Minutes

 

Tuesday, September 7, 2004

9:30 am - 11:30 am via video and audio conference

 

1.          Call to order and roll call

 

Members present:       

 

Lisa Sporleder, Chair; President, Statewide Administration Assembly

Jeri Cary, Vice President, UAS Staff Council

Rita Fuller, President, UAS Staff Council

July Gillispie, Vice President, Statewide Administration Assembly

Kimberly Stanford, President, UAA Classified Council

Gary Newman for Josh Steadman, President, UAF Staff Council

Maya Salganek, President-elect, UAF Staff Council

 

 

Absent:

 

Mel Kalkowski, Vice Chair; President, UAA APT Council

 

Others present:

 

Pat Ivey and Hans Gunderson, System Governance Office

Jeannine Senechal, Director, Compensation

 

 

2.         Adopt Agenda

 

            MOTION: passed without objection

 

“The Staff Alliance moves to adopt the agenda for the September 7, 2004 meeting.  This action is effective September 7, 2004.”

 

3.         Approve August 4, 2004 Minutes                                                   

 

            MOTION: passed without objection

 

“The Staff Alliance moves to approve the minutes from the August 4, 2004 meeting.  This action is effective August 4, 2004.”

 

4          Chair’s report - Lisa Sporleder

 

Sporleder welcomed Maya Salganek in absentia.  Salganek is now officially a representative to the Staff Alliance from the UAF Staff Council.  As a group, the Staff Alliance has some major issues coming up this year, which may include, but may not be limited to:

*          reviewing and providing input on the Compensation Task Force report;

*          reviewing the probationary status regulation (Senechal is bringing a fresh copy today because there have been a few more changes to the draft);

*          monitoring the governance review of the governance regulation so that the regulation is implemented before the end of the year;

*          continuing the push for staff and supervisor training  (There apparently is some money in the human resources operating budget earmarked for training.);

*          training a cadre of peer employee mediators for the grievance process (Michigan State does the training and has a bank of trained mediators. See http://www.hr.msu.edu/hrsite/Complaints/).

*          developing a matching pension plan.  (This will require some long-term planning.  As the wellness program is implemented, and if it saves money, perhaps some of the savings could be earmarked for a matching pension plan.)

 

5.         Public Comments

 

            There were no public comments.

           

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

 

UAS - http://www.uas.alaska.edu/staffcouncil/

 

Rita Fuller reported that the UAS Staff Council would meet for the first time on September 16 from 3:00-4:00pm.  They wanted to wait until after the Staff Alliance meeting so they could gather the information from the Staff Alliance and pass it along while it was still fresh. 

 

UAA - http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/governance/classified/

 

Kim Stanford reported that the UAA Classified Council had its first meeting of the year last Thursday. The Council is discussing its goals for 2004-2005 and will finalize those at their October meeting after input from constituents.  Betsy Jackson gave a report on the Compensation Task Force. 

 

The Council sent the draft report out to constituents for input.  Stanford gave a report on the draft governance regulations at the Council meeting. The most recent draft of the governance regulation was sent out to UAA classified and they were told to send comments back through their Classified Council representatives or directly to Stanford.  At the October 7 Classified Council meeting, members will finalize their comments for Stanford to bring forward to the ad hoc committee.  She sent it to Mel Kalkowski to send out to APT.  She assumes Larry Foster took care of that for faculty.

 

Chancellor Maimon asked for nominees from Classified Council for her Action Council.  The Council put forth two names.

 

There is a voter registration drive on campus, mostly out of the student activities office focusing primarily on the students.  Also, UAA intends to have staff voter registrars in all the buildings.

 

Spring break dates were changed at UAA to match the Anchorage school district, March 21 through 26.

 

UAF - http://www.uaf.edu/uafgov/staff/index.html

 

Gary Newman reported that Maya Salganek is going to be able to continue as president-elect of the UAF Staff Council this year and serve as president next year.  The UAF Staff Council Administrative Committee meets this afternoon and the first regular meeting is next week.

 

SW - http://gov.alaska.edu/saa

 

Sporleder reported that at the last Statewide Administration Assembly meeting, members heard a report on Compensation Task Force activities and a discussion on the pay stubs that are no longer being mailed.  One member’s bank preferred not to take the on-line copy as proof of employment.  HR is looking into this.  Also, SAA was given to understand that the on-line version would include the same information on the same page as the information included on the pay stub, but nothing got changed on line.  The problem is that some of the information on the pay stub is calculated outside of Banner so it would be tricky to put it in UA Online.  They are also getting ready for an HR Banner upgrade this fall and nothing can get done for several months after that is completed.

 

SAA also looked at the draft governance regulations and, with just a few editorial typographic changes, endorsed the draft. 

 

Mike Humphrey gave an overview of the wellness task force status and a member brought up a parking issue.  Sporleder said when she registered for a class at UAF she received a notice from UAA saying she could apply on line for a UAA parking pass.  UAF does not have this. Parking will continue to be an SAA issue. Gary Newman said he would be happy to bring issues to the parking appeals committee at UAF. 

 

Action Items

 

7.         Compensation Task Force Report - Jeannine Senechal

            http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2004-09-03.CompTF-report-draft.pdf

 

Jeannine Senechal said Sporleder now has the official task force report that does not say DRAFT on it; however, it is the identical to the one in the agenda packet.   The recommendations are pretty clear and the intent of the contributors is in the report.

Senechal went through the matrix for clarification.   The top short-term priority was annual COLA increase based on the cost of living index.   There is a 4.6 percent proposed increase in the FY06 budget proposal of which 2.6 percent may go for step adjustments and the other two percent could go towards the adjustment for the CPI. If there is going to be an annual CPI adjustment, there will also need to be a cap to the adjustment so that on an annual basis, the adjustment would not exceed two percent.  Jim Johnsen is meeting with the President’s cabinet today and will be going over the recommendations with them.  He will also present the report to the Human Resources Committee of the Board of Regents.

 

The Alliance accepted the report via the following resolution and the chair will be sending thank you letters to the task force members.

 

            MOTION: passed unanimously

 

            “The Staff Alliance approves the following Resolution concerning the Compensation Task Force final report.  This action is effective September 7, 2004.”

 

Staff Alliance Resolution concerning the

Compensation Task Force Final Report

 

Whereas, it was the intent of Staff Alliance that the Compensation Task Force be established to address the various aspects of compensation throughout the University of Alaska system, and

 

Whereas, the Compensation Task Force included staff from across the university representing the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Alaska Anchorage, Statewide Programs and Services, the University of Alaska Southeast, eight campuses, and 24 departments, and

 

Whereas, the Compensation Task Force has investigated the issues, sought input from staff employees of the university, completed its final report and presented it to the Staff Alliance,

 

Therefore, be it resolved that the Staff Alliance accepts the final report of the Compensation Task Force, and

 

Be it further resolved that the Staff Alliance recognizes the hard work and diligence of the Compensation Task Force members and the Human Resources staff, and

 

Be it further resolved that the Staff Alliance will continue to work with University of Alaska Human Resources toward resolution of the issues presented.

 

 

8.         Other Action Items

 

There were no other action items.

 

Information/Discussion Items

 

9.         Staff Training

           

Johnsen has commented that there are funds for training and would like to open a dialog on this.  The mediation model from Michigan State University http://www.hr.msu.edu/hrsite/Complaints/  was referenced as a model for training mediators. Supervisory training was also discussed as a training need at the university.

 

10.        Probationary status

           

The latest copy of the probationary status policy and regulations were distributed   after a period in which the HR office has taken comments and has made several revisions. A provision for a 4-week notice has been added to the regulation and guidelines will be available in human resources offices.  

 

Senechal said she is working on a regulation change for employees who, during reclassification, get downgraded.

 

10.        Wellness Project and September 16-17 meeting

 

            Disease management looks like it might yield a 2-for-1 or a 3-for-1 savings.  The university is also trying to switch over to generic prescriptions, which could save several million dollars. The university is also beginning a wellness study. The wellness group is meeting with the president of Summex and they will help the university design a wellness program. The university is auditing Blue Cross claims processing.

 

11.        Board of Regents Meeting

 

            11.1       President’s Staff Meeting - Mel Kalkowski

 

                        Mel Kalkowski was not present so no report was given.

 

            11.2      Alliance Comments

 

12.        Governance Regulation - Current Draft

           

            Kim Stanford reported that the ad hoc committee met last week and finalized the regulation draft.  This draft has been sent to the local governance groups.  The ad hoc committee does not wish to revise the document until feedback is sent back to governance by the Oct 29. The group is not looking for revisions but rather, feedback to the committee members.  The ad hoc committee will forward the final draft to the System Governance Council for action in November. 

 

13.        Agenda items for the Next Meeting

            October 12, 2004, 10:00 - Noon by audio and/or videoconference

 

            Agenda items may include, but may not be limited to:

            *          Supervisor training

            *          Wellness report

            *          Report on the Board of Regents meeting

                *          Peer mediation program

 

14.        Comments

 

            There were no additional comments.

 

15.        Adjourn

 

            The meeting was adjourned at 11:16 am.