Present: R. Daluge, L. Davis, L. Heideman, D. Hogg, K. Holtgraver, B. Hudelson,
F. Kooistra, R. Monson, M. Theis, M. Westler, B. Wilson, R. Wolkowski, and
T. Wright.
Meeting was called to order by Frank Kooistra at 8:35 a.m.
1. Opening Remarks
F. Kooistra introduced D. Hogg who talked about the budget.
2. UW Budget Situation CALS Plan
UW System received a $250M budget cut. The proposed tuition increase would generate $150M. UW-Madison’s portion of the remaining $100M cut will be 40% or $40M. CALS started a planning exercise early this year with a 3% and 6.3% scenario. There are seven principals the College will follow to determine where the cuts will occur.
1) Keep the strategic plan in mind.
2) Protect programs and functions critical to CALS.
3) Strategic reductions will not be across the board.
4) Protect the departments as much as possible. Larger cuts will be taken from
non-department units (research and teaching).
5) Every unit will participate in the cuts, including Administration. Administration
will have larger cuts.
6) Keep layoffs to a minimum.
7) Reduction in faculty numbers will be by attrition.
Regarding department cuts, M. Dentine has a method for allocating budgets from 104 funds and R. Barrows has done the same on the teaching side. Regarding cuts outside the departments, the College has eliminated funding to the Land Tenure Center. A committee is looking at reorganization of the Land Tenure Center. The Governor has asked for a cut in FTE’s. CALS will have to reduce 15 faculty positions and 20 academic staff and classified positions over the next two years. Faculty positions will be reduced through retirements. Dean Aberle does now want to eliminate hiring at this time. There are some areas that are critical.
R. Daluge said that if the tuition increase is not as large as they say, the budget could get very rough. F. Kooistra said that question was asked of D. Bazzell. He said they were hoping to get at least 10% of the proposed 18-19%. They could also raise out-of-state and graduate tuition. There are other ways to increase revenue. J. Torphy said that full-time tuition is now based on 12 credits. He predicted that all campuses will soon be going to a per credit basis. The average student carries 14½ credits per semester. R. Daluge pointed out that there will be additional administrative costs associated with monitoring student accounts when they add and drop courses.
CALS had to submit a report regarding the 35 FTE reductions. The departments were notified of this so they could anticipate what was coming. Most of the layoffs will be classified positions. They will be given at-risk letters and have access to other positions on campus. Most of the academic staff and classified positions that were eliminated were open positions.
The question was asked whether the Center for Dairy Profitability was here to stay. There was an unsuccessful search for director and they are now weighing their options. Most of their money comes from UW-Extension and their budget situation is not as critical as ours.
Several faculty have been hired in CALS recently as cluster hires. Their salary comes from the Madison Initiative which is funded by WARF and the UW Foundation. If they leave campus, their positions will be eliminated.
D. Hogg has not heard anything about a pay plan and it is unlikely there will be a pay plan in the second year of the biennium.
The UW Police Department did not get a reduction in their budget. Campus administration got an 8% reduction, other units got a 2-6% reduction, and academic units got a 4-6½% reduction. CALS and the Medical School both got a 6½% reduction. State agency reductions were less because they do not have as much flexibility as the university. If there are any additional cuts there will be layoffs. UW System is taking 38% of the cuts and they are 9% of the budget.
3. College Update
Facilities Report—All building projects were put on hold and most have now been released. The Soil and Plant Analysis Lab has been released and will begin construction in May or June. Microbial Sciences has been released and is approaching 35% design. The Walnut Street Greenhouse is ready to go. There is a small problem with funding but they are working with the architect to get it back on budget. Integrated Dairy has been released and a preconstruction meeting is scheduled next week. Integrated Dairy, Phase II was the only 03-05 project that got funded. Biological Systems Engineering, Phase II is on hold.
Governance Survey—The governance survey was mailed last week. Dean Aberle eliminated two questions about academic staff being part of departmental executive committees.
4. Approval of Minutes
M. Theis made a motion to approve the minutes. R. Daluge seconded the motion.
5. Questions from the committee
Kathy Holtgraver asked why she had not been included in the Equity and Diversity Committee meetings. The joint committee she served on with CASI and Equity and Diversity will meet once a year regarding supervisory issues.
6. Lunch Meeting of CASI’s
The Academic Staff Issues Forum is Thursday, April 10, at Union South. F. Kooistra and B. Jensen are not able to attend. T. Wright is planning on attending.
7. Nomination to the APC
R. Wolkowski’s term on the APC is ending. Call for nominations will go out soon. We should know by the next meeting if there are any nominations. The academic staff representative does not need a particular title. The position is usually held by a teaching type academic staff. It is useful to have an understanding of the College.
8. Academic Planning Council Report
R. Wolkowski said the APC is currently ranking position requests for 2003-04. At the last meeting each position was given a high, medium, or low ranking. At the next meeting there will by an opportunity to raise those in the two lower categories to a higher category. The APC will then rank the positions in the high category and make a recommendation to Dean Aberle. Because of the budget situation, they don’t know how many, if any, will be released. There may be a staggered release.
R. Wolkowski talked about some of the issues the APC has been involved with this year. They spent two meetings discussing the Land Tenure Center. The trend for funding the LTC over the last several years has been shifting from grants to College support. W. Bleam in Soil Science has been looking at the agroecology cluster and how that program might be developed. They also look at curriculum changes, name changes, etc.
9. Committee Reports
Academic Staff Awards and PD—The committee met via email to rank the Professional Development Grant Program submissions. Three were submitted from CALS.
Communications, Website & Districting—The CASI agendas are up to date on the web. There will be other cosmetic changes and links that should be done this month. An email will be sent to CASI when the changes have been made.
Nominations and Mentoring—R. Daluge distributed a report from the subcommittee. They recommend the College offer a quarterly orientation for new academic staff that would be jointly conducted by the CASI and Human Resources. They also recommend that the CASI and Human Resources annually hold a seminar on promotions and base adjustment, different types of appointments available, etc. They do not recommend that CALS establish a separate mentoring program but encourage participation in the campus-wide mentoring program.
A list of CALS Committees with recommendations for academic staff representation was also distributed. The committee made a motion to add academic staff to these committee and B. Wilson second the motion. Two years ago recommendations were sent to P. Ludden, who discussed them with Dean Aberle. Several of those recommendations were accepted and implemented. A copy of those recommendations will be sent the CASI. There was discussion of whether the whole list should be submitted as is or if they should be prioritized. It was moved to table the list until the next meeting so everyone has time to look it over before taking action. M. Theis seconded the motion.
Personnel Procedures and Compensations—No report.
Governance—Governance survey was sent out.
10. Adjourn
Folders for new academic staff members were distributed. Meeting adjourned
at
10:05 a.m.
Submitted 4/9/03
J. Simons