MARSHALL
UNIVERSITY CLASSIFIED STAFF COUNCIL MINUTES
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2002
DRINKO LIBRARY 349
President Barrett called the
meeting to order at 1:07 pm and asked for approval and/or discussion regarding
minutes of last meeting. Muhammad
Chaudhry asked that the following be changes be made in regard to page 3
paragraph 3: Classified staff reiterated to Mr. Stephens that it is not
humanly possible for one individual to be knowledgeable about all the jobs in
the university and evaluate those jobs in a fair and just manner for which the
evaluator may not have adequate training. Paragraph
4 should read with the correction as follows: Would it be possible for the
Human Resource Office to create a committee to perform the evaluations? This may
help employees have a better perspective about the evaluation given.
With no other discussion or corrections motion was made to accept
minutes as amended and seconded.
President Barrett asked Mr. Stephens to address Council. Mr. Stephens reported back to Council on several items that had been brought to his attention at last meeting:
Ø PIQ to Adobe format: At this time Mr. Stephens is not going to covert the PIQ to Adobe. This creates problems in the format of form when trying to input text. Cells do not expand when text is input and when printing document text that is not seen within the field is not printed. The best solution at this time is to save the PIQ to disk or PC and open your document in Word. You should not have any trouble working within the document in this manner. Mr. Stephens encouraged anyone needing assistance to please contact the HR office.
Ø Mr. Stephens had received notification February 14th of the estimate to print the Classified Staff Handbook. There are sufficient resources available in the budget to proceed with this. Mr. Stephens is preparing the Handbook to be sent for printing.
Ø Regarding question as to what percentage of job evaluations result in the recommendation for an upgrade. During the period of 2000-2001 a total of 133 positions were evaluated, of these, 80 positions had an incumbent and of the positions with encumbers 43 or 53.75% were recommended for an upgrade. During that same period four (4) positions were sent to the JEC, one by request of
Mr. Stephens
and three by the client’s request. Of
those requests two (2) were returned with the
same evaluation given from the Human Resource office, one was returned
higher and one was returned lower.
With no further questions from
Council or discussion President Barrett thanked Mr. Stephens for his time and
attending the meeting.
STANDING COMMITTEES:
Graduate School:
Martha Pierson:
Martha stated she did not have anything to report at this time but did have
an area of concern. Martha’s
question concerned item scheduled for discussion on agenda for March meeting in
which departments will be charged for the use of ports and software connections.
This is a great concern to her as she has in her office and lab a total
of 21 machines. Martha wanted to
know if this was to be paid with state funds and how departments will be
expected to pay for this from the current budget allocations? President Barrett asked Sherri Noble if she had any
information regarding this matter. Sherri
explained that over the last two years, departments had been charged $60 for
each computer connection and there is ongoing discussion regarding this matter.
Nothing had been finalized at this time.
Martha asked that if Sherri receives any further information on this
matter that she report back to Council.
Ethics
Committee: Patsy
Stephenson
Patsy advised that a new draft of the STATEMENT OF PROFESSIONAL
ETHICS FOR ALL EMPLOYEES was being submitted to Faculty Senate and President
Angel. Patsy explained the revision
in the new draft now combines Faculty, Administrators, and Staff as one complete
section not individually. Mary will be making copies and sending to council
members the new draft. Patsy needs
any comments or input as soon as possible.
Athletic Committee: Jill Burcham
The following items were reviewed and discussed during the meeting:
Ø Review of the NCAA report.
Ø New Alumni Building
Ø Highest GPA for men – golf team with 3.1
Ø Highest GPA for women – tennis team with 3.24
Ø
New Compliance Director named – Brian Bertani
Institutional Board:
Sherri Noble
Sherri reported the Board had met January 23, 2002 and the following items had
been discussed:
Ø Dr. James Sottile and Donna Donathan gave presentation regarding the official duties of the Faculty Senate.
Ø Student leaders presented excellent presentation regarding the need for a Recreation Center. Students used the facility at WVU as a model and had compiled strong evidence of the advantages this would be for Marshall students. Mr. Perry asked that further information be compiled and report back to the Board.
Ø Ms. Charlotte Weber gave overview report of current projects, completions now underway at the Robert C. Byrd Institute.
Ø Budget issues facing Marshall:
3% Reduction
of Budget for 2002-03
Projected increase of premiums (BRIM) of 19%
PEIA Premium Increase of 12%
Bond Debt Service Reduction – this has been tabled and the Higher Ed Policy
Commission is still in review of this issue
Ø Board approved the following:
Policy #40 –
Waiver of Regular Fees for Third Party Sponsored Courses
Policy #6 – Naming of Buildings Policy
Resolution of Delegation of Powers by Governing Board
President Barrett asked if everyone had received copies of the first issue of newsletter. She noted that it had caused many employees to be concerned regarding the 37.5 workweek. President Barrett asked Sherri Noble if she had any further information at this time. Sherri advised that ACCE is reviewing the documentation and history of the 37.5 workweek, but has not received any further word at this time. Stephanie Neal noted that a Legislative Committee is looking into the definition of the workweek. The Advisory Council’s position has been that if a redefined workweek be 40 hours rather than 37.5 they would be required to pay employees additionally for those hours worked. The precedent has already been set that if non-exempt employees work past 37.5 a week, they receive straight time up to 40 hours and time-and-a-half thereafter. What Ms. Buttrick has indicated to ACCE that our salary schedule is actually based on the 40-hour workweek so there would be no additional compensation if this passes. The Advisory Council has reiterated very clearly to Ms. Buttrick that we feel differently and that if this should happen there would be a class action suit filed.
Sherri advised the next meeting of the Board has been scheduled for March 5th, 2002.
ACCE:
Stephanie Neal.
Advisory Council met Thursday February 14, 2002 at the Graduate College
with each institution having representatives present and the Chancellor
addressed Council also at this meeting. Margaret Buttrick’s report indicates
the Central Office had completed the rewrite of Series 8.
Ms. Buttrick did agree to e-mail Stephanie, Amy Pitzer, and Jenny Fertig, Classified Representatives to the Chancellor’s committee, a copy of this documentation. Once they receive this article they, they will provide copies to Classified staff with the understanding that we will send comments back through the Advisory Council members (Stephanie, Amy, & Jenny) so they could bring back comments at next ACCE Council Meeting scheduled for March 4th. Series 8 also includes Series 62, which is Personnel Administration, Series 35 concerns employees leave, Series 45 Equal Opportunities, and Series 56 Social Justice. Current plan that Ms. Buttrick indicated to Council was the rewrite of Series 8 will be on the Policy Commission Agenda but only as an information item and then will go back to the Policy Commission in May and then be filed with the Secretary of States Office. Stephanie reiterated the importance that all employees read and respond with any comments in an urgent manner as they do not have a large window of time to have concerns heard.
Stephanie Neal stated that she and Joe Taylor had submitted to President Barrett a formal request that several upcoming Classified Staff Council meeting dates be changed. Council’s regularly scheduled meeting dates conflict with Advisory Council meetings. This does not permit Stephanie or Joe to attend Staff Council meetings or give them an opportunity to report on the many critical issues that impact Classified Staff. Nor does this allow them to have input in, or be part of, discussions with Council regarding items that concern employees as a whole. Meetings scheduled for April, May, and June present a conflict and she asked Council to consider changing these dates.
President Barrett asked for discussion regarding the request of Stephanie Neal, to change Council’s meeting dates of April 18th, May 16th, and June 20th because of the conflict with her ACCE meetings. Motion was made and seconded to move Councils meeting dates to April 25th, May 23rd and June 27th. Council agreed.
Stephanie also noted that
since neither she nor Sherri Noble had been in attendance at last month’s
meeting where the PIQ process was addressed, she felt they could have presented
their perspectives from serving as our JEC representatives. She said that she
and Sherri could give a presentation to Council members on the process of the
PIQ and how it works. With the
approval of Council this has been scheduled at the March Council meeting.
Stephanie also noted that Governor Wise has a bill to remove the 20 year increment cap for Classified Employees. It is believed that a pool of funds will be available for salary increases but how much is still to be determined. Those funds would be allocated through the Institutional Salary Policy.
New Business:
President Barrett reported two letters had been sent to Council members
regarding absences. In response one
member had resigned due to work related obligations. Another individual had
never attended a meeting since being elected.
In accordance to the Constitution President Barrett asked for motion to
dismiss this individual. Motion was
made and seconded.
President Barrett had passed out
a sheet concerning the upcoming Town Hall Meeting. She encouraged everyone to submit questions that could be
asked during this meeting to the perspective candidates. We have a lot of areas of importance that we need to show
strong input on. She hopes attendance will show candidates that we are as strong
in number as well as in voice. It
is the time that we can make known our concerns and draw attention to critical
issues. She hopes that Council
members will agree to act as hosts and hostesses for this meeting.
President Barrett also reported
that Faculty Senate has been disappointed with us because our representative had
not attended any of their Legislative Affairs Committee meetings. This does not
reflect favorably on Council and President Barrett asked for someone to commit
to attend these meetings. Jill Burcham agreed to represent Council.
President Barrett asked if we needed to revisit anything from the discussion on
the PIQ. A Council member stated that he regrets Mr. Stephens seems to be taking
this as a personal issue in regard to the discussion of the individual who
performs our audits. Question was raised if there is a job description in place
for this position. Sherri Noble stated that the PIQ is your individual job
description. A question was
raised about what the educational requirements were for that job along with a
description of the position. President
Barrett asked Sherri if this is something she and Stephanie Neal could address
during their presentation at the March meeting.
Sherri stated that whatever the job title is, they can address the fact
that that is what the data line calls for, i.e. a BA degree or above for
example. But, most of us have been
grandfathered into our positions and have been working at the level required.
However, if we should apply for another position where a degree was required, we
would probably not be able to transfer into it.
Sherri said that explaining the PIQ process may answer a lot of our
questions, but the personal issues cannot be addressed.
Service Awards Committee;
Joe Wortham
Joe reported the Service Awards Luncheon will be held Wednesday May 15th
in the Don Morris Room of the Student Center. A meeting has been scheduled for
the 28th to finalize details. There
are going to be a large number of participants this year.
One person has 40 years of service.
Joe will give an update at our next meeting.
President Barrett gave reminder March 6, 2002 will be Marshall Day at the capital. Please try to attend if schedules permit.
With nothing further meeting adjourned at 2:17 pm.