Archive for May, 2012

Recommendations from the Academic Staff Executive Committee for the HR Design Phase I Work Groups

Friday, May 4th, 2012

The Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) has provided S&W with a document with the following title: Recommendations from the Academic Staff Executive Committee for the HR Design Phase I Work Groups, dated  April 27, 2012.   The original PDF document is here.   The content has been transcribed below for the convenience of S&W readers.  Transcription errors are possible.  In case of doubt, please refer to the original document.  – Ed.

Introduction

The Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) has spent the recent weeks reviewing the Preliminary Recommendations of the HR Design Phase I work groups. For the purpose of this review, we primarily concentrated on issues that would affect academic staff but also commented on other issues that we found in the documents. Before we go into individual work team recommendations, we have some overarching comments. These concern the lack of data upon which recommendations were based, the considerable investment of money and other resources that implementation of the recommendations would take, and the effects of the recommendations on academic staff. (more…)

Posted in Academic staff, Compensation, Shared governance, State worker benefits, State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus | 1 Comment »

The continued marketization of UW-Madison.

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

This article has been cross-posted from the The Education Optimists at the request of the author. – Ed.

Last year, I wrote extensively about efforts led by former Chancellor Biddy Martin and her administration, donors, and alumni to privatize (or at least semi-privatize) the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  That effort was partially successful, for while Martin and colleagues failed to separate Madison from the rest of the UW System, or gain authority over tuition setting, they did succeed in getting Madison the authority to redesign its human resources system.  This new “flexibility” was praised by many on campus, including staff, faculty, and students, who recognize that the current bureaucracy is not working, especially for those outside of administration.

So, this year the Human Resource Design Project has been advertised as a tremendous opportunity, hard won, and far better than the alternative — the status quo.  Perhaps.  But few reforms are without consequence, and the recommendations recently offered by the working teams in HR Design suggest this case is no exception.   (more…)

Posted in Academic staff, Classified staff, Collective bargaining, Compensation, Shared governance, State worker benefits, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The UW-Madison Campus | 3 Comments »

Keep collective bargaining and the civil service system at UW-Madison.

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

A year ago, thousands of UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff marched to the Capitol to oppose Governor Walker’s radical attempts to destroy Wisconsin’s 50-year tradition of collective bargaining. Today, the Governor faces a recall, and a federal court has struck down some of the most onerous parts of Act 10. Yet UW-Madison may be on the verge of realizing the Governor’s anti-worker vision on campus. (more…)

Posted in Academic staff, Classified staff, Collective bargaining, Shared governance, State worker benefits, State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus | No Comments »

WUU releases “Review of Recommendations of the HR Design Project Compensation Work Team”

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

This document was received together with the press release appearing in the previous post.  Again, reader comments are strongly encouraged. – Ed.

The Human Resource (HR) Design Project has completed the first phase of its process. The initial work team draft recommendations can be found here. Many of the reports are lengthy and discuss very detailed issues related to personnel policies and have a fairly limited effect on the careers of most employees. The most notable exception is the report of the compensation work team. If the recommendations of this work team were enacted, every employee on campus would be affected. (more…)

Posted in Compensation, State worker benefits, The University Budget, The UW-Madison Campus | No Comments »

WUU: “Proposed UW compensation plan may result in greater inequities in pay and a bigger bureaucracy.”

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

The following press release was received by S&W from the Wisconsin University Union.  Reader comments are encouraged.

For Immediate Release: May 1, 2012
For More Information Contact: David Ahrens: 334 1156/ Steve Bauman: 849-4847

Proposed UW Compensation Plan May Result in Greater Inequities in Pay and a Bigger Bureaucracy

Wisconsin University Union (WUU), an advocacy organization for UW-Madison faculty and academic staff, expressed serious concerns about the Human Resource Design Project’s (HRDP) recommendations for a new compensation system released last week. “The recommendations are based on undefined methods, could lead to substantial reductions in salaries and also require a new bureaucracy to administer”, said WUU spokesperson David Ahrens. (more…)

Posted in Compensation, State worker benefits, The University Budget, The UW-Madison Campus | No Comments »