Approved Minutes For Meeting On February 20, 2012

Main Content

Date: February 20, 2012

Program:

1. The meeting was called to order at 1:03 p.m. by the Chair, Kathy Jones. Visitors and guests were welcomed and introduced.

2. Roll Call

Members Present: Don Castle, Angela Cummings-Hunter, Jon Geiger, Kathy Jones, Faye Joyner-Keene, Charlotte Sarao, Rod Sievers, Valerie Brooks Wallin, Keri Young.

Proxies: Leah Barh for Jill Gobert; Don Castle for Lori Stettler; Debra Quamen for Don Patton; Valerie Brooks Wallin for Pat Eckert.

Members Absent: Steve Buhman; Jenni Janssen.

Visitors and Guests: Tracy Bennett, JP Dunn, Michele Rushing.

3. Minutes

The minutes of the Council meeting on January 16, 2013, were approved as presented.

4. Adoption of Meeting Agenda: C. Sarao moved to adopt the agenda as presented; seconded by R. Sievers. Motion carried.

5. Reports

5.1 Chair 
K. Jones distributed a copy of the Strategic Plan, which she received prior to the campus leadership meeting held on February 7. They had a three hour discussion on action steps for implementation of the plan. K. Jones also reported: i) there was not a constituency heads meeting in January, and the February meeting is scheduled for later this afternoon; ii) Ted Grace, director of the Student Health Center and chair of the Smoke- Free Campus Committee, sent her a brief survey about smoking on campus. She then forwarded the survey to Council members for feedback. Of the 13 Council members who responded, 6 members wanted smoking allowed in public outdoor spaces (the current policy); 4 people wanted a tobacco-free campus; 2 people wanted smoking only in parking lots and personal vehicles; and 1 person wanted smoking in designated areas only. R. Sievers noted that the committee will be surveying everyone on campus when the final instrument is ready.

5.2 Board of Trustees 
K. Jones reported there was no January meeting of the Board. The next meeting is scheduled for February 28 in Edwardsville.

5.3 Human Resources (HR) 
T. Bennett reported that SURS counselors will be on campus April 9-11. Letters went out to those within four years of retirement eligibility. A general retirement session will be held at the Law School on April 9. Also, performance evaluations should be mailed out in the next few weeks. They will be sent electronically this year. F. Joyner-Keene asked what is discussed at the individual retirement counseling sessions. T. Bennett responded that at the individual sessions, the counselors have all the employee's information and they discuss specifics to get a total picture. The general session is an overview of what retirement options are available and those things to consider in planning.

5.4 Representatives to University Committees

5.4a Computing Advisory - JP Dunn 
JP Dunn presented his report (included as appendix 1 to the minutes). 5.4b Traffic and Parking - Joel Fritzler 
J. Fritzler submitted his written report (included as appendix 2 to the minutes).

5.4c Chancellor's Planning and Budget Advisory - Michele Rushing 
M. Rushing distributed and discussed her report (included as appendix 3 to the minutes). A. Cummings Hunter asked from where the funds are coming for the increased scholarships. M. Rushing responded the Chancellor did not elaborate, but she believes they are coming from the tuition increases. D. Castle believes that a new source of funding for scholarships is the Pepsi contract that was recently signed by the University. It included a one-time, up-front payment of $1 million.

5.5 Standing Committees
5.5a Executive Committee 
J. Geiger reported on the February 11 meeting: i) the committee discussed the comments made by the Chancellor and Provost at the January Council meeting and what those comments mean to the Council and constituency; ii) there was discussion on the ad hoc committee being formed to look at term and continuing appointments. The ad hoc committee will need to examine the wording of the policies for those types of appointments. It was hoped that the committee's recommendations would be ready before the end of the semester; however, it may take until fall semester before a proposal is ready to be voted on by the Council. Some issues the ad hoc committee should address include movement from continuing to term, new hires on term, three-year term to continuing occurrences, notice requirements and accrual of benefits. The committee should conduct fact-finding at SIU, as well as statewide with other peer universities; iii) the A/P elections are upcoming, with three terms ending in Academic Affairs and one in General (a loss of one). Balloting may be conducted electronically and would take place at the end of March or first of April; iv) recognition of the Staff Excellence Award recipient, done through the Constituency Relations Committee, will likely occur sometime in April after the official announcement has been made as to who was selected. 5.5b Ad Hoc Elections Committee 
D. Castle reported that he would like the committee to finalize the nomination flyer that will go out in campus mail in the next week or two. Staff can nominate someone or self-nominate. Those will be due March 13, and the election ballot is scheduled to go out around March 27. The elections should be completed by April 3, and the election results will be reported to the Council at its meeting on April 17. D. Castle indicated that, according to the January 31 headcount of A/P staff, there are two vacant positions in Academic Affairs, and one vacancy in General. Consequently, the Council is now down by two members from the 2012-2013 membership. He suggested that the 1 per 50 formula used to determine representation is something the Council might want to address. D. Castle also pointed out that the list, which comes from HR, still has the old sector representation, which includes Student Affairs and the School of Medicine. T. Bennett responded that she could check with Data Control on how sector designations are made.

J. Geiger reported that at the Executive Committee meeting, it was mentioned that the election ballots are provided electronically; however, what they found in the last election was that far fewer people voted than did with mailed paper ballots. The committee believes the elections should still be done electronically, if for no other reason than cost. It may be helpful to remind constituents to vote electronically. D. Castle added that people who might have an interest in the Council should be encouraged to run. Those encouraging people should also consider the quality of potential candidates because, with fewer positions available, the Council needs the best it can get.

5.5c Committee on Committees 
D. Castle (for L. Stettler) presented for approval the nominations for the Ad Hoc Committee on A/P Staff Terms of Employment: Keri Young, Career Services and A/P Staff Council representative; Harvey Henson, Science Retention and Outreach; Jeannie Killian, Exploratory Students; Kristine McGuire, SIU Foundation; Judith Ray, School of Law; and Tiffany Spencer, Registrar's Office. K. Jones reported that the Executive Committee discussed at length the kind of charge that will need to be developed for the ad hoc committee. Priorities would include developing something that addresses the short-term goal of developing some kind of proposal for term appointment modifications, including the type of notice required and a provision for accrual of vacation and sick days. Following that will be a charge about doing some research and providing that information to the Council later in summer. K. Jones added that the Executive Committee also discussed separating out some issues so the ad hoc committee and the Staff Benefits and Welfare Committee are not overlapping too much. Staff Benefits and Welfare could focus on current policies that govern term and continuing appointments and any other matters they might want to discuss. The ad hoc committee will report back to Staff Benefits and Welfare, and that committee will bring the information back to the Council to keep it all flowing properly. K. Jones indicated she will work on developing a charge fairly quickly for the ad hoc committee. K. Young noted that the committee's first meeting will be February 25.Nominations were ratified.

K. Jones mentioned that she would like to try and get the ad hoc committee some help in terms of research. She has reached out to Workforce Education and Development and also someone who is interested in creating a project with a faculty member for credit. Another thought was to contact the Public Administration graduate program. K. Jones indicated she contacted A/P Council chairs at other state schools; one thing the committee could do is ask them to identify someone in HR on their campuses who might be willing to help with providing data.

5.5d Constituency Relations 
V. Brooks Wallin reported the Staff Excellence Award process is complete, and the announcement will be made in April. The committee will look for a date after that for the spring constituency meeting. She also reported that at the last Council meeting, C. Sarao had asked about the history of nominations for the award over the past five to ten years. V. Brooks Wallin reported that, beginning in 2007, there were 10 nominations; moving forward, there were 8 in 2008, 9 in 2009; 1 in 2010; 2 in 2011; 2 in 2012; and 4 in 2013. She noted that 2010 was the year the money went away, and 2007 was the first year the awards were placed with the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance. The A/P and civil service awards were combined into one staff award in 2012. It was noted that the monetary award has been reinstated, but it is for professional development and goes to the department as opposed to being a cash award. C. Sarao questioned what type of monetary award the faculty receive. V. Brooks Wallin indicated she would check into that question. J. Geiger recalled that last year's winners retired and did not receive the monetary award. V. Brooks Wallin responded that Judy Marshall (Executive Director for Finance) has indicated that if she is aware that recipients will be retiring, then the funds can be made available sooner. In other business, V. Brooks Wallin reported that the committee has been discussing a potential speaker for the spring constituency meeting. They also would like to use the Stadium Club as the venue again this year, which would eliminate the concern about having alcohol. Committee members were willing to donate a bottle of wine and would ask if anyone else would be willing to donate as well. K. Jones suggested asking L. Stettler about the particulars for having alcohol available for the meeting.

5.5e Operating Paper - No report.

56.5f Staff Benefits and Welfare - No report.

6. Old Business

K. Jones reported that she and J. Geiger will work on putting together a final summary of the town hall meetings held in the fall. 

7. New Business

The proposed A/P Staff Council Budget for FY14 was presented for Council approval. D. Castle moved to approve the budget as presented; seconded by C. Sarao. Motion carried.

8. Announcements

D. Castle reported the that Springfield papers cover the pension issues pretty well. There was an article about how the House and Senate are divided as to which approach is best. Most recently, the We Are One union coalition was actually able to get two House members to introduce a bill from their perspective about pension reform. It guarantees that the state will pay into the system and that employees will pay 2% more into the pension each year. It is the first bill to be introduced.

9. Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 2:13 p.m.