Approved Minutes For Meeting On June 18, 2008

Date: June 18, 2008

Program:

1. The meeting was called to order by the Chair, Don Castle. Visitors and guests were welcomed and introduced.

2. Roll Call

Members Present: Don Castle, Patty Cosgrove, Michael Cubley, Dave Hahn, Gabriele Hoffmann, Heidi Jung, Barbara Cray Lokaitis, Dana McKenzie, Barbara Nowack, Sandra Rhoads, Rod Sievers, Amy Rose, Mary Stammer, Allison Sutphin.

Members Absent: Mike Reiman.

Proxies: Steve Buhman for Phil Bankester, Don Castle for Carla Coppi, Jackie Welch for Sharon Walters.

Visitors and Guests: Jake Baggott, JP Dunn, Jon Geiger.

3. Minutes

The minutes of the 2007-2008 meeting on May 21, 2008, were approved as presented. The minutes of the 2008- 2009 meeting on May 21, 2008, were corrected under item 6.3 to note that M. Stammer nominated P. Cosgrove for the office of Secretary. Minutes were approved as corrected.

4. Adoption of Meeting Agenda: D. Castle indicated the report of the Ombudsman Advisory Panel will be rescheduled for next month. H. Jung also asked that the Ad Hoc Website Committee be added under Old Business. The agenda was approved as amended.

5. Reports

5.1 Chair 
D. Castle reported: i) Paulette Curkin is retiring, and her reception will be held on June 30; ii) M. Stammer asked to take notes with her laptop during the meeting. She explained that Rhonda Seeber asked her to be the liaison between this Council and the A/P Council in Springfield; iii) a memo from Interim Chancellor Goldman was circulated in which he asked for feedback on the revised Student Conduct Code. Those who would like to submit suggestions can view the Code online at https://www.siu.edu/staffair/. Chancellor Goldman asked for responses by the end of the month; iv) Cordy Love has resigned from the University and will be re-locating to the Chicago area. The Academic Affairs sector will need to select someone to replace him on the Council; v) he attended his first constituency heads meeting with Chancellor Goldman, which was attended only by himself and Mark Wetstein, the Civil Service Council President. The good news is that monthly meetings have been scheduled, and he will be attending. D. Castle reported that since he and M. Wetstein were the only ones in attendance, they asked about the state budget and salary increases for those employees who are not covered by a union contract (A/P and range civil service). Chancellor Goldman responded that he has not yet seen the budget. D. Castle believes a budget has been approved that contains a percentage of new money for SIU, which would mean there would be money for raises. Based on this assumption, D. Castle indicated to the Chancellor that the A/P Staff Council would appreciate being asked, as it has been in the past, what its recommendation is for any increases. D. Castle asked Council members if they agreed with the recommendation that, if there is a 3% salary increase, no funds be held back for merit, as merit should and can be addressed in other ways. P. Cosgrove noted the A/P Excellence Concept Team (APECT) made revisions to the Compensation Plan for A/P so that there would be other ways to compensate employees. D. Castle indicated that what he has heard from most A/P is that when there is new money for raises, it should be given across the board, unless it is a sizeable increase; then, at that time, the Council could entertain a different recommendation. D. Castle asked if the Compensation Plan for A/P specifically related to annual increases. J. Baggott, who was the chair of APECT, responded that the committee made recommendations that were not necessarily adopted about how raises would be distributed. The Compensation Plan was modified for other [kinds of raises]. P. Cosgrove believes the reason why APECT recommended the changes it did was because there was very little flexibility. J. Baggott added that the [APECT report] was never modified, and the recommendations themselves have not all been adopted, though most have. The revised Compensation Plan for A/P reflects many of those recommendations.

D. Castle also reported: i) he received a list of new hires for May from Marge Selinger, which he will forward to the Committee on Committees, along with a request for committee representatives; ii) Tuesday Ashner forwarded to him an e-mail from Brent Patton indicating that Kevin Bame presented to the Chancellor's Executive Committee the information about the time sheets. The information was also provided to the vice chancellors' administrative assistants. The Frequently Asked Questions is now available on the Labor and Employee Relations website (https://www.siu.edu/~laborrelations/) and will soon be available as a button on the time sheet itself; iii) he attended a Chancellor Search Advisory Committee meeting, which consists mostly of constituency heads and Vice President Haller. They discussed how the search process will proceed. It will likely be around this time next year when they will know what the process will be to replace the chancellor. The committee will meet again to discuss and make recommendations on the job description for chancellor, as well as the overall process of how to identify good candidates. The policies for the search will also be reviewed. From the Advisory Committee's perspective, what matters most is the make-up of the search committee. Currently, he is the A/P representative by virtue of being the constituency head. P. Cosgrove commented that prior to Provost Dunn, the Committee on Committees would submit only one name for search committees rather than the current process for search committees of submitting several names from which the administration selects one. D. Castle responded that he is unsure it will continue that way; however, at least for this year, he will be the representative on the Advisory Committee. He noted that Vice President Haller is retiring [at the end of the year] but will come back to coordinate the process to completion; iv) it was reported in the Daily Egyptian that former Chancellor Treviño has been hired at Florida International University. It is unclear how his new job impacts the arbitration that was taking place prior to his leaving.

5.2 Board of Trustees 
D. Castle circulated the Board materials, noting he will continue to make the binder available, although most of the information is on the Board's website (https://www.siu.edu/bot/). D. Castle reported: i) Mike Lawrence (Public Policy Institute) gave a final report, as he is retiring from the University; ii) Edwardsville has moved up to Division I athletics and has recently been accepted into the Ohio Valley Conference; iii) authorization for a temporary FY09 budget was approved; iv) Julia Wetstein (College of Science) was recognized as the recipient of the Lindell Sturgis Award.

5.3 Human Resources (HR) - None.

5.4 Representatives to University Committees

5.4a Representative to the Graduate Council - To be rescheduled.

5.4b Search Committee, Dean of MCMA - Jake Baggott 
J. Baggott reported one of the candidates was brought back for a second visit approximately two weeks ago. Following that visit, she withdrew her name from consideration. Interim Provost Rice is now considering what step to take next. J. Baggott believes the committee's work is complete, unless the decision is made to select a candidate from the remaining pool or search outside for another candidate. D. Castle asked if the committee ranked the candidates. J. Baggott responded that the committee did rank the candidates. There were four who applied, but one withdrew prior to the interviews; consequently, there are two remaining candidates who could potentially be selected.

5.4c Signage Committee - Jon Geiger 
J. Geiger reviewed and discussed his report (see appendix 1). H. Jung asked if the committee has discussed the map signs that are located in various places on campus. She has heard both positive and negative feedback on them. R. Sievers responded that the committee has not discussed the map signs. This is the first he has heard that there are problems with the maps. M. Stammer asked if any consideration has been given to signage for off-campus locations. J. Geiger responded that the committee looked at signage for some off campus locations such as Touch of Nature and his area, Evaluation and Developmental Center. The committee is looking more to address outside signage, as opposed to inside, because that is what the public sees. He does believe the committee may, at some point in time, attempt to address the signs inside. M. Stammer commented that her office is at the hospital, and her department continually [receives negative feedback on the adequacy of the signage] on their patient satisfaction surveys. However, because the hospital is responsible for the signage, it is not something the department can affect. She is unsure if there would be any policies that might help them. J. Geiger responded that if M. Stammer or her department has any ideas, they could be submitted to him, R. Sievers or any of the other committee members.

5.4d Recreational Sports and Services Advisory Committee - Paul Bennett 
P. Bennett submitted his written report (see appendix 2).

5.4e University Women's Professional Advancement - Amy Rose
A. Rose reviewed and discussed her report (see appendix 3). She noted that one of the issues of most interest to UWPA Director Michelle Miller is to identify why women are not being hired in upper level administrative positions. Additionally, one of the working groups M. Miller formed is examining some issues that need to be addressed in the new sexual harassment policy. That same group is discussing the revised Student Conduct Code and has offered suggestions to Vice Chancellor Dietz on how sexual harassment for students is addressed in the Code. H. Jung asked to whom would she address recommendations regarding employee sexual harassment. A. Rose responded H. Jung could speak with her, M. Miller or Carmen Suarez. P. Cosgrove commented that she would like the working group to examine the issue of harassment in the Student Conduct Code as it relates to technology (such as e-mail, etc.). H. Jung stated she would also like that topic addressed. A. Rose responded she would bring this suggestion back to the group.

5.5 Standing Committees

5.5a Approval of Standing Committee Assignments 
D. Castle presented the standing committee assignments for approval (included as an attachment to the agenda). He noted that, at this time, the person who replaces C. Love on the Council will serve on Committee on Committees, though that person may also be appointed to another committee. P. Cosgrove moved to approve the standing committee assignments; seconded by M. Cubley. Motion carried.

5.5b Recess to Elect Standing Committee Chairs 
D. Castle recessed to allow committees to meet and elect their chairs.

5.5c Executive Committee 
S. Rhoads reported the committee met on June 11 to review the committee volunteer forms and make standing committee assignments. It was agreed that the Executive Committee would again include the committee chairs in the coming year. Meetings will be held one week prior to the monthly A/P Staff Council meetings. A time and location will be designated at a later date.

5.5d Committee on Committees 
A. Sutphin reported she was elected to chair the committee.

5.5e Constituency Relations 
G. Hoffman reported that S. Walters was elected to chair the committee.

5.5f Operating Paper 
M. Cubley reported he was elected to chair the committee.

5.5g Staff Benefits 
D. Hahn reported he was elected to chair the committee.

5.5h Staff Welfare 
H. Jung reported she was elected to chair the committee.

D. Castle asked committee chairs to stay after the meeting and noted that one of the first functions for each committee will be to establish goals for the year. Those will be approved at the Council meeting in September, unless the committees are able to have those ready earlier.

6. Old Business

H. Jung reported the Council's website is close to completion. The only issue hanging is a suggestion to have the committee volunteer form be an online, editable form that can be e-mailed. She is still pondering how this could be done. P. Cosgrove suggested, as a temporary solution, the form be in a .pdf format that people could print off and mail. H. Jung responded she could do this. She then gave a brief visual overview of the website and asked Council members to contact her with any concerns or suggestions.

7. New Business - None.

8. Announcements

8.1 D. Castle announced there will be another Sunset Concert on June 19 at Turley Park.

8.2 D. Castle reminded Council members to try and attend P. Curkin's retirement reception on June 30.

9. Adjournment