UI Staff Council Internal Committee Reports for 1999-2000
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BUDGET COMMITTEE
1999-2000
ANNUAL REPORT
The Staff Council Budget Committee began its 1999-2000 year
discussing the proposed University Strategic Plan and responding to questions
about the plan from Doug True, VP, Finance and University Services.
The questions were primarily concerned with how the plan would or could
impact the university budget process. Our
study of the plan, particularly in the context of True’s questions was helpful
to us in increasing our understanding of the plan, the budget, and how they both
impact staff.
We began to develop a better understanding of the UIHC
budget, which is separate from that of the rest of the university. We discussed
information given to us by Assoc. VP Bob Foldesi, UIHC COO John Staley, and UIHC
Financial Director Anne Madden. Anderson
and Pat Kenner also attended a UIHC Healthcare Financing Workshop and reported
back to the committee. While we still are not involved in the planning of the
UIHC budget, we are better informed as to how it evolves and impacts staff.
The Budget Committee, in collaboration with the Executive
Committee developed a position description for the new position of Staff Council
Office Manager. We requested a
classification of confidential Secretary III.
While we were granted the confidential status, HR disagreed with our
proposed job classification and consented to a half-time Secretary II.
Throughout the year, we allocated Coke funds (see attached
spread sheet) in the four broad areas of professional development, outreach,
family services, and recognition and reward.
We developed a Request Form, which we made available on the Staff Council
web page and we advertised the availability of funds and informed staff of how
funds were allocated through News &
Views and the FYI.
At this time, we have allocated a total of $134,800 with a remainder of
$16,200 to be allocated from the original amount of $150,000 for the first 3
years of the Coke Contract ($50,000 per year).
Although we have requested that our allocation for FY2001 be increased to
$70,000, we have been informed the amount will remain at $50,000 for the year.
We met monthly with Doug True, VP FUS, and Bob Foldesi,
Assoc. VP and director, Human Resources. Our
communication improved and we were given opportunity for input on various issues
as well as kept abreast of financial operations and budgeting for the
university. This enabled us to
inform our constituents of impending budget cuts both in the current fiscal year
and proposed cuts for FY2001. We
have informed constituents of the risk to the university as an institution and
to staff positions and salaries and have asked them to contact legislators of
the serious impact such cuts will have on the university.
In the summer, we were given the opportunity along with
Faculty Senate Budget Committee members to attend a budget planning workshop
presented by VP True and FUS staff. This
was quite helpful to all who were able to attend.
We provided input for a workshop for new DEOs suggesting
that emphasis be placed on coupling of faculty and staff salaries with equity
and fairness in determining salary increases.
We provided input to the Faculty/Staff Comprehensive
Campaign Advisory Committee through Diane Anderson, who served on that
committee. At this point, we are
not certain if significant fundraising efforts will be made on behalf of staff
during the campaign, but both Anderson and AVP Foldesi have made several
suggestions directed a variety of areas directly impacting staff, e.g.
professional development, child care, and continuing education.
While we did not meet with the Faculty Senate Budget
Committee, communication via e-mails between Anderson and faculty budget chair
Paul Muhly kept us abreast of issues with which each group was concerned.
Our goals were developed and set by early October:
Ø Allocate Coke funds in ways offering most benefit to the greatest number of staff.
Ø Develop greater knowledge of budgeting process of university, including UIHC.
Ø Provide input to administration for budget items in support of staff.
Ø Work with Faculty Budget Committee toward priorities set in 1998-99.
While successful in meeting the first three goals, we were
only partially able to meet the goal of working with faculty.
While the two chairs communicated, there was no open exchange of ideas
and no faculty attended our meetings, and only in one or two instances were any
of us able to attend theirs (primarily due to short notice).
Respectfully submitted,
E. Diane Anderson, Chair
3/23/00
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BYLAWS/POLICY & PROCEDURE COMMITTEE
1999-2000 ANNUAL REPORT
Members: Sherry Pech, Chair, Janice Quinn and Anne Tanner
·
The Diversity Committee brought the first project to us. We
reviewed the membership criteria in an effort to enable additional members to be
added to the committee. After
review of the committee description, it was determined no changes were necessary
to provide the committee the ability to add additional members.
The chair of the diversity committee was advised to submit the name of
the person(s) they would like to add to the goals committee for final approval
according to the bylaws procedure.
·
The second project was reviewing the peer support program for the
executive committee. We had to establish where the new program fit into the
bylaws. After review, the final
result was adding the peer support program into Article X, Section 7 of the
Executive Committee description in an effort to keep the program description
intact as written. The proposal
itself went through many reviews. The program was looked at from all aspects
including the legalities. The
University legal staff and central administration reviewed the program proposal.
It meets all criteria requested. Staff
Council finally approved the program in November.
The placing of the program in Article X, instead of adding, as a new
committee should help protect the program from changes being made without a
thorough review. Changes in the
program would require taking back to central administration and checking any
legal ramifications as well. An
interview committee is in the final process of the selection of staff that will
serve as peer support counselors and should be in place for the new council year
in April 2000.
·
We are still in the process of asking each committee chair to
review their committee description for updates so we can submit the changes for
consideration to the bylaws.
· We were not successful in getting the Operations Manual Bylaws changed on the web version. This is something we will continue to work on in the next year.
It was a short council year and we had to keep in mind the
changes we made in the calendar year for Staff Council. The elections were held
in March and this has moved everything forward in the year.
Hopefully, we will be more used to the new time frame and the Staff
Council year in the future. The first year always seems the hardest.
I would like to thank all who have helped this year.
Anne was a wonderful resource and Janice has kept us going with the
information getting to the correct place at the correct time.
I want to thank Mike Wichman for his generous support to this committee
as well.
Submitted by:
Sherry Pech, Chair
3/2000
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES
1999-2000 ANNUAL REPORT
Committee on Committees identified 3 goals for the year:
1. Evaluate the process of appointing staff members to charter committees to ensure appropriate selections and success as a charter committee member.
2. Increase communication with charter committees by attending meetings and soliciting written and oral annual reports.
3.
Develop process for appointing/recommending staff for other university
committees such as the Mary Jo Small Fellowship Selection committee and other
university committees.
Goal #1: Applications are being finalized for the vacancies on the charter and non-charter committees for the upcoming year. There are 17 openings to be filled. Applications are to be sent and returned by March 15th.
Prior to selecting new appointees, we will evaluate our
process of selection.
Goal #2: Committee
members were assigned as liaisons to the charter and non-charter committees.
As of the December meeting, approximately half of the committees had been
visited by a liaison from our committee.
Goal #3:The membership for the Mary Jo Small Fellowship selection committee is being finalized and will be forwarded to Maureen McCormick who serves as chair. We have formalized the process and named each member to a specific three-year term to ensure continuity but also allow new members to serve on the committee.
In addition to the MJS Fellowship committee, our committee
has made placements on several other university committees.
Cheryl Carter was named to the Appointment of Relatives committee after
James Allen resigned; Barb Lee was recommended to serve on the Hancher Review
committee.
During the year, 6 replacements were named including one
chair for openings on the charter committees.
(See attached listing of replacements.)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
1999-2000 ANNUAL REPORT
Committee members:
Billie Townsend – Chair, Diane Finnerty, Donna Hirst, Linda Liedtke,
Ken Moore, Anne Tanner, Michael Wichman and Xian Wu.
The goals of the
Diversity Committee for 1999-2000 are to:
·
Develop
programs throughout the year to promote diversity awareness, including the
annual Staff Council Martin Luther King Celebration.
·
Actively
solicit information from and interact with the various diversity groups on
campus in support of their goals as well as jointly sponsoring events/programs.
·
Disseminate
information to staff council concerning diversity programs and current
activities and seek active support from staff council for promotion of these
programs.
·
Request
annual updates from the University on the progress made toward increasing
diversity and inclusion of staff on campus and where possible maintain a link on
the Staff Council web page.
·
Update
Staff Council web-calendar with diversity events.
·
Develop
liaisons with the various diversity committees.
·
Work
towards a culture that recruits and retains a diverse staff.
The Staff Council Diversity Committee has been very
successful in implementing these goals and is continuing to develop methods to
increase diversity awareness on the University of Iowa Campus:
1. Develop programs throughout the year to promote diversity awareness, including the annual Staff Council Martin Luther King Celebration:
The Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Celebration was a big success.
Ms. Traevena Potter-Hall, Director of the Council on the Status of
African Americans for the State of Iowa was the Keynote speaker. Ms. Monique
Jones, an MFA student in Dance, opened the program with a dance and Professor
Harriette Pierce and Ansa Akyea read from Ted Shines play
"Contributions". There
were approximately 70 faculty, staff and students in attendance.
This year, based on a project developed by the UIHC Diversity Committee, we developed table tents to be used during Black History Month and have requested other groups follow suit. Carlos Serrato has agreed to supply information for table tents Latino Heritage Month. This year was the first year and distribution was not very broad. We plan to have them available early next year so that the information can reach a larger number of faculty, staff and students.
2.
Actively solicit information from and interact with the various diversity
groups on campus in support of their goals as well as jointly sponsoring
events/programs:
The
Staff Council Diversity Committee will strive to invite members of the various
Diversity groups on campus to attend a meeting and talk about their goals and
the role they would like to see Staff Council play.
This year we have met with the Chair of the "Council on the Status
of Latinos" and with several members of the 'Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual
Staff and Faculty Association".
As necessary we will invite committee members to address the full Staff
Council when there are projects we can work together on.
We will continue to encourage the sharing of information so that we can
keep Staff Council members more aware of cultural programs and social events.
3. Disseminate information to staff council concerning diversity programs and current activities and seek active support from staff council for promotion of these programs.
As information is received it is
placed on the Staff Council calendar
and where appropriate placed on the listserv or distributed at monthly Staff
Council meetings. Council members
are encouraged to attend as many events as possible.
4. Request annual updates from the University on the progress made toward increasing diversity and inclusion of staff on campus and where possible maintain a link on the Staff Council web page.
Several Reports have been received and made available to
the Diversity Committee and Staff Council.
The Committee is currently reviewing Affirmative Action's Annual Report.
There are also links from the Staff Council Diversity Calendar when
reports are available on the UI web page.
5. Update Staff Council web-calendar with diversity events
The Staff Council Diversity
calendar is updated on a monthly basis and events that are cultural in nature
are included as received. Links are
also provided to many Diversity Resources.
6.
Develop
liaisons with the various diversity committees.
The
Staff Council Diversity committee is continuing to develop relationships with
the various diversity committees on campus.
We are proud to report that we have
added two new members to our committee, Diane Finnerty from the Office of
Affirmative Action and Linda Liedtke from the UIHC Diversity Committee.
The Chair of the Staff Council Diversity committee sits on the University
Diversity Committee in a liaison role.
Staff
Council has also co-sponsored several events with Associated University Women
and Women's Resource and Action Center.
7.
Work
towards a culture that recruits and retains a diverse staff
The Staff Council Diversity
Committee has worked very hard to develop a brochure to be used in the
recruitment of minority staff. After
many months of writing and revising it was presented to Human Resources for
their approval. After much
deliberation it was decided that the information included in the brochure was a
duplication of much of the information and that the sections that were not
included could be incorporated into their standard brochure.
These were the areas that address diversity and affirmative action.
Billie Townsend, was awarded the Office of Affirmative
Action's first "Catalyst Award" for her efforts in making the Staff
Council Diversity Committee a reality and for the work the Committee has done in
increasing diversity awareness at The University of Iowa and the Community.
The Diversity Committee worked very hard last year
and hopes to continue on into the new year.
Submitted by Billie Townsend
March 1, 2000
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
1999-2000 ANNUAL REPORT
The committee reviewed the schedule of elections for the
year. If any other Staff Council member would like a copy, please contact Anne
Tanner.
The committee plans to distribute an informal survey in the
fall to as many staff people as we can, asking questions to identify the level
of knowledge about Staff Council and the accomplishments it has had. From the
replies we hope to gain information on what we need to say in our mailings to
all staff in order to persuade good people to run for election in all four
categories. We will share the results of the survey with Staff Council and any
other committees that ask for it. While the results will be unscientific because
we cannot afford formal market research, anecdotal results should give us a
baseline on awareness that will be useful in communicating with the electorate.
Submitted by Anne Tanner
Chair
June 6,
2000
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
MERIT SUPERVISORY EXEMPT/CONFIDENTIAL COMMITTEE
1999-2000 ANNUAL REPORT
The
MSE/C committee members agreed that goals set for the previous year had been
successful and should be supported and encouraged further.
Goals were defined as follows:
1. Meet with MSE/C staff at least twice per year.
2.
Continue the education process for MSE/C staff through Brown Bag lunches
and Staff Development classes.
3. Continue communication with MSE/C staff. A “database” of MSE/C constituencies has been established.
4. Continue to support mandatory annual evaluations for all MSE/C staff and encourage RISCAC members to support the evaluations at their respective institutions.
5. Continue the inclusion of MSE/C staff on all recommendations from Staff Council where appropriate.
6.
Work toward institution encouraging extra-meritorious bonus for MSE/C
staff. An update from the Board
Office was given at the RISCAC meeting on May 25, 1999.
7.
Maintain history of MSE/C through inclusion of activities and minutes of
meetings on Staff Council web page.
8. Consider name change to reflect change in title from Merit Supervisory Exempt/Confidential to Non-Bargaining Merit staff.
9.
Check with RISCAC members to see how their MSE/C staff is referred to at
their individual institutions.
10. Research benefits for MSE, Confidential, and P&S.
11.
Inquire as to how many confidential positions there are.
As a result of previous Brown
Bags and at the request of MSE/C staff, three job skills workshops were
established and are being offered through Staff Development and the Human
Resources Department to assist in the job search process of MSE/C staff.
The focus of the three workshops is on the job search process, resume
writing and interviewing skills.
The MSE/C Committee has worked
very hard this year to implement the goals as set at the May 1999 meeting.
We hosted two MSE/C Brown Bags.
Both were well attended and provided an opportunity for the participants
to voice their issues and concerns and have them addressed by one of our Human
Resources administrators. The MSE/C
Committee will continue the commitment of educating MSE/C staff.
We will continue to present opportunities for staff to voice their
questions and concerns and have interaction with our institutional
administrators.
At our May 25, 1999 RISCAC meeting, the Board of Regents
representatives expressed their support for encouraging institutional support of
giving extra-meritorious bonuses for MSE/C staff, especially for those at the
top of the pay matrix. Two
additional pay steps were added to the top of the MSE pay matrix to give those
at the top some latitude.
Mandatory
annual evaluations are becoming more apparent throughout the campus.
We will continue to encourage having an annual performance evaluation on
all employees.
We will continue to encourage
Staff Council to include MSE/C staff in all recommendations where appropriate on
policies/procedures that may affect MSE/C employees.
We recruited one additional MSE/C member during this last year. I believe we are still either one or two members short on this committee.
Submitted
by
Karon
Kolek, Chair
MSE/C
Committee
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
HUMAN RESOURCES COMMITTEE
1999-2000 ANNUAL REPORT
Purpose: To
refine and develop UI policy and procedure central to the HR needs and concerns
of non-bargaining P&S and non-organized Merit staff in order that it may
advise Central Administration in these matters.
Current Staff Council Committee Members:
Joy Kross, Donna Muller, Jan Warren, Janice Simmons-Welburn
Facilitator: Pat
Kenner
Non-Staff Council Members:
Jennifer Baum, Linda Bergquist, Jennifer Modestou,
Administrative Liaison:
Sue Buckley
A comprehensive benefits chart was put on the HR web page
to facilitate individuals and departments, which have questions about the
differences in benefited groups. The
chart is located at http://www.uiowa.edu/~hrpersvc/benefits/index.html
and was compiled by Richard Saunders at the request of the Committee as it
responded to requests for an easily ready document that gives a little more than
an overview, but no details to the extent of costs.
The FAQ sheet on transitions from MSE/C to P&S, which
is on the web site, is a response to requests from constituents and the SC MSE/C
Committee. It was prepared by Sue
Buckley and Linda Bergquist and reviewed by the Committee.
It is hoped that this will alleviate some of the confusion that arises
when employees start looking at changing positions and crossing classifications.
It may also point out that some changes are to the benefit of the
employee and some may not be. This
information should help them make informed decisions.
As a result of discussions with administrators about career
tracks, the Committee conducted an informal survey of career assessment and counseling services available at other
CIC institutions. In comparing
those responses to information provided by Maureen McCormick in Staff
Development, we found that the UI provides as much or more career development
services than the institutions that were surveyed.
We will continue talking with Maureen as UI career development
opportunities are changed or expanded.
The Committee has reviewed and asked for comments and concerns about the P&S Grievance Policy. The Committee has heard from Kevin Ward and Maile Sagen.
There are concerns about the policy; such as timelines,
fairness to complainant, and difficulty in reading the policy.
We anticipate making some recommendations to the Staff Council for
revisions to policy.
The Committee reviewed and offered remarks on new PUSH
documents that were created by HR for distribution to HR Unit Reps to summarize
key HR policies for quick reference - Flex Spending Account, Employee
References, Tuition Grants and Assistance Programs, Family Medical Leave Act,
Reclassification, Paid Holidays
The Committee has been kept up-to-date by our
administrative liaison, Sue Buckley, with regard to current projects and
concerns in HR. The HR Strategic
Plan was distributed to the Committee for review and comments.
Additionally, the Committee
has provided input regarding a general flextime policy that HR is in the process
of creating. Guidelines for dealing
with workplace disruptions were distributed by Sue and discussed.
Sue has kept us apprised of the status of the P&S Meritorious/Bonus
Pay program and that it currently is on hold.
Sue has explained the history of the domestic partner benefits at the UI
and the direction that that issue is taking.
The Committee invited Richard Murphy, Co-Chair of FRIC to speak on the activities of that charter committee during the past year.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
1999-2000 ANNUAL REPORT
The UIHC Ad Hoc Committee began the year by meeting on June
11 with John Staley, UIHC COO, and Ann Rice Madden, UIHC Director of Finance.
Also attending that meeting were Diana Leventry, UIHC Staff Relations
Director, and Jim Henderson, COM HR Director.
Staley and Madden explained and answered questions about the Summary of
Operating Statistics and Financial performance Measures for Fiscal Year to Date
with Comparative Figures for prior Year to Date, January 31, 1999.
They also explained how the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 affected and
continues to affect the UIHC budget. Leventry
said she would keep us informed of any budget plans that might affect staffing.
Leventry and Henderson also reported on a new joint plan between UIHC and
the College of Medicine for staff service awards.
This will assure that no staff working at UIHC goes unrecognized,
regardless of whether their salary funding comes from the COM or UIHC.
We followed the progress of reclassification of billing
clerks to project assistants at the UIHC. This
appears to have been completed, and we are not aware of significant problems for
staff affected.
We talked with Diana Lundell about developing a publication
similar to Noon News that would give comparable information to evening shift
staff at UIHC. At this time, that
is on the list of priorities for the new editor of Noon News who was recently
hired.
We communicated with John Staley and Diana Leventry
concerning the non-participation of UIHC in the university contract with
Coca-Cola. Leventry addressed our
concerns in a memo dated August18, which stated that the Coke contract does not
meet the needs of the UIHC because of a preference (67%) for Pepsi products, and
the need to meet the needs of patients and visitors.
They also need to fill some machines as many as 4 times per day, and Coke
cannot meet that requirement. In
addition, some machines are in areas not accessible to outside vendors, e.g.,
operating room suites. She also pointed out that their vending funds were used
to provide recognition activities for hospital staff, i.e. retirement and years
of service award functions. She
said they were gratified that we had chosen to use the Coke funds to support
staff, but wanted to point out that they also fund many programs for both staff
recognition and education. She also said they were evaluating an exclusive Coke
contract to evaluate its advantages and disadvantages for their needs. In a
meeting with the committee in September, she did concede there is no actual
money generated by their vending machines, as there is through the
university’s contract with Coke. The savings is only in the profit margin.
Problems of campus mail delivery at UIHC were discussed.
In communications by Anderson with Milt Exline and Lou Eichler, the
primary problem was determined to be the frequent lack of a department address. All mail is sorted for delivery in the UIHC Mailroom by
department. Council is attempting to communicate campus-wide about this problem
and to educate staff of the necessity of including a department in any campus
mail address. Leventry had been unaware of the problem and asked to be contacted
directly in the future of any further problems.
Throughout the year we tracked the progress of a request
for a pay grade upgrade for nurse managers.
Unfortunately, in November, it was discovered that, because there is no
written procedure for such requests and the human resources office in Nursing
was misinformed, the nurse managers had proceeded incorrectly with a
reclassification request. In a meeting with John Staley, Diana Leventry,
Linda Everett, Director of Nursing, and Susan Buckley (filling in for Bob
Foldesi), which several of the nurse managers attended, the problems were
discussed. Staley expressed concern
and promised to push the matter forward for presentation to the Regents,
hopefully by February 2000. Ultimately,
the pay grade was approved with no further problems in February. It was made
retroactive to November. To avoid
any recurrence of this problem, the Staff Council addressed a request to AVP
Foldesi asking that a formal written Position Upgrade procedure/Policy be
developed and made part of the University Operations Manual.
Foldesi has agreed to a written procedure, however, it will not be placed
in the manual, but will be distributed appropriately to HR unit representatives.
While we did discuss budget and staffing concerns with UIHC
administrators Staley and Leventry, we were unsuccessful in our proposal of a
budget kickoff for interested staff. We
will continue to push for staff inclusion in budget planning.
At this time, we have attempted to arrange a budget meeting with Staley,
Leventry, Madden, and Foldesi, but have not been successful, as Staley has
communicated that he does not think it would be helpful at this early point in
the budget planning process. As a
result of this response, we have asked and Foldesi has agreed to facilitate the
arrangement of such a meeting. We
consider this to be very important, particularly in the face of the impending
budget cuts for the University. We
want to assure that non-organized staff at UIHC as well as elsewhere in the
university are treated equitably as compared with faculty and unionized staff.
Our overriding goal this year was to improve communication among constituents, our hospital administration and us. While we were somewhat successful, as illustrated by the outcome of the pay grade upgrade for nurse managers and the promise to develop a communication instrument similar to Noon News for evening staff, we have far to go if we are to be including in planning and developing budget and staffing policy. We will continue to work toward this ultimate goal.
Respectfully submitted by Diane Anderson, Chair
March 28, 2000