Staff Council Executive Committee Meeting with President Coleman
Tuesday, April 30, 2002, 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Present: Pat Arkema, Ella Born, Charlie Eastham, Jeff Evans, Dave Martin, Bonnie McIntosh
Absent: Susan Felker, Janice Simmons-Welburn
1. Introduction of new members: Dave Martin introduced the new members of the Executive Committee.
2. President Coleman’s Comments
a. President Coleman discussed the current status of the university budget for FY 2003.
1) The special session of the Iowa State Legislature that Governor Vilsack called recently ended in a deadlock. Nothing was accomplished. It is increasingly unlikely that there will be another special session. It appears that Governor Vilsack must sign the budget legislation by May 13th. The current legislation might provide funds for a small salary increase for non-bargaining state employees. However, it might also mean a 4% decrease in the general fund budget.
2) The regents institutions have received the go ahead from the Board of Regents Office to start working on their respective budgets.
b. President Coleman expressed hope that funds will still be provided for the new Journalism building. The university also would like to protect the library acquisition funds and begin a revitalization program in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
c. It was asked of President Coleman whether the current legislation might mean the possibility of layoffs. President Coleman said that layoffs have always and will continue to be a last resort solution to deal with decreases in the university's budgets.
d. Kevin Ward mentioned that the current legislation does help us with concerns raised due to Senate File 551. The current language addresses the problem of Merit Supervisory Exempt employees possibly receiving delayed raises.
e. Bonnie McIntosh inquired about the position of the University of Iowa in the Big Ten with regard to tuition. President Coleman said that even with this year's increase in tuition, this university remains at the bottom of the list. And, it is likely that we will remain there because it seems that the other Big Ten institutions will be suggesting large tuition increases.
2. Staff Council President's Comments
a. Dave Martin told President Coleman that the Staff Council retreat will be this Thursday.
b. The recipients of the Staff Excellence Awards have been chosen. There were 12 – 15 nominations for both the Regents Staff Excellence Awards and the University of Iowa Outstanding Staff Awards. The selection committee has suggested that it might be a good idea to review the selection process.
c. Dave said that he and Charlie Eastham will attend the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) meeting at the Big Ten Office in Chicago in June.
d. Dave mentioned that the survey of faculty and staff regarding political action committees (PACs) will be distributed shortly. There will be a May 10th deadline for responding.
3. Updates and discussion topics.
b. Pat Arkema initiated discussion of a draft document that President Coleman sent to Executive Committee members. There is a proposal for a University of Iowa Faculty/Staff Budget Committee. The draft outlined membership, the charge to the committee, and guidelines for appointing members of the committee. President Coleman mentioned that the Funded Retirement and Insurance Committee (FRIC) was used as a model. President Coleman also mentioned that we might consider the possibility of subcommittees and that this option would need to be added to the guidelines. President Coleman asked for the opinions of the Executive Committee members regarding the proposal. It is likely that it will take some months to implement because the Faculty Senate would like to present the proposal to the whole Faculty Council. Executive Committee would like to present to Staff Council, as well.
c. Pat Arkema asked President Coleman about her request to have Tom Bauer continue on the Board in Control of Athletics for one additional year. President Coleman said that the request actually came from Nick Colangelo, a faculty member of the committee who serves as chair of the committee. Nick believes that the coming year will be a very tough year for the committee and that perhaps it would be best to continue with the current leadership. Pat mentioned that while we are quite confident with Tom's contributions to the committee, there are a few concerns such as: the university Operations Manual limits committee membership to two successive three year terms and Tom is completing his sixth year on the committee; a new staff member has already been selected but has not yet been notified; if Tom’s term is extended by one year, then both staff members of the committee would be newly appointed next year.
d. Jeff Evans distributed a handout that presented a recent Daily Iowan article entitled “Student Link to Regents to Step Down.” Jeff wondered if our university administration would be suggesting a student to replace Lisa Ahrens, the current student regent who will be stepping down on July 1st. President Coleman said that the university is looking into what possibilities the Governor has for appointing someone new to this position. He cannot, by law, appoint for a six year plus eight month term. He cannot appoint a democrat. University administration does intend to suggest a candidate for Governor Vilsack's consideration.
e. Ella mentioned that some of Staff Council's constituents have expressed concern with the parking rate increases, especially in the cashiered public facilities, and with the announced new west-side construction. While the reasons for increasing rates in the hospital ramps—to free up parking for patients and to help alleviate abuse of the parking policy for these ramps—are understood, it was not entirely clear why the new rates should be applied in the Newton Road ramp or the Field House lot. Also, many staff are concerned about a loss of 200 parking spots due to construction of a new dorm on the west campus as announced in a recent Daily Iowan article. Ella also mentioned that the Executive Committee discussed at their recent meeting ways in which they might become more involved with campus planning. President Coleman said that the reason for the parking rate increase is that the facilities are self-supporting. President Coleman also said that soon there would be an additional 500 spaces available in a new surface facility near the hospital.
4. Comments by Kevin Ward
Kevin said that we had already discussed most of the things that he was going to talk about. However, he did want to remind us of the open forums with the candidates for the position of Associate Vice President for Finance and University Services and Director of Human Resources. He encouraged all members of the Executive Committee to attend the forums.
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Future Executive Committee
Meetings: |
Future Meetings
with President Coleman: |
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Thursday, May 9, 2002, 2:30 – 4:30pm* |
Tuesday, May 21, 2002** |
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Thursday, June 13, 2002 |
Tuesday, June 18, 2002 |
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Thursday, July 11, 2002 |
Monday, July 22, 2002 |
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Thursday, August 15, 2002 |
Monday, August 19, 2002 |
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Thursday, September 12, 2002 |
Monday, September 23, 2002 |
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Thursday, October 10, 2002 |
Monday, October 28, 2002 |
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Thursday, November 14, 2002 |
Monday, November 18, 2002 |
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Monday, December 9, 2002 |
*All Executive Committee meetings are 2:30 – 4:30 p.m.
**All meetings with President Coleman are 8:00 – 9:00 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,