ASC Chair K. Esguerra reported on the Title and Total Compensation project timeline currently being finalized by UW System. It is unclear how this will impact academic staff in terms of how the salary structure will map onto the new title changes. Individual salaries should not change but salary ranges will likely be affected so the ASC is watching that process. Governance will be involved in determining how individuals will move within the new salary ranges once those are defined; the ASC is waiting for additional information on this. Possible resistance of academic staff to mandatory testing requirements was discussed as well. The Teaching and Research Professor Title subgroups met and are consulting UW Madison’s documents to define the the language for those title changes. Next week’s meeting will include a presentation by UWM Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Nelson of the Climate Action Plan for campus.

UC Chair K. Dolan reported on the UW System Representatives meeting last week. There are many different approaches across the System to the evaluation of senior administrators, including some campuses that do not carry out such evaluations at all. The discussion included the possibility of establishing a System mandate for regular evaluations of senior administrators as well as evaluations of non-academic units on campuses, such as IT, HR etc., which are also typically not evaluated the way the academic units and faculty are. Program prioritization activities appear to be happening on some campuses but not others but everyone has been working hard to re-enroll students who were at risk of dropping out after fall semester. UWM staff in Enrollment Management have been especially active in reaching out to individual students. The finalization of the timeline for TTC changes was discussed. Vaccine distribution to Category 1B individuals in Wisconsin at the moment does not include higher education faculty or staff in spite of continued efforts by UW System President Thompson to add them to the list. UW System is not considering a vaccination mandate for faculty and students returning to campus in the fall because of pushback from the Legislature, which will be considering a bill prohibiting this requirement. The Expanded Cabinet met Monday January 25. José Delgado, whose death was announced at the meeting, would have been stepping down in May so Governor Evers will need to appoint a third “buddy” Regent for UWM to replace him. Executive orders coming out of the Biden administration that UW System and campuses are working on include the restoration of protections for DACA students, pausing student loan repayment, ending the travel ban from Moslem countries and reinstating the diversity training that the Trump admin had recently attempted to have dropped. Kay Eilers reported that applications for fall are up due to the shift to the Common App while Bob Beck reported that most students have completed Multi-Factor Authentication. Anti-racism training will roll out to faculty and staff and eventually to students soon. UWM is being considered as a potential vaccination site for the surrounding community when enough vaccine is available; integration with existing testing activity remains to be determined. Next Wednesday campus is meeting with the “buddy” Regents (minus Delgado), both new appointments by Evers. At the first meeting with campus governance leads in November they requested the opportunity to meet twice rather than once a year while they learn more about UWM.

In Members’ Reports J. Reisel reported that the Policy Advisory Committee passed three policies that will go to the Senate for approval to bring UWM policies in compliance with state and Federal policies related to discriminatory conduct and relationships, sexual violence and harassment etc.

Provost Britz will attend the February 2, 2021 meeting.