MINUTES Approved November 13, 2006
ACADEMIC STAFF ASSEMBLY
Monday, 10 October 2006
272 Bascom Hall (3:30-5:10 pm)
Provost Patrick Farrell called the meeting to order at 3:30 pm.
AUTOMATIC CONSENT BUSINESS
The minutes of the 9/11/2006 Academic Staff Assembly meeting were approved.
Chancellor John D. Wiley on the State of the University
The chancellor talked about the 5th year progress report on the 10-year strategic plan. A significant statistic is the average time-to-degree of 4.17 years, even including the 5-year programs. Graduation rate is at 78%. The chancellor will be forming a committee to deal with the next two-year study for reaccredidation. The facilities master plan is on track. We are halfway through the 25-year plan of building and improvements. The new University Square project will consist one-million square feet of retail, student organization and campus administration space, and condos. The biggest challenge now is our budget. If Governor Doyle is reelected, he has promised that funding for higher education will be a priority. But, with a continuing state budget deficit, there is not much new money to go around. President Reilly is pushing his growth agenda for the System, but UW-Madison is not a part of it. We are already taking as many freshmen as we have capacity for. Access is a bigger concern for legislators. Madison supports the role of other System schools as appropriate to many Wisconsin students. The Madison Connection program and transfer agreements are in place that will allow students to come to UW-Madison as sophomores and juniors. We need to do a better job of explaining access issues to the public. The proposed marriage amendment, if passed, will be detrimental to recruitment and retention. At the recent CEO conference, two schools had the most CEOs, notably UW-Madison and Harvard. Chancellor Wiley asked: what is it about our campus that produces so many business leaders?
STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS
Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) – Read Gilgen, chair
http://acstaff.wisc.edu/asec.html; https://lists.wisc.edu/read/?forum=assembly
Bruce Beck has been appointed to fill Karen Schwarz’s unexpired term on ASEC through June 30, 2007. Read gave a synopsis of his meeting with other System representatives. They heard about background check policies, the growth agenda, the LAB report to be released this week. ASEC will be discussing these issues in coming meetings.
Compensation and Economic Benefits Committee – Karen Tusack, chair
Reminder of the Resource and Benefits Fair at Memorial Union on October 12.
Nominating Committee – Mary Ray, chair
Anyone interested in being considered for a Standing Committee slate should contact Mary. The NC is also looking for someone willing to serve on the Labor Licensing Policies Committee.
Professional Development and Recognition Committee - Lisa Jansen, co-chairhttp://acstaff.wisc.edu/pdrc/index.html
Lisa shared highlights of the PDRC annual report. Last year there were 94 grant proposals, of which 43 were funded. The 2006-07 Excellence Awards announcement will be coming out soon.
BUSINESS
Collective Bargaining – subcommittee report
Janice Czyscon, a member of the subcommittee, presented the report conclusions as a result of several meetings over the summer. It was decided that ASEC would put the report in the form of a resolution to be voted on by the Assembly at a later date.
Background checks – Steve Lund, Lisa Rutherford, Sue Riseling, Mark Walters
Steve Lund said that doing criminal background checks for all employees is becoming standard practice at many other universities. UW System has mandated that the campuses have a policy that conforms to a draft System has devised. All new hires will be checked. There is also a provision for “periodic checks” of employees with access to “sensitive data.” Deans would designate a background check coordinator to keep the discovered information confidential and consistently reported. If a felony charge or conviction is found, the coordinator would check with the Office of Human Resources to see if the information is relevant to the job. State law prohibits discrimination if the crime is not substantially related to the job duties. Self-reporting is also a component of the background check policy.
Assembly members had questions about definitions of periodic checks and sensitive data. (Still to be clarified.) What if staff move to new jobs within the campus? (There will be a check.) Are appeals rights still in place? (Yes) Where will the funding come from? (Each unit, though not an expensive proposition). What is considered “substantially related” to the job? (“opportunity” to commit a similar crime.)
Read mentioned that governance was not given much opportunity for input early in System’s decision to go forward with this policy.
It was suggested that all PVLs state that background checks would be required for new hires.
PROVOST REPORT – Patrick V. Farrell
The provost said the System was still getting feedback on UWS 7 and 11 (policy on dismissal of convicted felons), but they would likely be passed by the Regents at their November meeting. The Regents endorsed a NO vote on the marriage amendment.
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting adjourned at 5:10 p.m.
Submitted by Colleen McCabe
Secretary of the Academic Staff