MINUTES UAF STAFF COUNCIL MEETING #125 Wednesday, April 4, 2001 Wood Center Carol Brown Ballroom I Scott Culbertson called the meeting to order at 8:45 a.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: Allen-Luopa, J. Armstrong, K. Baergen, A. (for D. Hagen) Gray, D. Brown, E. Howdeshell, S. Burkhead, T. Jackson, V. Bywater, C. Miller, L. Carlson, K. Renfro, C. Comstock, S. Sowell, P. Crews, J. Whitehorn, J. Culbertson, S. Dekerlegand York, D. OTHERS PRESENT: Hazelton, G. Branley, C. Ledlow, L. Chapman, C. McCrea, S. Duffy, L. Moore, D. Gabrielli, R. O'Neill, R. Lind, M. Parzick, J. Mosca, K. Seymour, M. Sharpton, S. Simmons, H. B. The Minutes to Meeting #124, March 2, 2001 were approved as distributed via e-mail. C. The agenda was adopted as distributed via e-mail. D. President's Report S. Culbertson Staff Compensation - The Board of Regents approved the 1.5% increase for staff compensation. This is effective only if the legislature approves additional funding. However, Staff Alliance is pushing for the increase whether the University receives legislative funding or not. Staff Council representatives are encouraged to contact the legislature regarding University funding. Accreditation President Culbertson encouraged all staff to provide comments on the draft accreditation report. II Guest Speaker Ralph Gabrielli, Executive Dean, College of Rural Alaska TOPIC: College of Rural Annual Report Dean Gabrielli distributed the College of Rural Alaska (CRA) 2000 annual report. The College or Rural Alaska spans the majority of the state. Tab one outlines significant accomplishments which includes 18 graduates from Bristol Bay. Also, John Bruder from Bristol Bay was award the Usibelli Award for Distinguished Teaching. The Center for Distance Education set a new record with 3,556 students during FY00, accounting for 9,979 credit hours. The Center for Distance Education also developed 19 new web delivered courses. Chukchi campus graduated 12 students last year with President Hamilton giving the commencement address. Jerah Chadwick, center coordinator for Aleutian/Pribilof in the Interior-Aleutians campus, received a D.H. Lawrence Scholarship in poetry from the University of New Mexico. The Interior-Aleutians campus is involved with patnerships that have produced grants and contracts totaling over $3 million. Kuskokwim campus graduated 86 students last year. Additionally, 276 students participated in the regional Adult Basic Education Program. Northwest campus appointed Mike Babb as the new director. Dr. Anne Millbrooke's textbook, "Aviation History" won four awards. She also received a second consecutive NSDS Langley Research Center and American Society for Engineering Education Summer Faculty Fellowship which supported her work with the High Speed Research Program and History Office of NASA's Langley Research Center. Tanana Valley Campus serviced more than 3,000 students and delivered over 25,0000 student credit hours. In 2000 TVC graduated 207 students. The department of Alaska Native and Rural Development graduated 12 students with a Bachelor of Arts in Rural Development. Last June the Board of Regents approved a new Masters of Arts program in Rural Development. Gordon Pullar, Director of DANRD, led a graduate level travel study seminar consisting of eight students traveling to Aberdeen, Scotland to participate and give presentation at the Inuit Studies Conference at the University of Aberdeen, followed by a series of meetings and workshops with northern agencies in Copenhagen, Denmark. Funding was provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Cooperative Extension served 28,816 youth last year, aged kindergarten through eighteen through the 4-H program. UAF for Youth is a new campaign to bring a closer link between UAF and CES 4H program. Tab 2 highlights all the partnerships that work with CRA and represents roughly $8.5 million in funding. Representatives asked how CRA secures long term stability in their partnerships. Dean Gabrielli stated that CRA's strategy is to be creditable and contribute to the local areas. CRA has also been looking at major funding outside the University and state. Draft proposals that were funded by Title 3, totaling $8 million will focus on student support at the rural sites for the next five years. Tab 3 outlines the graduation rate for the College of Rural Alaska. Last year CRA graduated 391 for FY00 and graduated 1,385 for the last five years. Tab 4 is the College of Rural of Alaska fall 2000 schedule. Out of respect for elders, an elder is featured on the cover of the class schedule Dean Gabrielli thanked Staff Council for their hard work. President Culbertson and President-Elect McCrea thanked Dean Gabrielli for his support of Staff Council and rural staff throughout the years and wished him well in his new job. III Guest Speaker Dana Thomas, Co-Chair of Accreditation Steering Committee TOPIC: Draft Self Study Comment Period Dana Thomas thanked staff for the opportunity to solicit input on the accreditation report. The current drafts are being revised and some have received substantial revisions. A complete new draft will be up on the web around April 20. There will also be a convocation on May 1, which will be audio conferenced to the rural sites. May 15 through June 10 will be the final editing of the accreditation report. The self study will be mailed to the commission this summer. The accreditation team made up of 12 will visit UAF in October. The rural sites will receive a visit, excluding Unalaska. The commission then drafts a report which includes recommendations. There have been relatively few comments from staff. Standard six on governance is of importance to Staff Council. The accreditation steering committee has included a section on staff because they believe it should be included. Standard 1 deals with mission and planning. Dana Thomas encouraged staff to look at the standards that we are asked to respond too. Dana Thomas stated that a member from the steering committee will visit the rural sites to educated faculty and staff on the accreditation process, solicit comments, and pose questions that members of the accreditation commission may ask. JoJo Ducharme, Dean Woodall, and Pat Kwachka are all trained evaluators by the commission and will be visiting the rural sites. Staff Council thanked Dana Thomas for his hard work on the accreditation process. Input is crucial to the process, so visit http://www.uaf.edu/provost/accreditation/draft/ for more information. IV Chancellor's Remarks M. Lind Accreditation - Chancellor Lind thanked Dana Thomas for his hard work on the accreditation process, as well as everyone that is involved with the steering committee. UAF Day at Southside Community Center - Chancellor Lind thanked Staff Council for their effort in putting on an outstanding program at the Southside Community Center March 31. This is an excellent opportunity for community outreach. Health Issues Executive Summary - Chancellor Lind expressed his support for recreational opportunities on campus. Representatives asked how administration feels about the Health Issues Executive Summary. Chancellor Lind stated that the Student Recreation Center falls under the department of Athletics and Recreation. Health and welfare of faculty, staff, and students is very important. More students should be taking advantage of the recreational activities on campus. The SRC is funded by student fees and administration is putting forward additional funding. A healthy employee is a productive employee. University Funding - Chancellor Lind thanked staff for their support at the legislative teleconference on March 31. The teleconference was well attended. It is very important that the legislature know the University is an essential component to the state. University funding is still short from the $18.4 million requested. At this time, we're only half way there. The funding will assist in sustaining momentum from last year. Staff are encouraged to contact their legislator. BP Funding - The Board of Regents have approved the plan how the BP funding will be used. This funding will help fund initiatives and enable UAF to move forward with their academic plan including a new research center in Fairbanks. V Governance Reports A. ASUAF S. Banks No report. B. Faculty Senate L. Duffy Faculty have been working on educating the legislature on the importance of the University. American Chemical Society Meeting - Nanotechnology and global warming are all high priorities of funding from NSF and UAF is right on track with their initiatives. A number of programs, nursing, teaching, and radiology, will be going before the Board of Regents at the June meeting. All these programs are of popular demand and will keep the kids in the state. The Senate is also working closely with other faculty from UAS and UAA on building alliances. C. Alumni Association C. Branley Job Shadow Program Twenty-seven students shadowed faculty and community members for half a day. The program was highly successful. Alumni Benefit - New York New York hotel and casino in Las Vegas will give a 20% discount for active alumni members. Photography Program - Alumni is working with Master Planning Committee, University Relations, and ASUAF on a participatory photography program. Cameras were distributed to faculty, staff, and students, community, and alumni and they are asked to take pictures of what represents UAF. A display will be made the end of April and will remain up until mid-May. A recommendation was made to have the photos displayed on a web site. Staff asked about submitting digital pictures. Cindy will check on this. VI The Council took a five minute break. VII Committee Reports A. Staff Affairs G. Hazelton 1. Resolution on Senate Bill 9 The committee met on March 21 and addressed a number of issue. After a brief discussion representatives stated that this is long over due. The resolution passed with unanimous approval. RESOLUTION PASSED (unanimous) ================= WHEREAS, Senate Bill 9 with the short title of PERS CREDIT FOR NONCERTIFICATED EMPLOYEES was effective July 1, 1999; and WHEREAS, a 9-month staff member can work for 30 years and only show 22.5 years of accrued retirement benefits; and WHEREAS, Senate Bill 9 allows 9-month support staff in school districts the option of contributing to their PERS retirement account to reflect a full years service during the months they are not receiving pay; and WHEREAS, this is a voluntary program, paid by the staff member and is no financial burden to the employer; now THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that University participation in this program will benefit 9, 10 and 11 month staff and such an option should be made available to staff. Effective this fourth day of April, 2001. ************************* 2. Motion on Job Family Descriptors Representative Brown stated that some individual directors have non-management staff participating in drafting the job family descriptors. Representative Allen-Lupoa stated that in some areas, the managers are asking for input from the staff. Staff would like to see a uniform throughout the campus. Recommendations were also made to have the minutes of the meetings be made available and provide a URL for staff input. After a few friendly amendments, the motion was passed with unanimous approval. MOTION PASSED AS AMENDED (unanimous) ======================= The UAF Staff Council moves to encourage Statewide Human Resources to include participation of representative staff potentially included in each job family in the writing of those job family descriptors. EFFECTIVE: Immediately RATIONALE: Management is making decisions that will affect the daily lives of staff who will be performing within the new job family descriptors. Participation by the staff in that job family will promote communication and harmony. ***************** 3. Motion to endorse Health Issues Committee Executive Summary Representative Dekerlegand York also asked for the incorporation of rural sites. Representatives offered the following amendments to the motion to incorporate the rural sites and offer a one day pass to the Student Recreation Center for all new employees. The amended motion passed with unanimous approval. MOTION PASSED AS AMENDED (unanimous) ======================= The UAF Staff Council moves to endorse the Health Issues Executive Summary with the following recommendations to extend the benefits to rural sites and provide a one day pass to the Student Recreation Center to new employees. EFFECTIVE: Immediately ******************* Revised 3/5/01 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY By members of the UAF Governance Health Issues Committee I. The newly funded FY03 initiative position (Assistant Recreation Manager) for the SRC is highly welcomed by the Health Issues Committee (HIC). As stated in the initiative this position will be assisting with the UAF LIFE program. The Health Issues Committee would like to recommend the following duties as part of the Asst. Recreation Manager's job description: - Recruitment and retention of fitness instructors - Schedule activities related to the wellness program(spring, fall and summer semesters). - Develop training programs for fitness instructors in the areas of, but not limited to: aqua aerobics, step and floor aerobics, kick boxing, and group dance classes. In addition, the HIC recommends that the revenue generated by the UAF LIFE program be used to pay salaries of fitness instructors and lecturers (fitness instructors at $12-15/hr and lecturers per individual negotiations) Therefore, this committee urges action to designate 75% of the revenue generated from LIFE activities for ongoing support of the program. RATIONALE: Fitness instructors and lecturers offering their services to the UAF LIFE have been operating on volunteer power since the program's inception in the fall of 1997. Current participation in UAF LIFE at the SRC shows 75-100 faculty and staff each fall and spring semesters. We would like to see this program grow. However, without financial support, growth is impossible, as instructors are unwilling and cannot be expected to continue to volunteer their services. II. The Health Issues Committee recommends that the UAF administration support an additional staff or student position to act as a facility monitor during high use hours at the Student Recreation Center. This individual would be responsible for: - Returning weights to their storage racks - Insuring that clients are using equipment correctly - Acting as a safety monitor for users and their children (i.e., children are using equipment without adult supervision) - Formally reporting unsafe or damaged equipment to the SRC manager. RATIONALE: Liability issues could easily arise if equipment is not properly maintained and in a timely manner. SRC users have expressed great concern about unsupervised children using the equipment and the facility in general. These problems could be managed if a staff person was given the authority to "roam" or "assist" users in the appropriate use of equipment, encourage proper behavior in this type of facility, and help keep the facility risk free. III. FUTURE GROWTH The HIC wishes to encourage the UAF administration to support other possibilities for growth of this program. Our suggestions are: - Offer punch cards for aerobics class participation or specific programming with shorter duration or participation periods. Clients would only be able to get into the facility during the specified times of the activities. - Offer a one time payment plan for a full one year membership for UAF LIFE - suggested price $200/year-a reduction of $25/year. Find a location within the SRC to hold a babysitting area for children age 4 and under. Single parents are not able to participate in many programmed activities because they have no care for their children. RATIONALE: Many students and staff are single parents and are not involved in SRC or UAF LIFE programmed activities. A childcare option would encourage greater participation by single parents. These suggestions, if acted upon, would mean a healthier and happier faculty and staff population. While students participate and are included in all of our activities, it is important that UAF's active and proactive in improving their health and well being. A well-supported and successful wellness program is a small investment with an excellent return--our staff will feel valued and will be more productive. Statistics have shown that the rate of sick leave decreases and savings in health care costs are realized. UAF LIFE is a win-win situation for all involved! It is our hope that the UAF administration will support our goals and help us make this program successful. ****************** B. Elections, Membership & Rules D. Dekerlegand York 1. Nominations for President-Elect The committee has not meet since the last Staff Council meeting. However, nominations are open for the position of president-elect. Elections will be held at the May 16 meeting. If you are interested in the position, contact Scott Culbertson at fnsrc@uaf.edu, Scott McCrea at fnsjm@uaf.edu or the Governance Office at fystaff@uaf.edu. C. University Advocacy S. Comstock and S. McCrea UAF Day at Southside Community Center - 24 different departments participated in the UAF Day at the Southside Community Center. The committee received a number of comments on how to get the word out next year, such as contacting the local churches. Thanks went out to Alumni Association, Student Activities, and some local distributors. A recommendation was made to include the information next year in the Winter Carnival schedule. The next committee meeting will be at noon on Wednesday, April 18 at the Hutchison Café. D. Ad Hoc Staff Longevity A. Baergen Representative were asked to have their constituents look at the staff listing on the web. If there are any comments or concerns, contact Alice Baergen at fnajb@uaf.edu. The committee does not want to exclude anyone. There will also be a staff convocation from 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. on May 17 in the Davis Concert Hall. Staff will go right to Wood Center after the convocation to the Longevity Awards Program and picnic. Chancellor Lind has endorsed released time for both programs. The next committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 17 at 10 a.m. in the Chancellor's Conference Room. E. Ad Hoc Picnic K. Mosca The picnic committee has been working on acquiring door prizes. The staff longevity awards program and picnic have been combined this year and will be on Thursday, May 17. The picnic will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the Wood Center Carol Brown Ballroom and the longevity awards program will begin at 1 p.m. Staff will be able to get their food and enjoy a leisurely lunch while honoring their co-workers who have been with the University for 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years. For more information on door prizes, raffle tickets, and what to bring: http://www.uaf.edu/uafgov/www/picnic/picnic.html Staff Council will be selling raffle tickets at the Wood Center from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on April 6, April 20, and May 4. Get your tickets soon before they sell out. FOOD LIST FOR 2001 STAFF PICNIC Unit 2 Vegetable Trays & Dip - College of Rural Alaska, Tanana Valley Campus, Alaska Cooperative Extension Unit 3 Salads/Baked Beans - SALRM, SME, SOM Unit 4 Fruit - Institute of Arctic Biology Unit 5 Salads/Baked Beans - Geophysical Institute, IARC Unit 6 Salads/Baked Beans - School of Fisheries & Ocean Sciences Unit 7 Desserts - Student Services Unit 8 Fruit - College of Liberal Arts Unit 9 Salads/Baked Beans - Chancellorıs Office, Governance, Registrarıs Office, Graduate School, Provostıs Office, Summer Sessions, University Relations & Development, UA Press, Proposal Office, Institution Research, Sponsored Programs Unit 10 Salads/Baked Beans - College of Science, Engineering & Math, UA Museum, ARSC Unit 11 Chips - Facility Services, Utilities Unit 12 Desserts - VCAS Office, Contract Services, Financial Services, Human Resources, Safety Services Unit 13 Salads/Baked Beans - Library F. Rural Affairs H. Simmons The committee met on April 2. The committee addressed the rural schedule of courses. The committee will be making a few recommendations to further enhance the schedule. The committee discussed staff involvement on the search committee for the position of executive dean of the Rural College if the position is open. At this time, it is unclear if the position may be a direct appointment. The committee is discussing a student handbook for distance education for rural students. The committee will address this topic further. A web site handbook is recommended. A client satisfaction survey was addressed. Representative Comstock recommended that the committee look at the Student Activities Handbook called Bear Necessities. Representative Comstock will send the handbook to Representative Simmons. VIII New Business A. Makes Students Council Award Staff were reminded to get their nominations in for the Make Students Count Award. The deadline is April 6. Questions were asked about 3/4 time employees and part-time employees. System Governance stated to include the 3/4 time employee. Statewide will be looking at both these recommendations for future programs. B. Chancellor's Recognition Award Nominations are open for the Chancellor's Recognition Award. The Chancellor's Recognition Award recognizes an outstanding staff member for service that is work related or a public relations effort that is noteworthy. Any staff member regardless of employment status at UAF is eligible for this award. Nomination deadline is April 24 and forms are available on the web at: http://www.uaf.edu/uafgov/www.nomform.html Additional information is available on the web at: http://www.uaf.edu/uafgov/www/chancrecog.html Chancellor Lind will present this award at the Staff Longevity Award Program on May 17. C. Comments and Questions Concerns were expressed about a proposed policy stating that non-faculty will not be allowed to write grants. Staff Affairs will address this issue at their next meeting. President-Elect McCrea is in Nome visiting with staff from the Northwest campus to get their comments and concerns. President-Elect McCrea also spoke with student at Nome High School and he will also be speaking with the Nome Rotary. D. Upcoming Meetings April 16, Elections, Membership and Rules, 10 a.m., Wood Center Conference Room A April 25, Staff Affairs, 9 a.m., Wood Center Conference Room B April 30, Ad Hoc Picnic, 10 a.m., Wood Center Conference Room B May 1, Rural Affairs, 9 a.m., Wood Center Conference Room A May 7, Ad Hoc Picnic, 9 a.m., Wood Center Conference Room A May 7, Administrative, 10 a.m., Wood Center Conference Room B May 14, Elections, Membership and Rules, 10 a.m., Wood Center Conference Room A May 15, Ad Hoc Picnic, 10 a.m., Wood Center Conference Room B May 16, Staff Council, 8:45 a.m., Wood Center Carol Brown Ballroom May 17, Staff Picnic and Longevity Awards Program, 12:30 p.m., Wood Center Carol Brown Ballroom IX The meeting was adjourned at 10:55 a.m. Tapes of this Staff Council meeting is available in the Governance Office, 312 Signers' Hall, if anyone wishes to listen to the complete tapes. Submitted by Kathy Mosca, Staff Council secretary.