MARSHALL
UNIVERSITY CLASSIFIED STAFF COUNCIL MINUTES
THURSDAY, April 17, 2003
Erickson Alumni Center
MEMBERS PRESENT:
President Barrett, Barbara Black, Jack Blake, Fran Browning, Bernice Bullock,
Jill Burcham, Betty Cook, Woodrow Edmonds, Elizabeth Graybeal, Charlene Hawkins,
Stephanie Neal, Sherri Noble, Nancy Pelphrey, Martha Pierson, Linda Rhodes,
LuAnn South, Patsy Stephenson, Gary Stone, Joe Taylor, Leah Tolliver, Cora
Westmoreland, Joe Wortham
EXECUSED ABSENCES:
Muhammad Chaudhry, David Cremeans, Judith Damron, Charles Harless, Leonard
Lovely, Sonja McKenna, James Sinnette
UNEXEUSED ABSENCES:
GUESTS:
Jim Stephens, Director of Human Resources, Mike Dunn
The meeting was brought to
order at 1:05 p.m.
President Barrett asked for
acceptance of the March 20, 2003 minutes. There were some minor corrections made
to the minutes. Ms. South mentioned that on the last page “have the president
meet with council, and the next paragraph down it should read, “from instead
of form”. Ms. Graybeal mentioned that she was not at the last meeting but it
should have been an excused absence. Ms. Barrett asked for a motion to accept
the minutes with changes. Motion was made by Mr. Wortham and seconded by Ms.
South. Motion carried. Minutes
approved.
GRADUATE SCHOOL:
Ms. Pierson indicated that they are getting over their initial shock of this
Council issue that surprised everybody. She has appointed a committee so that
they can work on their constitution and by-laws.
They will meet in the next week or two to begin. They literally will be
building their Council from the ground up (restructuring). Ms. Pierson feels
very strongly that it is extremely important that they have someone from the
South Charleston campus serve as a liaison to this Council because they feel
that they have no voice in South Charleston because there are no administrative
offices located in South Charleston. Their lifeline to the University is through
this (Main Campus) Council. Ms. Pierson suggested that we have a non-voting
liaison committee member to sit on this Council so that they will still have a
link with us. She still does not understand the whole reasoning behind these
changes because it makes no sense whatsoever for them to have their own separate
Council in South Charleston. But
they will (have their own Council) and they will be in compliance with HB 2224.
Ms. Pierson asked if Council
would come to South Charleston for the May meeting. President Barrett said we
are working on plans to have our next meeting there. However, we have had problems in obtaining adequate
transportation. We need at least
two vans and some private cars to make the trip comfortably.
It was asked if President Barrett had decided on who the guest speaker
will be. It was suggested that we try to get either the Chancellor or Gary
White. President Barrett asked Ms.
Pierson to see if she could get a guest speaker for the May meeting.
She agreed.
Ms. Pierson asked if we have
gotten any feedback on the Lay Off Policy.
President Barrett said that she has not heard anything on the policy. Mr.
Stephens said that he had some suggested revisions and of course Layton Cottrill
received revisions. Mr. Cottrill is considering this matter but as far as any
revisions of the policy he does not have any information to report.
Ms. Pierson said one other
thing that is pending with the new Council is a budget for South Charleston. She
said that she knows that Joe Taylor does not have an ACCE budget anymore. In the
past and before the merger, they always had a small budget for photocopying and
other things. President Barrett asked Mr. Stephens if there has been any
discussion about a budget for South Charleston’s Council. Mr. Stephens had no
information in this regard.
There was plenty of
discussion as to why South Charleston’s Council will be separated from our
Council. Ms. Pierson said that as early as a couple of years ago they still had
some of the Finance offices and other sections there and that they did have a
resource to get information from. But
after July 1 they won’t have any administrative offices at the South
Charleston campus at all. So to whom do they go to get information except for
this Council? It was mentioned that
we could still have the Council meetings on the same day and do video
conferencing. Ms. Pierson said that we could do this maybe every other month,
but video conferencing is a headache. The
last few times we did it the reception was very poor. Ms. Pierson feels that the
video conferencing is not a good method to use for the Council meetings and she
said also maybe once per year the South Charleston Council can come to the
Huntington campus and the Huntington campus can come to South Charleston. They
still need the connection to the Huntington Council. Discussion was lengthy.
INSTITUTIONAL BOARD OF
GOVERNORS: Ms. Noble distributed
the agenda for the IBOG meeting. She reported that they met March 26, 2003.
Their first order of business was Dr. Grose discussed the use of the cell phones
in the new dorms. The cost is $29.95 per person and they will have unlimited
calling anywhere in the U.S. while students live in the dorms. The following
agenda items were approved: the proposed addition to the Forensic Science Center
and the authorized staff to proceed with securing bids (this is at the Fairfield
Stadium), Holderby Hall renovation project, we authorized that President Angel
can sign a grant program contract with WV Development Office to accept a $30,000
grant and this will allow Mid Ohio Valley Center to enter into a lease of an
additional vacant lot from Pleasant Valley Hospital & develop additional
parking for students. They approved the policy on Governance of MU CTC, the
policy on Development & Renewal
of contractual agreements between MU CTC & MU and approved the proposed
tuition/fees increase totaling 9.5%. The administration provided a budget update
as follows: the EPSCOR funds of $1.5
million have been restored to the MUSOM. We currently have $1.1 million in
lottery funds but we could get less because this is up to the HEPC to make the
decision. Ms. Noble said that
anything that has changed (the tuition is at 9.5% and we lose lottery money)
then the reduction would become greater for all of us for next year. All of this
is still up in the air right now. She shared that Chairman White has added three
more subcommittees. She said right now we have Academic Affairs Committee and
Finance Committee, which she currently serves on. The add-ons are as follows:
Athletics, School of Medicine and MU Community and Technical College.
They all had to submit what committees they want to work on. She is on
the finance committee because she knows more about finance than anything else.
She did finance first, Academic Affairs and then Community and Technical
College. Their next meeting is May 14th in Huntington.
ACCE:
Ms. Neal reported that her committee had not met. They were scheduled to meet
next Wednesday but that had been postponed until May 8th. The Policy
Commission will be meeting two days next week rather than one. They have a very
lengthy agenda. At that meeting they will be setting our tuition and fee rates
and so at that point we will know how much money we have to deal with for the
next fiscal year. That is one of the reasons that the Advisory Council postponed
the meeting until May. At this point they still don’t know exactly how the
budgets are going to affect the individual campuses. We do know that there are
going to be a number of lay-offs in the central office and also at WV Net. On
the Policy Commission agenda there is a severance policy for WV Net and also for
WVU for classified employees. If these plans are approved they’ll have to go
to LOCEA before implementation. She should have a more detailed report after
their meeting in May and at that point we will know exactly how that is going to
effect us on our campus.
Ms. Neal said that the
Governor did find money to cover the annual increment. The explicit purpose was
to cover the annual increment. Increases. A question was raised about the
funding of the auxiliary services. Ms.
Neal said that is still a question. The Governor has identified funds that are
available to be used if there are no state laws prohibiting him from doing so.
So we are still trying to get clarification on this and LOCEA or Legislature has
not approved of it yet but they are trying to find the answer to that question.
The Governor has assured us that prior to July 1 they will meet and approve
those allocations, but the money is sitting in an account that he has already
identified.
LuAnn South referred to an
article from the Gazette dated April 1, “Higher Ed Policies Staff Face
Lay-Off” this may have happened before ms
Neal’s meeting, but in the article it says that the money will be found during
a possible special session this summer. Ms. Neal said that it could be during a
special session, but the money has already been found. They have already
identified the line item where that will be pulled from. It is just the matter
of the Legislature going into session to vote on it and approve of it.
Mr. Stephens did not have
anything to report at this time. But
he was willing to take any questions. He mentioned that the furlough policy is
still in a draft condition. He is cautiously optimistic that no furlough will be
necessary in FY 03-04. They are still trying to clarify the status of a furlough
with regard to the right to use accrued leave. The Policy Commission Legal
Council met with the Commissioner of Labor and they were going to discuss this
issue. President Barrett asked Mr. Stephens if he thinks that furlough will
still be on the table in future. Mr. Stephens said perhaps sometime in the
future. He thinks the School of Medicine will continue to be under a tighter
financial constraint than the other units. They may make some proposals for
furloughs this fiscal year. He said they continue to look at the budget
situation as it continues to get worse and feels that there is going to be some
kind of massive adjustment to cover Workers’ Compensation so we just don’t
know what the future holds. Ms.
Bullock said that Mr. Stephens stated that he had been in conversations with the
Commissioner with the Labor Division in that is it possible, if there is a
furlough, then annual leave could not be used during the furlough period. Mr.
Stephens said that he did not meet with them that the Policy Commission’s
legal council had a meeting with the Commissioner of Labor to discuss that
letter about furloughs. He continued to explain.
Discussion was lengthy.
There was another question
asked about the PIQs that were done by physical plant classified staff
employees. Mr. Stephens said that the Higher Education Policy Commission did a
job family review and decided to upgrade these positions, which will be
implemented on July 1, 2003. President Barrett asked if most plant operations
employees received an upgrade. He
knows that there were a sufficient number of upgrades, but he does not know how
many there were as a total number. It was asked if there was a salary plan. Mr.
Stephens said again what he is hearing now is that the upward adjustments will
take place and no one salary is going to be reduced as a result of the
implementation of the physical plant job family review which should make it more
tolerable. He does not see them trying to change policy except for people who
got a downgrade. It was asked if
the plant operations individuals would be notified prior to July 1 that this is
taking place and that they either have been changed from this to that? Mr.
Stephens said that they have traditionally been able to publish what he calls a
salary informational letter but they usually have to wait for the database to be
updated so they can get the fresh numbers to write letters. He continued to
discuss.
President Barrett asked if
anybody feels they will have a problem getting release time from their
supervisor to attend the Staff Council meeting in South Charleston.
Mr. Stephens said to call him in this regard.
Mr. Stephens announced that
an e-mail was sent out in regard to the open enrollment for our health insurance
and that it will close on Friday, May 2nd.
All employees must fill out an affidavit this year if you’re covered by
PEIA Health Insurance.
Ms. Burcham mentioned that
at the PEIA Benefits Fair she spoke to a lady from the Wellness Center about a
YMCA corporate discount membership for Marshall University employees. She
indicated that it has been offered to Kanawha County and feels that it should be
offered to Cabell County. But she said that they have worked with Cabell County
and that our Human Resource office can contact the YMCA and ask for a corporate
discount and that way we would get a discount plus it could be payroll deducted.
There are a lot of people at Marshall who are Y members.
This would help them a great deal and it would be more members if that
were offered. Mr. Stephens said that he would check into this.
STANDING COMMITTEE
REPORTS:
Elections:
Mr. Wortham reported that we had an election about a week ago. Stephanie Neal
was re-elected as our Advisory Council Representative; Sherri Noble was
re-elected as our Institutional Board of Governors representative and then the
new position (Chair) Mike Dunn was
elected as the new Chair of Staff Council effective July 1, 2003.
Mr. Wortham announced that we do have another election coming up. We will
be electing our representatives to Council for the upcoming year that will
become effective July 1, 2003. This election will be next Thursday, April 24th.
Mr. Wortham said that the e-voting was a successful tool to use for our first
election. We will expand the use of e-voting in future elections except not at
the election on April 24th. He explained briefly that the e-voting
system the University currently has is a system that they obtained from another
University and it did not have a provision in the software of that system to be
able to separate each voting category/group that you may be in. Mr. Wortham
explained that the only way the current program could be used was he would be
given a menu of choices, and he could pick the group he wanted to go into and
vote. He could vote in any category he wanted. Because of this factor, we
decided not to use the e-voting system for the upcoming council election. We are
going to use the paper ballot system. Hopefully it will be the last time we have
to use it because Terry Tomblin told him to give her enough time to get the
equipment right so that we will be able to vote in our own categories, but he
could not do this in time for our election this time.
Mr. Wortham mentioned the four polling areas which are: Council Office in
Old Main, one will be in the Sorrell Maintenance Building, Plant Operations
office, one will be in the Robert C. Byrd building, Dean’s office, one will be
in the Medical Education Building, Associate Dean’s office. We are electing
representatives from five EEO groups. This is the second and most important
change. We closed the nominations
out yesterday. These people will
serve a two-year term. There were some comments and concerns in regard to a couple
of people’s EEO category. Discussion
was lengthy.
LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS
Ms. Burcham reported that
the LAC met last week and they had to vote for a new president and a new
secretary. They voted in Dan Hollis as the new president (he was not there), and
Susan Welch as secretary. It turns out that Dan Hollis cannot run for the LAC
because his time is up on this committee. So now they have to elect a new
person. Also they have planned out
their main agenda for this fall. She mentioned that the agenda items are as
follows: TIAA-CREF (employees pay the 4.5% and the State pays 7%; that is one of
their main objectives), to get representatives in Higher Education office
including faculty, staff to run. At this time higher education employees cannot
run for office. They also plan to discuss increment pay for faculty. Discussion
continued.
SERVICE AWARDS:
Mr. Wortham reported that the awards luncheon is scheduled for May 5, 2003. Mr.
Wortham explained that the Service Award Committee is not part of Staff Council.
The Office of the President sponsors this committee. For the first time ever we
had to submit a budget in advance to the Office of the President for the event
this year. We finally got the budget approved about a month before the
event. We could not place any orders for the awards until we got the budget
approval. As of last week the
awards have been ordered. The invitations will go out on April 18th
and will be due back in by Thursday, May 1st. When you get your
invitation, please fill out and send back as soon as possible.
President Angel has indicated to us, because of the budget
considerations, this is probably the last year we will have the awards and the
dinner in the way we have been having it in the last few years. He called me
personally and said that next year he will only approve the budget for half of
what we are spending this year, which does not cover the cost of the awards. So
there will be some major changes for those receiving their awards next year.
There were concerns about the budget cuts. It was mentioned that the award is
the important thing, not the meal. We do not want to compromise the awards.
We will have to take every avenue possible to retain the awards luncheon.
Discussion continued. Ms. Bullock announced that she would be collecting
donations for the flower fund at the Awards Luncheon.
NEW BUSINESS:
President Barrett asked Ms. Noble if there is any chance that we will ever talk
about buyouts and early retirements like WVU is doing. Ms. Noble said that the
Board has not discussed this and so as far as a broad member this issue has not
been brought before the board at all. Marshall is not considering this at this
point. Discussion was lengthy.
President Barrett indicated
that everyone is aware that we take off 3.75 hours tomorrow for Good Friday.
Ms. South mentioned an
article that was placed in Marshall Matters and mentioned that in 1996
the entire state had a fleet of 748 vehicles that escalated to 961 by 2002.
Marshall had 70 in 1996 and increased to 78 this year. WVU on the other hand has
382 vehicles in 1996 and 518 this year. It was mentioned that they receive more
money than Marshall and their campus is like a city-it is spread out all over
the place.
Ms. Bullock mentioned that
the Classified Staff Council’s constitution states that the immediate past
president will still serve on Council and be on the Executive Committee.
We will have to re-write the constitution. She would think that Council
would surely keep the same officer structure. Ms. Noble said that she thinks
that we should at least adopt something now. We have to have something to
operate by and while Roberts Rules is okay there are still certain things that
we know in our constitution that we can’t do right now. We, as Council, can
adopt to continue these officers and the immediate past president as a member of
the executive committee, and all those things that will give us guidance on how
to operate at least in the beginning through the transition period. There is no
longer a need for a 2nd Vice Chair. Ms. Bullock suggested a motion
should be made that we will continue with the constitution as it is now. When
the new Council takes over they can form a constitutional ad hoc committee to
review and write the new constitution. President
Barrett said that we have a quorum and can make this recommendation. Ms. Bullock
moved that we approve to continue operating by the current staff council
constitution and by-laws excluding language that does not pertain to current
circumstance. Ms. Pierson seconded motion. Motion carried. Motion approved.
President Barrett said with
the understanding that the new Council must begin on writing the new
constitution and another thing that no longer pertains that we had gotten rid of
the meeting in August because of how busy everyone was. We had the July/August
combined meeting for the last few years. If she understands the language of the HB 2244
correctly it specifies monthly meetings. She
does not see how we could skip a month like we have done in the past.
President Barrett said that we would have a learning curve, but she feels
that once we see how the Council elections comes out and we know how the new
Council is composed, we will know more how to proceed.
But our first obligation will be the writing of the new constitution.
With there being no further
business, meeting was adjourned at 2:58 p.m.