Approved Minutes For Meeting on October 19, 2011

Date: October 19, 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, Regina Brown, Steve Buhman, Janet Douglas, JP Dunn, Pat Eckert, Jon Geiger, Alfred Jackson, Kathy Jones, Charlotte Sarao, Lori Stettler, Meredith Thomas, Sue Tin, Valerie Brooks Wallin, Gloria Yuncker.

Visitors and Guests: Tracy Bennett, Tom Harbert, Donnie Laur.

3. Minutes

The minutes of the meeting on September 21, 2011, were approved as presented.

4. Adoption of Meeting Agenda: The agenda was amended to include the College of Agricultural Sciences dean search under Committee on Committees. P. Eckert moved to adopt the agenda as amended; seconded by C. Sarao. Motion carried.

5. Reports

5.1 Chair 
JP Dunn reported on the October 12 constituency heads meeting: i) the strategic planning retreat was discussed at length. They believed it was very productive. A Wiki has been prepared to discuss all the issues raised that day. Only those who are identified and vetted will be able to give comments; ii) the Chancellor discussed the mood on campus and indicated that several meetings have occurred with the four collective bargaining units. She noted that one of the least controversial issues for the faculty is tenure, as the University follows AAUP standards; workload is more contentious; iii) the fall break occurred last week. Many institutions took those same days off, so the University is looking to get feedback on the break and how it will affect Thanksgiving and the rest of the semester; iv) a special Board of Trustees meeting has been scheduled for November 10 in Carbondale. One item of discussion will be the campus use plan; housing will be discussed in December. There are plans to build new graduate student housing where the old Greek Row was located. There are also plans for [additional] housing on Elizabeth Street; v) the Chancellor reported that 42% of graduate students are supported with assistantships. This is higher than some of the Big 10 schools and most of SIU's peers; vi) the non-credit activity for Continuing Education has been moved under L. Stettler (Vice Chancellor for Auxiliary Services); vii) recruitment continues. The marketing consultants from Lipman-Hearne will be on campus during the next few days. They are revamping all the publications for the offices of Financial Aid, Bursar and Registrar and also want to speak with the Alumni and Foundation staff. They would like to speak with students as well, but will wait until all the labor negotiations are complete.JP Dunn reported there were two resignations from the Council: Layla Murphy resigned for health reasons, and Amy Rose took a job off campus. He welcomed Regina Brown to the Council. She will be serving out A. Rose's term.

5.2 Board of Trustees 
JP Dunn reported he plans to attend the next two Board meetings (November and December), noting there was not a meeting in October. The Board has cancelled its February meeting because the chair will be out of town.

5.3 Human Resources (HR) 
T. Bennett reported: i) there will be another general retirement session since there were apparently a lot of conflicts when counselors were on campus last week. It will be a webinar and will be held at the Law School Auditorium on November 8; ii) the second round of flu shots are scheduled for October 21 for people with last names beginning A-M and for those people who missed the previous round; iii) the campus is in the middle of a special enrollment period for the health care companies. The deadline to make any changes is October 28, with an effective date of December 1. The special enrollment is only for those wanting to make a change from their current health care provider.

5.4 Representatives to University Committees

5.4a Traffic and Parking - To be rescheduled.

5.4b Computing Advisory - Tom Harbert/Donnie Laur 
T. Harbert submitted and discussed his report (included as appendix 1). He added that some of the information the committee received from its meeting on July 26 has changed with respect to the logo change and how it will affect all the websites on campus. J. Douglas explained that currently, by going to a content management system (CMS), the user will go on the template. A Dreamweaver template, a Joomla template and possibly a Wordpress template will be options. People can use those websites or develop their own; it just has to follow the brand. Web Services will not see the brand until October 20. J. Douglas noted that everyone does not have to go to the CMS at this time; however, if they do not, they will not be supported. [T. Harbert] added that their suggestion is that anyone who is considering re-doing their website or turning out a new one should wait until Web Services [gets information out].

5.4c Judicial Review Board - Charlotte Sarao 
C. Sarao submitted and discussed her report (included as appendix 2).

5.4d Chancellor’s Planning and Budget Advisory - Patty Cosgrove 
L. Stettler (for P. Cosgrove) reported: i) a lot of time was spent discussing performance-based funding. Todd Winters and another dean are chairing a subcommittee for the Provost and are looking at putting together rubrics to help them determine how to best bring the University in line with the performance-based funding issues. An IBHE meeting is scheduled for October 24 in Carbondale, as well as a public forum at the Student Center, to discuss the performance-based funding initiatives. The Chancellor is chairing a subcommittee and will give a report about all that is going on with this issue. Allan Karnes (Professor in Accountancy) spent a lot of time discussing the last meeting he and the Chancellor attended in Springfield, noting that SIUC was very well represented. All of their concerns were put in writing and made it into the presentation as a part of the formal process; ii) the Revenue Generation Subcommittee met with Todd Sigler (Public Safety) and Brian Mager (Traffic and Parking) to discuss the opportunity for revenue generation into the institution through those areas. However, it is a Board of Trustees mandate that parking and traffic revenues stay within that department to be used for such things as parking lot and road enhancement. It would take Board action to divert those funds elsewhere; iii) the state still owes the University close to $80 million, and half a million was provided to the campus this week.

5.5 Standing Committees

5.5a Executive Committee 
L. Stettler reported that, in addition to what JP Dunn reported, there was some discussion about: i) the Judicial Review Board (JRB) and the Operating Paper; ii) what the A/P Staff Council could potentially do with regard to a potential strike situation on campus; iii) Institutional Research and how the categorizing of administrative and professional positions occurred and how that will play into the Operating Papers; and the need to replace some committee members.

5.5b Committee on Committees 
J. Geiger reported the committee met through email regarding a number of different issues, including L. Murphy's and A. Rose's resignations and L. Murphy's appointment to the JRB. The committee also forwarded the names of three people for the College of Agricultural Sciences dean search: Clare Mitchell (Mass Communication and Media Arts), Tanna Morgan (SIU Foundation) and Charlotte Sarao (Agricultural Sciences). The Provost has already selected C. Sarao to serve on the committee. The committee still has not determined who will serve on the College of Education and Human Services dean search committee. He asked the committee to meet a few minutes after the meeting to discuss that search. Additionally, J. Geiger reported that since A. Rose has left, the Student Affairs position is open on the Committee on Committees. T. Ashner noted that since R. Brown is replacing A. Rose on the Council, she normally would also replace her on any Council committees on which she served. Nominations to the Search Committee for Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences were approved.It was noted that Willie Ehling is leaving SIUC and will need to be replaced on the University Joint Benefits Committee (for a one-year term).

5.5c Constituency Relations 
M. Thomas reported the fall luncheon is scheduled for October 20. After lunch will be a trivia contest. JP Dunn noted that he had asked the Chancellor to speak at the luncheon, but she is already speaking twice at the Technology Symposium hosted by the Center for Teaching Excellence and the Office of Distance Education.

5.5d Operating Paper 
K. Jones reported the committee met on October 5. Each member did some research into the operating papers of other A/P Staff Councils on other Illinois state campuses. The results showed that there are many different ways to structure the Council. K. Jones distributed a copy of a page from the "SIUC Employees Handbook," taken from SIUC website, that includes a definition of A/P staff. She also distributed current membership wording from the Council's Operating Paper. She indicated that the committee needs some direction from the Council as to whether or not they should revise the membership section. She noted that she did go back and find the two documents that are referenced in the current wording, but was unable to determine what they meant. She added that there should be some language in the document that excludes high-level administrators who would be considered "management," like chancellors or vice chancellors, from being on the Council. Most of the membership sections in other operating papers have some kind of exclusionary language that relates to chancellors/vice chancellors and the heads of the academic divisions, who generally fall within another represented group. K. Jones indicated the goal with revising the wording would be to come up with something that, on its face, will tell who belongs and who does not, as opposed to referring to other documents.J. Geiger asked if redefining the membership goes back to the issue of faculty thinking there is a higher percentage of money going to administration and professional staff on this campus as opposed to other campuses. K. Jones responded it is a related issue, but it is not the same. The Council cannot do anything to change that; someone in Institutional Research or Human Resources would have to code or count staff differently. T. Ashner pointed out that the name of the Council is Administrative and Professional Staff Council; most of the Council is made up of professional staff, and there are others who are administrative staff. If administrators are taken out, then it would just be the Professional Council. K. Jones disagreed, indicating the committee is not talking about removing all the administrators; they are talking about defining a level above which [higher level administrators would not be included]. T. Ashner questioned whether most administrators would be excluded, anyway, because they would have to hold tenure (which would make them faculty). T. Bennett responded that there are staff who are strictly administrative. C. Sarao added that there are already administrators who are automatically excluded; the committee is addressing more those who are in the general or non-academic sector.K. Jones reiterated that the committee only needs to know from the Council whether they should simplify or not simplify the current membership wording. The consensus of the Council was to simplify. K. Jones indicated the committee will revisit the issue and come up with some proposed wording. The whole point is to make it easier to identify who is or is not administrative and professional staff. C. Sarao commented that new employees have no idea what being in a sector means, so this will hopefully simplify things for them. K. Jones noted the committee also discussed having no more than two people per unit serving on the Council. JP Dunn thought that might be hard to enforce.

5.5e/f Staff Benefits/Staff Welfare 
C. Sarao commented that being chair of both committees and being chair of JRB has its advantages. She is not sure if this is something the Operating Paper Committee would like to consider, i.e., that whoever is chair of Staff Benefits/Welfare is also chair of JRB. She believes it would shorten the chain of reporting. Also, the chair of JRB cannot serve on a panel, so it would not increase the workload exponentially. JP Dunn noted such a change would not just have to occur in the Council's Operating Paper; it would have to be changed in the operating paper of the JRB. There may also be an issue at the campus level with making it something that is automatic.

6. Old Business

A. Jackson reported that he was asked a question pertaining to the possible strike: Can [a represented employee] start out on strike because they believe it will only be one or two days, but then later decide to return to work? P. Eckert believes that, according to the Chancellor's email, once someone is on strike, they are on strike. They cannot go on strike and then decide to come back. JP Dunn read from the FAQs that were put out by the Chancellor as they pertained to graduate students, which stated that if the GAU (Graduate Assistants United) were to engage in strike action, individual graduate assistants will have the right to strike or may choose not to strike and to work; those who choose to go on strike and strike rather than work will not be compensated. It will not be permissible to be partially on strike [and] have a partial loss of compensation. He commented that the FAQ makes it sound like if [anyone] goes on strike, they cannot then come back [before the strike is over]. P. Eckert believes the University is attempting to avoid the scenario of someone striking for three days, for instance, coming back and then going back because [calculating] benefits would be a nightmare.A. Jackson asked how non-union employees will be notified if there is a strike. C. Sarao believes there will be a University-wide communication as soon as it happens. T. Bennett indicated that there is normally a deadline which states that if an agreement is not reached by a certain time, then the strike will begin at a certain time. Lastly, A. Jackson asked, because of sympathy strikes or whatever might happen, would a strike affect those people in the Payroll office. T. Bennett responded that the employees in the Payroll office are civil service range employees [and will not be on strike]. JP Dunn noted that for more information, employees can go to the Faculty Association website (https://siucfa.wordpress.com).

7. New Business - None.

8. Announcements - None.

9. Adjournment