Draft
Minutes
10:00am-
Bridge: 800-893-8850, PIN
4236369
1. Call to Order and Roll Call, and
Introduction of New Members
http://gov.alaska.edu/home/who/staff/
Jeff Stepp, Chair of the Staff
Barb Rusher, Vice Chair, Staff
Rita Fuller, President, UAS Staff Council
Bob Kizer, President, UAA APT Council
Heather Swanson, Vice President, UAS Staff Council
Vince Yelmene, Vice President, Statewide
Administration Assembly
Lisa
Sporleder for Vince Yelmene
Others
Present:
Jodi
Bailey, Administrative Coordinator
Pat
Ivey, Executive Director
Jeanine
Sennechal, Director of Compensation
Debra
Carter, Employee Communications Specialist
Anne
Sakumoto, Director of Training
2. Adopt Agenda
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/agendas/2006/11-14.html
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/agendas/2006/11-14.pdf
MOTION: Moved by Barb Rusher, seconded by Bob Kizer,
passed without objection.
“The
Staff Alliance approves the
3. Approve
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2006/10-17.html
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2006/10-17.pdf
MOTION: Moved by Bob Kizer, seconded by Barb Rusher,
passed without objection.
“The Staff
Alliance approves the
4. Chair’s report
Jeff welcomes Heather
Swanson and Rita Fuller into Staff Alliance and requested them to introduce
themselves in a round table forum of introductions.
Jeff informed the
group that he attended the Faculty Alliance President retreat where they
focused on student success and he was pleased a staff member was there to
receive the information. There was a lot
of focus and information given regarding student retention and the possibility
of graduation rates increasing. He is
hoping that staff will begin to contribute with creating these new programs
regarding student success because staff has such an influential role with
students. Jeff discussed the idea of
Staff Alliance passing a resolution that states how important shared leadership
by all governance groups is in taking part in student success. Jeff also informed the group that President
Hamilton believes very strongly in the topic and has set aside two million in
FY 08 budget to focus on it. Jeff also
suggested sending a group of governance members to a conference that discusses
student success in April in
Jeff also
discussed the “I’m Going to College” program that invites first time college
students onto campus for a tour and introductions to faculty. He stated it is very highly regarded in moving
student success in the right direction.
5. Public Comments
Anne
Sekemoto has been meeting with various campus directors to discuss who and
where the resources are for her on their campus and what they currently offer. She is also discussing the options available
to create a needs assessment on how to fill the training gap for staff at the
University. She has already offered a
few training classes for statewide staff but is still working on the training
needs for other campuses. She is hoping
that staff will be hired and trained to match what was created in the UA
Strategic Plan. She also stated that her
budget that was given had already been allocated but is hoping to have a budget
for projects beginning FY 08.
6. Staff Governance Reports
UAA
http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/governance/classified/
http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/governance/apt/
Bob
Kizer stated that Jim Mullins was recently hired to fill the UAA Human
Resources Director position and the vacant Alumni Director position has also
been filled.
UAF
http://www.uaf.edu/uafgov/staff/index.html
Jeff will give a detailed update at the December meeting.
UAS
http://www.uas.alaska.edu/staffcouncil/
Heather
stated that she is still working on the 50 year reunion project.
SW
http://www.alaska.edu/governance/saa/
Barb was not available to give an update.
7. Employee
Relations
7.1 Employee Relations Update – Behner
Not
available for comment.
7.2 Staff Training and Development - Sakumoto
http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2006-08-01.trainingdirectorhire.pdf
Was
discussed in the public comments.
7.3
Wellness
Program – Humphrey, Sporleder
http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2006-08-15.WIN-Alaska.pdf
Debra Carter informed the group that the RFP has
been awarded to WIN
Jeff stated the bid proposal was ambitious and
Lisa Sporleder stated that it seemed possible that they can accomplish their
goals that they have listed. The
committee that met with them was very impressed with what they could
offer.
Heather Swanson suggested having Summex create a
no contact choice on the wellness questionnaire next year due to receiving
mixed reviews on the follow up wellness calls.
7.4 New Hire Retirement data on ORP versus
PERS/TRS
Mike Humphrey was unavailable for a report but
will hopefully attend the December meeting.
7.5 Retirement Committee/HR Council
activities
Lisa Sporleder stated that they have not held a
Retirement Council meeting as of yet so no report will be given at this
meeting.
Barb Rusher stated that she attended the Human
Resource Council meeting. Bruce Rowe attended and he gave a report on the Certified
Public Managers program and what the progress has been on the possibility of
employees using their tuition waivers for that program. He informed them that is has not been
approved but they are looking at creating tailored programs like the Professional
Development courses that the employee can use their tuition waiver for. They are also focusing on informing
supervisors and managers to allow staff to allow staff to attend these courses
and other training available.
Anne is currently working on informing managers
about the training currently offered and is also working on how to get managers
to approve the absence of the employee in order to attend.
Barb also informed the group that they are having
an issue of not being able to offer the new employee orientation within the
first 30 days of their hire or start date gap and the Human Resource department
is now focusing on that as a huge issue.
Barb also informed the group that revisions are
being made on the Human Resources statewide site and the rollout is on hold due
to reviews still being made.
7.6.
Retiree Tuition Waivers - Rusher
http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/projects/2006-05-23-tuitionwaiver-retirees.pdf
This
item was tabled until the work session begins.
7.7 Employee Recognition Project Update – Ripley
Barb Rusher informed the group that she attended
the meeting that discussed this project.
The project is a campaign acting as a morale boost to thanks University
of
Rita Fuller suggested creating a staff appreciation
award like the Staff Make Students Count award, for recognizing staff who do
not directly work with students. Jeff
requested the idea be added to the December agenda for more discussion.
7.8 Other
Employee Relations Issues
Jeanine Senechal reported on the job family
reclassification process and she is hoping to have all the major groups
completed and implemented by the end of April.
The goal was that once the major groups are completed the transitional
grid will go away by step. It would go
faster but it will require extra funds because with every transitional step going
away, the employee will need to get bumped up to the appropriate step. She stated that the primary groups should be
moved by April with a few months following for clean up purposes for certain
employees.
Jeanine stated that if folks would like a history
and reasoning for the reclassification program there is a memo posted online at
the Human Resource statewide site describing the process.
Bob inquired about the grievance policy and stated
that the information posted online is not user friendly because it directs
employees to the Board of Regents Policy. Jeff stated that he has met with Carolyn Chapman
regarding this issue and the UAF Human Resources site has been changed to point
employees directly to the University Regulation which has all the information. He is hoping that the other campuses follow
in suit.
Jeanine stated that it’s easier to find that sort
of information on the statewide sites since it acts like a base for all the
campuses instead of looking at your designated campus Human Resource site.
She also stated that the updated recruitment regulations
have been completed but are still being fine tuned with a one last chance edit
request from various individuals. They
were rewritten because they noticed that certain forms and ways of performing tasks
were too procedural. They have tried to
structure it in a logical laid out way to determine what everything is that is
involved for recruitment. There are
still provisional’s in regards to it but the new regulation isn’t so detailed
anymore.
Jeanine also informed the group that the criminal
background check is a process done using different vendors and now the Human
Resources department is thinking of only using one vendor to see if that can
help with the cost. Currently Statewide
does background checks on every position but on the campus level it differs. Jeanine stated that they are also discussing
the idea of adding background checks for student positions as well as for
student admissions.
8. Student
Success - Stepp
http://gov.alaska.edu/faculty/StudentSuccess/default.html
The
item was discussed in the Chairs report.
8.1 The
Importance of Shared Leadership and Collaboration
The item was discussed in the Chairs
report.
9. Fair Process – Stepp
Jeff discussed the idea
of developing a brochure from Staff Alliance in regards to this topic to
encourage the administration to implement new policies fairly. He hopes this will allow an engaging process
for staff and other employees advocating and promoting fair process. This item will be discussed more in detail at
the December meeting.
10. Agenda
items for next meeting,
Intercampus blackboard issues, staff appreciation
awards, fair process, student success, health assessment response, wellness
program and the employee recognition project update
11. Other
items of interest
No
other items of interest.
12. Comments
No comments were given.
13. Adjourn
Meeting
adjourned at