MARSHALL
UNIVERSITY CLASSIFIED STAFF COUNCIL MINUTES
Thursday,
June 14, 2001
Big Green Room – Henderson Center
President Nina Barrett asked Parliamentarian Cremeans if Council had a quorum wherein he answered, “yes.” Due to lack of a quorum last month, April minutes could not be approved. Motion was made by Charles Harless to accept the April minutes. Mr. Harless mentioned that a correction needed to be made in that Jack Blake was present in April. LuAnn South seconded the motion. Council approved minutes with the correction. Motion was made by Joe Wortham to accept the May minutes, seconded by LuAnn South and approved by Council.
President Barrett
presented two guests: Delegate Jim
Morgan and Mr. Jim Stephens.
Delegate Morgan represents the 16th district which includes Marshall University. At the special session on Sunday evening there were several things on the Governor’s call, two of which had to do with Higher Education. Delegate Morgan stated the Cabell delegation is willing to do everything they can to make sure the Higher Education pay raises go through. They caped the tuition hike at 4% for the regular undergraduate school. We went back in special session with an appropriation bill that put two million dollars into peer equity. We as a delegation met with Governor Wise early in the session and he talked about pay raises for everyone. Someone said that the pay raise did not include all persons. The money was placed back in higher education and the Policy Commission will decide how the money will be divided with the governing bodies taking office July 1, 2001. They will work with the institutions and decide how this pay increase will be distributed.
In Senate Bill 703 there
is a new classified salary schedule. This salary scale actually was passed in
the extended session. The money that goes into the salary scale will be divided
according to the Policy Commission on Higher Education.
Then the Governing Board of this institution will give pay raises
according to scale in Senate Bill 703. If
this happens, you will all receive pay raises. He continued to explain this in
detail. When the governing boards meet, they will decide how this money will be
divided and who gets raises. There were several questions asked and answered.
Words of appreciation were expressed to Delegate Morgan for the willingness of
he and his advocates to help classified staff.
Mr. Stephens had two
issues to discuss with Council. The first project is he has started the process
of the transition over to the new grievance process that will begin July 1. He
is also working on the chapter in the classified handbook that describes the
grievance process. He again
welcomed any input from Council. The
handbook is not a policy instrument in its own right but reflects policies that
exist somewhere else. Second, they
are trying to write a chapter that pulls in the essentials from the new State
Code so that people can understand it. If anyone has any questions about the
grievance process, he would be delighted to hear from us. He wants us to be
fully informed as to how the process works. There is a page on the Human
Resource web site that has both the old and new statute which can be downloaded. It shows posted time lines for statute as well as grievance.
Mr. Stephens explained they were trying to make the access of grievance
information as convenient as possible and they are in the process of trying to
find new grievance evaluators. We
have a small number of examiners and we need more.
He is going to try later this month or early next month to have an
orientation for people who they consider to be examiners. He is delighted to
report that on his list of people who have been suggested so far, several are
classified staff employees.
Ms. Pierson asked about
the new salary schedule. What is going to happen with new employees who are
hired after July 1? Mr. Stephens is not sure at this time. He referred to Policy
62 and mentioned that a new hire will be hired at the minimum of the scale. And
the dilemma for us is after July 1 we might be compelled to hire somebody at the
new rate on the scale. He continued to discuss. Other questions were asked and
answered.
President Barrett opened
the floor for the election of officers.
The Office of
Parliamentarian – Joe Wortham nominated David Cremeans.
LuAnn South nominated Joe Wortham which he respectfully declined.
Muhammad Chaudhry made a motion that nominations be closed.
Council approved and David Cremeans was elected Parliamentarian
unanimously.
Secretary:
LuAnn South nominated Betty Cook for the office of Secretary.
David Blackburn made a motion to
close the nominations. Approved by Council and Betty Cook was elected
unanimously Secretary of Council for the coming year.
Office of Vice
President:
David Cremeans nominated Joe Wortham; Jack Blake nominated Charles
Harless for the office of Vice President. Both agreed to serve if elected. Nina
Barrett stepped down so Martha Pierson, Second Vice President,
took charge of the elections. Voting slips were distributed and counted. Martha read the results and Joe Wortham was elected Vice
President.
President -
Charlene Hawkins nominated Nina Barrett for President.
Motion was made by Mohammad Chaudhry to close the nominations.
Council elected unanimously Nina Barrett as President of Classified Staff
Council.
President Barrett thanked
Council for their confidence in her as President and stated this is going to be
a difficult year even with the good news Delegate Morgan told us. An October 1
date is still not firm for salary increases and she feels that we still have a
lot of work to do.
According to Stephanie,
Margaret reported that the Chancellor is very supportive of merit raises and
such will be approved by each
Institutional Governing Board. The Board will have different policies throughout
the state. We asked if a uniformed policy could be developed and she said
absolutely not. Stephanie said that they will work on this when they go to the
legislature. She further stated that the Chancellor believes that merit should
be tied with our annual performance appraisals, however, not all institutions do
annual performance appraisals because they are not mandatory.
Several questions were asked and answered.
JEC – the office support
job family review has been put on hold. We are now going to be reviewing
physical plant job family. The request has now been made for PIQs for every
person throughout the state. These
are to be received in the central office by the end of July. Also, the entire
job family will be reviewed by the end of next June. We expressed concerns for
the office support job families continually being put on the back burner.
It is just not fair to those employees. Stephanie mentioned that Margaret
wants to change the composition of the JEC next year. She wants to reduce it to
about six people. When the ACCE questioned her about classified employees, they
were totally ignored.
Senate Bill 703 provides
that the Advisory Councils can determine election procedures for Advisory
Council positions. They are working on developing a new constitution and
by-laws. The annual retreat
to work on legislative goals for the upcoming year will be July 29-31, 2001.
Discussion continued in regard to the salary increase and pay scale.
Stephanie distributed
handouts to Council about a couple of proposed policies that came from the
central office for implementing the Governing Board and employing presidents or
other administrative heads of institutions.
The ACCE is going to ask for equal representation of staff and faculty.
Discussion was lengthy.
MEMBERSHIP/ELECTIONS
– Joe Wortham’s year-end report stated two elections were held this past
year. In April 2001 the Advisory
Council of Classified Employees representative, presently held by Stephanie
Neal, and one for the Institutional Board of Governors representative presently
held by Tanya Bobo. Council elections were conducted last week and the results
were as follows: School of
Medicine/Office Personnel: Fran
Browning elected for a three year term and Cora Westmoreland for a one-year
term. School of Medicine: Carla Rae Cook elected for a three term. Academic
Affairs/Professional: Charlene
Hawkins re-elected for a three-year term.
Administration Service Maintenance: Michael Justice – three-year term,
Woodrow Edmunds – one-year term, and Jack Blake re-elected for a three-year
term. Technical Information: Pasty
Stevenson elected for a three-year term.
PERSONNEL-
David Cremeans’ year-end report brought out some issues over health and safety
in Smith Hall and other state buildings which helped create an on going
investigation that is still pending. There are three or four other buildings
that are in unsafe condition. He worked with Jeff Ellis who has
been very cooperative. Over the past year he has been involved with
assisting different people in solving personnel problems.
He has worked closely with Jim Stephens and all problems were resolved.
This last year and half has been a pleasure compared to the past where we have
had no cooperation at all. Discussion was lengthy.
PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
Charles Harless reported that some of the issues raised have needed to be
corrected since the 70’s. It seems no one knows what to do. He spoke about
flooding and other problems with some of the buildings. Another issue across the
campus: we have various markers and plaques that designate historical events and
commemorate groups or individuals. These need to be cleaned, repaired and one
marker needs to be replaced. He mentioned that the campus needs more smoke urns,
and bicycle racks. It is still too
dark at night on the parking lot by the Jomie Jazz Center.
STAFF DEVELOPMENT-
Since the Chairman, Janis Winkfield, was not in attendance, President Barrett
asked Mary Black about the tuition waivers.
Ms. Black informed staff council that the tuition waiver notification has
gone out and the deadline is the 29th of June. Approximately
twenty-five have been given out to date.
SERVICE
- Bernice Bullock reported that they did not have any formal meetings, but the
members did get together when there was work to be done. We have sent out 15 get
well cards, 13 sympathy cards, 13 get well flower arrangements and 9 sympathy
arrangements. We continue to send cards and flowers to staff and family in the
event of hospitalization, illness or death. Various means are used to send out
notices when contributions are needed for the flower fund. We are continuing the
same Key Card program. We did collect a very nice sum at the Staff Luncheon,
which is the only time this past year we have taken contributions. We have had a
total of $540 in expenditures (we have a balance of $560.32). We had a deposit
of $570.53 and as of June 4th the balance is $590.85. Hopefully this
amount will carry us through until next May.
BUDGET/ACADEMIC
POLICY - David Blackburn reported that they met four times
during the academic year to discuss revision of the appeal process in the
Student Handbook and add changes to the Faculty Handbook. Among changes
discussed: Faculty Rights, Time Frame for Faculty to respond, selection of
Hearing Officers and consequences if time frame is not followed.
He also mentioned that they discussed the Quality Point Deficit Policy
and Academic suspension. The committee discussed the discrepancy in Student
Handbook and University Catalog regarding suspension.
At their last meeting there was discussions on Failure to Withdraw Grade
Option and Academic Dishonesty Policies. Under new business there was a
discussion about establishment of an Appeal Review Subcommittee, end of the year
committee reports and election of committee officers.
UNIVERSITY
FUNCTIONS COMMITTEE – Charlene Hawkins reported she was unable
to attend the meeting this year and received no further information.
Bernice Bullock stated that this committee only meets to determine the
commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients, and as Secretary of
Faculty Senate, she too received no information.
STUDENT
CONDUCT/PLANNING COMMITTEE – LuAnn South reported
the issue of smoking continues. They
wanted to petition to build smoking gazeboes; where could the gazeboes be built
and from where would the money come? At
this time there are no funding sources.
ATHLETIC COMMITTEE
– Sonya Cantrell
stated there
had been
no meetings this past month,
so she gave an
overview of the last meeting. The
NCAA investigation
continues. She
understands it
is “kind of
resolved” but she has not heard
anything further. President
Barrett asked about the Conference
USA. Sonya mentioned that they said our other sports are not strong enough to
go; football, yes, but the other sports, no,
not right
now. Women’s
diving and golf are the two new
sports they are
looking at picking up.
PIPELINE COMMITTEE
– Mohammad Chaudhry reported the Pipeline is
new software where we can contact Marshall University and the main campus
as one circle instead of having three or four different servers. He gave some
examples. In the next couple of months students will be given access to the
password and log-in name. Discussion continued.
CALENDAR COMMITTEE
– Jill Burcham reported committee discussions. But she stated that the Classified Staff members are
not allowed to make any decisions, nor do they have a vote. They can voice their
opinion, but the committee makes the final decision.
She continued to discuss this at length.
President Barrett
mentioned that Leah Tolliver had an idea and would like her to share it with
Council. Leah spoke to President Barrett about having a newsletter for
Classified Staff. This newsletter could be sent out to all staff to keep them
updated. She continued to explain her idea in detail. Discussion continued as to
how to make this a reality for Classified Staff. President Barrett felt that this was worth pursuing.
Since this is the end of
the year, President Barrett recognized everyone’s participation by awarding
certificates.
NEW BUSINESS -
None
There being no other business, the meeting was
adjourned at approximately 3:00 p.m.