Approved Minutes For Meeting On April 16, 2008

Date: April 16, 2008 

Program:

2. Roll Call

Members Present: Tuesday Ashner, Phil Bankester, Don Castle, Paulette Curkin, JP Dunn, Gabriele Hoffmann, Heidi Jung, Cordy Love, Dana McKenzie, Barbara Nowack, Sandra Rhoads, Mary Stammer, Sharon Walters.

Members Absent: Patty Cosgrove, Brad Dillard, Lisa McKennedy.

Proxies: Elaine Conrad for Carla Coppi, Gabriele Hoffmann for Allison Sutphin, Heidi Jung for Dave Hahn, Cordy Love for Michael Cubley.

Visitors and Guests: Maryanne Cunningham-Ismael, Susan Edgren, Amy Rose, Marge Selinger, Julia Spears.

3. Guest

3.1 T. Ashner welcomed and introduced Dr. Samuel Goldman, who was recently named Acting Chancellor of SIUC. Chancellor Goldman discussed his background, noting he has been in higher education for over 40 years and has been at SIUC since 1980. He believes everyone is aware of the challenges facing the University. His message is that everyone needs to be involved; everyone has to be a part of the solution. It is the people who work here day in and day out who make this University, and there is nothing here that cannot be solved if everyone comes together. Chancellor Goldman indicated he has a long agenda and would like to get as much done as possible before his window of opportunity closes.

3.2 S. Edgren introduced M. Cunningham-Ismael, who is the new assistant director at Touch of Nature.

The minutes of the March 19, 2008, meeting were approved as presented.

5. Adoption of Meeting Agenda: JP Dunn moved to approve the agenda; seconded by G. Hoffmann. Motion carried.

6. Reports

6.1 Chair 
T. Ashner reported: i) Lisa McKennedy called her to resign her position on the A/P Staff Council, effective after this meeting. T. Ashner contacted the School of Medicine Council representatives and asked them to select a replacement. They selected A. Sutphin to complete L. McKennedy's term beginning in May; ii) she had invited Chancellor Goldman to attend the Council meeting to discuss his philosophy. She believes he is a good fit for the chancellor position at this time; iii) she raised the question [at a constituency heads meeting] as to why the philosophy of upper administration has consistently been to hire outside the University rather than hiring from within. She was told it is a philosophy the Board will look at; iv) there is currently ongoing discussion between former Chancellor Trevi¤o and SIUC. M. Stammer asked if there are plans for a search committee. T. Ashner responded that the University cannot make any moves until the arbitration is over; v) the Council will be electing its officers at the May meeting. She urged members to consider who might fill these positions.

6.2 Board of Trustees 
D. Castle reported on the April 10 Board meeting he attended in Edwardsville: The meeting mostly centered on discussion about fees and on the College of Business's proposal for differential tuition. The proposal was approved and described as an experiment to see the impacts. The Business Dean submitted a fairly lengthy analysis, commenting that there is a lot of support for the proposal among students. D. Castle reported the minor will also have a differential and will apparently be assessed as a one-time fee. T. Ashner noted it is unclear when the fee on minors would begin. She asked D. McKenzie, who is an academic advisor, if, for example, students [who have a business minor would have to claim it in her college]. T. Ashner indicated she remarked at the last Board meeting was who would handle all the extra work this would entail. D. Castle indicated that there would be multiple positions identified, from academic advisors to technical assistants; some are A/P, but he is unsure about all of the positions. With the tuition differential, they are creating more services, such as career help for students in the College of Business. The implication is that they will need staff for these new services. H. Jung questioned what would happen with those students who are taking courses that could qualify for a minor, but they are not necessarily declaring a minor. D. McKenzie indicated if the student wants the minor on their [graduation application], it has to be on their record, and there is a form [advisors] have to fill out and send to Records. It was noted that only students who declare Business as a minor would be assessed the one-time fee.

6.3 Human Resources (HR) 
M. Selinger reminded members that the benefits choice period is coming up in May. There will be three sessions on May 6, with various insurance representatives coming in to talk with employees.

6.4 Representatives to University Committees

6.4a Affirmative Action Advisory - Julia Spears 
J. Spears discussed her report (included as appendix 1).

6.4b Traffic and Parking - Phil Lindberg 
E. Conrad (for P. Lindberg) presented his report (included as appendix 2). She also read to the Council his letter of resignation from the committee.

6.4c Chancellor's Planning and Budget Advisory - Susan Edgren 
S. Edgren distributed and discussed her report (included as appendix 3). She noted that she keeps a binder of very detailed information about the committee, and anyone who would like to view the contents can contact her.

6.5 Standing Committees

6.5a Executive Committee 
T. Ashner reported the committee reviewed the agenda for this meeting and the minutes from the previous meeting. Also discussed were "odds and ends" items such as a replacement for P. Lindberg on the Traffic and Parking Committee and the Week of Welcome booklet.

6.5b Ad Hoc Elections 
D. Castle reported on the election results (included as appendix 4 to the minutes). He pointed out that in the School of Medicine, Rhonda Seeber was elected for a three year term; however, because she will be retiring at the end of this year, she opted to decline the seat. Because there was a two-way tie with the remaining candidates on the ballot Allison Sutphin and Barbara Cray Lokaitis--and because T. Ashner had recently been notified by L. McKennedy of her resignation from the Council, the School of Medicine Council representatives (excluding A. Sutphin) caucused to determine replacements for the two vacancies. They appointed A. Sutphin to serve out the remaining term of L. McKennedy, and B. Cray Lokaitis was the winner of the election to fill the vacant seat.

6.5c Committee on Committees 
S. Rhoads submitted on behalf of the committee the following nominations for approval: i) T. Ashner, Assistant Director, Alumni Services, to serve the remaining two years of P. Lindberg's term on the Traffic and Parking Committee; ii) JP Dunn, Specialist, Library Affairs, to serve as the Council's representative to the Emeritus and Annuitant Association (EAA); and iii) Robert Sims, Assistant Director, Minority Engineering, and Loen Graceson-Martin, Chief Academic Advisor, College of Engineering, to serve on the Search Committee for Dean of the College of Engineering. S. Rhoads noted that the latter two names were submitted by the committee last fall. JP Dunn pointed out his nomination will still have to be approved by the EAA. T. Ashner noted she was asked by the EAA if the Council would appoint someone they could elect. Motion to approve the nominations carried. In other business, S. Rhoads reported there were three A/P hired in March.

6.5d Constituency Relations 
P. Curkin reported a flyer was e-mailed to the constituency about the spring constituency reception to honor all the nominees for the Excellence Through Commitment awards.

6.5e Operating Paper 
C. Love reported the committee has not met, but its last order of business was to submit documentation for the recent Operating Paper change. The committee is still awaiting final approval for the changes.

6.5f Staff Benefits 
H. Jung (for D. Hahn) reported the committee has been reviewing materials and attempting to decide what issues to bring forth to the Council.

6.5g Staff Welfare 
JP Dunn reported he has received 101 responses to the survey the committee sent out earlier in the semester. The biggest problems he has seen are that people do not know who the Council is, its purpose or the purpose of the Staff Welfare Committee. They are unaware of what the Council/committee can or cannot do for them. Many do not know there is a listserv or webpage. There were several comments that led him to believe that people need clarification on time reporting and evaluation procedures. JP Dunn indicated he will work to clean up the data and present it to next year's Council to review and take action.

7.1 H. Jung reported the Ad Hoc Website Committee met and has been making decisions on some parts of the website. Most of the updates have been made, although she has some on which she is still working. M. Stammer has been working on descriptive paragraphs for the Council standing committees. H. Jung distributed copies of the paragraphs to the standing committee chairs and asked them to review their respective information and get back to her with any changes. In addition, H. Jung has asked one of her staff members to come to the next Council meeting and take some individual, as well as group pictures of Council members for the website. It was decided that the pictures should be of the new and continuing members.

7.2 T. Ashner reported that C. Love's idea of a mentoring program was implemented and has been coordinated by the Committee on Committees. She believes the program should continue; however, a decision should be made as to whether to establish a new committee to coordinate the mentoring program or place it under one of the existing Council standing committees. A third option would be to have an ad hoc committee exist for one year to establish rules and regulations for the program and then turn it over to one of the committees. T. Ashner explained that when this issue was discussed in Executive Committee, the general consensus was that the program should go under Staff Welfare, though it would fit under Constituency Relations or Committee on Committees. However, of those three committees, Staff Welfare seems to be the least busy. P. Bankester suggested Constituency Relations might be the best place for the mentoring program because part of that committee's responsibility is outreach. He expressed concern that, according to Staff Welfare's survey, there are not just new A/P who are unfamiliar with the Council but current staff as well. T. Ashner believes the mentoring program is one of many baby steps the Council will have to take towards educating new staff so that in the future, if another survey is done, there will be more people who will at least have heard of the Council through its mentoring program. H. Jung suggested the Council create an ad hoc committee to flesh out the issues and let that committee decide that there is either enough work to justify creating another standing committee or there is not as much work to the program as originally thought and that it can go under an existing standing committee. T. Ashner agreed and indicated she will make this recommendation to the next Council chair.

8.1 T. Ashner distributed a draft of two policies she would like the Council to consider; one concerns use of the two A/P listservs, and the other concerns the Council website. She pointed out that these items are tools for the Council to use to communicate Council-related issues with its constituency. It should not be used as another way to disseminate information about other University business. Her first recommendation is that the Council Secretary review all requests for posting to the announce list and either provide approval to the Professional Constituencies Office for the posting or inform the requester of their opportunity to use the discussion list. In addition, the Council should encourage all A/P staff to subscribe to the discussion list to send and/or receive announcements or begin discussions.

With respect to the Council's website, T. Ashner proposes that it be a duty of the Vice Chair to monitor the website and provide changes, updates, etc., to the Constituencies Office so that office can physically maintain the site. T. Ashner believes the Council as a whole needs to begin taking responsibility for those things that belong to the Council. She commented that the Council officers, other than the chair, have very little in the way of responsibilities. She believes if people are going to sit on the Council, they should expect to have to put some time in and use some of their expertise to make it better. T. Ashner again asked Council members to review the proposed recommendations so that a vote can be taken next month.

8.2 P. Curkin reported she was contacted by a constituent who has concerns about the monthly time sheets. The person pointed out that in the instructions, it says staff are supposed to account for 7.5 hours every day, and if they are not working 7.5 hours, then it should be recorded as either vacation or sick leave. There is no accommodation for weekends and night work. JP Dunn indicated he was told that if, for example, he works 4.5 hours, then to put the remaining 3 hours as "other absence with pay." It was noted that A/P employees can work more than 7.5 hours per day, including weekends, if that is what it takes to get the job done. T. Ashner pointed out the time sheet states that employees should not have less than 7.5 hours per day, Monday through Friday. G. Hoffmann responded that the form also states clearly that employees should write down how much they work each day; it is confusing. T. Ashner indicated that if it is less than 7.5, then employees are expected to put in an absence slip. P. Curkin believes that if the [Council] ever wants to do something about the time sheets, it should recommend to the state that the required reporting be done weekly rather than daily. P. Bankester pointed out that the form currently in use was not developed by the state but by the University in an effort to meet the state's requirements in case there is an audit. It may be that the Council could recommend the form be adjusted so that rather than requiring 7.5 hours per day, that there must be a total of 37.5 hours per week. T. Ashner responded that she will raise this issue with [Kevin Bame].

10. Adjournment