The position Isabelle holds is new to campus.  The idea behind this position is to better leverage our shared research resources.  This could result in increased collaboration, increased cross-collaborative grants, and a reduction in redundancy.  Most of our peer institutions have similar programs.  She has been working on a directory of services that will go public at the end of June.  The directory will contain equipment, instruments, databases, consulting or expertise from any discipline.  These cores have to be shared among a substantial user group in order to be included in the directory. 

General Reports
Chair Kevin Niemi asked if ASEC was interested in forming an ad hoc committee on research professor titles.  ASEC indicated interest and Heather will draft a charge.

Secretary of the Academic Staff Heather Daniels reported that the ASEC materials contain a packet of screenshots from the new online performance management system as well as a letter sent to her from scientists regarding the desire for a research professor title.  Heather asked ASEC to let her know whether they would like Shelly Vils Havel to visit again and go through the screenshots.  

Motion to Convene in Closed Session Pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) discuss ASEC chair and vice chair and appointments for continuing Academic Staff Assembly Representatives and Alternates. (Dahlberg). Seconded. Approved.

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

Business

•    Motion to appoint continuing Academic Staff Assembly Representatives and Alternates (Newsom). Seconded. Approved.
•    ASEC voted to elect Kevin Niemi as Chair of ASEC.  ASEC voted to elect Bruno Browning as Vice Chair of ASEC.
•    Academic Staff Priorities Planning Process
ASEC discussed not having any kind of gathering this year.  Instead ASEC will look at inviting committee chairs to visit with ASEC regarding their plans for the coming year.  ASEC will first talk with the co-chairs of CEBC, who will be visiting ASEC at the end of the month.  
•    Topics for Provost
Updates on today’s topics

Guests: John Lucas, Director of University Communications, and Alice Gustafson, APR, (Email Lists)
John and Alice have been co-chairing an internal communication project.  The Working@UW newsletter, language lines, and a statement of the value of communication were all products of this project.  The last product for the project is the email list library.  It is a web interface that can be used by top-level offices for official business messages.  Over 60 email lists are provided that are constantly refreshed.  Governance is one of the areas where lists will be provided.  Current thoughts are to provide emails for the large legislative bodies for each group and also for the chairs and secretaries for the shared governance groups.

Meeting adjourned at 4:34 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff