Shared Gov NBP Discussion

Hey Shared Governance,

This week the meeting will be all about the NBP and public authority status for UW-Madison.

Several administrators have agreed to come to our meeting and engage in a conversation with all of you regarding these policy changes.

You can come up to speed by looking at this website that the Chancellors office is administering, or this link, which is administered by PROFS (which is a non-union lobbying group for the faculty). I will draw you attention to the March 17th post on the PROFS website.

I would like to get some sense of the turnout for this meeting. Please respond to the follow poll.

 

Attack on Teaching Assistants

Dear Everyone,

Facebook this event for Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

Facebook this one for the I heart UW event on Monday.

Governor Walker’s proposed end to collective bargaining in Wisconsin will have drastically negative affects on your education.

There are currently 9,116 graduate students on campus. Of these, there are just over 2,800 Teaching Assistant and Project Assistants. There are another 2,500 graduate students who are employed as Research Assistants. RA’s were in the process of officially unionizing, but now will have no chance to do so. Even though they were not previously unionized, the benefits on their contracts were bargained for just like the TA and PA contracts. They will face the same cuts to healthcare and tuition remission as every other public employee.

Governor Walkers proposal is an elimination of collective bargaining and public services workers rights in the State of Wisconsin. We, the graduate students, will no longer have the legal or lawful ability to bargain with our employer (the state) for raises or benefits. Additionally, we will no longer be able to protect ourselves from employer abuses. These abuses were one of the primary reasons the RAs were beginning the unionization process. It is very common in the graduate school to overwork RAs (beyond the legally allowed hourly limits). Professors have total control over RAs, and now, because RAs will not be able to form a union that can address fair labor practices, they will continue to be abused.

It was through our collective bargaining units in Wisconsin that we, the graduate students, were able to win some major victories for the quality of employment and life in Wisconsin. Through bargaining we secured tuition remissions, we secured fair employment language that limits the amount of work a professor can demand of teaching assistants, and we secured buy in options for health insurance. These will all disappear.

All of these things have contributed to our institutes ability to recruit and maintain quality graduate students. UW-Madison’s reputation as a top-tier research university simply is not enough to recruit top candidates. Without the addition of these benefits and collective bargaining the UW could no longer make an honest effort in recruiting 1st-rate graduate students and the university researching and teaching community would suffer. As star graduate students flocked elsewhere and the holes they leave behind our filled with 2nd-rate graduate students the overall reputation of the university would suffer, multiplying the problem. You can easily surmise the cyclic nature of this beast and the long-term ramifications for the ranking of this university and the value of the degree we all seek from it.

All of the UW community should be concerned and on high alert. The reputation of the University of Wisconsin as a whole depends heavily on its flagship university. If we fall in the rankings, everyone at every UW school suffers.

This is a direct attack on the UW’s competitiveness and standing, worldwide (Period.)

Join thousands of supporters on Tuesday and Wednesday at the capital.

Check it out here on facebook.

First Meeting of Spring Semester

Shared Governance will have its first meeting of the Spring 2011 semester this Thursday, January 27th at 5:30pm in the Caucus Room, 4th Floor, SAC. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Agenda for the meeting:

1) Housekeeping
a) LGBT Action Plan Coordinator
b) Faculty Senate Liaison
c) Spring re-appointment Process and your yearly reports
d) Spring semester goals and overall agenda

2) Presentation from LGBT Campus Center

Hey Everybody,

I have a few search & screen committee seats I’d like to fill ASAP. Please send me a cover letter stating your interest and the reasons you are qualified for the position by Wednesday, January 26th at 6pm.

Sitting on a search & screen committee is a great learning opportunity for anyone.

Director for the LGBT Campus Center
Position being hired	Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Campus Center
Student applicants should be:	Any interested parties.
Expected start date:	Feb 1st, 2011
What is the expected commitment of time?	Approximately 20 hours between the 1st meeting and May 1st.

 

 

 

 

 

Director of the Multicultural Student Center
Position being hired	Director of the Multicultural Student Center
Student applicants should be:	Any interested parties.
Expected start date:	Feb 7th, 2011
What is the expected commitment of time?	Approximately 20 hours between the 1st meeting and May 1st.

LGBT Anti-Bullying Action Plan

Hello Everyone,

Here is a rough draft of our LGBT Anti-Bullying Action Plan.

We will hold a discussion about it this Thursday, Dec 2nd, during our regularly scheduled weekly meeting. At that time we will entertain any suggestions for revision. Next week, on Dec 9th during our regular meeting, we will vote to adopt this as our official campaign.

Suggested revisions may also be posted as comments on this blog and will be taken into consideration.

I highly encourage everyone to read the document.

Thank you,

Kyle VandenLangenberg
Chair

Come make the video!

Hey Shared Gov,

This Wednesday, Nov 10th at noon at the top of Bascom Hill, the LGBT Campus Center and UW Housing need your help for 20 minutes.

They are creating a Make it Better video to show the impact of bullying, harassment and homophobia on the LGBTQ community.

This is a great opportunity for Shared Gov members and the campus as a hole to stand up for this cause. Please join me in supporting this effort.

- Kyle VandenLangenberg, Chair

Shared Governance discusses the WID with SLAC

Below is the copy of an email I sent out last night to all of Shared Governance, Student Council, the WARF Director, and the Director of Facility Services. This blog post serves to further the public awareness of Shared Governance’s actions in regards to the WID food servcies worker issue.

Hello,

Tonight at the Associated Students of Madison Shared Governance meeting a brief discussion regarding the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery food services employee status occurred. A member of AFSCME 171 spoke on behalf of public workers.

The ASM Shared Governance committee has been asked to formally take a stance on this issue by a current Shared Governance member.

This email should be considered public notice of our intentions to vote on this issue. Attached to it you will find a draft of our public statement.

Seven days from tonight, on Thursday November 11th from 6:15pm-7:15pm a public discussion forum will be held on the 4th Floor of the Student Activity Center, regarding this statement. At which time any revisions to the statement should be brought forward.

Attendance at this forum is highly encouraged, many of you will already be there because of the regularly scheduled Shared Governance meeting.

I have copied the managing director of the WARF and the Director of Facility Services on this public notice. I invite you or anyone you wish in attendance to our discussion. We welcome and encourage the sharing of views on all sides of this issue.

Procedurally, the meeting on November 11th will not be a debate on the issue. It will be a forum for all parties to come forward and present their side to the issue. It will also be a place where any member of the ASM will be allowed to make a statement regarding the issue at hand. It will also include as much Q&A as time allows.

The official vote on this stance will occur at 6:30pm on Thursday, Nov 18th in the Caucus Room, 4th Floor, SAC. In an effort to allow all views to be voiced and heard, 30 minutes of debate will be allowed prior to the vote. This is not in the bylaws and is my digression as chair. The rules surrounding this debate will be brought forward at that meeting.

Thank you,

Kyle M VandenLangenberg
Shared Governance Chair

The draft of the statement is posted below.

We, the Associated Students of Madison Shared Governance Committee, support the continued use of public labor in all university establishments, including, but not limited to, the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery.

A public university such as the UW-Madison should follow its own historical precedent of employing public sector workers in an effort to both promote the Wisconsin Idea and advocate for a living wage for all university employees.

 

- Posted by Kyle VandenLangenberg, Chair

Attendance, Blogging, Interviewing

We had our first weekly Shared Governance meeting of the 17th session (2010-2011).

I talked briefly about the attendance policy, how I planned to enforce it to the full-letter of the bylaws, and the importance of blogging.

We then broke off into groups and discussed the current Shared Governance interview process. We also discussed what made a good Shared Governance appointee and ended the meeting well before the designated hour.

Out of the discussion I had with my group, and then through the collection of a few other groups opinions via the PA, Directors, and Kelly Krein (ASM Staff) I feel well informed about the issues, complications, and sentiments surrounding the interview process. I am going to collect all that information and summarize it so that the entire committee can have an idea on how we feel as a consensus body.

Thank you to all the appointees who attended, and special thanks to the guest who attended. Its nice to see that people who are not even appointed to our committee come to the meetings.

- Kyle M VandenLangenberg, Chair

Shared Gov Training

Tonight we had a pretty successful training. Including break-out role-playing sessions.

I purposefully kept the speeches very short and allowed the appointees and new Directors as much time as possible to get comfortable with one another.

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, I certainly did.

- Kyle VandenLangenberg, Chair