Current Representatives
Next agenda
CIC APSC Teleconference
January 24, 2005
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. (CT)
MINUTES
Participants:
University of Illinois/Chicago: Marietta Giovanelli*
University of Illinois/Springfield: Tom Ambrose, Jerry Burkhart, Dave
Robson, Carly Shank*
University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign: Midge Grosch*, Vera Mainz
Indiana University: Isabel Piedmont, Jane Rogan, Steven Weitstock*
University of Iowa: Ella Born*, Cheryl Reardon, Sheri Sojka, Rhonda Weaver
University of Minnesota: Randy Croce, Frank Douma, Beth Emshoff*
Northwestern University: Rebecca Griffiths, Jason Grochoski*, Darlene
Peterson
Ohio State University: Tonia Harper*
Purdue University: Paula Mezo*, Pat Mull
University of Wisconsin: Bruce Beck*, Janice Czyscon, Colleen McCabe
(*Contact person for each campus.)
1. Welcome and Process
a. Calls were made out from the University of Iowa campus to all participating campuses. Once all participants were connected: Ella welcomed everyone, established who all was present at each campus, and mentioned that Craig Gunn from Michigan State University would not be able to join this teleconference.
b. It was suggested that as we proceed with discussion on the various topics of the agenda, that we follow alphabetical order (campuses) to allow all participants the opportunity to make comments and in order to avoid confusion with too many people speaking at once.
2. News
Illinois: Reported having a new president of the university.
Indiana: Mentioned the university is in the process of reviewing 2,030
positions for the purposes of identifying what positions would fall under
the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act). Approximately 800 positions would
be affected.
Iowa: Mentioned that the Professional & Scientific staff are being
courted by two unions. The process is in the very early stages of determining
how much interest there would be in unionizing. It will be interesting
to see what transpires in the next few weeks and months.
Minnesota: The university senate approved suggested revisions to representation.
Northwestern: Did not report any news.
Ohio State: Tonia mentioned the recommendation she submitted to the OS
Staff Advisory Executive Committee regarding appointing representatives
for the CIC APSC.
Purdue: Recently met with their Provost to discuss AP advances. Insurance
policies (?)
Wisconsin: Reported having a new president of the university.
3. Update on Communications
Steven gave a brief update on his efforts to work with CIC in establishing
a web site for the
APSC. He has templates ready to go and has asked for information regarding
listservs. He has not yet heard back from CIC.
Pat Mull inquired about the update of the Benefits Survey. Randy said that it was update just before the October 2004 meeting in Chicago. All campuses were encouraged to review the survey again and submit any changes to Steven.
4. Updates from Subcommittees
a. Domestic Partner Benefits - Bruce and Isabel
They are working on developing a statement of best practices that could be presented as a resolution. Janice was asked to join the teleconference due to her recent experience of advocating for domestic partner benefits with the Wisconsin Board of Regents. It was asked if benefits were being sought for the entire system or just for the Madison campus? Bruce said it would be for the entire system. Most of the teleconference discussion centered on how involved and in what ways, the various state legislatures are in making the decision to offer domestic benefits. There also were questions regarding the source of funds for covering the cost of the benefits and for those campuses that have the benefits, was there a negotiation process? Bruce asked those campuses that currently have domestic benefits if they could ask their administrators to: 1) provide letters of support for the implementation of domestic partner benefits and; 2) provide information such as the percent of employees on their campus who are covered by domestic partner benefits and the cost of that coverage.
b. Vacation Accrual - Beth
It may not be a simple process to develop a best practices policy. A few things that they have discovered: Regents review all benefits, including leaves of absence and this includes vacation time; vacation accrual cannot be separated out from the rest of the leave policy; and there is no central administration of the leave policy but rather, each unit administers leave for its own employees. There was a brief discussion about the need to identify what each institution's policy is and the need to define what we would be advocating for with a best practices statement.
c. Staff Tuition Benefits - Sheri
It was discovered that Iowa state law prohibits extension of tuition
benefits to state employees. There were questions as to whether the law
is applicable only to staff, or to employees' families and/or faculty
as well; and what is the history of the development of the law? Participants
provided some information regarding the benefits available at their institution.
Sheri explained that there are some limited funds available by lottery
for staff to use to take classes. It is possible that there really isn't
that much difference between what is currently available at other institutions
and what Iowa currently offers. Another question was raised with regard
to accounting for the tuition. Beth and Steven said that a small percentage
of fringe benefits is designated for this purpose.
5. Additional Issues
a. Bylaws - Randy
The subcommittee has worked on forming a draft of Bylaws. In an email, Randy asked for feedback regarding some assumptions and questions the subcommittee has. There was discussion during the teleconference regarding term limits, if there should be requirements for CIC APSC representatives (i.e., should at least one representative be a member of each individual institution's Executive Committee), and the allocation of votes (i.e., how many per institution/campus, absentee/proxy, etc). Due to a shortage of time for further discussion, Randy encouraged other feedback to be directed to him by email.
b. CIC APSC Membership - Ella
Ella wondered if she should try again to contact Penn State and the University of Michigan; to let them know how things are progressing with the CIC APSC and to invite them to join in future meetings. She also wondered if the University of Chicago should be included since they are part of the CIC. Randy said he could provide contact information for Penn State.
Ella wondered if the group should have a secretary or at the least, designate someone to take minutes. She wondered if it might be a good idea to decide this and have it become a part of the Bylaws as well.
c. Ella quickly reminded everyone that upcoming teleconferences are scheduled for April 4th and June 6th.
6. Due to lack of time, Ella asked that any comments and/or suggestions regarding this teleconference be sent to her via email. The teleconference ended at 10:29 a.m. (CT).
Respectfully submitted,
Ella Born
University of Iowa