CALS Committee on Academic Staff Issues
Minutes for October 2, 2001

Meeting was called to order by Frank Kooistra at 2:05 p.m.

1. Introductions and Opening Remarks

   Introductions were made.

   Since there are several new CASI members, F. Kooistra briefly summarized how CASI is organized. This committee meets three times each semester and is officially chaired by the Dean. The Dean has delegated that responsibility to F. Kooistra. The by-laws require a co-chair and B. Holden was elected last year. There are ten committee members elected from six wards and the Dean appoints three members in Ward VII. The wards are set up by title. Ex-officios are L. Heideman (personnel policies and procedures) and R. Wolkowski (elected representative to APC).

2. College Update

   The pay plan should be approved shortly. There was a movement to separate academic staff from faculty but it was not successful. The proposed increase for 2001-02 is 3.2% retroactive to July 1, 2001. This increase is completely financed by the tuition increase. The College has already gone through a 3% exercise with the departments and may keep the .2% to use as awards. It is hoped the increases will take effect with the December payroll. Two checks will be issued-regular payroll and the retroactive payroll.

   The College has a budget of $46M. Budgetarily the College is pretty stable. Usually there is an overdraft of approximately $400,000. This last year the overdraft was $300,000.

   Capital Budget. The projects scheduled for the 01-03 biennium are the Integrated Dairy Facility at Marshfield, the Soil and Plant Analysis Lab, and Biostar, which consists of the Genetics/Biotech Addition, Microbial Sciences, Biochemistry Addition, and a 4th building to be determined). Projects that will be reviewed for the 03-05 biennium are Biological Systems Engineering, Walnut Street Greenhouse, and the Integrated Dairy Facility, Phase II (Arlington). $90M has already been committed for the 03-05 biennium; usually the Campus only gets $40M. The $90M does not include any new requests for that biennium. Babcock Hall, Phase II has been on the list for eight years. The Governor promised the meat industry a new Meats Lab. $20M is in the budget for that project.

3. Questions from the Committee

   Is the SoHE project going ahead? This project is two phases. Phase I involves tearing down the Preschool Lab and Management House and building a large addition with underground parking. Phase II is to remodel the old building. This building has not been enumerated and F. Kooistra didn't know when it would start.

   Biochemistry and the Enzyme Institute will house Bacteriology when the Microbial Sciences project begins. Remodeling will start next summer to get the teaching labs ready. Research programs will start moving next year.

4. Update from the Dean

   The building program for the College looks good. The greenhouse problem should be solved shortly. Plant Sciences is a long-term priority-probably out eight years.

   JOCER is meeting tomorrow and is expected to ratify a 3.2% increase for faculty and academic staff.

   Last year the College hired 18 new faculty. This year 8-10 will be coming. By the end of 2002, 25% of CALS faculty will have been hired in the last 5 years. The College has released 6 positions this year. CALS is the lead college for 3 clusters, each having 3 positions-Agroecology, Symbiosis, and Molecular Biometry. The Land Use, Structural Biology, Genomics, and Chemical Biology clusters each have 1 position to fill.

   Resident tuition at UW-Madison is among the lowest in the Big Ten; non-resident; undergraduate tuition is among the highest. Since the university gets a disproportionate share of minority students from out of state, the higher tuition may have an impact on the University's ability to attract minority students. The question was asked whether changes in financial aid will address the higher tuition. The Madison Plan is already included in financial aid and it helps with resident tuition not major increases in non-resident tuition.

5. Review of the Committee Appointments

   A copy of last year's subcommittees and who served on them was passed out. The following committees have completed their work: Bylaws, Performance Evaluations, and Academic Staff Climate Survey.

   Committee members should select committees they would like to serve on and let J. Simons know before the next meeting (November 7).

   The Academic Staff Assembly is looking for good members and CASI representatives may be contacted about serving.

Meeting adjourned at 3:35 p.m.

Submitted 10/8/01
J. Simons