Greetings! Another busy month for our senate. Don’t forget that the three Senates are hosting a celebration for the one-year anniversary of Stout’s polytechnic designation today from 1-2 pm, in Ballroom A of the Memorial Student Center. I and the other campus leaders will speak right away at 1 pm then we’ll have some cake and punch to celebrate, so I hope you can join us!
With that said, let’s get right into it. Here’s a rundown of some of the important meetings I participated in representing our senate:
On February 14, the University of Wisconsin System Academic Staff Representatives Council (ASRC) met in Madison. As they were predicting a big snow storm around Madison, and myself and the Reps from Eau Claire and River Falls did not want to risk getting stuck in Madison on Valentine’s Day, we stayed home and arranged to phone in and join the meeting via teleconference.
Senior Vice President Rebecca Martin, Ron Singer, and Bob Jokisch from UW System Administration joined the meeting at 10:30 following the usual private discussion among Academic Staff Representatives.
The first agenda item was a discussion of issues raised by the Academic Staff Reps. ASRC Chair Dave Carlson noted two issues. The first was the interest of academic staff in having input in the evaluation of their supervisors, which is not always common. The second issue was the Shared Governance Protocol. On the second issue, Ron Singer noted that at the Faculty Reps meeting, they planned to review the present document and make wording changes based on the comments from campus governance groups. Ron also noted that System Administration plans to move forward with the protocol and see how this works.
Rebecca Martin next addressed questions about Pay Plan. Rebecca noted that with the $650 million budget deficit, it does not appear likely that the 1.5% supplemental pay plan will move forward, but we should know more in the next several weeks. It is also pretty clear that with the size of the deficit, there will be a budget repair bill.
The next agenda item was the Growth Agenda Action Steps. Rebecca Martin noted that academic staff were represented on the Strategic Framework think tanks. The President and the Chancellors reviewed the recommendations from these think tanks and selected 10 Action Steps. In response to questions, Rebecca clarified that these Action Steps are not mandates and will need to be further studied at each institution to determine if and how they will be implemented. During the discussion, there was agreement on the importance of getting input from various campus experts in studying these Action Steps.
There was also discussion on how to increase the role of academic staff in systemwide discussions such as the Strategic Framework, and it was agreed that Academic Affairs would make clear in the future that we are looking for governance input as part of the process. There was also concerns raised about the workload impact of these Action Steps on academic staff with the hiring freeze, and the Academic Staff Reps suggested that early assessment should be done to insure success and the efficient use of resources.
The next agenda item was the list of Systemwide Committees shared earlier with the Faculty and Academic Staff Reps and which committees they are most interested in for governance involvement. Rebecca Martin noted that she would like to come to the Academic Staff Reps for nominations for the systemwide committees of interest and would also seek nominations from the Faculty Reps and from campuses. The Academic Staff Reps listed the Compensation Advisory Committee and the Fringe Benefits Advisory Committee as two committees of interest for governance representation.
The Academic Staff Reps next discussed how they have been requesting data on academic staff by type of appointment (fixed term, multi-year, probationary) as part of their concerns about UPG 3.05. They asked UW System Admin to help inform campus Human Resource Directors that they are trying to collect this data by campus and Vicki Kenyon from UWSA HR suggested that they could let campus HR directors know about this through their monthly teleconference.
Dave Giroux next provided an update on legislative issues. Dave informed the Academic Staff Reps that UWSA Communications and External Relations posts bill positions on their web site. His office tries to focus on bills affecting the UW System and those bills likely to go somewhere. Dave also noted that Wednesday, March 5 is the Posters in the Rotunda in the Capital. Dave’s office has monthly teleconferences with Campus Public Information Officers and Legislative Liaisons on legislative issues. He offered to share the list of Campus Public Information Officers and Legislative Liaisons with the Academic Staff Reps. Finally, Dave encouraged more interaction between faculty, academic staff, and students and their legislators through coordinated efforts on campus.
The meeting ended following further discussion among Academic Staff Representatives.
On February 16, I participated in the meeting of the Stout Foundation Board. My remarks are listed below. I just wanted to mention that this board is very dedicated and concerned about helping the university and it is a pleasure to participate in their meeting deliberations!
On February 26, the Administrative Leadership Team had a rather lengthy discussion with Robyn Waters, the Cabot Executive for the campus. Ms. Waters, who calls herself a “trendmaster” was a very engaging speaker and gave Stout’s Leadership Team much to think about as we lead the university into the future. I hope many of you also got a chance to hear and interact with her.
On March 3, the Chancellor’s Advisory Council met. First, the two campus master plan scenario proposals were presented and discussed. George Acker and the consultants were also be presenting to other campus groups, as well as two open campus forums. Meridith Wentz then provided an executive summary highlighting the results from the fall 2003-2005 cohort retention study. The meeting was concluded with announcements including that Mary Hopkins-Best announced that the School of Education has been accepted as a NCATE candidate. Chancellor Sorensen reminded everyone that the Baldrige logo must be included on all of our publications, along with the Polytechnic designation.
Other meetings I participated in during the month included:
- 2/18: Retention Steering Group
- 2/18: Monthly meeting with Chancellor
- 2/20: Retention Steering Group
- 2/20: Open Forum on Emergency Issues
- 2/22: Meeting of the 3 senates leaders
- 2/25: Chancellor’s Budget Forum
- 2/26: Senate Executive Committee
- 2/27: Retention Steering Group met with FYE Steering Team
- 2/27: Chancellor’s Budget Forum
- 2/29: Academic Staff Personnel Committee
- 3/4: Retention Steering Group met with FYE Hall Directors
- 3/5: Senate Elections Committee
- 3/7: Chancellor’s Coalition on Problem Drinking
- 3/10: Strategic Planning Group
That’s it for now. See you all this afternoon!
Dennis Shaw, 2007-2008 Chair
Senate of Academic Staff
