Draft Minutes

 

Wednesday, August 4, 2004

11:00 am - 2:30 pm

Room 501, International Arctic Research Center

Fairbanks Campus

 

1.          Call to order and roll call

 

Members present:

 

Lisa Sporleder, Statewide Administration Assembly, Chair

Mel Kalkowski, UAA APT Council

Jeri Cary, UAS Staff Council

Maya Salganek, UAF Staff Council

Rita Fuller,  UAS Staff Council

Kimberly Stanford, UAA Classified Council

Juli Gillispie, Statewide Administration Assembly

Josh Steadman, UAF Staff Council

 

Others present:

 

Pat Ivey, Executive Officer, System Governance

Hans Gunderson, Admin. Coordinator, System Governance

Rory O’Neill, Past Chair, Staff Alliance

Jeannine Senechal, Director, Compensation

Mike Humphrey, Director, Benefits

 

2.         Adopt Agenda

            http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/agendas/2004/08-04.html

 

            MOTION: passed without objection

 

“The Staff Alliance moves to adopt the agenda for the August 4 2004 meeting.  This action is effective August 4, 2004.”

 

3.         Approve July 13, 2004 Minutes

            http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/minutes/2004/07-13.html

 

MOTION: passed without objection

 

“The Staff Alliance moves to approve the minutes for the July 13, 2004 meeting as amended to correct typographical errors.  This action is effective August 4, 2004.”

                       

4          Interim Chair’s report - Lisa Sporleder

 

Sporleder stressed communications as the most important issue this year: communications with administration and with constituents, in any way and every way possible.

 

President Hamilton looks to the Alliance as a sounding board for staff.  He turns to the Alliance first when he wants staff views on anything.  He wants issues to go through the executive staff first before coming to him for action.  A lot of Alliance issues will go through Jim Johnsen because he is vice president for faculty and staff relations and because he knows whether or not Alliance ideas will fly.  That is not to say the Alliance will not take on controversial issues.  It means that with constant communication we stand a chance of the staff voice having some effect on these issues and being able to actually effect change. 

 

The Staff Alliance, especially the chair, is also the voice to the Board of Regents on behalf of staff. 

 

Sporleder welcomed all the new and returning members to the group.

 

5.         Public Comments

 

Rory O’Neill, chair of the Alliance for 2003-2004 addressed the group.  He lauded the members for their great work during the past year.  He has moved to Statewide from UAF but is still at the same phone number and email address.  He indicated that while he would not formally be participating in governance this year, he was willing to help out as needed.

 

Sporleder presented Rory O’Neill a plaque from the Staff Alliance for his outstanding service to, and on behalf of, the Alliance.  Much applause followed.

 

6.         Staff Governance Reports - SW, UAS, UAA, UAF

 

UAS - Rita Fuller reported that the UAS Staff Council election results will be final on Friday.  Fuller is running unopposed for president and Jeri Cary unopposed for vice president.   Fuller’s mission is to work very hard to get more people involved in staff governance at UAS.

 

UAA - Kim Stanford reported that neither Classified nor APT Council at UAA meets during the summer.  There is a lot going on at the campus level.  Stanford sent a message out to UAA Classified staff recently inviting them to the first fall meeting and also inviting Chancellor Maimon so that staff can hear what her goals are for the coming year.

 

UAF - Josh Steadman said the UAF Staff Council Administrative Committee has been meeting over the summer.  Council member Ian Forbes is working with Pat Pitney on performance-based budgeting to make sure the new outcomes contain some more staff-oriented outcomes.  The Council is trying to get more feedback on the Compensation Task Force and is working on volunteer hours, trying to get allotted time for volunteer work so staff can be paid for it if the volunteer work occurs during working hours. The Council actually passed a motion to that effect in the spring but this has to be discussed with the new UAF chancellor. UAF Human Resources suggested that rather than have a certain number of hours per year, that maybe the university could dedicate a volunteer month. 

 

Maya Salganek reported that the Compensation Task Force has been keeping the Council apprised of all of their issues and timelines and urged the Council to go back to UAF staff and have them rate the various areas under consideration.

 

SW - Sporleder reported that the Statewide Administration Assembly (SAA) does meet all summer.  Usually the monthly meetings occur the day after the Staff Alliance meeting.  At the last SAA meeting, the group discussed the Compensation Task Force and the governance regulations review.  Mike Humphrey talked about the Wellness Task Force and open enrollment status.  SAA had a discussion on parking services at UAF and also had a constituent bring up the issue of pay stubs and the fact that they will no longer be mailed to everyone.  He was hoping for email notification and that turned into another discussion of what is on the printed pay stub versus the information presented on UA On-line.  A different constituent had problems presenting the print out to his lender.  The lender did not want to accept the document as proof of employment and salary.  The lender wanted the formal pay stub with the salary year to date figures on it. Sporleder advised Jim Johnsen that the information should be presented on the web the same way it is presented on the pay stub.  He said changes would have to wait until after the HR Banner upgrade the end of October but would work to make sure lenders could get the information they need.

 

Action Items

 

7.         Election of Officers                                                                          

 

            Lisa Sporleder was elected chair by acclamation.  Mel Kalkowski was elected vice

            chair by acclamation.  The term of office for both is one year.

 

8.         Administrative Job Classifications - Jeannine Senechal               

                http://www.alaska.edu/hr/classification/index.xml

                http://www.alaska.edu/hr/classification/Admin%20Generalist%20Draft.pdf

                http://www.alaska.edu/hr/classification/Admin%20Specialist%20Draft.pdf

 

Senechal said that all of the jobs, once received, are reviewed by Statewide HR based on current position descriptions.  Statewide HR then sends them back out to the MAUs to review. MAU HR offices then have an opportunity to respond and go to the departments and advise them.  Senechal is hoping that the administrative job classification process won’t be as complicated as other job families.  She expects that HR will probably find some jobs that may belong somewhere else.

 

Information/Discussion Items

 

9.         Promotional Probationary Status Guidelines - Jeannine Senechal

 

The Staff Alliance comments have been incorporated into the guidelines and the revised guidelines have been circulated to the HR Council and university general counsel for final comment prior to implementation. 

 

10.        Compensation Task Force Recommendations - Jeannine Senechal

 

            Senechal said she was available today to hear any comments and feedback to the Compensation Task Force list of priorities.  Notices were sent via several different sources and a blanket email notice to all regular staff.  After that, she received a lot of feedback.   The top priority of respondents was grid adjustments linked to the CPI.

 

One respondent said the university should develop a compensation philosophy that is linked to the goals and mission of the university.  The concept of personal leave was very polarized.  People either really liked it or really hated it.  Sporleder reiterated that her constituents were overwhelmingly against combining sick and annual leave into personal leave.  A chart will be distributed at the next Compensation Task Force meeting.

 

Steadman mentioned problems with the web site.  Senechal responded that it was created in less than three days, and that the purpose was to get as much information out there as possible the quickest way they could.  She agreed that a redesigned site would be more user-friendly but time was pressing.

 

11.        Presentation on UA Pension Plans - Mike Humphrey

 

Mike Humphrey said the PERS/TRS pension systems face a $5 billion deficit which has to be made up by the various state agencies, including the university.  It is hoped that the deficit can be made up over time through legislative action.                                                                     In addition, the university offers a supplemental pension plan to all permanent employees.  This amounts to $13 million per year.  The plan design for the supplemental pension plan is in the hands of the university to consider, and the university is looking at ways to better utilize these funds.                                                       

 

12.        UA Benefits Overview - Mike Humphrey

 

            The statewide benefits office contains only two staff: Mike Humphrey and one other to handle the maintenance of current and the design of future benefits packages.  Despite this, with the communications his office has been able to provide through mailings, the web site and multiple forums at each of the campuses, open enrollment has occurred fairly peacefully. 

 

13.        Governance Regulations

 

The draft regulations have been sent to the local governance groups for review.  Comments made by Rory O’Neill will be taken up by the ad hoc committee over the summer.  The draft regulations have been passed to the System Governance Council.  The Council will oversee the completion of the review process and act on the final draft.  Minor adjustments will have to be made to Board of Regents policy 03.01.01 and both will hopefully go to the Board in December; the policy for action and the regulations for information.

                       

14.        UA On-line - Comprehensive overview - Steve Smith

 

            This item was not discussed.

           

15.        Governance training

 

Jim Johnsen is in the process of trying to bring up an expert to facilitate discussions about the role of governance with the Board of Regents and with faculty and staff.  Richard Birnbaum was mentioned as a possible facilitator.  Dr. Birnbaum is the author of several books and articles on the subject and is nationally known for his expertise.

 

16.        Agenda items for the Next Meeting

 

            September 7, 2004, 9:30 am - 11:30 am by audio and/or videoconference

            Agenda items may include but may not be limited to governance guidelines, UA Online, Compensation Task Force, governance regulations and other items of concern.

 

            Supervisory training was mentioned as a possible agenda item for the October meeting.  Charlie Dexter from TVC has done a lot of supervisory training and will be invited to the October meeting to discuss this item.

 

17.        Comments

 

            There were no additional comments

 

18.        Adjourn

 

            The meeting was adjourned at approximately 2:00pm.