Academic Staff Assembly (ASA) Minutes
Approved 12-12 -5
MINUTES
ACADEMIC STAFF ASSEMBLY
Monday, 10 October 2005
272 Bascom Hall (3:30-4:30 pm)
Provost Peter Spear called the meeting to order at 3:35 pm.
AUTOMATIC CONSENT BUSINESS
The minutes of the 9/12/2005 Academic Staff Assembly meeting were approved.
Committee Reports
Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) - Frank Kooistra, chair
http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/acstaff/asec.html; https://lists.wisc.edu/read/?forum=assembly.
Frank Kooistra announced that the November Assembly meeting would be a
celebration of 20 years of academic staff governance. At the Assembly
meeting, JoAnn Elder will speak about the early organizational days of
governance. The first ASEC chair, Steve Saffian, will talk about his role.
Frank will speak as current chair. Read Gilgen will be the emcee and do
other introductions of past leaders. We will all then adjourn to room
260 Bascom for refreshments. Former standing committee members of the
Assembly will be invited from as far back as 1987.
Search and screen committees are still involved with the Medical School dean and the provost searches. The CALS dean candidates have completed their interviews. An announcement should be forthcoming.
Former professor Steve Bauman will replace Roger Howard as an ombuds.
There is a new academic staff excellence award beginning this year. The Martha Casey Award for Dedicated Service to the University will honor a long-time, hard-working professional, who works mostly behind the scenes. The call for nominations for all the campus awards will come out in November.
ASEC sent certificates of appreciation to groups led by Catherine Stevens and Ken Frazier for their efforts to provide relief to Hurricane Katrina victims.
The ad hoc Communication Committee of Lisa Jansen and Greg Iaccarino met with ASEC to review their plans for this fall. ASEC thanked them for their work and agreed to dissolve the committee following the February pre-Assembly meeting.
Frank thanked provost Peter Spear for his work with ASEC and the Assembly. This is Peter's last Assembly meeting before he retires at the end of the month.
Compensation and Economic Benefits Committee (CEBC) - Bill Steffenhagen,
chair
http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/acstaff/cebc/index2.htm
Priorities for the committee this year will be to try to raise the salary
maxima for Category A academic staff and to put in place series definitions
for Program Managers. The committee will also look at broadening the criteria
for the Distinguished Prefix, so more academic staff may be eligible.
Bill reported on the System Benefits Advisory Board of which he is a member. In response to the Regents resolution on sick leave reporting, the board was in favor of the 10-day trigger. For those enrolled in the ERA program, there will now be a grace period where funds from one year may be carried over 2.5 months into the next year (until March 15). Dentacare premiums will be going up 9%. Epic Insurance will have an open enrollment period, but if you dropped this coverage previously, you cannot reenroll.
As president of ASPRO, Bill and lobbyist Janet Swandby met with the Board of Regents president David Walsh and vice-president Mark Bradley to provide them with data about academic staff. Walsh was concerned about the length of time it takes to remove someone from the payroll once there has been a decision to terminate.
Districting and Representation Committee (DRC) - Charlene Krembs, chair
http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/acstaff/comopp/drc.html
Charlene presented the DRC's annual report. She thanked her committee
members for their hard work and dedication.
Nominating Committee - Mary Ray, chair
http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/acstaff/comopp/nc.html
Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee (PPPC) - Carla Love and John
Mather, co-chairs
http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/acstaff/pppc/index.htm
Professional Development and Recognition Committee (PDRC) - Donna Cole
and Lisa Jansen, co-chairs
http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/acstaff/pdrc/index.html
Regent resolutions on Personnel Policies - Steve Lund
At the July Regents meeting, the BOR suspended backup appointments for
new academic staff hired into Limited appointments, pending further review.
Current employees moved into Limited status have statutory rights to backup
appointments. UW-Madison has 450 Limited employees.
The present thinking is that providing fixed term appointments for outside Limited staff is not a good solution, rather to have notice periods that are either set or negotiated at the time of hire to provide some stability in case the job does not work out for either party.
Current state law does not require removal of an employee when there is a conviction for a crime not related to the job. The state does not pay employees who are incarcerated and cannot work, though they are entitled to use an accrued vacation.
The Regents imposed a 5-day trigger for sick leave reporting for university employees. This is stricter than governance groups had recommended - and much stricter than other state agency requirements.
The Legislative Audit Bureau will be conducting a review of System personnel policies and procedures, looking at use of limited appointments, backups, treatment of felons, sick leave, sabbaticals, buyouts, etc.
BUSINESS
Telecommuting policy - for discussion
Steve Lund explained that this policy was specifically for those employees
authorized with consistent telecommuting privileges, not for the occasional
work-at-home person. The policy is primarily a risk management document
to delineate responsibilities and liabilities for equipment used at home.
PROVOST Report, Peter Spear
Peter said in parting that it had been a pleasure to work with academic
staff during his time as provost. He regretted that there may be heavy-handed
responses to one isolated personnel incident. He wished everyone all the
best as he introduced Virginia Sapiro, who will take over his role at
the interim provost.
Meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.
Submitted by Colleen McCabe,
Secretary of the Academic Staff