CALS Committee on Academic Staff Issues
Minutes for January 15, 2002

Meeting was called to order by Frank Kooistra at 3:05 p.m.

1. Introductions and Opening Remarks

   Budget Update-J. Torphy's staff has said that a worse case scenario would be a 5% base budget cut and J. Torphy said that he can handle 3-3.5% of the base cut from Administration. The remaining 1.5-2% that would be cut from CALS base budget is approximately $900,000. At the Academic Staff Assembly meeting J. Torphy talked about a 10% worse case scenario but said the University may not be hit that hard. The Legislature will be back in session January 22 and more information will be coming after that time. The Deans had a budget retreat in early January and Dean Aberle said that a portion of the reduction would be across the board and the other part would be targeted. Dean Aberle's general philosophy is that the budget cut will be dealt with by attrition and minimal layoffs.

   Compensation Budget Schedule-

   • January 28-Instructions and Form 2A will be distributed to departments.
   • February 8-Form 2A is due in the Business Office with changes.
   • February 13-Merit sheets will be distributed to departments.
   • February 15-Merit sheets are due in the Business Office with changes.
   The Chairs will be told about the schedule at the Chairs' Meeting on January 28th. The Deans will be meeting with each of the department chairs in February and March. At the budget meetings, the Dean is asking each department chair to review the merit recommendations for faculty and do a general review of academic staff. They will also be required to bring a narrative on how to address the base budget cut. The budget will locked on April 11. The College will know the exact amount of the budget reduction after that time. The reduction might not have to be all in the first year.

   Cindy Stauber-Cindy is leaving UW-Madison to take a position with the Connecticut Health Center. She will probably be here until April and will continue to serve on CASI until she leaves.

   Integration of Instructional and Research Academic Staff-An email from Linda Newman was forwarded to the Committee with a questionnaire the Campus will submit in May on Institutional Efforts to Facilitate the Integration of Instructional and Research Academic Staff. She asked for any feedback the CASI might want to provide. No one was really sure exactly what she was asking for so R. Daluge called her for clarification. Linda is looking for anecdotal information on some of the questions, not an answer for each one. The Committee decided to review the questions individually and send comments to F. Kooistra who will compile them and forward them on to Linda.

2. Approval of the Minutes

   B. Wilson made a motion to approve the minutes. B. Jensen second the motion

3. Questions from the Committee

   Update on E. coli-An Advisory Committee reviewed the E. coli instance and use of the Stock Pavilion. There can be no co-mingling of animal and humans when food is being served unless a concrete floor is installed with drainage so the Stock Pavilion can be sanitized. The cost of installing a concrete floor is approximately $100,000. A standing committee will be established to review all scheduled events.

   B. Wilson asked what impact the budget cuts would have on the teaching budget. F. Kooistra said it would be very difficult to cut anything on the teaching side. It will be up to each department to decide how they will handle the budget cuts.

4. Academic Staff Awards Program

   The nominations are due January 25th. None have been received yet but several are in process. A meeting has been scheduled on February 5 to select the recipients.

5. Academic Planning Council Report

   No report.

6. Committee Reports

   Academic Staff Awards and Professional Development-T. Wright reiterated that a meeting had been scheduled to make selections. He would like to see the distribution of the call for nominations improved.

   Communnications, Web-site & Districting-The subcommittee will be meeting January 16 to review the new (retooled) CASI site now hosted on the CALS web server. They will also look at other communications roles including districting.

   Nominations and Mentoring-The committee will be looking at the College Standing Committees to make sure academic staff are represented and then make suggestions to Paul Ludden.

   Personnel Procedures and Compensation-E. Maurer sent out a thank you to the academic staff in the College with the results of the Academic Staff Evaluation Survey and the guidelines for performance evaluations. Three departments are looking for more information on evaluations. A memo was sent to Dean Aberle with the guidelines for performance evaluations and a reminder that evaluations will soon be done.

   Governance-No report.

F. Kooistra handed out the Campus Planning Commission's ranking of capital projects.

Meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.

Submitted 1/18/01
J. Simons