ACADEMIC STAFF COUNCIL
FULL COUNCIL MINUTES
MARCH 23, 2004
104 WING
3:00pm-4:37pm 

Present:  Wirkus, Walls, Torstveit, Karpinsky, Herling, Reinert, Goudie, Sweetman, Naber, Weiland 

Excused:  Johnson-Sage 

I.                     Call to order 3:00pm. 

II.                   Approval of Minutes M/S/P 

III.                  Committee Reports 

a.     Weiland reported on the last Madison AC Staff Rep meeting.  River Falls will be hosting the 2005 Leadership Conference, and the AC Staff Reps would like to have the campuses vocalize their issues when electing the new UWS president. 

b.     Walls reported for the Professional Development Committee.  Deon Nontelle was awarded the Regents Excellence Award.  Excellence Award nominations are due March 25, and Professional Development proposals are due March 24. 

c.      Scott Rohde reported for President Lyall’s Compensation Advisory Committee.  Insurance payments may possibly be reduced to the same amount as other units.  For the next fiscal year, there will be a 1.43% raise across the board for classified staff and a $250 one-time lump sum payment to classified groups to help pay for health insurance, and the committee is asking for parity.  The committee will also recommend to the regents one additional floating holiday for classified staff. 

IV.               Meeting with Chancellor Hastad.

a.     Challenging issues facing UWL are the budget and leverage of the money we do have to create more money.  Promising issues are keeping the focus on educating students, continuing to be an attractive campus, high employee retention rate, and building of a new residence hall (to begin at the end of summer). 

b.     The students chose to have no Academic Staff Council members, professional advisors, or Faculty Senate members on the Oversight Committee.  However, the Chancellor will listen to input from campus governance groups, the Provost, Ron Lostetter, etc.  It is not yet definite where the funding will come from, but all initiatives will be matched by UWL. 

c.      The Chancellor is becoming more external, working to find resources and fundraising with Kenna Christians.  The Provost has been becoming familiar with campus issues and becoming campus-oriented. 

d.     The Chancellor would like the new UWS president to have direct campus experience (president/chancellor of a 4-year campus), understand the culture of Wisconsin higher education, not come from a collective bargaining environment, enjoy working with the Legislature, realize we are part of a system, and have experience at a comprehensive campus. 

e.     The Chancellor has no specific projects for the ASC to focus on in the next year.  However, he offers advice: come to an agreement as a Council about what is important to accomplish, and keep the ASC agenda small so these tasks can be accomplished. 

f.        The Strategic Plan is online.

V.                 Herling will compose a letter of feedback to the Chancellor from the ASC regarding the Advising Initiate. 

a.     Reinert would like to see multicultural and diversity training for advisors and a center that is accessible to all people.

b.     Wirkus reports concerns that current advisors weren’t asked for feedback/input, and suggests improving faculty training in advising.

c.      Naber suggests an advisory board for the advising center to include interested persons such as assistants to the deans, the Disability Resource Center, Student Services, etc.

d.     Goudie suggests using the Campus Connection and Eagle Connection to help facilitate advising.

VI.               Search and Screen Updates.  Dean of CLS: interviewing finalists.  Dean of EESHR: reviewing files of applicants.  Associate Dean of SAH: interviewing soon.

VII.              Faculty Senate Meeting Volunteers

a.     April 8: Reinert

b.     April 22: ?

c.      April 29: Karpinsky

d.     May 6: Naber

VIII.            Mike Nelson has created an AdHoc committee to deal with IAS career progression issues in the College of SAH.  Peggy Denton is the Chair. 

IX.               The Faculty Senate is not in favor of creating UComms.  The ASC will discuss this on April 13.

X.                 Updates on the white paper on student wellness requested by Provost Hitch will be given on April 13.

XI.               Committee volunteers for next year will be solicited.  Review on April 6.  Email joint committee members to find those interested in serving one more year.

XII.              Adjourned:  4:37pm 

Respectfully Submitted,
Sarah Westbrook, PA