MARSHALL UNIVERSITY CLASSIFIED STAFF COUNCIL
MINUTES
Thursday,
October 19, 2000
Smith Hall 263 – GC 134
President
Nina Barrett called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m.
The minutes of the September meeting were discussed. A motion to accept the September minutes was made by Charlie Harless. It was seconded by Jack Blake and accepted by Council.
Mr.
Stephens expressed his appreciation for being at the meeting and interacting
with Council.
1. LuAnn South had previously asked about how accrued unused sick leave might be used to purchase retirees health insurance. Mr. Stephens gave out handouts from the current Summary Plan Document to show how we can use our accrued leave to extend employer-paid insurance coverage or increase our retirement benefit.
2. Marshall University is going to start a new performance assessment system for exempt and non-exempt employees effective November 1, 2000. Mr. Stephens stated they are meeting this week to figure out how to get the Banner system to alert them of anniversary dates. He passed out handouts of the approved policy and an example of both forms (one for exempt and one for non-exempt), which are basically very similar in character and content. Mr. Stephens discussed the form and asked Council to support this process.
Mr. Stephens announced that the Human Resource office is engaged in an audit of HR data. All employees will receive a form from the HR office. He explained the two types of information on the form and asked that they be returned by October 27, 2000. Once they get on a normal schedule of publication, it will be produced each September.
A letter has been sent to all employees describing a new long-term care insurance offered by TIAA-CREF Life through the employee contribution payroll deduction. A variety of long-term care options will be made available to provide various degrees of protection in the event we would need to have long term care in a nursing home facility, home health care or Hospice care. On November 7thand 8th there will be a Retirement Fair with representatives from TIAA-CREF Life on campus to meet with employees and answer questions concerning this coverage. It was mentioned that some people did not receive this letter. Mr. Stephens said that they used the addresses on file but some may have been inaccurate. Anyone who did not receive the letter but wants a copy, should contact him or pick up one at the Staff Council Office.
Mr.
Stephens mentioned that Human Resource is trying to mediate our grievances. He
is happy to report that they are enjoying some modest success in that area. They are finding that people are generally very eager to
participate in this process. They want their problem resolved and are willing to
let there be some discussion about it. Mr.
Stephens stated they were doing this in order to preserve a person’s right to
file a timely grievance. “If
they would prefer to file a grievance, then go ahead and do it so that it is
timely, but give us a waiver of the time line for hearings, so that we will have
some time to work with the parties.” He continued to discuss this issue in
more detail.
Mr.
Stephens explained that back then the two systems had the understanding that
“piece of code” referred to internal bids for non-exempted position by
non-exempt, but there was a decision from the WV Supreme Court of Appeals that
dated either late 1998 or early 1999, that interpreted this decision to apply to
both exempt and non-exempts. The systems said that could only be clarified
through legislation. Mr. Stephens thinks the bill that came out had language in
it to clarify the bid made by a non-exempt employee for a non-exempt position.
It is his understanding now this does not interfere with the established
process of giving qualified persons an interview. This refers to the leverage in
code for a “right to exist” for a non-exempt qualified internal bidder
trying to get a non-exempt job before it goes public. Mr. Stephens wants this
bill diligently followed, and if we feel that it is “falling out of the
basket” to call him immediately. There is no substitute for getting into the
process early. He continued to discuss this issue as well as answer questions
that were asked.
President
Barrett introduced Senator Marie Redd.
GUEST
SPEAKER:
Senator Redd spoke in detail about Senate Bill 653. She informed Council that
Marshall’s Community and Technical College is already performing many of the
functions set out in Senate Bill 653. Many of the requirements of this bill are
already provided by Marshall University especially regarding the arts and
community involvement.
She
stated most of the problems in this bill must be addressed before students
enroll in the Community and Technical Colleges around West Virginia and any
four-year University college.
Senator
Redd’s problem with the bill is: 1). There is no money for it.
However, the most important thing about the bill that bothered her is the
way it was done (she explained in detail). When she received the bill and read
it, she said there are a lot of things had been added in the bill that were not
initially in the bill. Two problems
she had was that is it would annihilate West Virginia State College.
It would cut it down the middle and totally destroy a historic
institution. 2) The initial separation of the community and technical college in
the bill was supposed to be named Advantage Valley Community and Technical
College. 3) Marshall is doing
everything when it comes to education on the community and technical college
field. With the funding Marshall gets 60% compared to 37% funding and Bluefield
State College gets 87% funding and we get 60% and we are a university with a
community and technical college attached. The funding was the issue and the
other thing was when you looked at Marshall compared to WVU (there were a lot of
disagreements between those who supported Marshall and those who supported WVU).
There was friction because they were going to separate Marshall’s Community
and Technical College and leave Potomic State with WVU. That comes down to
numbers. When you get down to this bill it comes down to two major things:
money and numbers. When it comes down to money and numbers, Marshall
always falls behind. She has a
problem with this.
Going
back to money and numbers, once you separate the Community and Technical College
from the University, you automatically lose almost 3,000 students. That formula
has not been worked out so that Universities and Colleges were not penalized for
being over. Instead of being
encouraged to have more students, you are being penalized for having more
students. Regardless as Marshall
grows, we still get less funding. They talked about the separation: 1) you are talking about students and all of the things they
enjoy. 2) When it comes to
our representing certain areas in the University that contribute to the
Community and Technical College plus the people that are instructors, associate
assistants, professor, etc, they took out the tenure. She continued to explain in detail.
We
are supposed to look at peer institutions. They have yet to tell us who our peer
institutions are. And regardless of whom the peer institutions happen to be, we
do not have the money to bring all to the 90th percentile. So, we are still sitting at the 60th percentile.
Discussion continued.
This
bill is a work in progress. Again, it comes back to two things-- money and
numbers but until we get the money, Senator Redd does not see how this bill is
going to work. Concept wise--it is good for West Virginia.
We need it! But, when you
have a state budget and look at the revenue coming in that is down 35% to 40%
from last year ( it all hinders on the coal mining deal because coal mining is
down in southern West Virginia and it generates a lot of taxes) we are starting
to be really in the red. People are
pulling and tugging for their little programs in their own area, and it is not
there. You cannot beat this bill when you look at education as a whole and in
theory what it is supposed to do, but there are a lot of things missing.
Several questions, comments and concerns were made which Senator Redd
answered.
Senator
Redd feels that Staff Council needs to focus on salaries and grievance
procedures (because there are no grievance procedures in SB653 whatsoever).
Faculty needs to look at the tenure situation.
Senator
Redd discussed the PEIA insurance/retirement situation.
Because accumulated sick leave can be used to pay monthly health
insurance premiums upon retiring for a certain length of time, this has caused
PEIA to be in the red. This is because these retirees make no monthly premium
payments for a certain period of time. She explained how this was going to
change.
President
Barrett and Council thanked Senator Redd for her time and frankness.
GRADUATE SCHOOL:
No report.
ACADEMIC CALENDAR:
President Barrett received a letter from Governor Underwood who has granted us
an extra holiday. Classified Staff
will vote on what day the extra holiday will be placed. Jill Burcham expanded on
this a little further. We will be sending out the ballots to vote on what date
to place this extra day. Wednesday
before Thanksgiving will be on the ballot, Thursday, December 21 before
Christmas will be on the ballot and Friday, April 13.
Either the last week of October or the first week of November, the
ballots will be distributed. President
Barrett is happy to report that we have about 90% returns on the holiday voting.
Attendance
at the Town Meeting:
President Barrett reported that we had about 130 to 150 people to attend the
Town Meeting. Some speakers spoke
about SB653--some did not. President Barrett thought it was a very good
discourse. One thing that came out of this that shocked and surprised a lot of
us was the question about the pension (retirement) and the 7½ versus 4½
percent issue. Jill explained to
Council that every other state employee has had a different matching formula.
Some way when the bill was first written, it excluded us. We have been trying
every since to get it changed. President Barrett said we pay 7½ percent
difference in our pensions as opposed to other state employees only paying 4½
percent. For the first time Senator Plymale has given every indication that he
will give support to change this. However, he did make it clear that he did not
want to put the burden on the institutions.
Discussion continued.
President
Barrett reminded committee chairs to be sure they actually meet with their
committees before they bring something before Council to be approved. All decisions must be approved by the entire committee before
they can be implemented. Even then,
the committee recommendation must go before full Council for approval.
A Chair cannot unilaterally decide to do something and not bring
it before Council.
FINANCIAL
AFFAIRS
– Mr. Blackburn reported that he met with Dave Mills, Chair of the Budget and
Academic Policy Committee. They are awaiting a calendar and should have a
meeting in the next two weeks.
PERSONNEL
COMMITTEE –
Mr. Cremeans reported that his committee will meet on October 26 with an open
agenda. They plan to start all over since we have a new administration.
President Barrett asked Mr. Cremeans if he was happy the way Mr. Stephens
has been handling issues. Mr. Cremeans said, “yes, and he has dealt personally
with about three or four different issues and every case the door was always
open and every issue has been resolved.” So far it has been 100% and he feels
that it’s going to be easier to work with HR than it has been in the past.
LEGISLATIVE
AFFAIRS
– Mr. Reffeitt reported that some of the candidates did not get their
questions for the Town Hall Meeting. One
candidate said that she got her questions about two hours before the meeting.
Mary said the questions were mailed
out a week in advance by the Faculty Senate Office.
MEMBERSHIP/ELECTION
– Mr. Wortham reported that they had not met and will not meet until January
when they start planning for the spring elections.
PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
– Mr. Harless reported that he met with Faculty Senate’s Physical Facilities
and Planning Committee the first of this month. The items of discussion were
surveys that were sent out last April in regard to the buildings being
contracted out. They discussed the problem situation about parking lot G. It
needs to be resurfaced, coded and re-striped. A need for a handicap space for
van access and accommodations at Corbly Hall lot F and numbering and signage of
classrooms and offices so that people will be able to find an office or
classroom. A handicap ramp on the third floor in Old Main will be corrected and
also the clocks in the buildings need to work. There is going to be a parking
garage built in conjunction with the housing project at the old C&O Med
School Building. When their committee met, some of the topics overlapped with
that of faculty senate. Sufficient campus lighting - there are interior places
on campus that are dark. The Tower’s dormitories, track field and Henderson
Center are very dark. Another issue that needs to be addressed is the flooding
of buildings. Some corrections need
to be made to try to stop this flooding of building and emergency lighting in
buildings (make sure that proper
lighting is in all stairwells and halls.) Traffic
signs are needed for the Drinko circle where the John Marshall statute is
located. The intersection there has only one stop sign on College Avenue. There
are no other signs to slow people down or yield for people crossing that
intersection. There are not sufficient bicycle racks located at the buildings
for students to use. They had a seminar last night on chemical environment. Mr.
Harless said it was excellent on how it was presented and the material was very
well done.
Plaques
and Historical Markers
– We have markers on campus which commensurate historical facts. They need to
be redone and cleaned. Some need to be straightened up and some need to be taken
out of the ground and set back in place.
The
Henderson Center Arena had an event scheduled with an outside group of Tri-State
Youth Cheerleaders. 3,000 to 4,000 people were there for up to 12 hours. There
were no provisions for security; no provisions for cleanup or pick-up during the
event and no one came in on Sunday evening after the people had left to cleanup.
Monday morning the place was filthy. Mr.
Harless continued to explain in more detail.
After discussion Council decided to approach this situation with a letter
of concern. The Executive Committee
will draft the letter and let Mr. Harless look it over.
STAFF
DEVELOPMENT
– No report
President Barrett reported that an employee in the office of
student financial assistant lost her home and all of her belongings in a house
fire on Sunday, September 24th. A fire assistant fund on her behalf
has been implemented at Bank One. Contributions may be made directly to the fund
and checks should be made payable to Rhonda Mullins Fire Assistant Fund, Account
number 630590172 and should be noted on the checks. Please forward checks to
Bank One, 100 Fifth Avenue, Huntington, WV 25701. For additional information,
please contact Sherry Step or Janis Winkfield in Financial Aid.
Council will send out flyers to faculty and staff on campus for
contribution and this announcement will be placed in the We Are Marshall
Newsletter.
INSTITUTIONAL BOARD:
No report.
NEW BUSINESS: President Barrett reminded Council that in
November we would go to the Graduate School in South Charleston to have our
regular monthly Council meeting. We will leave from the Welcome Center at 11:30
a.m.
OLD
BUSINESS:
Jill Chapman read the second reading of the approved Constitutional changes.
President Barrett said that this is the second reading and explained what this
does. We never had the flexibility
of changing our meeting date from the third Thursday. In order to change the
meeting date from the third Thursday you have to have a Constitutional change.
The other reason is to have the one meeting in July and call it the July/August
combined meeting. In the month of August everyone is busy and that meeting is
not well attended. Motion was made to accept the Constitutional changes by
Charlie Harless and seconded by Jill Chapman. All were in favor of the changes.
Motion accepted. These changes go into effect immediately. Council would have been scheduled to meet December 21, the
last day Marshall would be open prior to the holidays. It was suggested that
Council meet December 14. Motion to
change the meeting date to December 14, 2000 made by Muhammad Chaudhry, seconded
by Douglas Franklin, and unanimously approved by Council.
With
there being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m.