Minutes - December 11, 2003

These minutes were approval at the UT Staff Council meeting on January 15, 2004.

Members present: Michael Acuna, Pat Alfano, Vickie Amidon, Mack Andrews, Karis Beasley, Janet Bensman, Alison Louise Brown, Joni Burks, Helen Burnette, Oscar Carmona, Melba Catchings, Johnnie Conley, Marlis Dagg, Laura Davis, Phillip Dubov, Nelson Fahlund, Patrice Fox, Christy Habecker, Rick Garza, Phil Gavenda, Royce Gehrels, Sandra Godfrey, Suzanne Goodman, Kathy Guajardo, Bert Herigstad, Thomas Horne, Kim Johnson, Elizabeth Korves, Noah Lowenstein, Mary Beth Mercatoris, PG Moreno, Greg Murphy, John Nelson, Sam Owens, Amy Pinkston, Jorge Puig, Ana Raley, Kay Randall, Leslie Saucedo, J.R. Schlesinger, William Sederholm, Sandra Sleeper, Didi Smith, Sheril Smith, Joe Sosler, Jerry Spillar, Kitty Villa, Erin Waneck, Shane Williams, Glen Worley

Members absent with notification: Jan Ballard, Philemon Brown, Alanna Burney, Julie Cunniff, Margaret Evans, Andrew Gordon, John Hibbits, Gayle Hight, Dora Hilgart, Margaret Hill, Marcus Horton, Jim McElroy, Kim Montroy. Peggy Mueller, Ann Seago, Jennifer Scalora, Frank Simon, Stella Smith, J.R. Watson

Members absent: Augustin Collazo, Earl McMannis, Chuck Pearson

Guests: Brian Haley, President - Student Government
Brian also brought greeting cards for all UTSC members wishing UTSC members holiday greetings and thanking them for their services to students.

Human Resource Services: Monica Reed

Welcome:

Chair Glen Worley called to order the regular meeting of the UT Staff Council at 2:02 p.m. on Thursday, December 11, 2003 in Main 212. 53 UTSC representatives were present.

Welcome guests

Announcements:

Frank McIlhaney, Dist 470.2 has resigned

The next regular meeting of the UTSC is January 15, 2004, Main 212, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.

Chair's report:

Effective Wednesday December 10, items in the General Libraries PCL Youth Collection, which had been restricted to 14-day loan, have become regular circulation items. This means that the loan period for Youth Collection items will depend on the borrower category--semester loan for faculty, staff, special borrowers and graduate students, 28 days for undergraduates, and 14 days for courtesy borrowers. The Youth Collection is on the 6th floor of PCL and has an extensive collection of children's and youth books. There are also a few children's size tables and chairs in the area where these books are located. Staff are encouraged to bring their children to PCL and check out these books using their staff ID.

Some of you had expressed concern that we were not following Robert's Rules as closely as we should, and others have commented that we using them to the disadvantage of some. If anyone has a concern about procedures during a discussion, vote, etc., then feel free to ask about it. I have ordered a couple of books that I hope will help, and I will contribute them to the Staff Council:

"Robert's Rules in Plain English"
Doris P. Zimmerman

"Guide for the Presiding Officer: A Functional Guide for Presidents and Chairmen"
Joyce L. Stephens

ULC Meeting 12-1-2003

Kyle Cavanaugh reported on January raise program

• 3% raise pool, if funds are available within the department, then an additional 1% is possible.
• 4% raise pool possible in fall, plus another 1% if funds are available within department - This may be approved later in the fiscal year.
• For the 3% January raise pool - all classes of employees (faculty, classified, A&P) will be treated the same.

Regent's news

Regents approved tuition increases. January 23 is the last date that the tuition increases can be changed. President Faulkner thinks that the increases will remain as approved.

Admissions Policy

Should be published by time of UTSC meeting. This will allow the new admissions policy to go into effect December 1, 2004.

Commission of 125

Subcommittee recommendations due in January with the full report to be finished by late May.

President's Faulkner's view of what will come out of Commission of 125

• Standard of competitiveness - UT must be seen to be competing with top institutions.
• Improve student/faculty ratio - hire more faculty and/or lower number of students
• Improve educational climate
• Curriculum review - this has not been done in several years
• Limit size to resource base - keep student population down to what UT can actually support

Budget Planning – dependent on January 23

• Capital projects - list of capital projects is supposed to be ready in January
• Repairs and renovation - what was reduced in Fall 2003 will be restored, but this is still short of what is required to address all repairs and renovations
• Priorities - Repairs must be given priority. Also, there is a conflict between retention of existing faculty that are being recruited by other institutions and hiring new faculty. No easy answers

Vice President Pat Clubb reported:

Hotel

Location has not been decided, though it appears to be one of two possible locations: Thompson Center location or church property on MLK and University Avenue. The hotel must produce enough revenue to pay for itself over time.

Expanded Child Care facility

This will be built on east Manor Road and is on the agenda for the Regents' meeting in February. One of the benefits of expanding the facility will be the ability to offer on-campus childcare as a recruitment incentive.

President Faulkner - Growth rate for cost of education

President wants to put together a work group to look into possible ways to reduce the growth rate of education costs.

Status of task forces

• Enrollment Management task force
• Racial Respect and Fairness task force

     Reports will be release in January when Texan begins publishing again.

Outlook for Spring Semester

• Long range budgeting
• Moderating growth
• Student Honor Statement
• January 29-30 Summit - Educating for a Diverse America: Other institutions will send teams for this summit. Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona State, Berkeley, Prairie View, and others
• Knowledge Gateway aka UTOPIA will be unveiled in March

Parent's Weekend

Discussion on whether it should be held on a football weekend or not. No decision was reached.

Chair's meeting with President Faulkner and Kyle Cavanaugh, December 8, 2004

I would characterize this meeting as very positive. I told Dr. Faulkner that the flow of information to the Staff Council was very much appreciated and encouraged him to continue this policy. He said that he saw the Staff Council as an important campus organization and was very pleased with the work that has been accomplished by the Staff Council.

Points of discussion:

• Status of proposed Grievance Policy - The draft policy will be presented to the Vice Presidents' Council next week. I pointed out that the proposed policy had been worked out over the past two years with HRS, and that this issue was considered to be the most important issue addressed by the Staff Council. Kyle said that while this policy departed from the current policy, which is uniform across all UT System components, he thought it possible that UT System would allow us to have a slightly different policy from other campuses. President Faulkner reminded us that it must be approved at the System level before it can be implemented.
• President's visit to February 19 UTSC meeting - I asked President Faulkner to update us on the status of the proposed 4% merit pool for Fall 2004 which is dependent on the tuition increases not being challenged before January 23. I also asked him to give us his take on the implications of the Commission of 125 and the future direction of UT Austin, especially the how this would affect staff.
• I asked President Faulkner for permission to make a campus-wide mailing of a description of our issues process, and he said that, as an important campus organization, we did not have to ask permission for such mailings.
• The Communications Committee had asked me to ask the President if we could have our own domain name. This requires approval at the provost level. He said that we had his permission to pursue this.
• We talked about setting up a pilot program for IT access for UT staff that normally do not have access to computers. Kyle suggested that the Staff Council take the lead on this by having a member of the staff council familiar with IT issues meet with the other staff council members from utilities and physical plant and to get a quick assessment from them regarding their perception on how much a need there is on this topic. Once the need and interest is better assessed we could then decide on how to proceed. Phil Gavenda, Chair of the UTSC Communications Committee has graciously volunteered to do this.

Concerning the issue of childcare at PRC, President Faulkner suggested that the Staff Council pursue this through Vice President Pat Clubb. As we have a pending issue on this, I told him that we would follow this course of action.

Vice Chair's report:

None

Recorder/Secretary:

Approval of minutes from the previous meeting:

The minutes of the November 20 meeting were approved with one change. George Hughes was present at the meeting.

Committee Reports:

Standing Committees:

Issues Committee, Didi Smith, Chair:
(other Standing Committees: Bylaws; Committee on Committees; Communications; Nominations and Elections)

Phil Gavenda, Communications:

1) Resolution of issue 2003-28. This issue asked the Communications committee to investigate and report on why staff members were being charged for replacement ID cards. Chair of Comm. reported that he had spoken with Sheila Ochner, head of EIS and determined that there is no charge for a replacement ID for a staff member unless the ID was lost or mutilated. There is no charge for a replacement ID when an individual's information or appearance has changed or when new technology is offered.

2) Email addresses for Committee chairs. Chair of Comm. reported that this meant the creation of a domain name (utsc.utexas.edu) that would allow for standard email address for council officers and committees (e.g.. chair@utsc.utexas.edu).

Didi Smith, Issues:

This committee has one issue, #2003-29 Childcare Availability at PRC, by Noah Lowenstein. The issue was read to members and referred to the Ad Hoc Committee on Child Care. A motion to do that was made, seconded, and approved.

Working Committees: (Classification and Compensation, Grievance; Insurance; Miscellaneous Benefits; Parking and Transportation; Retirement)

Sandra Sleeper, Compensation and Classification (C&C)
Report on issue: 2003-18 - changes in leave policy to allow retention in some sick leave time when staff go out.

Chair of C&C reported that the committee had investigated the possibility of an employee being able to reserve a portion of their sick leave during an extended family leave absence (e.g., birth of a child) so that they have some sick leave remaining when they return to work. It was determined by the committee that while the Federal Family Leave Act (FMLA) guarantees a worker the right to keep their job during an extended family leave, it does not guarantee the right to compensation for that leave nor does it determine the policy concerning the use of compensation (sick leave). Use of compensation is determined by the State of Texas in this case, which by law requires that all state workers ‘exhaust all sick leave' during an extended absence. The recommendation of the committee, therefore, was to take no action.

Discussion followed from various UTSC Representatives:
One UTSC Rep asked for clarification about why the Federal law did not supercede the state law.

Chair of C&C said that in fact the FMLA only provided the security of one's job, not the guarantee of compensation. In this case, the state law requiring workers to exhaust their leave during an extended absence sets the policy for all state workers, UT included.

Another UTSC Rep observed that the UT policy for Leave Without Pay (LWOP) was not being evenly applied in all departments.

A UTSC Rep asked if UT policy could be changed, given that we often make exemptions for UT employees that other state employees do not receive.

Another UTSC Rep asked if all employers in the US were required to adhere to the FMLA.

Two UTSC Reps responded that it was required.

Chair of C&C added that this was for businesses with 50+ employees.

The question was called and the seconded and the motion to accept the recommendation of the committee to take no action was approved.

For more information on the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act, go to http://www.uexas.edu/hr. Once on the Human Resources home page, look for Health and Wellness (right hand column of page) and click on Family and Medical Leave. At that link there is a good explanation of how people qualify for FMLA, the required use of vacation/sick leave, what happens when all vacation/sick leave used, forms necessary to apply for FMLA, etc. It may be very helpful for those unfamiliar with this leave piece.

Unfinished Business:

A UTSC Rep asked the Chair of UTSC if there had been any mention in the University leadership Council or his discussion with the President if the cap on fee increases would affect those departments with employees paid primarily from fee money.

Glen said that no specific mention of fees had been discussed and that he did not know how this would impact the availability of money in some departments.

Student body president Brian Haley said that it was his understanding in discussion tuition and fee increases with UT administration that the combined fee increase would be no more than 3% of the total increase.

The same UTSC Rep asked if in future discussions with the administration this could be addressed.

Another UTSC Rep brought in a copy of the Daily Texan to cite an article wherein the Faculty Council was reported to be dissatisfied with their grievance procedures, and asked why the draft grievance policy document was not made available to UTSC members. He also asked if anyone had ever seen the current policy and if anyone knew what had happened to the peer review portion of the current grievance policy.

One UTSC Rep said that he had a copy of the current policy. Another UTSC Rep said that the peer review had been removed during the Reagan administration.

Chair of UTSC responded that the draft document had been made available to members and that though we might still have questions about the draft policy, it was now in the review process by the administration. Chair also said that any Staff Council member dissatisfied with the draft policy can always bring it up again as an issue, but it will be necessary to persuade a majority of UTSC members to vote to revisit this issue.

New Business:

A UTSC Rep asked if the Issues Committee could produce a spreadsheet matrix of all the issues that has been presented and were before the Council so that committee chairs and members could see and act on issues currently before their committees.

Chair of Issues Committee responded that she was working on such a document and that it would be ready by the time we have our meeting with President Faulkner.

Adjournment: 3:00 p.m.

The next regular meeting of the UTSC is January 15, 2004; 2:00-3:30 p.m., Main 212.