Minutes for December 2006

December 14, 2006 at 2 P.M.
Avaya Auditorium-ACES building

Members Present: Timothy Barber, Sharon Bernard, Steve Brahm, Linda Breining, Johnnie Conley, Vickie Drake, Lara Eakins, Danielle Fournier, Christine Gauger, Lisa Gentry, Claudia Gerardo, Bretna Hackert, Bob Hemby, Tom Horn, Sara Jackson Watson, Troy Johnson, Amy Jones, Denise Berry, Debra Madden, Gary Martt, Michael McFarlin, Alan McKendree, Rita Moreno, Joyce Moyer, Pamela Owen, Eric Patkowski, Monica Pena-Mercado, Elaine Rafferty, Martha Ramey, Carl Roell, Nadine Schulte, Sandra Sleeper, Mark Smyth, Allison Supancic, Erin Waneck, Debbie Warden, Ashley Williams, Blake Willms

Members Absent With Notification: Layne Brewster-Smith, Greg Browning, Vanessa Cobb, Nelson Fahlund, Patrice Fox, Mark Gonzalez, Phil Guerrero, Dreya Johannsen, Mari Johnson, Kim Montroy, Salwa Uzri, Kim Williams, Barbara Thompson

Members Absent: Lisa Camero, Tommy Downey, Richard Lee, Candace Legge, Shelton Lewis, Kelly Liao, Cynthia May, Terry Moore, Linda Overton, Heather Pafk, Ben Rodriguez, Felix Sanchez, Chris Scherer, Olen Smith, Kim Wallace, James Watson

Meeting Commenced at 2:00 PM without quorum. (Quorum was reached by the end of the LFR presentation, approximately 2:15 PM).

CHAIR:

• Presented students from student government who sponsored a staff appreciation day on December 8th. The students hope more student groups will get involved and the goal is to make the last Friday of each Fall semester an institutionalized Staff Appreciation Day. The students brought a large display of signatures and well wishes towards staff from the students on campus.
• Erin also welcomed the presenters from the Longhorn Student EMS group to discuss the new student first responders group who will be responding to all 911 calls that originate on campus. A motion of support from UTSC for the group was passed.
• The new representatives that are filling vacancies were introduced: Dee Dee Berry, Steve Brahm, Lisa Gentry, Bob Hemby, and Mark Smyth
• The logos that were mocked up were presented to the council. There were 4 options created. The council were not thrilled with any of the options and the members were asked to send comments/ideas for logos to Erin. Erin will post the logos that have been created so that everyone can see them and submit comments and concerns.
• Erin read the statement from President Powers in support of the UTSC, which will be included on the UTSC brochure.

ISSUES CHAIR:

• Issue 2006-23: Tuition Charges with the Staff Educational Benefit. Recommendation to send it to Misc. Benefits.
• Alan McKendree states it’s clearly wrong that she is being charged, as the benefit is supposed to be covered completely, however he isn’t sure it is a UTSC issue. Amy responded that the constituent tried other avenues without success. Motion passes to send issue to Misc. Benefits.
   
• Issue 2006-24: Elimination of Staff Evaluations. Recommendation to send to Comp and Class.
• Danielle Fournier made a statement about the reasons for submitting the issue, because evaluations are not handled in a standardized manner across campus. Some employees aren’t given them at all. Motion passed to send to Comp and Class.

CHAIR:

• Issues committee purview discussion. To chair’s understanding and based on precedent, issues committee should be validating every issue that is received, as long as it is not a duplicated issue the council has already dealt with. As well, they should be assisting the submitter of an issue to re-write issues that are unclear, rather than rejecting them back to the submitter. Erin asked for a motion for a vote to make sure all issues are at least presented to the council, even if they are not validated, to make the council aware of them, but discussion ensued:
• Michael MacFarland asked if there would be a way to override a rejection by the issues committee. Erin responded that that is one way to do it and that all the issues are online.
• Amy Jones mentioned that she envisioned the process for non-validated issues be presented as that as the recommendation to the council.
• Sharon Bernard said issues committee didn’t know they were supposed to be validating all of them.
• Deborah Madden stated that the recommendation also needed to include issues that have been killed in the Exec. Committee.
• Erin asked for a motion that the issues committee present the non-validated issues in written format attached to the minutes, so that the UTSC are aware of rejected issues and the reasoning behind the rejection
• Deborah Madden asked for an amendment to the motion to include the rejected issues by the Exec. Committee. Motion passed.

MEETING ADJOURNS.

Watch the web recording of this meeting at e-rtsp://146.6.74.12/ut_staff_council.mp4 (you will need a plug-in, which can be downloaded from http://webcast_plugin.theacesbuilding.com)