Iowa State University
Professional & Scientific Council
Executive Committee Meeting
Regular Session
Thursday, January 16, 2003 2:00 p.m.
Regency Room, Memorial Union
Attendance:
Voting Members
X Heer, Rex
X Kane, Kevin
X Good, Cathy
X Mumm, Lynne
X Roberts, Kurt
A
X
X
X
X
X
A
X
X
X
Non-voting Members
Dixon, Kerry
Riedemann, Trevor
Jensen, James
Woodin, Dan
Peters, Beverly
Strand, Judy
Brink, Marcia
McManus, Barb
McCool, Kelly
Van Beek, Brenda
Visiting Non-members: None.
Call To Order: Kevin Kane, Vice-President, called the meeting to order at 2:05 p.m.
A quorum was present. The agenda was approved.
Meeting Minutes: December 16, 2002, minutes were approved as presented.
President’s Report
Rex reported:
 In response to a campus leaders breakfast topic on building communications among ISU
constituent groups, President Geoffroy suggested inviting Faculty Senate to present at a P&S
open forum. Rex presented the idea to Max Wortman, who seemed receptive to the idea.
Rex has invited Max to present at the March 6 forum. It may be a good idea to have a set of
questions to send to Max ahead of time if this goes ahead.
 Non-Tenure-Track and Adjunct Appointments – Faculty Senate is addressing this issue.
There are a couple of points in the proposed policy that applies to P&S staff. It limits
teaching time by P&S to 30% of their appointment. Rex has drafted a response from P&S
Council. Max has invited Rex to send questions from P&S for Faculty Senate to address.
This issue is on Faculty Senate’s agenda to be voted on at their next meeting. If we agree
with Faculty Senate on this policy, perhaps we should forward a motion of solidarity.
 At last month’s meeting Rex was contacted by a P&S staff member who had been teaching,
but under the new policy, he would not be able to teach spring semester. Rex talked to Susan
Carlson, and evidently the P&S staff person had inaccurate information. Susan would send
this person the official policy.
 We have set a date for the P&S all-staff get-together at Reiman Gardens – the same day as
the Professional Development Day (March 25, 2003), tentatively 4-6 p.m. Rex talked with
Teresa McLaughlin. They have a set rental rate. It will stretch our budget to cover the rental
plus refreshments, so we may have to be flexible on our plans. Barb and Marcia went to


University Archives and discovered that this month marks the 25th anniversary of P&S
Council. Rex would like to follow up on this and send invitations to all former Council
members to the get-together. Rex has invited President Geoffroy and Provost Allen. We
could invite other administrators. The Communications Committee will help track down past
council members and help publicize this event.
Friday, January 24, President Geoffroy initiates the first meeting kicking off his
Conversations on Diversity. Rex cannot attend, but encourages others to do so.
There has been some discussion as to whether the Professional Development Committee
(which administers the Professional Development and Tuition Grants) is even needed given
that tuition grants are fully funded. The only thing the committee could do would be
administer the $5,000 professional development funds. Dan Woodin is the current (recentlyappointed) chair of the committee. At a minimum, the size of the committee can certainly be
reduced, but much of the work can be automated.
Officer’s Reports
 Cathy Good: Treasurer’s report: Account balances:
 General Fund $2,013.31
 Campus Orgs account $436.23.
 Professional Development fund $845.03.
 Lynne Mumm: The next campus leaders breakfast is January 28th. She will be sending out
an email asking for questions.
Standing Committee Reports:
Compensation & Benefits:
Trevor – they have solicited input from committee members to determine whether the committee
is structured correctly. He hopes to get feedback at the next meeting. Trevor is suggesting that
the committee permanently have co-chairs – one for compensation issues, one for benefits issues.
Merit/P&S overlap – Lynne is in the process of developing a report. Job descriptions on the web
– Trevor invited Carla or an HR representative to talk about this issue and other HR priorities; he
has not yet received a response.
Jim – is getting a little more input on the fact that mileage reimbursement has not been changed
for a while. IRS allows $0.05 more than the university pays. This may not be the right time to
bring up the issue, but it is a topic they are hearing about. The Board of Regents sets the rate
(although they always set it to match what other State of Iowa employees get).
Policies & Procedures:
Dan – The handbook is up on the web; minor changes have been made. A survey has gone out
to committee members regarding committee restructuring.
Representation and Awards:
Judy – they have submitted rankings for nominations for the Alumni Superior Service Award.
She has had quite a few phone calls on the process for awards, so she anticipates quite a few
award nominations. The next three awards are due February 28; Regents awards are due April 1.
Bev – Del Marks has put election information up on the web site. There are 10 positions open.
All incumbents eligible will be encouraged to run again. If any of them choose not to run again,
Mark Nelson will interview them to get a feel for why not. Deb Bahr (completing the year for a
resigning member) will be joining their committee.
Communication:
Barb –
 She has looked at the files in university archives. They (the archivists) can catalog what is in
there. We will ask them to do this for us.
 Open forum – Bruce Van De Velde is available April 2. One suggested issue to raise with
him at the forum could be to revisit the issue of the conversion of P&S positions to K-base.
 Just this morning she requested an update on the email tree from Jeff Sorenson; she has not
yet heard back from him.
Recruitment and Retention:
Kelly – They have sent out emails requesting mid-year reports.
Peer Advisory:
Brenda – no contacts this month.
Ad Hoc Committee Reports:
Kerry sent a report – They have gotten reports on time commitments from all officers except
one. She is hoping to get a draft report to the Executive Committee by next month so we can
have it ready to go before the elections; or if it cannot be done by then, the vote (on changes to
the constitution) can happen on AccessPlus whenever it is ready to go.
Old Business:
 P&S Records/Historian/Archivist – these kinds of tasks should be sent to Kerry as tasks that
can be assigned (also for a parliamentarian).
New Business:
 Non-tenure track faculty – Kevin – covered above. Trevor – clarification is needed that
adjunct appointment are considered employed “elsewhere”, and Ames Lab seems to be
considered “elsewhere”; as far as Trevor is concerned, he is an ISU employee. Also, the
five-year term issue is a concern; he will draft his concerns and email it to Rex. Kevin will
send the URL to the document to full Council so they can be aware of this. Comments need
to go Rex as soon as possible as he will be forwarding comments to Faculty Senate early next
week.
 Campus Cemetery – Rex deferred to Dan for comment – over the years, the requirements
have changed. There appears to be plenty of room for expansion, so he feels anyone who has
worked at the university 20 years and wants to be buried there, they should be able to. Other
committee members disagree. There is a wide range of comments and positions, and no one
position is representative of all P&S employees. Perhaps P&S employees should be
encouraged to participate in the survey. Kevin will draft such a statement as a motion for the
next Council meeting. Send any input to him.
 Comp and Benefits Report – Trevor – If you haven’t read it yet, please focus on content
issues rather than grammar. He is especially concerned about administrative eggshells – he
doesn’t want to trod too heavily, so please look for red flags. Kevin will place this on the
document web site. Get responses to Trevor by 5:00 on Friday, January 24. If there are no
red flags and just minor edits and the addition of a time line, they would like to submit this to
Council as new business at the February meeting, with a vote on a motion at the March
meeting.
For The Good of the Order:



Think about whom you might want to nominate as officers for next year.
Next Council meeting will be February 6, in the Pioneer Room, Memorial Union
Next Executive Committee meeting will be February 17 in the Regency Room, Memorial
Union.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 3:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by:
Cathy Good, Secretary/Treasurer, P&S Council