Academic staff forming coalition with colleagues

The university is encouraging better communication between academic staff here and those in equivalent positions at other universities.

This winter, UW–Madison will host the second meeting of academic staff leaders from universities belonging to the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a 43-year-old partnership of the 11 Big 10 conference schools and the University of Chicago.

The idea for a institutional cooperation academic staff committee first surfaced at an Academic Staff Executive Committee strategic planning meeting in 1999.

With the help of Chancellor John Wiley, who was provost at the time, ASEC member Lawrence Casper approached the CIC about starting a group for academic staff. CIC leaders surveyed academic staff at other member institutions and found a lot of support for the idea.

“We believe there is value in starting to communicate broadly with peer institutions about common issues and programs for academic staff,” Casper says.

Throughout the CIC’s history, a cooperative approach to common problems has produced results in many areas. A variety of groups from CIC institutions meet regularly to discuss proposed initiatives, evaluate existing programs, and address collective concerns and policy issues common to all institutions.

Wiley says the CIC academic staff group will work the same way. “This will be a group that can benefit from exchanging ideas and talking about issues with people in comparable positions on other campuses,” Wiley says.

The academic staff group conducted its first organizational meeting in June, where representatives talked about some of the goals and accomplishments of academic staff on each campus.

At the winter meeting, the group will share information on what practices work best when trying to enhance the role academic staff plays on campuses.

Other exchanges among academic staff at member institutions will occur outside the normal CIC meetings. One example is a recent meeting between Casper and and his peers at the University of Minnesota to exchange ideas on shared governance.

Final details for the winter meeting, including the date and agenda, are still being worked out.