Draft Minutes

Monday, August 8, 2005, 9:30-11:30 am and Tuesday, August 9, 2005, 1:00-2:30 pm

Room 501, International Arctic Research Center, Fairbanks Campus

 

Monday, August 8, 2005, 9:30-11:30 am

 

1.          Call to Order and Roll Call

http://gov.alaska.edu/home/who/staff/

 

Present:

 

Lisa Sporleder, Chair; President, Statewide Administration Assembly

Jeri Carey, President, UAS Staff Council

Jana Ring, Vice President, UAS Staff Council

Lori Merdes, Vice President, Statewide Administration Assembly

Bob Kizer, President, UAA APT Council

Kimberly Stanford, President, UAA Classified Council

Jeff Stepp, President-elect, UAF Staff Council                                                           

 

            Others present:

 

Pat Ivey, Executive Officer

Hans Gunderson, Administrative Coordinator

 

2.         Adopt Agenda

 

MOTION: Moved by Stanford, seconded by Stepp, passed without objection

 

“The Staff Alliance moves to adopt the agenda for the August 8-9, 2005 meetings.  This action is effective August 8, 2005.”

 

3.         Approve July 12, 2005 minutes                                                       

http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/Minutes/2005/07-12.html

 

MOTION:  Moved by Stepp, seconded by Stanford, passed without objection

 

“The Staff Alliance moves to approve the minutes of the July 12, 2005 meeting as amended on page 6, item 8.4, transpose “both” and “the”.  This action is effective August 8, 2005.”

 

 

 

 

4.         Chair’s report

 

Lisa Sporleder reported that the senior citizen tuition waiver was an uphill battle.  Last year, the Alliance also tried to initiate supervisor training and that went nowhere fast, but Jim Johnson insists something is in the works and will get done. It would be nice if the study of existing resources actually gets done.  It was supposed to be done this summer but summer is almost over and nothing has been heard about it’s even being started. Supervisory training is almost more important than staff training because so often, employees are promoted into supervisory roles without a clue about how to supervise.  That is not an efficient way to run an organization. We need a system in place that is not just MAU-specific and something that gives people a fair shot.  It is not fair to promote someone into a supervisory position and not give them the tools that they need to succeed.  So many times, unprepared people will assume supervisory positions and think it is their turn to micro manage and nothing kills morale quicker. The need is not any less than it was a year ago.  The role of the supervisor is to cultivate morale among staff and to facilitate the workload, not to divide and conquer.

 

5.         Public Comments

 

There were no public comments.

 

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

 

UAF – Jeff Stepp reported that the UAF Staff Council had not met since the last Alliance meeting.  Council president Maya Salganek is off contract, out of town on a family emergency and not able to attend.  Regarding the Campus Diversity Committee, four women were demoted, forced to leave the university, or reassigned and replaced by white males. The committee discussed the realignment of the EEO/AA office. Stepp received a memo relating to shuttle reassignment so West Ridge passengers with be dropped off at IAB and the Museum and no service will be provided to the Butrovich Building.  The lot below Bunnell Building will be a “silver” lot which will be oversold. No fee has been set for silver.  There are 56 gold reserved parking slots this year.  Ed Foster is the head of parking.

 

UAA – The UAA governance office has a new staff coordinator, Hillary Comeaux. UAA governance leaders met with her this week. UAA governance is still working on the facilitation project and looking for a title to replace the title of “ombudsman,” a term which is opposed by some administrators.  The Seawolf Book Club is run primarily out of the governance office.  The implementation of the percent grid increase and the healthcare cost increases do not coincide.  The healthcare cost increases were taken out in the first pay period of the new fiscal year, while the salary grid adjustment did not occur until mid-July.  The UAA Chancellor is hosting a leadership summit.  Governance leaders will be attending.

 

SAA – The Statewide Administration Assembly has taken up the senior tuition waiver, working on draft regulations to curtail practices for which the policy was never intended, i.e., enrolling tuition waivered seniors into courses in order to beef up the headcount so the class will be taught.  SAA is closely monitoring the UAF-Statewide IT merger.  It will be a year to 18 months before everything is implemented.

 

UAS – The UAS Staff Council had one meeting since the last Alliance meeting.  The Council is focusing on staff training.

 

7.         Orientation for New Members       

 

The staff governance organization and handbook were explained.

 

8.         Senior Tuition Waivers        

http://gov.alaska.edu/net/2005-04-12.tuition-adj-notice-ay2007-2008.pdf

 

            This item will be discussed with President Hamilton August 9.

 

9.         Human Resource Regulations

            http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2005-05-27.RecruitingRegsDraft.pdf

 

            There was a typo on page 3 of draft regulation 04.03.010.B.5.  The acronym should

be “EEO/AA.”                                                          

 

10.        Distance Education Summit Recommendations; Implications for Staff

http://www.distance.uaf.edu/steeringboard/documents.html

            http://www.distance.uaf.edu/steeringboard/docs/DESummit2005MeetingReport.pdf

 

Pat Ivey that the Faculty Alliance discussed this last week and  found that there were several implications for staff as well as faculty.

 

11.        Retreat Discussion Items

 

The Alliance discussed items for discussion with President Hamilton, including senior tuition waivers and staff training. Types of training mentioned included grants writing, customer service, computer classes above the basic.  These could be delivered by distance and shared among the campuses.  The ideal would be to build a series of seminars and put them on DVD so they could be located in each governance office and shared around the system.

 

12.        Comments

 

Members commented that the employee communication specialist position has moved farther from the staff recommendations of the fall of 2004. The final job description is mainly HR-driven and housed in Public Affairs office.  The Staff Alliance was told that it would have a seat at the table in the hiring committee.

.

 

13.        Adjourn for the day

 

            The meeting was adjourned at 11:31 am.

 

Tuesday, August 10, 2005, 1:00 – 2:30 pm

 

14.        Call to Order and Roll Call                                                              

 

Present:

 

Lisa Sporleder, Chair; President, Statewide Administration Assembly

Jeri Carey, President, UAS Staff Council

Jana Ring, Vice President, UAS Staff Council

Lori Merdes, Vice President, Statewide Administration Assembly

Bob Kizer, President, UAA APT Council

Kimberly Stanford, President, UAA Classified Council

Jeff Stepp, President-elect, UAF Staff Council                                                           

 

            Others present:

 

Pat Ivey, Executive Officer

Hans Gunderson, Administrative Coordinator

 

15.        Elect Chair and Vice Chair

 

Lisa Sporleder was elected Staff Alliance chair for a second term by unanimous consent.  Kim Stanford and Jeri Carey were nominated and Jeri Carey was elected vice chair.

 

16.        Review Retreat Discussions

 

The Alliance further discussed the retreat discussions relating to tuition waivers for seniors.  Basically, President Hamilton will recommend to the Board that tuition waivers for seniors will be eliminated.  He cited the growing population of seniors and their ability to pay.  Stanford stated that she doesn’t feel that a discount is right Kizer stated that he doesn’t feel that seniors across the board can afford the cut.. Sporleder suggested that the money go toward a needs-based scholarship program for seniors. Merdes suggested that the university provide seniors a discount comparable to peer institutions. Stepp remains unimpressed with the university viewpoint.  This item was placed on the agenda for the next meeting

 

17.        Actions Resulting from Retreat Discussions

 

There were no actions resulting from retreat discussions.

 

18.        Agenda items for next meeting, September 13, 2005

 

Agenda items for September 13, 2005 meeting include, but may not be limited to:  supervisory staff training, the MyUA project, the timing of the staff salary grid and health care adjustment implementation dates.

 

19.        Agenda items for next meeting, September 12, 2005

 

Agenda items may include, but may not be limited to supervisory and other staff training, update on the MyUA project,  the timing of salary grid adjustment and health care cost increase implementation dates, and other items of concern.

 

20.       Other items of interest

 

There were no additional items of interest.

 

21.        Comments

 

There were no additional comments.

 

22.       Adjourn

 

The meeting was adjourned at 2:31 p.m.