Maryland's Public System of Higher Education

The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. by the Chair, Larry Lauer.

Dr. Catherine Gira, President of Frostburg State University brought greetings to the Council and how pleased she and the campus are to host the Council of University System Staff (CUSS).

Dr. Gira went on to say that the Staff Senate at Frostburg has been very important to their campus and that CUSS has been extremely helpful. Larry's tenure has been exemplary.

While stating that she has no opinion on unionization, Dr. Gira said that she hopes the shared governance will still have a place within higher education in Maryland. She would like to see it continue to grow and develop.

Introductions of all members were made at this time.

Nominated for the position of Chair was Roy Ross, UMB. No other nominations were received. The nominations will stay open until the time of election.

4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes will be sent out via email when complete. We will try this as an experiment. If you are unable to receive the attachments, please contact Sandy Ratke as soon as possible.

10/2/00 - Chancellors Council. Met at UMUC. Larry briefed the Presidents on the 6 goals of CUSS for the year. The Presidents spent time on a K-16 briefing.

10/4/00 - Task Force on Nonexempt Pay Program held at UMB. Two of the Vice Presidents still wanted to change the 2.5% merit increase, but this amount will not be touched. The report will be put together to include:

1. How to expand the reward capability

2. How to make the PMP process more relevant

• Vice Presidents thought that the program would move more toward reward's like the Exempt employees enjoy

• Key is to build in flexibility

10/4/00 - Executive Committee met with the Chancellor. We discussed:

• Contingent Employment Policy

• The BEST Program (Building Excellence through Staff Training) - how the program is moving forward; that it's included in the Strategic Plan. We are working on implementation. Andrianna Stuart put a lot of work into the research.

[Will get copies of the Strategic Plan to the Council.]

• Nonexempt Pay Program. The Chancellor and Joe Vivona are both positive about the flexibility component that the Council wishes to see in the merit awards.

• Review of the PMP. We are looking for on-line forms, enforceable standards, and an overall revision of the process.

• BOR Staff Awards revision. Certificates for the nominees will be put together by Venus Windmiller.

• We will continue to lobby for increased resources for the System Human Resource office (both in staffing and money). The flavor is right to lobby for additional staffing now and the entire System Office is severely understaffed.

• Tuition Remission Policy. There is a document circulating concerning reverting to the original policy. This would allow employee, spouse and dependents to attend any system institution and would also waive the 2-year waiting period. CUSS is in favor of this and would back it. The Chancellor also thinks it's a great idea.

• CUSS Budget. The Chancellor was very supportive. With the Faculty Council getting approximately $28,000, it seems very unfair that CUSS hasn't received anything.

• Collective Bargaining. The Chancellor's in the dark as much as we are. Donald Tynes is meeting with the 3 Regents about collective bargaining and the Board will discuss at the October 27, 2000 meeting.

The Executive Committee met to set the agenda and discussed the problems we had with the temp we had attend the September meeting. Larry has also been working with University Printing to get the newsletter out.

Rosario van Daalen talked about various things:

1. Tuition Remission - This is on the Vice President's agenda for their October 24, 2000 meeting. The usage of tuition remission systemwide has been compiled.

2. BEST Program - she has been working on the policy.

3. ORP (Optional Retirement Program) - Will be in legislation this year; we're hoping it will pass this time. Rosario's office is working with Morgan State & St. Mary's. We're looking at January 1, 2002 for implementation, as this will be easier for central payroll. The ORP increases the University/State contribution to 9 ½ (a 2% increase) and the Employee's contribution will increase by 2% (1% the 1^st year, 1% the 2^nd year).

4. Nonexempt Salary Survey - Every 2 years the salary structures need to be compared against the market. We needed to meet the 50% to meet the market and we accomplished that last year. That will be in effect until July 1, 2001. We are looking for consistency within the market. A proposal will be sent to the Vice Presidents by December 19, 2000.

5. Diversity Group of the USM - meets quarterly. Donald Tynes is a member. The Council proposes that an ad hoc committee look into the hate crimes awarness issue. Appointed to the committee are: Nathan Long, Andrianna Stuart, Jessica Bird and Dottie Holland. They will meet with Donald and discuss the direction the committee should take.

9. ELECTION

As there were no further nomination from the floor, Roy Ross, UMB was unanimously acclaimed as the new Chair of CUSS, his tenure to start October 30.

10. COMMITTEE REPORTS

Benefits Committee:

The committee has a few issues that they're looking into:

• Unused annual leave and the possibility of converting it into sick leave (Example: UNC System)

• Incremental leave for Nonexempt employees increased to 5 days at 15 years

• Domestic partner benefits

• Separate pool for bereavement leave and maternity leave

• Donation of leave

Communications Committee:

A list of things that they would like to do (some already accomplished).

• Website updated

• Newsletter printed

• CUSS/CUSF combined meeting (perhaps just CUSF's Executive Committee)

• Peer Organization Visitor/Speaker

Community Development Committee:

Are revising the Nomination Packet for the BOR Staff Awards.

• Will put the changes together and disseminate to the committee

• A draft ready for the next meeting mailing

• Approval by the Council

Compensation Committee:

The committee will be checking into what kind of access we have for looking at salaries. Reasoning: at SSU you need to fill out a form and if you need the information in excess of 2 hours, $35 cost. The SSU Council members will meet with their President and report back at the next meeting. These salaries are available at the majority of USM institutions in the libraries.

They also discussed an incident at Frostburg where merit money was awarded to certain departments. It seems, after looking into it, that the policy is broad and that the Vice President was well within the scope of the policy.

9. OLD BUSINESS

There was no old business.

10. NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business.

11. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 2:20 p.m. The next meeting will be held at University of Maryland, Baltimore on November 14, 2000 at 9:00 a.m.