Academic Staff Executive Committee Minutes 09-27-18

Members Present: Bruno Browning; Donna Cole; Aaron Crandall; Jenny Dahlberg; Beth Giles; 

Mallory Musolf; Kevin Niemi, chair; Deb Shapiro; Lindsey Stoddard Cameron

Guests: Bobby Brown, Laurent Heller, Sarah Mangelsdorf, Aphra Mednick, Jeff Russell, 

Patrick Sheehan, Jake Smith, Mark Walters

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

The minutes of September 20, 2018, were approved.

Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Academic Staff, reported that Mercer will be holding an employee focus group to help them determine what questions to ask in the benefits survey.  There will be about 50 people in the focus group selected from volunteers to represent a cross-section of UW-Madison employees who receive benefits.  The faculty, academic staff and university staff governance groups have been asked to select one person to attend the focus group.

Jake Smith, Deputy Secretary of the Academic Staff, reported that the Skills Workshop went well.  The group who attended was very engaged with the content that was presented.

ASEC expressed concern about the number and tone of the messages received regarding parking on the Friday football game.  

Vice Chancellor Laurent Heller discussed a questionnaire he sent to deans asking for information about burdensome administrative processes. Deans will be discussing this topic at their retreat. It is unclear what will come of this, but Laurent is interested in addressing these problems. 

Laurent also discussed the one-page budget report. These reports now exist and have been given to the top administrative staff in schools/colleges/divisions. The report was written in the SFS system. McKinney Austin, Office of Data Management and Analytic Services, is working to move this data to Tableau. This office will be central in UW-Madison’s efforts to upgrade its data reporting. RADAR is the new data portal that will have house all institutional data. 

Provost Sarah Mangelsdorf discussed the Board of Regents Policy on Program Productivity Monitoring. The policy is currently being revised, and they have seen a couple of different drafts. One of the first drafts included a requirement for Ph.D. degrees. The only campuses within UW System with Ph.D. programs are Madison and Milwaukee. UW System has since removed the Ph.D. requirements in the policy.  The current draft does have a requirement for Master’s degrees.  Many, but not all, of the Master’s degrees on campus are awarded as part of Ph.D. program. They are also awarded when either a student leaves a Ph.D. program or a program decides not to have student continue in a Ph.D. program. UW-Madison would not want to increase the number of students receiving Master’s degrees in these cases. The policy change would mean that UW System will be monitoring degree production annually rather than rolling averages. The Provost does not expect the policy to have a significant on UW-Madison undergraduate programs. 

Sarah also discussed UW-Madison’s upcoming accreditation.  Some of the main areas of concern for the campus include pre-requisites and general education requirements (last updated in 1995).  The campus has worked hard to be in compliance around syllabi and qualifications of instructors. An area where UW-Madison is exceling is active learning in large lecture courses.  A self-study report is currently being prepared and will be submitted in January. A student survey required by accreditors will be launched in January.  There will also be a comment period for alums to comment on the self-study.

•October Assembly Agenda

Motion to approve the October Assembly agenda (Crandall) Seconded. Approved. 

Jeff Russell and Aphra Mednick reported on summer session.  They had a great summer with collaboration between support units and academic units. They are going to review the feedback that they have collected. They are continuing to improve summer online course offerings.  They are working on more flexibility for students and making progress towards degree completion.

They discussed early start programs.  It is the second year of the International Student Summer Institute, an early start program. In 2019, they are looking at doing an umbrella program for any freshmen who wants to start early. There would be five online courses available. The plan is that the freshmen taking the courses would move in a few days early on campus to have an in-person wrap up experience. Right now 22% of course offerings are online, with 35% of students taking courses online. Scholarship funding will increase next year, and campus housing for students taking a course in person in the summer will be available. They were able to meet all student financial aid needs this summer. They are also working on the Summer Finish Program, which is for students who have enough credits to graduate after completing courses in the summer. There are scholarships available for this program. They are making sure there are enough student services offered in the summer. They are also funding a summer session advisor position.

Mark Walters and Patrick Sheehan discussed the Board of Regents resolution on sexual harassment and assault allegations. UW-Madison is currently working to develop its own policy changes that will meet the core guidance of the Board of Regents and guidance from UW System. They have sent the draft materials to Board of Regents that will be presented at the board meeting next week. They asked ASEC for feedback on the draft changes and look forward to working with governance through this process. 

Meeting adjourned at 4:27 p.m.