Draft Minutes

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

10:00 am - 12:00 Noon

via audio conference

1. Call to Order and Roll Call

Present:

Lisa Sporleder, Chair; President, Statewide Administration Assembly

Jeri Cary, Vice President, UAS Staff Council

Juli Gillispie, Vice President, Statewide Administration Assembly

Mel Kalkowski, Vice Chair; President, UAA APT Council

Maya Salganek, President-elect, UAF Staff Council

Kimberly Stanford, President, UAA Classified Council

Others present:

Pat Ivey, Executive Officer, System Governance

Hans Gunderson, Admin. Coordinator, System Governance

Wendy Redman, Vice President for University Relations

Kate Ripley, Director, Statewide Public Affairs

Steve Smith, Chief Information Officer

Gary Newman, Geophysical Institute, UAF

Mike Grahek, Director, Purchasing, UAF

2. Adopt Agenda

MOTION: Passed without objection

“The Staff Alliance moves to adopt the agenda for the February 8, 2005 meeting. This action is effective February 8, 2005.”

3. Approve January 11, 2005 Minutes

http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2005/2005-01-11.html

MOTION: Passed without objection

“The Staff Alliance moves to approve the minutes for the January 11, 2005 meeting as amended on page 2, second paragraph, to take out NOT so the sentence reads: ‘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.’ This action is effective February 8, 2005.”

4 Chair’s report - Lisa Sporleder

The Holidays are done, and the Legislative session is underway. That usually makes for busy times at the University, and this year is no exception.

This month’s agenda probably looks a bit different that you expected. We have some new items included, and some standing items have been left off. Rest assured, we will get back to them, but it seemed reasonable to give them a month’s rest. Concerning the Mediation Project, no news to report. The task force, Jim Johnsen, and Amy Gould will be meeting this Thursday to discuss the project. As for the Staff/Supervisor Training issue, Jonathan Anderson has a very full teaching schedule this semester, and while he is still going to be doing the study as agreed, we need to be a little patient while he works it into a very busy schedule. Those two items will be back on our agenda next month for updates.

One item we were hoping to discuss is the Premera Blue Cross audit. Mike Humphrey is out of town today, and so is unable to meet with us. But I met with Mike and Jim Johnsen a couple weeks ago, and they gave me a copy of the report they have received. They cautioned me that it does not include the Pharmacy part of the plan because there have been delays and difficulties in getting the data, but they didn’t want to hold up the entire report for just the pharmacy section. After reviewing the executive summary, I have to say that, no, they system isn’t perfect, but it’s doing pretty well. Of the four major performance measurements quantified, statistically the same as the industry standard: Financial Accuracy 98.78% (industry standard 98%); Overall Processing Accuracy 97.12% (industry standard 95%); and Payment Accuracy 97.67% (industry standard 97%). Premera did rank a bit low in the Turnaround Time performance measure with 70.36% being processed within 14 calendar days, compared with an industry standard of 90%, but still pretty good. Overall, HR was quite pleased with the results of the audit, and will let us know when the Pharmacy portion is completed. The audit also showed improvement over time: duplicate claims processing seems to have been eliminated with switching to their new Dimensions claims system from the old Legacy system. There seem to have been some overpayment problems caused by tardy notification of terminations, and more analysis of that subject was to appear under separate cover. The comments and recommendations made by the auditors will be addressed by HR and Premera together in order improve our health care plan administration. As I continue to plow through the audit report in my spare time, I’ll be sure to report on anything contrary to what I’ve just outlined.

In the discussions of most of our agenda items last month, we came back to a recurring theme: a need for increased communications between the University administration and UA staff. Some of us recalled the old UA Forum/UA Follow-up newsletters that served that function. There was a discussion of “best methods” of communication, and I know I continued that discussion with coworkers this past month. Some are adamant that electronic communication is all that should be done. Others argue just the opposite, that in this world of spam and electronic message bombardment at work, another e-letter is just what they don’t need. It points out the premise that I learned long ago, no one-communication method fits everybody, and if we want to get the message out, we need to employ a variety of communication efforts. We have Wendy Redman and Kate Ripley here with us today so we can initiate discussion on communication needs.

There are other new items on today’s agenda. We will be discussing changes in UAF Purchasing Policy that are affecting the System Governance office’s travel procedures. Also, when I saw the Business Council’s agenda for this month, I saw some items of interest with respect to IT, and so have asked Steve Smith to come talk to us today. Put your thinking caps on, and let’s have some great discussion of these issues today!

5. Public Comments

Gary Newman is a representative on the UAF Staff Council. He asked that the Alliance look into the issue of verification of student status for healthcare coverage. He indicated if an employee is working at the university and has a dependent who is over 18 but is still going to school as a full-time student, they are entitled to be a dependent on the employee’s healthcare plan and the employee pays for that dependent coverage. The university has a rather cumbersome process for determining student status for dependent coverage, and an outgrowth of how we transitioned from Aetna to Blue Cross. Premera sends out two pieces of paper. The employee has to fill out one and the student has to fill out one and then take both to the registrar. The registrar has to then fill it out and then send both forms to Premera within a certain period of time, and the window is fairly short. There are many points of failure in the process and little or no notification to indicate failure along the way. The result was that although Newman’s dependent paperwork was submitted in March 2004, it was not until January 2005 that the dependent was notified that there was no coverage because the paperwork had not been received. About 10 percent of the 350 people in this situation experience failure in notification. Apparently, fixing the situation is not a high priority among HR or student affairs professionals. Newman hoped that Staff Alliance would weigh in and hopefully move the issue along toward resolution. Newman presented a proposed motion and background, http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2005-02-08.UAF-student-healthcarecoverage.html.

This item was placed on the agenda for the next Staff Alliance meeting for discussion with Mike Humphrey.

6. University Relations and Advocacy

6.1 Employee Communications - Wendy Redman and Kate Ripley

http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2005/2005-01-11.html

The Alliance had a lengthy discussion with Wendy Redman and Kate Ripley about the need to enhance employee communications. Formerly, statewide had a written newsletter that went out to all employees with paychecks. The publication contained policy and regulations changes. That went away and eventually was replaced with an on line newsletter that is also now defunct. As a result, notice of changed policies and regulations are not getting out to employees as they should. Kate Ripley is in the process of working with Jim Johnsen to create an employee communications specialist position that would be housed in the statewide public affairs office and will be a full-time permanent position. As a start, President Hamilton may wish to send out a letter stressing the need for better employee communications.

The Staff Alliance will continue to be very interested in this topic and it will be a standing item on the Staff Alliance agenda.

Mel Kalkowski requested that the MyUA Portal be placed on the agenda for the next meeting.

6.2 Legislative Update - Wendy Redman

http://www.alaska.edu/opa/newsrelease/NR02-05.pdf

http://www.alaska.edu/swbudget/publications/redbook/fy06/fy06_index_docs/presletter.pdf

http://www.alaska.edu/swbudget/publications/redbook/fy06/fy06_index.xml

http://www.alaska.edu/state/newsletter/index.xml

http://www.alaska.edu/state/facts.xml

The governor is very enthusiastic about the university, especially after holding a cabinet meeting on the Fairbanks campus and seeing some of the research the university is doing. Within the legislature, it is likely that the five percent increase the regents requested will be funded by the legislature; however PERS and TRS shortfall is becoming increasingly difficult. The governor has introduced a new lands bill that requires the state to give the university 260,000 acres of land this year. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has already decided which lands the university will receive. One third of the land is designated educational, mostly in the Tanana Forest, one-third is oil and gas potential lands in the Nenana Basin, and one third is recreational lands.

The university is also trying to fix legal language in statute so that faculty and staff can do consulting which is currently prohibited by law.

6.3 Purchasing Policy as Applied to Travel-Related Expenses

and Impact on Advocacy Efforts

http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2005-01-25.UAFtravelexpensespolicy.pdf

Mike Grahek indicated that the policy was just a draft; that it had been enacted in his absence. He said the document resulted because of some comments made by the legislative auditor that all travel expenses should go through the travel office, that employees should pay their own travel and get reimbursed and that purchase orders should not be used for any employee lodging. At first, though, purchase orders were not to be used for anyone’s lodging, even students and volunteers. This adversely affects statewide, who has no affiliation with the UAF travel office but has to abide by UAF purchasing rules. Grahek said he would look into the matter and return at the next Staff Alliance meeting with an update.

7. IT Update - Steve Smith

7.1 UA Username Standard

http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2005-01-24.UsernameStandardMemo.pdf

http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2005-01-24.Username-ITCRec.pdf

The move to a standard username will be done incrementally and will not affect employees and students current usernames. The standard username is one that will be entered into the username fields in Banner. It will become an integral part of that that record is and will identify that individual or individuals, especially those who have certain access levels to Banner databases and applications. As new systems come on line, that will be the standard that will be used. The first one that will make use of the standard username is the MyUA. We cannot change usernames in Banner right now because of the way it is built. But when the next iteration of Banner comes out, it will have the architecture to take advantage of this.

Each MAU will look at all of their applications and make separate decisions on whom they will start to migrate those applications. There may be some legacy applications where the old naming conventions will be used.

The Enterprise Director has been developed by is not fully functional yet because IT has to do a reconciliation to populate it using Banner as the standard to do an exact match.

7.2 IT Merger

http://www.alaska.edu/itmerger/

There was a decision by the President and the UAF Chancellor to consolidate and integrate some specific statewide IT operations and some specific IT operations at UAF campus. The primary concern that folks often have is that of reduced service, who gets first consideration, and who gets first use of the resources. A careful line will be kept between the two so that services to both are not adversely affected to the extent possible. The merger will be a fairly open process. In about a month there will be a draft organizational plan and that will be first vetted with the administration at UAF and then the UAF community but it will also be shared with the broader university community. In the succeeding months, the transition will begin and will be as transparent as possible.

7.3 Other IT Items of Interest

Smith commented that the university currently does not do a very good job of training its own staff. Smith has been meeting with every UAF dean and director about this, and in nearly every instance, training came up as an issue. Smith hopes some models can be addressed to take care of training needs as well. There is a rural sites training that takes place at statewide once a year.

Smith announced that a year ago, Sunguard, a large conglomerate took over SCT Corporation, which produces Banner. Now, Sunguard is splitting off its insurance operations from the company but so far has kept the goals of SCT. Smith will keep a close eye on this situation.

Regarding the 800 dial up service, the university has awarded the contract to GCI and this seems to be working very well.

8. Staff Governance Reports

UAS - The UAS Staff Council has been busy with training and communications issues.

UAA - The UAA Classified Council met February 3 to plan the March 3 chili feed. UAA governance will have a table at the staff development day in May to enhance awareness about governance. UAA governance participated in the February 3 installation of the new UAA chancellor and that went well. The UAA Assembly is also working on communications and on the idea of establishing an ombudsman for the campus.

UAF - The UAF Staff Council is working on new member orientation and hopes to have a white paper on performance based budgeting ready for the next Staff Alliance meeting.

SW - The Statewide Administration Assembly is working on outstanding employee awards and on elections.

SW, UAS, UAA, UAF

9. Juneau Retreat April 5-6, 2005

The Staff Alliance is scheduled to have its spring retreat and Cookie Brigade April 5 and 6 in Juneau. Lodging and Alliance meetings will be at the Prospector Hotel.

10. Agenda items for the Next Meeting March 8, 2005

Agenda items may include but may not be limited to:

* Mediation project and supervisory training

* The process for determining healthcare coverage for employee dependents over 18 who are full-time students

* Employee communications

* PERS-TRS deficit

* Make Students Count Awards update

* My UA Portal

11. Comments

It was suggested that local governance reports be written instead of oral and attached to the minutes. This has been tried before with little or no success.

Ivey reported that the Make Students Count awards packets have gone out. See http://gov.alaska.edu/staff. The deadline for nominations is March 15, 2005.

12. Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 12:08pm.