June 15, 2026 – Academic Staff Committee (ASC) – Minutes

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Time: Monday at 10:00 a.m.
Location: Microsoft Teams and Lubar N440

Attendance

Present: R. Edwards, K. Esguerra, J. Herriges, T. Joosten, N. Oswald, A. Schmidt
Guests: Tina Freiburger

I. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Chair J. Herriges at 10:01 a.m.

The agenda was approved as presented.
The minutes of June 1, 2026, meeting were approved as presented.

III. Persons Who Wish to be Heard

None.

IV. Chair’s Report

J. Herriges met with Interim Provost Tina Freiburger and discussed several items: 1. Process for creating or revising AS policies and what are safeguards when it comes to involvement by campus leadership or legal. These are documents created for and by academic staff and ASC wants to make sure we are involved with any updates, not presented updates. ASC will take input, guidance and suggestions from other entities, but we are to be the initiators. and included in the process. Process is equal to outcome. T. Freiburger noted that anyone can work with the documents but agreed it would be ideal to have AS input from the start. Topics and changes come from a variety of sources such as state government, and we may need to act on them from where they start. 2. Can ASC work with the deans and campus administration so that they become familiar with governance guidelines since they often handle position contracts? ASC would like deans to work with us and be an advocate for academic staff. T. Freiburger said deans are familiar with policy and advocate for academic staff as much as they can within their budget limits. HR has a different interpretation of keeping indefinite appointments and suggested that ASC work with HR on their interpretation. T. Freiburger pointed out that UW Madison’s policy is clear and not contradictory like UWM. J. Herriges was informed that HR could not use Workday to find the statistics requested by ASC (number of fixed term with over ten years of service who have not been offered multi-year contracts and number of academic staff with multi-year contracts for over 15 and 20 years) and asked T. Freiburger if deans, colleges or schools may be able to help. She said deans do not have access to numbers either and have difficulty getting requested statistics from HR. J. Herriges told T. Freiburger that research of contract types at peer institutions was conducted and ASC is reviewing results and analyzing academic staff governance history and will share with the AS Senate in fall. T. Freiburger encouraged ASC to be strategic about it and set priorities.
ASC discussed creating a survey to ask academic staff about contracts since HR has not been able to provide data. They plan to discuss policies regarding academic staff contracts with human resources. ASC agreed to request data on contracts for academic staff in the College of Letters and Science from the College.

V. Guests

  1. Interim Provost T. Freiburger
    Interim Provost T. Freiburger shared some highlights from the Board of Regents June meeting. She is currently working with her team on goals in Academic Affairs and will share with campus later this summer. The L&S Dean search timeline is being slowed so allow the permanent provost to be named and involved in the selection of the dean. Discussion about the Realignment Workgroup’s report and recommendations. Interim Provost T. Freiburger will not make decisions until after reviewing the report thoroughly and talking with stakeholders about potential implications of each scenario.

VI. Unfinished Business

  1. Proposed revisions to Academic Staff Personnel Policies and Procedures Chapters 106, 109, and 110 – Item postponed until further notice from Legal Affairs.
  2. Review Academic Staff Appointment Types and Contract Term Comparisons to Peer Institutions submitted by NIAS and IRAS Subcommittees – ASC charged the workgroup to draft a presentation for review by ASC for expected presentation to the AS Senate in September.
  3. ASPPP Proposed Chapter 114: Instructional Academic Staff Workload – J. Herriges asked the Instructional and Research Academic Staff Subcommittee to review the draft Chapter and return feedback to ASC by September. No update.
  4. Review Academic Staff Personnel Policies and Procedures Chapter 108: Notice Periods – Deferred.

VII. New Business

  1. ASC Feedback – Chancellor’s Inauguration (September 25) – J. Herriges invited ASC to submit ideas to her directly.
  2. Approve AS Senate Agenda (July 14) – N. Oswald moved and R. Edwards seconded approving the agenda as presented. Motion carried unanimously. ASC will invite the new Vice Chancellor for Marcomm (John Drevs) and new director of the Office of Assessment and Institutional Research (Nancy Floyd) in fall.

VIII. Reports

  1. T. Joosten reported on the listening session for the UWs President search.

IX. Personnel Matters

None.

X. Good and General Welfare

None.

XI. Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 11:21 a.m.