The meeting was called to
order at 10:02 a.m. by the Chair, Larry Lauer.
II.
Welcome
Welcome was brought on
behalf of Dr. Gerald Heeger by Dr. Julie Porosky, Senior Vice President for
Global Outreach. Dr. Porosky spoke of
how Dr. Heeger has been President of UMUC for less than a year and is the 4th
president of the institution. Dr.
Porosky believes that UMUC is a highly non-traditional college and one of the
least understood. Although the smallest
in size, consisting of the Inn and Conference Center, the Student Services
Building, and a parking garage, they have a yearly enrollment of over 70,000 worldwide. Their student base is made up of adult,
non-traditional students and they use a method of practicional teachers working
with practicional students.
Within the last few months
UMUC has became a doctoral of management degree granting institution. UMUC has also distinguished itself as a
virtual university offering a wide array of Masters and Bachelor degrees
online. They feel this is one of the
things that distinguish them from other institutions.
Dr. Porosky said that she
was pleased to see CUSS initially start back in 1992. You rarely see groups like this at other institutions. The way the Council is interwoven with
people from all the institutions sitting together and smiling is heartwarming
to see.
We then had announcements
from Huck Bothner and Beverly Morris.
III.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The Minutes from the
February meeting were accepted with the noted corrections.
IV.
APPROVAL OF BYLAWS
The old bylaws have been
amended and changed to reflect the wishes of the Council. Motion to approve the bylaws as amended was
proposed by Huck Bothner, seconded by Fran Younger. Vote was 20 in Favor, 1 Opposed.
Motion passed. The bylaws stand
as amended.
If anyone has further
changes they would like to see incorporated into the document, you may propose
an amendment at any time in the future.
IV. REPORT FROM CHAIR
2/25/00 - Shared Governance meeting at Towson with
President Smith, Steve Havas (CUSF Chair), Dr. Ellen Scholnick (Associate
Provost from UMCP), Kelly Newsome (Student Council Chair). They discussed the newest modifications to
the BOR policy on shared governance.
There were lots of changes and a preliminary report will be presented at
the Presidents Council on March 6.
Their next meeting will be March 31 at Towson. When they get close to a final document, Larry will bring it to
the Council.
2/28/00 - Staff Development
Task Force with Donald Tynes and Rosario van Daalen. They discussed the cost
involved and are looking into what outside companies do. They want to build the program in an
incremental way to show what can be done.
The Task Force has a third meeting scheduled, plans are moving ahead,
and the plan should be presented to the BOR before the end of the year. Joe Vivona is joining the group and seems to
be excited about the plan.
3/6/00 - Presidents Council. The agenda was full of a variety of topics,
from enrollment projections to a presentation on the use of technology for
instruction. Items of interest to us
included the Policies for Professional Librarians which designated 230
employees with Library titles (II, III, and IV) as faculty for the purpose of
exclusion from the Exempt Pay Policy.
All other library personnel would retain their designation as Exempt
staff. This could affect representation
on the Council since these individuals are now considered faculty by the USM.
Another item of interest was
the BOR Minimum Technology Standards and the implications for training of staff
at USM. This document fits nicely with
the training and development program we're hoping to develop and addresses our
concern about the technological advantages for employees. Rosario van Daalen said that there's a push
at the government level to support this and that the Regents are in favor of
it. Richard Rose said to read the
document carefully. It's often
difficult to get large software distributors to enable the kind of support for
the academic side. Some of the smaller
institutions would have problems supporting this.
Larry also spoke to the Presidents about the Shared
Governance Task Force and solicited comments to return to the group. He informed them about the vote on SB 245
and there was some discussion regarding this and the situation in Annapolis. He then spent some time discussing the
initial meeting of the Training Task Force and requested, yet again, for a Vice
President to be appointed to the committee.
Later that day he went up to UMBC in order to take
part in a discussion of collective bargaining.
He was pleased to have had the chance to address the staff and only
wished there had been more time to fully discuss the issue. As it was, the presentation was spirited and
populated with a nice crowd.
3/7/00 - Executive Meeting. We set the agenda and discussed pending
issues. The Staff Development Task Force
met afterwards and tasks were assigned, including the development of a
philosophy statement by Sally Hearn, Andrianna Stuart, and Larry.
BOR Staff Awards
For the first year offered, we have had an
overwhelming response to the award.
Larry will speak to the Chancellor about presenting a plaque or
certificate along with the awards. Huck
spoke about needing additional volunteers to help with the many candidate
packets. Volunteers were: Starr Levine, Anne Kirby, Willie Fields,
Donna Test, Richard Rose, Fran Younger, Sandy Ratke, Janet Magruder, and Donna
Briscoe.
We discussed the number of nominations per campus (6
per with 1 nonexempt and 1 exempt per category). We agreed to send the ones that go over the 6 back to the
institutions for their decision about which 6 to submit for evaluation. We discussed inviting the Presidents and/or
HR Directors to the awards presentation and perhaps this would prompt further
participation in subsequent years.
Then the discussion turned to how to read the
applications for the awards. LuAnn
Marshall suggested ranking each person and then counting the amounts. The committee will decide how to accomplish
their rating/grading process.
V. NOMINATION & ELECTION OF AT-LARGE
MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE
BOARD
Deborah Brunson, one of the
at-large members of the Executive Committee, must step down for the remainder
of her term. Nominations were accepted
from the floor as to successors.
Nominees for the position were Janet Magruder (UMBC) and Anne Kirby
(UB). Janet Magruder was elected to the
board to fill the unexpired term.
VI. REPORT
FROM BOARD OF REGENTS REPRESENTATIVE
Jennifer Berkman reported
that the Finance Committee met, but no issues were brought up that affect CUSS. The next BOR meeting will be April 7, 2000.
VII.
REPORT FROM USM OFFICE LIAISON
Rosario explained that the
Librarians are currently considered Exempt staff. The Librarian issue peaked last summer when Librarians wanted to
be considered faculty because of working directly with students. From the administration side, it didn't
matter which way they went. The
academic side addressed the proposal from the Librarians and a library
policy. The Librarians will be faculty
- anyone who has the title of Librarian.
The other titles (Librarian Technicians, and Library Associates) will
continue to be considered staff.
We have been asked by State
Benefits to loan two of our fellow Council members to assist in the RFP process
for the Prescription Program review. Saundra
Montoya volunteered and we are still looking for another.
The new salary guidelines
should be out by April 10. We then
talked about the COLA. The 2.5% for
meeting standards for nonexempt is set in stone. The salary structures will remain how they were approved for
exempt are in effect until 2001. The
current nonexempt salary structure will be in effect until June 30, 2001, it is
not adjusted by COLA but by market. The
next evaluation is due next year.
The proposed merit increase
salary guidelines are being discussed with the Vice Presidents this week. In order to recognize "Above Standards" and
"Outstanding" perfomance they should take a portion of their budget to
distribute it to those employees who have earned it. All is added to base pay - no bonus pay. At the March 15 meeting of the Vice
Presidents, they didn't touch that paragraph at all. The institutions were directed to set money aside for this. We don't know how much they have set aside,
but hopefully this has been done.
The Optional Retirement Plan
is positively progressing. It has had
two hearings now. Crossover day in the
Legislature was yesterday. Morgan, St.
Mary's, and the community colleges have been added to the terminology, but
their implementation dates will be different from ours.
We continue to
communicate with legislators about contingent employees. There was a letter sent from the Chancellor
clarifying what we do as opposed to the state, and that we are going to work
with the presidents and the institutions to convert more positions to regular
lines. Realizing that some positions
are grant funded and will always be self-funded.
The discussion has become
very sophisticated as to the correct use of contingent employees. It needs to be considered that, even though
we're in a very good financial situation now that we be cognizant that this
issue doesn't exist in a vacuum and that we don't injure the employees in the
long run. The SHRC is evaluating the
possibility of subsidizing health insurance for these employees - even just a
basic HMO with the system subsidizing the state portion and the employee paying
the employee cost would be extremely helpful to these employees. We also need to consider adding the years of
service to their length of service.
Zurich will be sending out a
mailing to all employees within the system for auto and home owners
insurance. The portability feature of
these plans are great. Rates were lowered
in July 1999, so if you have talked to them in the past, perhaps you should
contact them again. One of the
features is 24 hours/7 day per week road service and they can recommend
garages.
Exempt Pay Program is moving
in the regular manner. The duty day
concept is on cycle and moving forward.
VII. LUNCH IN COMMITTEES
VIII. COMMITTEE REPORTS
Larry opened the afternoon
session by suggesting that we move the June meeting to June 20th. This was unanimously accepted. He then reminded that next month the
nomination process will start, with the voting taking place at the June
meeting. Please consider running for an
office or who might make good officers.
He also reminded the Council that we will have a budget next year and
subsidies will go to the Chairpersons and Secretary's departments to help subsidize
your participation. We will also have
an operating budget next year.
Further reminder: Chairpersons committee reports for the year
are due in May.
Benefits
Committee - Jessica Bird said that the committee
hadn't met because most of their members had volunteered to assist the
Community Development Committee.
Communications -LuAnn Marshall requested
that the committee Chairpersons reports be turned in next month, no later than
the May meeting. CUSS Words is in the
process of being put together. Fran
Younger will do newsletter.
Community
Development
- The committee has divided the volunteers and committee members up into 3
groups to review the nominations.
They'll spend 2 weeks reviewing and then will meet around March 14th. They'll submit one nomination for each area
to the BOR.
Compensation - Andrianna Stuart said
that they are still looking into the Sick Leave bank issue and will draft a
proposal. The Exempt Pay Program was
discussed. Target dates are March 31,
2000 for everyone to receive notification and then floating the time to June 30
for implementation guidelines. There
should have been information disseminated from the Presidents offices outlining
the timeline and procedures. The System
turnaround should be no longer than 2 months.
The March 31 date relates to the Policy of Separation regarding the
exclusion of employees from the plan with March 31 the deadline for
notification. The accountability rests
with System HR and the Vice Presidents.
There is still the 85%
target for faculty salaries and the 50% for staff salaries. It was asked if we didn't send a letter in
support for the 50% being a benchmark?
Yes, it's believed that Jennifer did and a copy of that letter will be
made available to the committee.
IX.
OLD BUSINESS
There was no old business.
X.
NEW BUSINESS
Beverly Morris brought up
the issue of Tuition Remission on various campuses. There are different rules and restrictions varying from
institution to institution. Is there a
policy of use and implementation across the institutional spectrum? The SHRC has a subcommittee that will be
looking into the evaluation process of this issue. This seems like an area that CUSS can get involved with and the
Benefits committee should look into that.
The best place to go to is your Benefits Coordinator. Perhaps this could be a summer project for
CUSS.
XI.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at
2:06 p.m. The next meeting will be held
on April 25, 2000 at the Bowie State University.
