Draft Minutes
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
10:00
am - 12:00 Noon
via
audio conference
1. Call to Order and Roll Call
Members present:
Lisa Sporleder, Chair; and President, Statewide
Administration Assembly
Mel Kalkowski, Vice Chair; President UAA APT Council
Jeri Carey, Vice President, UAS Staff Council
Rita Fuller, President, UAS Staff Council
Juli Gillispie, Vice President, Statewide
Administration Assembly
Kimberly Stanford, President, UAA Classified Council
Josh Steadman, President, UAF Staff Council
Others present:
Pat Ivey, Executive Officer,
System Governance
Hans Gunderson, Admin. Coordinator, System
Governance
Steve Smith, Chief Information Officer
Jim Johnsen, Vice President for Faculty and Staff
Relations
Jeannine Senechal, Director, Compensation
2. Adopt
Agenda
MOTION: passed without objection
“The Staff Alliance moves to adopt the agenda as
amended to move Steve Smith’s presentations under items 7 and 8 to occur before
the approval of the minutes because of schedule commitments. This action is
effective January 11, 2005.”
3. IT
Investment Policy - Steve Smith
http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2004-12-23.IT-InvestmentMemo.html
http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2004-12-23.IT-InvestmentPolicy-firstread.html
The policy proposal went to the Board of Regents for first reading at
their December meeting and will go back to the Board for action February
17. The proposal was necessary: 1) so
that there is oversight over software and hardware purchases, 2) so they can be
coordinated, 3) so that the purchases work with Banner, 4) so that IT standards
are maintained, 4) so that cost savings can be achieved, 5) and so that
individuals, groups or departments who have need of a particular piece of
hardware or software can benefit from the experiences of others.
The main oversight responsibility will fall to Steve Smith as the chief
information technology officer, but approvals will be at appropriate levels so
that purchases can be made in a timely manner.
Specialized and/or cutting edge computer equipment and software that will
be interactive or part of UA system computer systems will most likely be
affected.
Alliance members requested that there be established on line a list of UA
licensed software and open contracts for hardware all over the system so
faculty and staff can make maximum use of what is available instead of making
unnecessary single purchases. The site
should also include general IT standards for the purchase of hardware such as
desktops and general use software.
The Alliance also requested that
there be an on-line feedback system on hardware and software and news about
what the campuses are doing in this regard.
MOTION: passed without objection
“The Staff Alliance moves to approve the proposed change to Regents
Policy relating to IT investment. This
action is effective January 11, 2005.”
4 Dial Up
Discontinuation Update - Steve Smith
Steve Smith reported that the discontinuation of
subsidized dial ups has gone smoothly. The UA Statewide help desk has received
one or two calls. Campuses are reporting few calls, but Smith expects calls to
escalate when schools starts. GCI is
putting an 800 number in place for out-of-state dialups. Employee participation in vendor special UA
plans has been light so far. There has
been some discussion of using part of the tech fee to assist students in
financial need.
The UAF Faculty Senate and the Faculty Alliance
both passed resolutions to stop the elimination of subsidized dialups but
administration elected to proceed.
5. Approve
December 14, 2004 Minutes
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2004/12-14.html
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2004/12-14.pdf
MOTION: moved by Kalkowski, seconded by
Gillispie, passed without objection
“The Staff Alliance moves to approve the minutes of the December 14, 2005
meeting. This action is effective
January 11, 2005.”
6. Chair’s report - Lisa
Sporleder
Lisa Sporleder reported that she didn’t have a lot to report because the
last meeting was not that long ago, and with Christmas in the middle, there
hasn’t really been any activity upon which to report.
7. Public Comments
There were no public comments.
8. Staff
Governance Reports - SW, UAS, UAA, UAF
SW - Sporleder reported that the Statewide Administration Assembly hosted
the Hawaiian-themed Christmas potluck complete with roasted pig and beach
movies for statewide employees December 19, and a good time was had by
all. The SAA canned food drive yielded
in excess of 500 pounds of food for the Fairbanks Food Bank. SAA also provided Christmas for a Love, Inc
family whose house and everything in it had been destroyed in a fire.
UAS - Jeri Carey reported that the Staff Council met December 16 and the
meeting was very well attended. Members
had questions about job reclassification.
Tara Keeler phoned in and answered those questions. The Council also discussed training skills
needs.
UAA - Kim Stanford reported that the UAA Classified Council and the UAA
Assembly have not met since the last Staff Alliance meeting. Stanford and UAA Assembly president Larry
Foster did have a good meeting with the new UAA vice chancellor for
administration. Stanford has received a
big stack of input on supervisory training needs.
UAF - Josh Steadman reported that UAF Staff Council President-elect Maya
Salganek was on vacation and that the Staff Council was able to get its annual
calendar refunded so the 2005 calendar will be out soon.
Information/Discussion Items
9. Salary
Grid Adjustment Regulations
http://www.alaska.edu/bor/agendas/2004/041208hr.doc
(which also
includes proposed regulation revision)
Jim Johnsen reported that
the salary grid adjustment regulations are out for comment and input is required as soon as
possible.
10. Mediation
Project Update
Jim Johnsen will assign his executive secretary the task of setting up a
meeting of the mediation task force as soon as possible. The mediation taskforce includes Lisa
Sporleder, Kim Stanford, Maya Salganek and Rita Fuller. UAA and UAF human resources departments are
evidently doing some kinds of training already but this needs to be uniform and
extended to UAS and Statewide employees.
11. Supervisory
Training Update
The Staff Alliance will invite Jonathan Anderson to its next meeting to
discuss supervisory training offerings and needs systemwide.
Johnsen reported that there will be a UA Executive
Academy in March that will include executives and system governance
leaders.
Johnsen will retain the traditional “UA Academy”
label for staff training needs. He
indicated that there is $500,000 in the FY2006 budget request for faculty and
staff development, some of which could be used for supervisory training. However, he wasn’t willing to move forward
until the money has been received.
12. Job
Reclassification Update
http://www.alaska.edu/hr/classification/index.xml
http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2004-11-30.jobclassupdate.html
Jeannine Senechal reported that reclassification for most of the
administrative group is now complete and that the first cleanup is scheduled
for the first payroll period in February.
If anyone has not received notice of his or her reclassification status
and believes that they are in the administrative group, they should contact
Jeannine immediately. The first appeal
period expired January 4 but some units didn’t give notice to their employees
in time so that appeal period was extended.
Senechal expects about a dozen appeals from 600 positions reclassified
throughout the system. Next groups to
undergo review include student services and student services management.
She also advised that the Department of Labor is auditing overtime usage
at UA. This is a routine audit done
every ten years or so, and the university is in a good position, just having
completed its own examination of FLSA.
13. Probationary
Policy Change - Communications
http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2004-12-16.probationarystatus-polyreg.pdf
http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2004-12-16.probationarystatus-effectivedate.pdf
Johnsen said he had received notice of two recent court decisions
relating to state government cases about probationary employment. Those decisions state that where evaluations
are required during the initial probationary period, the affected employees are
not at-will employees. Johnsen added
that for additional probationary periods after the initial probationary period,
the employee is not at-will anyway because they have the option of returning to
their previous jobs. This means that
during the initial probationary period, if an employee is terminated, no reason
can be given, either vocally or in writing, unless the employee requests it in
writing.
Significant discussion ensued about the lack of communication about the
policy and regulations changes and the lack of a regular method of providing
that communication. Sporleder referred
to the UA Forum and the Followup, regular printed newsletters
that went to all employees with their paychecks, as the best examples of how
that information was distributed in the past.
She said it was all well and good to put the information on the web, but
if employees don’t receive it directly, they very often will not bother to go
to the web to obtain it.
The Staff Alliance will
invite Wendy Redman and Kate Ripley to the next meeting to discuss the
communications issue further.
Senechal said the
University of Washington has a newsletter that goes out by email and in tabloid
format.
14. Primera
Claims Audit
Mike Humphrey was not available due to unforeseen circumstances, so this
item was placed on the next Alliance agenda.
15. Make
Students Count Award
http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/studentscount/2005nom-form.pdf
http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/studentscount/2005factsheet.pdf
Pat Ivey presented the draft fact sheet and nominations form for the 2005
Make Students Count award that will be distributed shortly. 2005 will be the seventh year President
Hamilton will make this award. He
provides up to four awards, one to each MAU. He makes the presentations before
the Board of Regents at the June regents meeting. Ivey was asked to amend the criteria to include staff who work
with prospective students; for example, university staff who recruit high
school students.
16. Performance Based Budgeting White Paper
Steadman said the UAF
Council thought it would have a white paper ready for adoption by staff groups
systemwide, but this proved more difficult than originally anticipated. He hopes to have one for the next Alliance
meeting.
17. Juneau
Retreat April 5-6, 2005
Alliance members will fly to Juneau the morning of April 5. The Alliance meeting will begin with a
working lunch and meeting`on April 5 where they will receive their annual
Cookie Brigade aprons to wear the next day. The next day, the Alliance will
visit legislators while Pat delivers the Alliance cookies to the legislative
offices. This is an annual event and
the legislators look forward to it.
18. Agenda items for the Next Meeting February 8, 2005
Agenda items may include, but may not be limited to:
* Performance
Based Budget White Paper - UAF Staff Council
* Mediation
and Supervisory Training Update - with Jim Johnsen
* Premera
Claims Audit - with Mike Humphrey
* Employee
communications with Wendy Redman and Kate Ripley
* Juneau
Retreat
* Make
Students Count Awards update
19. Comments
There
were no additional comments
20. Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 11:50am.