Academic Staff Assembly (ASA) Minutes
ACADEMIC STAFF ASSEMBLY
Monday, October 8, 2001
272 Bascom Hall (3:30 - 5:00)
A. PROVOST PETER SPEAR CALLED THE MEETING TO ORDER AT 3:35 P.M.
B. AUTOMATIC CONSENT BUSINESS
The minutes of the 9/10/2001 Academic Staff Assembly meeting were approved as presented.
C. PROVOST ACTIVITY REPORT - PETER SPEAR
The provost introduced himself to the Assembly saying that he was delighted
to be back on this campus where he had spent 20 years before going the
University of Colorado. He has recognized the value of the
academic staff since his days as a graduate student.
The pay plan has been approved, with funding for the 3.2% increase the first year through tuition monies. Four finalists have been announced for the School of Business dean, and a search and screen committee for the dean of the Graduate School is being created.
D. GUEST: Cathy Middlecamp, member of the Letters and Science Committee on Academic Staff Issues
Linda Newman described the origins of the 1998 Assembly legislation that required creation of the Committees on Academic Staff Issues (CASIs) in schools and colleges as advisory bodies to the deans. Cathy Middlecamp went on to say that the L&S CASI was formed in 1999 with six members. The first year of the CASI, members spent their efforts establishing an email list and a web page. With the support of Dean Certain, they also worked to educate department chairs about academic staff participation in departmental governance. Guidelines the CASI set up provided a normal expectation that participation in academic staff governance would be expected and accommodated. Another of their first priorities was to establish mid-career awards.
Cathy was enthusiastic about the CASI group effort and energy, and stressed that participation in the CASIs is an excellent way to get involved in governance.
E. COMMITTEES AND REPORTS
1. ASEC ANNOUNCEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES - Linda Newman, Chair
On behalf of the Academic Staff Assembly and ASEC, Linda Newman welcomed Peter Spear to his first Academic Staff Assembly meeting. Linda attended a System Representatives meeting and a campus legislative strategies meeting to talk about contacting the governor and members of the Joint Economic on Employment Relations to encourage their support for the DER pay plan, once it was announced. While not the 4.2% and 4.2% increase requested, the plan of 3.2% and 4.2% seemed reasonable based on the current economy.
ASEC will continue to hold an informal brown bag session on the Friday before each Assembly meeting for any reps and their constituents who wish to attend. ASEC members will also be at the Assembly at 3:00 and others are encouraged to come early for networking.
Cathy Middlecamp and Milo Westler were recommended by ASEC for appointment to the Physical Science/Engineering Area Review Committee.
The Employee Assistance Office offered two tragedy debriefings for academic staff at the request of ASEC.
Guests at recent ASEC meetings were Equity and Diversity Resource Center
Director Luis Pinero, School of Human Ecology Dean Robin Douthitt, UW
Police Chief Sue Riseling, and Special Assistant to the
Chancellor Charlie Hoslet.
Academic staff in the news this month: Steven Krauth and Ron Carda
2. Compensation and Economic Benefits Committee (CEBC) - Ron Carda, Chair
3. Districting and Representation Committee (DRC) - Mary Ray, Chair
Mary described a handout that she will be providing to reps by email on the logic of how districts are organized. She also referred to the DRC web site as a useful resource. (Dan Ross, District 465, interjected that the reps should suggest to their human resources office that academic staff be required to submit email information to payroll so that the university database is more accurate. Mary concurred, but added that any data they are using is about two months behind.)
4. Nominating Committee (NC) - Karen Carlson, Chair
5. Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee (PPPC) - Ann Wallace, Chair
6. Professional Development and Recognition Committee (PDRC) - Belinda Velazquez, Co-chair
Belinda reported that 26 people attended the recent brown bag on governance with Colleen McCabe and Linda Newman as presenters.
The next brown bag on who's who in administration will be held October 16 at noon in 220 Ingraham, and the third in this series on October 26 in Helen White. A grant writing brown bag will be held on Tuesday, November 27 at Union South.
The deadline for Professional Development Awards is March 8, 2002 (for the period July 2002 - December 2002).
7. Legislative Update - Esther Olson
Esther said that there were about 500-600 contacts made to the governor's office in regard to continuation of a unified pay plan. Now, reps and others are encouraged to send a thank you memo to the governor and JCOER committee members. SB 136 and AB 436 allowing conversion of sick leave credits to pay for long-term health care insurance are probably dead for this session of the legislature.
OTHER BUSINESS
A. OLD BUSINESS
B. NEW BUSINESS
1. Peer-to-peer networking - Nellie Laughlin
Nellie is organizing meetings of academic staff according to the work they do and/or job title, since there may often be one or two people in a department or unit doing the same work. She is starting with the Scientist title, and if this proves to be a successful endeavor, she would like to expand it to other category B titles/work groups that already meet.
2. Academic Staff Institute - Greg Iaccarino
An ASEC subcommittee is planning an all-day institute for Assembly reps and Standing Committee members to celebrate governance accomplishments on Friday, April 5, 2002,. The committee is working on a theme and plans to have a keynote speaker and various breakout sessions throughout the day.
3. Prohibited Harassment - Document #275
The prohibited harassment document included in the packet is the document that the Faculty Senate passed with some minor edits to add the words "academic staff" where appropriate. There are a few additional edits to be made as explained by Colleen McCabe. For the academic staff document, reference to an earlier Assembly document will be made at the end.
A motion was made to approve Document #275 with the edits as described. Seconded. The motion carried.
4. Strategic Plan - Linda Newman
ASEC is working on an academic staff response to the campus strategic plan. The intention is to bring a draft to the Assembly with ways to make the plan particularly meaningful to academic staff. A draft should come to the Assembly in November for consideration and discussion in December. (The campus strategic planning document is on the web at www.wisc.edu/improve/planning or a direct link from the chancellor's page.)
GUEST: VICE CHANCELLOR JOHN TORPHY
John presented a summary of the UW share of the state budget. He identified those items that were part of the capital budget. This was a very good capital budget for the Madison campus, with most all the building projects approved. However, Madison is locked into a matching fund situation with any new buildings other than those that are purely academic. The operating budget was still well funded, but the percentage paid for by tuition is higher than we would like.
UW-Madison will now have the second highest nonresident tuition in the Big Ten, a situation that needs to be addressed in the future. Michigan is higher but has more sources of financial aid opportunities for nonresident undergrads.
There were some budget cuts, most significantly a base budget cut of 2.5 million and a 20% reduction in utilities funding. New flexibilities achieved will allow higher levels for executive salaries and the campus can create GPR positions on its own as long we can afford to pay the cost of health care benefits.Meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
Submitted by Colleen McCabe
Secretary of the Academic Staff