Archive > 2009 Schedule of Meetings > Approved Minutes

Date: April 15, 2009

Program:

1. The meeting was called to order by the Chair, Don Castle. Visitors and guests were welcomed and introduced.

2. Roll Call

Members Present: Phil Bankester, Don Castle, Carla Coppi, Patty Cosgrove, Vern Goode, Jon Geiger, Gabriele Hoffmann, Heidi Jung, Dana McKenzie, Mike Reiman, Sandra Rhoads, Amy Rose, Rod Sievers, Mary Stammer, Allison Sutphin, Sharon Walters.

Members Absent: Barbara Cray Lokaitis, Barbara Nowack.

Proxies: Sharon Walters for Dave Hahn.

Visitors and Guests: Tuesday Ashner, Tracy Bennett, Ian Fryers, Marge Selinger, Todd Sigler.

3. Minutes

The minutes of the meeting on March 18, 2009, were approved as presented.

4. Adoption of Meeting Agenda: D. Castle asked if there were any changes to the meeting agenda. Hearing none, it was approved as presented.

5. Reports

5.1 Chair
D. Castle reported: i) the SIU budget request is currently being debated in Springfield. The Governor has proposed a small increase to SIU's FY10 request. He is unsure if this is factual, but as he hears it, the proposal is to restore the 2.5% that was given back this year and add 1%; so, this would mean a real increase of 3.5%. However, this proposal is currently in debate. There is also much discussion about various changes to the state pension systems. One recommendation is to remove four of the state pension board appointments one of those being SURS. The legislature wants to clean the boards of any Blagojavich involvement. Governor Quinn is challenged with appointing those boards back. It is possible [Illinois citizens] may eventually get to vote on some of the pension board representatives, though nothing has been approved; ii) a constituency heads meeting is scheduled for April 29; iii) the chancellor pre-search committee is mostly finished meeting in the informal phase. He has received the request to nominate an A/P representative to the actual search committee. This issue was discussed in the Executive Committee and will be addressed later in the meeting; iv) the Plagiarism Policy came back for public review and was posted on the A/P website so people could submit comments. Any comments have since gone directly to the review committee; v) he has received some updates from Chris Pearson, who is the Council's representative on the College of Engineering Dean Search Committee. There has been dissent within the committee reported in the media; however, C. Pearson has been encouraged to stay the course. As far as he knows, the search is proceeding; vi) he received Mike Cubley's resignation shortly after the Council's last meeting. The Academic Affairs sector was charged with appointing a representative to take his place. Vern Goode was introduced and welcomed to the Council; vii) the latest draft of the University's self-study for accreditation with the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association is now posted on a webpage dedicated to this purpose (www.siu.edu/~nca_accreditation). They are looking for people to make comments no later than May 29.

5.2 Board of Trustees
D. Castle reported the Board met on April 2 in Edwardsville. The agenda included all the fee and tuition proposals for both Carbondale and Edwardsville. At the meeting, the Board took those proposals and the tuition proposal, which was around 9%, and told the administration to drop the increase to 4.5%. So, between that meeting and the meeting on May 7, the Board will get a second set of proposals with a tuition increase for new students at 4.5% and many of the fee increases at or around the same.

5.3 Human Resources (HR)
D. Castle commented that this is M. Selinger's last meeting with the Council, as she is retiring. On behalf of the Council, D. Castle presented a certificate of appreciation to M. Selinger and thanked her for her support of, and service to, the A/P Staff Council.

5.4 Representatives to University Committees

5.4a Traffic and Parking - Tuesday Ashner
T. Ashner reported the committee met on February 26. Some items approved included decal fee increases, with one revision; the budget; and resurfacing, new lighting and curb work to Lot 58 (west of Grinell Hall). The lot will remain restricted for Housing. The committee also supported Parking Division's standing policy that those with less than an 80% teaching appointment would not be eligible for a blue decal (this is directed toward graduate students rather than faculty). Other business discussed were ADA compliance-type items of painting and new signs. A subcommittee was also formed to re-evaluate the parking decal prices in comparison to salary levels to see if it is fair or could be made more fair.

5.4b Intercollegiate Athletics Advisory - Todd Sigler
T. Sigler presented and discussed his report (included as appendix 1).

5.5 Standing Committees

5.5a Executive Committee
S. Rhoads reported on the April 10 meeting: i) the committee reviewed the minutes from the March meeting and the draft of the meeting agenda for April; ii) D. Castle gave a Board of Trustees report, as well as a report on the constituency heads meeting he attended. At that meeting, the FY09 and FY10 budgets were discussed; iii) D. Castle gave an update on the chancellor search and shared a letter he received from the President's office asking that the constituencies nominate a representative to the Chancellor Search Advisory Committee by April 15. A motion was made and seconded to appoint D. Castle as the A/P representative to the committee; iv) with respect to standing committee reports, S. Walters circulated a copy of the flyer for the upcoming spring reception; D. Hahn distributed a draft of the Resolution in Support of Conversion of Term to Continuing Administrative/Professional Appointment, which will be presented for discussion at the April 15 meeting; and P. Cosgrove gave a report on the results of the 2009-2010 A/P Staff Council elections.

D. Castle reported that in the letter he received from the President's office, it asks that he be re- nominated for the Chancellor Search Advisory Committee. The reason for doing so is because those people who have been serving on the pre-committee are already heavily invested in the search process, and the President would like to retain those individuals. The letter also names Peggy Stockdale (Faculty Senate) and Tom Britton (Graduate Council) as co-chairs of the committee, and they will remain as one of the constituency representatives for their respective groups (both have more than one representative on the committee, as opposed to the Council, which only has one representative). D. Castle explained that the alternative to naming him would be that the Council would submit three names of individuals, one of whom would be selected by the President. He expressed his desire to remain on the committee, as his time on the Council is almost over, and this would allow him to remain actively involved. He would be reviewing the applications and interviewing the preliminary candidates before they are presented to the University for final review. He would report back to the Council whenever appropriate. The search will likely be very public once fall semester begins. D. Castle believes the deadline will be before the holidays in December, with the intent to have a new chancellor by or around July 1, 2010. He promised to do his best to help generate a better pool of candidates. The nomination of D. Castle to serve on the Chancellor Search Advisory Committee was unanimously approved.

5.5b Ad Hoc Elections
P. Cosgrove reported the committee met and counted ballots for the elections in each sector. She announced the results of the elections (see appendix 2) and noted that the numbers of A/P are up from last year. P. Bankester mentioned that there were some staff who reported not receiving a ballot. P. Cosgrove responded that she does not always get these kinds of mailings, either, and believes that whoever is sorting the mail does not always do it correctly. J. Geiger commented that he has noticed that the ballots always come with the person's name on the opposite side so that when it is sent back, technically, anyone who wanted to would know how a person voted. If staff wanted to tear off their name, it would tear off some of the names on the ballot. It was explained that this problem only occurred in Academic Affairs because of the number of candidates who were on the ballot. Normally, the label is placed on the opposite side of the ballots so that when they are returned, the names can be removed before they are handed over to the committee for counting. This year, in Academic Affairs the names had to be blackened out because the label was not properly placed on the opposite side of the ballot. P. Cosgrove confirmed that there were no names on the ballots to indicate who voted. D. Castle thanked the committee for their service.

5.5c Committee on Committees
A. Sutphin reported the committee met, reviewed its goals and made recommendations for next year.

5.5d Constituency Relations
S. Walters reminded Council members about the spring constituency reception on April 29. She reported that letters were sent to the nine nominees and their nominators inviting them to attend.

5.5e Operating Paper - None.

5.5f Staff Benefits
It was noted that the proposal on which D. Hahn has been working will be discussed under New Business.

5.5g Staff Welfare
H. Jung reported the committee is working on finishing up its goals.

6. Old Business - None.

7. New Business

7.1 D. Castle reported that D. Hahn and the Staff Benefits Committee have been working on a proposal to support the conversion of term to continuing A/P appointment. The proposed resolution is being presented to the Council in draft form to allow members time to review it and make comments. D. Castle believes the intent is to strengthen the language of the current policy, "Conversion of Term to Continuing A/P Appointment" so that when a department uses non-recurring dollars as a reason for non-conversion, then non-recurring is better defined. D. Castle pointed out that it is up to the Council to approve or not approve the policy changes. If approved, they are submitted to the administration for review and approval or non-approval. J. Geiger asked M. Selinger her thoughts about the proposed changes. M. Selinger responded that it is very appropriate for the Council to propose changes to the policy, and Human Resources has no objection to the Council doing so. However, she has explained to D. Hahn before that she does not believe Human Resources has been negligent about sending out the notices. When this part of the policy was started (through the A/P Staff Council) to send a notice to those people with the appropriate three years in the same position, it was done every year. In fact, last year it was done twice because the notices were late in getting out and she wanted to get everyone up to speed. The policy does not actually state that Human Resources has to send notice every year. It was done in the beginning, but then those in higher administration requested the notices not be sent every year because the University was experiencing financial problems and suffering from cutbacks. A decision was then made to send out the letter only once. M. Selinger believes one of D. Hahn's concerns is that when there are personnel changes (a new dean, chair, etc.), those people are not getting this information on their three-year term employees. Human Resources believes that if this is the case, then it is the employee who needs to get in touch with her/his dean, supervisor or whomever that conversion is something s/he would like to explore. With respect to Human Resources having to give written notification and requiring documentation as to why there was non-conversion, she is unsure that will fly, though that does not mean the Council cannot still make the attempt. She has also explained to D. Hahn that Human Resources does not deal with recurring dollars, and he would have to contact the Budget Office about that issue. M. Selinger encouraged the Council to review the proposed changes and ask questions or make comments. T. Bennett will be available to answer questions. Human Resources will have an opportunity to review the changes as well, along with the Chancellor and probably Kevin Bame.

P. Cosgrove noted that most Council members have not yet had an opportunity to review the proposed changes because this is the first time they are seeing them. D. Castle indicated the Council will have an opportunity to review and discuss the proposal further. D. Hahn was unable to attend today's meeting, but will be at the meeting next month, which is the last meeting of this Council and the beginning of the next Council. It can be decided at that time whether this Council takes action or whether it is held over for the next Council. M. Selinger believes that getting 2 or 3 conversions out of possibly 12 she has sent out is a good number. The sad fact is that many of the non-conversions are from departments that simply cannot afford to put their people on continuing contracts. In addition, there are some departments that have more money than others. She has noticed that there are more grant positions than ever converting to continuing contracts, but there has always been a realization that if someone is on a grant contract and it can end, s/he will not be put on a continuing contract. H. Jung asked what happens when someone is put on a continuing contract because it appears that the money will be there, and then it is not. M. Selinger responded that there can be a contingency placed on contracts to state that if the grant goes away, that person will be placed on a term contract. D. Castle believes the goal of adjusting the policy is to attempt to minimize [the perspective that term and continuing contracts have to be treated differently.] Those staff who are on continuing contracts also have a financial contingency clause that could end their contracts at any time; so, it is somewhat absurd that it exists that way when the language could probably be written the same way, and everyone could be treated the same way. P. Cosgrove believes it is all about the carrying over of benefits. D. Castle responded that the problem with term contracts is those people do not accumulate sick or vacation leave. M. Selinger indicated that D. Hahn did raise that issue, but that is different and cannot be included in conversion policy. D. Castle noted that another money issue is that not only is the salary money there, but if a continuing contract ends, the University is accountable for that employee's payout. M. Selinger noted that the contingency clause [would then come into play].

D. Castle asked if there was any further discussion and pointed out that Council members should not feel like they have to vote on the resolution at the next meeting. However, D. Hahn would like feedback, so anyone should feel free to call or e-mail him. P. Bankester moved to table the resolution until the May meeting; seconded by J. Geiger. Motion carried.

7.2 A suggestion was made to add a year to the recently-filled position in Academic Affairs that V. Goode now holds in an effort to balance out the term endings. To do so requires a two-thirds approval vote of the Council. D. Castle asked V. Goode if he was willing to serve an additional year. V. Goode responded that he would be willing. J. Geiger moved to extend the term of the seat held by V. Goode from one year to two years (to end in 2011); seconded by R. Sievers. Motion carried.

8. Announcements

8.1 R. Sievers reported that he received an e-mail from an A/P staff member promoting the idea of collective bargaining for A/P staff and making the suggestion to take the A/P outstanding service award out of Anthony Hall. D. Castle explained that the e-mail was posted to the discussion listserv, but there was no followup discussion on the listserv. P. Cosgrove commented that the latter issue was a hot topic a few years ago and was discussed by the Council at length. The award used to be under the control of the A/P Staff Council and was changed so that it now falls under K. Bame's office. H. Jung believes that at the time, the Council came to agree with the decision. P. Cosgrove responded that not all Council members may still feel that way. D. Castle indicated the question is whether the Constituency Relations Committee should take this up again as an issue. P. Cosgrove suggested that next year's committee take that under advisement. S. Walters indicated she would add this issue to the committee's final report as a recommendation. With respect to the collective bargaining, D. Castle believes it would be inappropriate for a constituency group to take a stand one way or the other. Rather, a collective bargaining situation should come out of those eligible to join. He noted that it would be a new organization that would operate independently from this Council, in much the same way as the Faculty Senate and the Faculty Association. A/P staff would need to understand that a line would be drawn to separate out the professional staff from administrative staff, the latter being considered management and exempt from any kind of collective bargaining. P. Cosgrove recalled that when collective bargaining was raised several years back, anyone that was an assistant or associate director received a letter stating they were not eligible to be in a union. D. Castle believes much would depend on how the University decides whether or not someone is management. He noted that at the Board of Trustees meeting, one of the trustees attended a Civil Service System meeting held in Champaign. At that meeting, concerns were expressed about the high number of exceptions being granted out of the Civil Service System, meaning A/P staff. D. Castle pointed out that the reason A/P jobs exist is because they were exempted from the civil service process.

8.2 P. Bankester announced that an A/P staff member is the recent recipient of the Lindall W. Sturgis Public Service Award. That person, Steve Buhman (University Communications), will be joining the Council next month.

8.3 D. Castle announced that the May 20 meeting will be the final meeting of the 2008-2009 Council, and then shortly afterward the 2009-2010 Council will be seated. At that time, standing committees are to submit their final reports, and any other business will be completed or held over for the new group.

9. Adjournment