Draft Minutes
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
10:00am-12:00 noon by video and audio conference
1. Call to Order and Roll Call
Jeff Stepp, Chair of the Staff Alliance and President, UAF Staff Council
Lisa Sporleder for Barb Rusher, Vice Chair, Staff Alliance and President, Statewide Administration Assembly
Rita Fuller, President, UAS Staff Council
Heather Swanson, Vice President, UAS Staff Council
Kim Stanford, President, UAA Classified Council
Vince Yelmene, Vice President, Statewide Administration Assembly
Others Present:
Jodi Bailey, Administrative Coordinator, System Governance
Pat Ivey, Executive Director, System Governance
Mike Humphrey, Director of Benefits
Beth Behner, Assistant Vice President for Human Resources
Debra Carter, Employee Communications Specialist
Shannon Brady Garman, WIN Alaska
Sandra Burgess, Co-chair of the Sitka Wellness Program
Michelle Rizk, Budget Director
Jeri Carey, Secretary, UAS Staff Council
2. Adopt Agenda
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/agendas/2006/12-12.html
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/agendas/2006/12-12.pdf
MOTION: Moved by Lisa Sporleder, seconded by Heather Swanson, passed without objection.
“The Staff Alliance approves the December 12, 2006 agenda. This motion is effective December 12, 2006.”
3. Approve November 14, 2006 minutes
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2006/11-14.html
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2006/11-14.pdf
MOTION: Moved by Lisa Sporleder, seconded by Vince Yelmene, passed without objection.
“The Staff Alliance approves the November 14, 2006 minutes. This motion is effective December 12, 2006.”
4. Public Comments
Jeri Cary informed the group that the UAS Juneau Campus celebrated its 50th year anniversary this weekend and told what a great success it was.
5. 10:15 am - WIN Alaska Presentation
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/WINAlaskaPresentation1.pdf
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/WINAlaskaPresentation2.pdf
Shannon with WIN Alaska has created a program called Health in Action. WIN Alaska is a group of lifelong Alaskans who have been in business for over 8 years. Their goal is to decrease the high risk factors in the UA employee’s lives. In December they created an interest survey which has led them to create target interest groups of collecting individual interests. They have seen a high interest so far in that one survey.
They will be having a flu shot clinic this Friday on the Anchorage and Fairbanks campus and will inform employees of the time, location and the fees later this week.
In the future they will offer onsite cholesterol and blood screen testing for all employees and faculty at least once a year. They will also offer health fairs on the main three MAU campuses and it will depend on the time of year and the interest of how large they will be. They will offer follow up calls to employees but not to coach them on their progress, but to thank them for attending an event and to let them know they are there to answer any questions about the program or activities.
They offer an online system called the Health Activity Tracker program which will assist employees on tracking their progress and they will gain points for prizes. As of now they have sent out a survey for the HAT program, and 150 people filled out the survey and were entered into the $100 giveaway which was determined on this past Friday.
6. Chairs Report – Jeff Stepp
Jeff stated he attended the Board of Regents meeting where he discussed the WIN Alaska program and how staff is working with faculty on student success initiatives. He also discussed the KUAC Employee Recognition Project and how the committee is still continuing to meet and the theme will be revealed in February.
7. Student Success: Collaboration Efforts – Jeff Stepp
Jeff stated he met with President Hamilton and they are working together to bring author Dr. Kuh to Alaska to discuss student success and the book he wrote on the topic and the dates being discussed are August 16th or August 17th. President Hamilton ordered two books on the topic and they have arrived and they will be distributed after the holiday season by the System Governance office. Jeff also stated that President Hamilton and the Board of Regents are really focusing on student success and how to increase the topic awareness throughout the various campuses.
8. Student Success: Intercampus Blackboard Issues – Rita Fuller, Saichi Oba
Pat stated that she has been informed by Rory O’Neil in Office of Information Technology department, that he is aware of the intercampus issues with using the Blackboard system but was unable to attend today’s meeting to discuss them. Pat also informed the group that this issue has been brought to the IT Council, which reports to the President.
Rita suggested that the University pick one format of Blackboard for all campuses to help with student retention and lower the confusion among students and faculty.
Lisa informed the group that Sue Sharpton started her new position in OIT as the Project Manager and she will begin working on this topic.
9. Employee Relations
9.1 Employee Relations Update - Beth Behner
Beth informed the group that there will be a HRC council meeting this afternoon.
She also informed them that the Vice President for Academic Affairs is an on going recruitment and candidates are being selected for interviews for the month of January.
Beth is also working on an education leave program that will include a stipend or some form of benefits for staff who want to return to school to further their education like the program currently offered to the Faculty. Beth will give a draft version to the Staff Alliance group once it has been made.
She also reported that they are working on the Human Resources strategic plan and once it’s been drafted it will be sent out to the campus level Human Resource offices for review.
Beth also stated that the Draft 7 Recruitment Regulations are still being drafted and SAC has pointed out more things that need to be clarified. She will send it out again to Staff Alliance this afternoon with those new updates included.
She also informed the group that the Board of Regents requested information from her at last weeks meeting wanting to know more information on the UAF and Statewide Human Resources department redesign and she stated there has not been that much progress like they expected. The Transition Manager has not been hired as of yet and that is what is holding up the progress. Jim Johnsen, Ro Bailey and Beth will meet this Friday to discuss the options of the redesign of the human resource department and how to proceed as of now.
9.2 Employee Recognition Project Update – Kate Ripley
No discussion due to Kate Ripley being out of town and unable to attend today’s meeting.
9.3 Health Assessment Response – Debra Carter
Debra informed the group that the Summex wellness questionnaire rebates will hit the December 22nd paycheck and an email will be sent out to the employees tomorrow stating that information. There was a similar participation rate as last year with little over 50% of employees participating but the rate for the spousal participation increased.
Rita stated that Sitka is the only location in the state of Alaska that does not offer any Pharmacare coverage and it has become troublesome for those employees.
9.4 Other Employee Relations Issues
Michelle Rizk stated that Governor Palin’s budget will be distributed on December 15th and until we receive it the University won’t know what is approved from the Board of Regents approved budget. Pat stated that once it’s been released she will send a notice out to all the governance groups with the information.
10. Staff Governance Reports
SW
Vince informed the group that SAA is currently working on their holiday activities including the annual Canned Food drive, Love INC. project and Christmas Potluck.
UAS
Heather informed the group that they had the 50 year reunion holiday party this past weekend and that is was a great success.
UAA
Kim informed the group that Classified Council is working on a food drive for the Anchorage campus which is focusing on collecting meat. They are also working on a clothing drive as well to benefit a local shelter.
She also stated that WIN Alaska came and gave a presentation last week and will attend the Assembly meeting next week as well and their members were excited about the new program.
Kim also stated that the Anchorage campus is starting to focus on becoming more paperless and more efficient as a University.
Jim Mullins was just hired as the new Director of Human Resources as a term position for one year and the search committee will regroup and redo the search after his term expires.
UAF
Jeff spoke of Chancellor Jones convening a Vision Task Force consisting of 55 people to create more effective and creative ways of delivering items of his strategic plan. In the next week or two his delegates will be determined and released.
He also stated that the establishment of creating a mediation program is now beginning and there will be a meeting this Thursday to discuss the final plan.
Staff council is aware of the Human Resources transition and what it means to the UAF and Statewide Human Resource departments and they are being very supportive of the transition.
The new admission requirements for the Baccalaureate programs have changed and they will take effect beginning the fall of 2008 and the admission requirements will begin being discussed.
He also informed the group that hey held their elections and the nominees will be inducted in January.
11. Agenda items for next meeting, Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Cookie brigade, Human Resources council report, Retirement committee report, budget report
12. Other items of interest
No other items of interest were given.
13. Comments
No comments were given.
14. Adjourn
Meeting adjourned at 11:59 am