Academic Staff Council Minutes - February 23, 2009
Meeting
called to order at 3:07pm.
Present:
Sasaki, Dodge, Leahy, Kolkmeier, Robinson, Van Roosenbeek,
Vahala,
Excused: Lo, Bean-Thompson,
Guests: Jennifer Wilson and Joy
Gutknecht (Human Resources), Larry Sleznikow (Education
Technologies)
I. Minutes
Approval
of Minutes: First, Vahala, Second, Sasaki.
APPROVED.
II. Human
Resources
Title Changes in Campus
Connection – HR is
working with Sue Lee at the Campus Connection.
They are hoping to run the information in July and again
in September.
Grievance – Recommendation 1:
getting rid of emergency hires.
UWL has eliminated emergency hires. Everyone being hired
at UWL will be going through a search. However, if we have a
position that is unique enough and have someone that fits the
positions, we will do a direct hire.
If a position needs to be filled temporarily, there would
be specific recruitment criteria and the person hired had to be
aware that the position would only be lasting a specific amount
of time.
Recommendation 2:
reappointment process.
Dean and division officers are reminded about
reappointment via email.
Human Resources is willing to help the person who must
have that conversation and make sure nothing is missed in the
conversation. HR
will send Chair Van Roosenbeek a copy of the timeline the dean
and division officers will receive.
Recommendation 3:
training for supervisors.
HR has done some training for department chairs. They
recently held workshops on FMLA for employees and for
supervisors. The HR
website has an area for supervisors.
Academic Staff Pool –
Is in the works. It is
hoped that it will be operational on June 1, 2009.
PeopleAdmin will also be used for typical searches.
Consultative Layoff Committee –
Should the Council
get the committee ready to meet? This is not being recommended
right now.
Miscellaneous –
If a position is lost and
another employee takes on additional job responsibilities from
that job, it needs to be documented.
Supervisors need to be realistic as to what one person
can take on.
-If there
is no meeting with the supervisor during the IDP process, that
fact can be noted by the employee.
New Employee Orientation –
The Council would
like to keep doing this.
It was well received last year.
As long as there is someone from the Council who can work
with Human Resources, they would like to continue this also.
New Faculty Social –
New faculty and IAS have a
social in August.
Can Academic Staff also be invited to the social? The Chancellor
or Betsy Morgan would be best to contact for information.
IAS policy changes –
The IAS committee has done
some work but it hasn’t been sent to Human Resources.
They have been focusing on contracts.
Sick Leave –
Is the new system helpful and
money saving? This was done to be in compliant with the Fair
Labor Standards Act.
III.
Budget
The
Chancellor had an open forum on Friday.
It is looking like UWL will be cutting $5.35 million over
two years. JPB has already cut $1.6 million. UW System will be
covering this year’s lapse.
President Reilly and the Chancellors may sit down with
the Governor to talk about how taking money from reserves would
affect students.
There is talk of taking money from reserves for financial aid.
Chancellor Gow also talked about the Star Fund which is
used to retain employees and has $15 million in it.
It seems that it is used by UW-Madison.
On February 19th, the proposal for the
academic building was out for bid; we should know by March 2nd.
Meeting
adjourned at 4:50pm.