MINUTES UAF STAFF COUNCIL MEETING #112 Wednesday, November 3, 1999 Wood Center Ballroom I Irene Downes call the meeting to order at 8:34 a.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: Anderson, L. Candler, R. Barnebey, T. DeKerlegand, D. Bender, L. Duvlea, P. Borjon, T. Heineken, H. Comstock, S. Parzick, J. Downes, I. Rounds, P. Enochs, K. Wilson, K. Gieck, R. Hazelton, G. OTHERS PRESENT: Martyn, P. Chapman, C. McClellan, L. Duffy, L. Murawsky, N. Gruenig, T. Powell, D. Hagen, D. Robinson, D. (for K. Dufseth) Lind, M. Rogers, P. Mosca, K. Scholle, M. Oleson, B. Simmons, H. Poole, J. White, P. Williams, F. York, R. B. Preamble for New Agenda Format I. Downes The Staff Council agenda will be reorganized to have a meeting that progresses efficiently and try not to last more than two hours. A consent agenda will be used. Staff will review the agenda prior to the meeting. Once the agenda is approved at the meeting, the items included in the consent portion will also be approved. If a representative wishes to discuss a motion, then a motion will be made to move that item off the consent portion and placed under new business. C. The minutes to Meeting #111 (October 8, 1999) were approved as distributed via e-mail. D. Consent Agenda Items A motion was made and seconded to adopt the agenda. The vote was unanimous. 1. Staff Training Report The Staff Council Training committee continues to refine the fall training which is being offered. In collaboration with UAF Human Resources appropriate presenters have been identified and are working on the training sessions. The Chair and Co-chair of the Staff Training committee, along with the Staff Council President recently met with Chancellor Lind to further promote the mission of our committee. Dr. Lind gave assurance of his support and will write a memo to Deans and Directors asking for their support and attendance at the training sessions. A personal invitation was also extended to Chancellor Lind. Training sponsored by UAF Human Resources: November 10, Sexual Harassment, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m., Wood Center Conference Room C Please Note that the training on the grievance policy scheduled for November 16 has been postponed until spring. For more information on staff training, check out our web site at: www.uaf.edu/uafgov/www/ST-www/schedule.html E. President's Report - I. Downes Alaska Airline Tickets - Staff Council submitted a proposal to University Relations for two Alaska Airline tickets to be used for the annual Staff Council raffle. The Council was awarded two tickets. However, the current vouchers expire April 2000. The Administrative Committee will be addressing the possibility of moving the raffle from the spring to the fall and acquiring airline tickets for next year. Forward your comments on this topic to President Downes at fneid@uaf.edu. Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce - Staff Council is now a member of the Chamber in an effort to become more visible to the community. President Downes and a representative will be attending the weekly Chamber luncheon and a signup sheet was passed around for representatives. Board of Regents The Regents will meet in Fairbanks on November 18 and 19. Representatives are encouraged to attend the meeting. Cornerstone - President Downes encouraged representatives to submit items for the Cornerstone. Chili Cook Off - There will be chili cook off contest on Thursday, November 4 at the Lola Tilly Commons. This is a fund raising event for the United Way. Come down for lunch and get a bowl of chili and corn bread for $2. President Downes will be judging this contest. Representatives Baergen and Comstock will be participating in the cook off. Military Appreciation There will be a military community appreciation night November 10 at the Museum. Staff Council circulated a card for Representative Julia Parzick from the College of Liberal Arts, who is in Anchorage with an ill daughter. Pamphlet on Y2K - Y2K Guide for Students, Faculty, and Staff was distributed. For additional information on the University of Alaska Y2K effort, contact syy2k@alaska.edu. Meeting with Chancellor - President-Elect Scholle and President Downes met with Chancellor Lind last week. The Chancellor was updated on the work of the Advocacy Committee. A staff brochure will be developed, which will highlight staff that provide service to the community. A good example, is the Ester Fire Department. The fire chief and assistant fire chief work at UAF, and UAF students work at the fire station. They provide an essential service to the community of Ester, as well as fund a scholarship for students to attend the University. Forward your recommendations to President-Elect Scholle at fnmms@uaf.edu or fystaff@uaf.edu. Postcard Campaign President Downes asked staff to turn in their postcards as soon as possible. II Governance Reports A. ASUAF - S. Banks No report available. B. Faculty Senate - L. Duffy Faculty Senate is supporting the students and staff in the postcard campaign to the Governor. Issues the Faculty Senate is working on include how to handle transfer students, common transcripts, what is a UAF faculty member, what is a UAA faculty member, and distance delivery. C. Alumni Association - J. Poole Online Shopping - Check out the new UAF Alumni Association online shopping mall at: www.shopfor.org/uaf. You'll find over 300 stores including J. Crew, Amazon.com, Brooks Brothers, LL Bean, iBaby.com, Lands End, UAF Bookstore, Beyond.com, The Disney Store, Borders Books, Cooking.com, ESPN - The Store, American Eagle, OfficeMax, and the Sharper Image. Your purchases generate royalties for the Alumni Association. Alumni hopes to get local businesses involved in this venture, also. Board Meeting - The Board met last month and all eleven members were in attendance. The Alumni will be providing more services and opportunities for alumni, faculty and staff of UAF. Board members again commented on how good the campus looks and the helpful service they received while on campus. Student Initiative - The number of postcards coming in has been very good. The postcards ask the Governor to provide the funding level requested by the Board of Regents. Alumni will be sending a letter to the Governor encouraging him to support the Regents' budget. Alumni Retreat - Alumni directors will be meeting with President Hamilton on November 11 in Fairbanks. The other Alumni Associations will be encouraged to also send a letter to the Governor regarding the Regents' budget. For the last couple years, the Governor submitted his budget with the funding level recommended by the Board of Regents. Alumni Membership - Alumni are now able to use the employee selected deduction for their Alumni membership. III Committee Reports A. Staff Affairs - L. Anderson The committee met on October 21 and Janet Jacobs, Executive Director for Statewide Human Resources was the guest speaker. Two items which will be looked at are the salary structure and job classification. Janet Jacobs has to make a presentation at the June 2000 Board of Regents meeting on the salary structure. Input from staff will be received through Staff Alliance. Paid Time off - this has to be cost neutral and is not convinced that staff are in favor of PTO. President Downes asked Representative Anderson to attend the Staff Alliance meetings to further the exchange of information. Ice Cream Social - Representatives were thanked for their participation in the ice cream social. The survey's will be compiled and results will be distributed shortly. B. Elections, Membership & Rules - R. Gieck The committee met last week and will be working on the bylaws. Representative Powell had a recommendation for the inclusion of an absentee vote. The committee will also be looking at the issue of co-president. The issue of recall will be specified in the bylaws, also. The role of president and president-elect will be redefined and reduce the workload. One suggestion was made to not require them to attend all committee meetings. Representative Oleson gave some brief history on why Rural Affairs requests that the President sit on the committee, which is to have this exchange of information between the rural representatives and the president. President-Elect Scholle also stated that UAA has a co-presidents, one from APT and one from classified staff. Nominations have been distributed for even numbered units and are due back in the Governance Office on October 28. Ballots will be distributed the first part of November and the results will be announced at the December 3 Staff Council meeting. C. Rural Affairs - H. Simmons The committee met on November 1 and reviewed the rural catalog with Mike Gillespie. Agenda items for upcoming meetings will include Dean Gabrielli as a guest speaker. This will enable rural staff to meet with the dean, who might not have such an opportunity. Other guest speakers will include Personnel, Printing Services and Purchasing. Charlie Dexter will also be asked to speak at a meeting regarding keeping your humor when the organization is downsizing. The technology computer networking and policy audio conference on October 29 was discussed. The committee will be looking at the policies which are important to rural sites. The next meeting will be December 1 at 11:00 a.m. D. Ad Hoc Committee on Parking - T. Gruenig Laura Bender gave a brief report. The Committee has met three times with Fred Sacco from UAF Police and Tim Bauer from the Business Office. The Committee received some budgetary information from Tim Bauer and will be reviewing this information. The goal of the committee is to determine where the parking fee goes. C. Ad Hoc Committee on University Advocacy - S. McCrea Scott McCrea is out of town and President-Elect Scholle gave the committee report. The Committee has met with Debra Dameron and Jillian Swope from University Relations. A brochure will be developed which highlight staff. The brochure will highlight staff that make contributions to the community. This will also be a very good lobbying tool, as well as a morale builder. Staff are an important component of the University, as well as the community. President-Elect Scholle asked the rural representatives to forward names of staff who may be highlighted in the brochure. IV Chancellor's Remarks - M. Lind Chancellor Lind thanked the Staff Council for the opportunity to speak at the meeting. The Chancellor is very interested in the work that the Advocacy Committee is doing. Chancellor Lind is continually impressed with the quality of people at UAF. The Chancellor asked for ideas that staff have on promoting the University. Technology Board - The Board will be streamlining their request for proposal process to better serve the University community. The Chancellor will be chairing the Board again this year and the deadline schedule is very clear and being distributed shortly. Board of Regents Meeting The Regents will be meeting on November 18 and 19 in Fairbanks and will address the final stages of the FY01 budget. The University will be requesting $16.9 million of additional funding from the Governor. The Finance Committee of the Board of Regents will be meeting on November 5 to further address the FY01 operating budget. Chamber of Commerce Chancellor Lind will be the guest speaker at the November 9 Chamber meeting. Meet with Legislators On November 12, the Chancellor and some Regents will have the opportunity to meet with legislators in Anchorage. The Chancellor will be speaking on the rural campuses, Provost Reichardt will be speaking on the research component, and President Hamilton will also address the legislators. Employee Opinion Survey - Representatives asked if the Chancellor has seen the latest employee survey and how communication was identified as an issue, as well as the issue of not enough staff to get the work done and what plans does he have to try and improve communication. Chancellor Lind stated that he had not had a chance to read the survey yet. He will read it prior to our next meeting and comment in December. Holiday Closure - Chancellor Lind will be looking at this issue again. Representative Anderson stated that staff have commented that they enjoy the holiday closure and suggested that representatives forward comments. Chancellor Lind stated that he would welcome input. V Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services Remarks - F. Williams Board of Regents - There will be a number of presentations regarding the budget, as well as safety and security on campus. Christmas Holiday - Staff will be able to use leave without pay, which will enable staff to take time off during the holiday and not use up their annual leave without loosing holiday pay. This is an option of the employee and not a requirement. Staff will be able to work these days, take leave without pay, annual leave, or sick leave. This will alleviate the penalty of being in a leave without pay status and not receiving holiday pay. There is no formal campus closure this year and if an employee utilized leave without pay, then they would not receive holiday pay without this exception. More information is available in the Personnel Update or contact Human Resources. Concerns were expressed if it is an employee or supervisor option to work during the holiday. Carolyn Chapman stated that some units will be closing for this time, such as TVC. This is an option of the supervisor and encourages supervisors to look at how to best work with the employee during this time. The Pub - Concerns were expressed over the changes to the Pub. Vice Chancellor Williams stated that the decision for the change was made after careful consideration due to fiscal reasons. This change is not final and will be reviewed again in the future. Concerns were also expressed regarding the quality of food in the Pub. VI Guest Speaker - Janet Jacobs, Executive Director for Statewide Human Resources There has been two grievances filed under the new policy, one at statewide and one at UAA. The grievance at UAA was resolved at step three and the one at Statewide may be resolved at step 4. The policy may need some fine tuning, but the changes will not be substantial and will be addressed with governance. A handout was distributed on the new process. A draft of the handbook is in General Counsel at this time. The process works as follows: - Employee has a dispute. - Employee attempts to resolve informally at lowest possible level. - If dispute is not resolved, employee attempts to resolve informally with supervisor who has authority to resolve dispute. - If dispute is not resolved, employee files a grievance in writing with same supervisor within 45 days of the event that caused the dispute. - Supervisor conducts investigation of dispute and responds to grievant in writing within 10 days. - If grievant is not satisfied with result or does not receive response in 10 days, grievant must request hearing in writing to senior administrator within 10 days. - Senior administrator decides whether to hold hearing within 10 days. Or senior administrator may investigate dispute further in an attempt to reach resolution. Any resulting delays will be explained in writing to grievant. - Senior administrator decides to dismiss. Provides explanation in writing within 5 days of decision. Or senior administrator decides to hold hearing. Requests appointment of hearing officer. - General Counsel may decide within 20 days to overturn senior administrator decision and hold hearing. At which time a hearing officer would be appointed. Or General Counsel may decide within 20 days to overturn on procedural grounds and not hold hearing. Or General Counsel appoints hearing officer. Hearing Process: - General Counsel appoints hearing officer. - Any party may request disqualification of hearing officer. - If request granted, new hearing officer is appointed. Or if denied, pre-hearing conference may be scheduled not less than 5 days before hearing. - Hearing held - Hearing officer should submit written recommended findings and conclusions to all parties within 5 days of conclusion of hearing. - Decision maker (this will be clarified) will prepare written decision within 15 days. Any delay will be explained in writing to all parties. - If grievant is not satisfied, may request discretionary review by President within 10 days of the decision. - President accepts review within 20 days. President makes final University decision. Grievant has 30 days to appeal to Superior Court if dissatisfied. Or President does not grant review within 20 days and Chancellor's decision is final University decision. Grievant has 30 days to appeal to Superior Court if still dissatisfied. The following are a list of items that are not covered or have a modified process: Non-employment student complaints If subject to a collective bargaining process Job Classification Termination of an at will employee (students, executives) A sexual harassment complaint has a very detailed process Failure to appoint an employee Application or administration of a process subject to Superior Court Appellate Review Actions of the Board of Regents Modified process for "for cause, layoff, financial exigency" Janet Jacobs is trying to include in regulation the areas that have modified processes and where they are. Questions and requests for additional assistance should be directed to Carolyn Chapman, Director of UAF Human Resources at 7700. VII New Business A. November and December Meeting Schedule November 17 - Staff Affairs, 9:00 a.m. Wood Center Conference Room B November 17 - Administrative Committee, 10:30 a.m., Wood Center Conference Room B November 25 and 26 - Happy Thanksgiving and University Holiday December 1, Rural Affairs, 11:00 a.m., Wood Center Conference Room A December 2, Supervisory Training, Legal Liabilities, 3:00 p.m., Wood Center Conference Room EF December 3, Staff Council, 8:30 a.m., Wood Center Conference Room C December 8, Supervisory training by UAF Human Resources, Drug Free Workplace, 1:00 p.m., Wood Center Conference Room C December 8, Staff Affairs, 9:00 a.m., Wood Center Conference Room B December 8, Staff Training, 9:00 a.m., Wood Center Memorial Conference Room December 23 and 24 - University Holidays December 30 and 31 - University Holidays B. Parking Committee - T. Gruening Thom DePace Wylie-Gruenig is the chair of this committee. The Committee received accounting information from Tim Bauer in the Business Office. Terry Kelly from Procurement and Contract Services addressed the committee. The areas of the Business Office, Physical Plant, and Police Department will be focuses on and assessed by three subcommittees. The committee will forward recommendations to Staff Council in February. The committee is focusing their efforts on what the parking fee goes too. For example, $5 goes to this area, $20 goes to that area. Representatives expressed concerns about the dramatic decrease in funds from parking fines. Thom stated that the funds from tickets are not supposed to be counted on. Fred Sacco spoke to the committee and the UAF Police department are more interested in getting people to comply with current parking policies, rather than writing tickets. VIII The meeting was adjourned at 10:31 a.m. Tapes of this Staff Council meeting are available in the Governance Office, 312 Signers' Hall, if anyone wishes to listen to the complete tapes. Submitted by Kathy Mosca, Staff Council secretary.