Approved Minutes For Meeting on August 17, 2011

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Date: August 17, 2011

Program:

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

2. Roll Call

Members Present: Tuesday Ashner, Natalie Branca, Valerie Brooks, Steve Buhman, Janet Douglas, JP Dunn, Pat Eckert, Jon Geiger, Kathy Jones, Meredith Thomas, Layla Murphy, Amy Rose, Charlotte Sarao, Lori Stettler, Sue Tin, Gloria Yuncker.

Members Absent: Alfred Jackson.

Visitors and Guests: Tracy Bennett, Kevin Lister.

3. Minutes

The minutes of the meeting on July 20, 2011, were approved as presented.

4. Adoption of Meeting Agenda: J. Geiger amended the agenda under 5.5b to include representation on the Peer Review Committee and the Graduate Council. S. Buhman moved to adopt the agenda; seconded by C. Sarao. Motion carried.

5. Reports

5.1 Chair 
JP Dunn reported: i) the Board of Trustees is currently in special session; one of the topics of discussion is the new logo, which was released earlier in the week to mixed reviews. He was told that the University is not marketing to itself but to prospective students so they do not get confused with a lot of different logos; ii) the SIU website has moved from "siuc.edu" to "siu.edu" and the President's office has moved to "http://southernillinois.edu/." He has heard that current signage will stay in place, but if it needs to be replaced, it will have the new logo. There is also a new view book. M. Rhoads noted there will be new standard guidelines [for the logo] next month; iii) there will be a constituency heads meeting prior to the Board meeting. He missed the meeting this week because of a conflict. He was told they discussed the logo and a little bit about the budget.

5.2 Board of Trustees 
JP Dunn reported the next Board meeting is scheduled for September 8 in Edwardsville.

5.3 Human Resources (HR) 
JP Dunn reported he saw an article in the Springfield Register on the health care issue. Contracts were extended to June 30, 2012. P. Eckert reported that Health Alliance has asked for a 5% increase in order to have the extension. JP Dunn also reported he received an email about another university (University of Illinois, he believes) where they are converting most of the A/P jobs to civil service. He asked if this was something that will eventually happen here. T. Bennett responded that it is her understanding that U of I has basically characterized a lot of positions as A/P rather than civil service, and some of those positions had previously been union positions. Ultimately, the Systems office had to become very involved, and they have been reviewing positions at U of I to determine [the appropriate] classifications. This has caused every [pool] now to be really scrutinized. She did not expect the Systems office would do the same here. She reviews all those positions; however, when the Systems office audits this campus, which should be January, her guess is that if they find A/P positions they feel should be civil service, they will mandate that those positions be converted. In the past when they found such positions, they gave HR the ability to convert them when they became vacant so employees would not be impacted. T. Bennett noted that when an employee goes from A/P to civil service, the process awards seniority retroactive to the original date that the person should have been civil service. JP Dunn asked how that would impact benefits for someone. T. Bennett responded the employee would begin accruing the way civil service people do, whether the position is exempt or non-exempt; however, balances would be converted so that monthly paid employees would have their accrued days converted to hours.

5.4 Representatives to University Committees

5.4a Naming University Facilities - Kevin Lister 
K. Lister presented and discussed his report (included as appendix to the minutes)

5.4b Advisory Cmt, Director of Public Safety - John Massie 
J. Massie submitted the following report: The committee met once throughout the academic year and discussed some issues with regard to campus safety. One issue that came up had to do with trees causing some visual limitations for students. Some trees and bushes were removed across campus--behind the Student Center and by University Hall where there is a crosswalk. J. Massie indicated he would like the opportunity at some point to come back and report.

5.4c Chancellor's Planning and Budget Advisory - No report.

5.5 Standing Committees

5.5a Executive Committee 
L. Stettler reported the committee met on August 9, and JP Dunn gave an update on the implementation of Desire2Learn. He reported that the new system (once implemented) and Blackboard will be running concurrently until June 30, 2012, when Blackboard will be phased out. JP Dunn noted that as of now, Desire2Learn will be fully live for spring semester. L. Stettler reported that the committee also discussed the progression of the CIO search; interviews for the associate general counsel position; and how to work through sector definitions.

5.5b Committee on Committees 
J. Geiger presented for approval the nomination of Carrie Smith (Workforce Education and Development) to serve as both the A/P representative to the Graduate Council (replacing Angela Crespi, who left the University) and as the A/P representative on the Peer Review Committee, replacing Claudia McIntyre, who retired. He also presented for approval the nominations of Layla Murphy (Medical Preparatory Program) and Gena Stack (University Housing) to serve on the A/P Judicial Review Board. He indicated that last month, the Council decided to include Medicine and the former Student Affairs sectors based on the present operating paper. The committee also wanted to make sure there were enough representatives on the JRB should any business arise. University committee assignments were approved.J. Geiger reported that last month, the committee presented for approval two representatives to the University Women's Professional Advancement Committee when there should only have been one. Carrie Smith was removed from that committee in favor of the other two.

5.5c Constituency Relations 
M. Rhoads reported that the committee has been discussing by email the fall constituency luncheon. They will meet next week to discuss the specific details of the location, as well as delegating some responsibilities related to their goals for the year.

5.5d Operating Paper 
K. Jones reported the committee met on July 29. In addition to discussing the sectors, they discussed in general the discrepancies between the percentage of A/P staff that the University of Illinois has compared to SIU's. There are concerns that people are being included who maybe should not be included and that it makes the institution look bad in terms of having more administrators than are needed. With respect to the sectors, the committee reviewed the list of A/P and decided that keeping the current sectors minus Student Affairs is not a bad idea. This was something the committee discussed; it is not a formal recommendation. There was also a question as to whether the School of Medicine sector included the Springfield campus, and it was found that it does not. K. Jones reported that prior to meeting, she reviewed some research on the history of the different sectors in terms of how they were determined over the years. She also focused on the membership paragraph and believes the language is pretty obtuse in terms of who is and is not supposed to be included as A/P. Additionally, she spoke with various people to determine where the information/data comes from to determine who votes and how people are counted (from an HR perspective). JP Dunn indicated he talked with Larry Schilling (Institutional Research), and he is working on separating out those people who are considered executive and managerial from the other A/P who are not counted as administration. T. Bennett pointed out that the executive/managerial group is an EEO category. There are actually civil service categories that are designated as executive; if EEO categories are what was pulled as part of the data, then there would have been civil service employees in that number. There are also A/P staff who might be designated as executive/managerial. The civil service [list] has been cleaned up, but the A/P list is a lot more difficult because most titles are individual to positions, as opposed to civil service where there is one title that covers however many people are in the position. She is unsure why it was set up that way, but it has been that way as long as she has been involved in maintaining positions on campus. The lists have been revised and updated, but have always allowed for that executive/managerial EEO category. K. Jones indicated one of the goals is have the lists make some sense and not be such a manual operation (the sector lists the committee gets have to be cleaned up before they can be used for elections). There are two issues involved, but they intersect each other; the committee has to work on both in order to get the membership section of the operating paper cleaned up.J. Geiger asked JP Dunn if, when he spoke with L. Schilling, there was a concern from upper administration about the issues that have been raised. JP Dunn responded that at the last Board meeting, he and Chancellor Cheng discussed the numbers and percentages [of A/P staff]. He had mentioned to her that U of I's numbers for administration are lower than SIU's (16% compared to 29%) because the numbers include all A/P staff who are not administration. It inflates those numbers and gives false statistics because those A/P who are not administrators are not pulled out the group. He noted his colleagues at the U of I are called academic professionals; it is just semantics because they do the same job that he does here, but they are not considered administration. T. Bennett explained that there are two categories the administrative category and the academics--advisors, coordinators, specialists, etc., which would be considered academic professionals. The true administrators would have that administrative designation. At SIUC, there has only ever been that one group, and it is administrative/professional. T. Bennett indicated she is unsure who gave the information for the reports that said SIUC's [administrative costs] were at 29%. She would guess it was because of that EEO category that those people whose positions carry that executive piece were pulled into the group. That is easy enough to change, but at this point, they need to be individually reviewed. As long as there has been some type of computer system, there have been many people who have had a hand in maintaining those lists and making decisions about brand new positions. She believes [HR] would need to start with a list and make sure these things are corrected in the system, and then they can move forward with maintaining a tighter rein on how these things are designated. Then, reports generated in the future will hopefully be more accurate and flexible. JP Dunn reiterated that this is an issue that L. Schilling is working on and something [that will be discussed further].

5.5e/f Staff Benefits/Staff Welfare 
C. Sarao reported the committees met electronically to establish goals and objectives for the year. They also began a conversation about starting the JRB training. Since they now have the final two names, N. Branca will set up a training session in the near future. Additionally, L. Murphy will look into what kind of policies, regulations, etc., the Springfield campus has with respect to a judicial review board. In other business, G. Yuncker is drafting wording for the operating paper that will combine the two committees (Staff Benefits and Staff Welfare). C. Sarao believes they will finalize the reorganization of the two committees into one and have a proposal by next month. The hope is to get the change before the entire constituency for a vote before the Operating Paper Committee finalizes work on their issues.

6. Old Business

JP Dunn presented for approval the FY12 Goals and Objectives (included as an attachment to the agenda). P. Eckert moved for approval; seconded by L. Stettler. Motion carried.

7. New Business - None.

8. Announcements

T. Ashner announced that the Alumni tent will be set up at Saluki Row this year. She wanted to let everyone know that this is the one tailgate that the Alumni Association sponsors that is open everyone, members and non- members alike.

9. Adjournment