Iowa State University
Professional and Scientific Council
Regular Session
Council Meeting Minutes
Thursday, February 6, 2003
Gallery, Memorial Union
2002-2003
President: Rex Heer
Vice-President: Kevin Kane
Secretary/Treasurer: Cathy Good
Call to Order and Seating of Substitutes
The meeting was called to order at 2:10 p.m.
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
A
Bahr, Deb
Becker, Tom
Brink, Marcia
Brinkmeyer, Linda
Brotherson, Dave
Brueland, Brent
Cooney, Sarah
Doty, Ann
Eggers, Tim
Good, Cathy
Heer, Rex
Jensen, James
Joiner, Stacy
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
S
X
X
X
X
X
Kane, Kevin
Kapke, Paul
Marks, Del
Mayer, Marie
McCool, Kelly
McCroskey, Barry
McManus, Barb
Mumm, Lynne
Nelson, Mark
Patton, James
Peters, Beverly
Peterson, Teresa
Riedemann, Trevor
X
S
X
X
X
A
X
X
Roberts, Kurt
Sorensen, Jeffrey
Strah, Pat
Strand, Judy
Van Beek, Brenda
VanGinkel, Margaret
Wood, Douglas
Woodin, Dan
X = Present
A = Absent
S = Substitute
Guests were Carla Espinoza, Assistant Vice President for Human Resource Services and Director of Equal
Opportunity & Diversity; Marlise McCammon, Associate Director of Human Resource Services and Director of
Employee Relations; Anne Krapfl, news writer from University Relations (Inside Iowa State); Ellen Rasmussen,
Assistant Provost; Max Wortman, President of Faculty Senate. Substitutes: Leesha Zimmerman, program assistant,
ISU Research Foundation, for Lynne Mumm; Thomas Kula, System Support Specialist, Academic Information
Technologies, for Jeff Sorenson.
Following general introductions, all substitutes were given full voting rights and privileges.
Establish a Quorum
A quorum was present.
Presentation of Committee Motions
Executive Committee Resolution: Reaffirming the Arrival of Children Policy (aka “Family Leave”)
The proposed Arrival of Children Policy, developed collaboratively by representatives of several university
groups including the Office of the Provost, Human Resource Services, University Committee on Women,
P&S Council, and the Faculty Senate, is awaiting formal consideration from the Board of Regents, State of
Iowa. President Geoffroy has scheduled a timeline for the issue to be presented to the Board. The P&S
Council supports this timeline and wishes to publicly reaffirm the importance of this campus-wide effort.
The P&S Council reaffirms its commitment to the proposed policy accommodating the arrival of children
into the families of faculty and P&S staff, expanding the opportunities for new parents to care for children
by helping balance family and work commitments. There are inequities in the distribution of gender both
within the faculty ranks and the P&S system. This policy will formalize university-wide standards which
will help to establish a climate and culture at Iowa State that promotes gender equity for faculty and staff,
and will be beneficial to the university in its efforts to foster diversity.
Resolution for P&S Council Position for Future ISU Cemetery Planning
In polling P&S Council Executive Committee and P&S council members it became clear that reaching a
consensus, or majority opinion that represents our constituency, concerning recommendations on the future
of the ISU cemetery would be extremely difficult. The spectrum of opinion is a direct reflection of the
religious and spiritual diversity of the P&S employee population.
Therefore, the Council will not provide singular recommendation on this issue. The P&S Council
encourages all P&S employees to read the “ISU Cemetery Survey 2002” document (available online at
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~kkane/pscouncil/Cemetery_Survey_7-021.doc) and forward their
comments, in writing, directly to the administration as detailed in the survey document.
Approval of the Agenda
The agenda was approved with the addition of ISU Retirees’ Committee Executive Council report from Ann Doty
under new business.
Approval of the Previous Meeting’s Minutes
The minutes of the January 2, 2002, Council meeting were approved (one abstention) as presented.
Human Resources Report
Carla –
 Alerted us to the fact that Marlise McCammon is leaving ISU to take a position at Louisiana State (her home
area). There will be a farewell reception on 2/11/03, 2:30-4:00, 3150 Beardshear.
 She had a wonderful hour-long session with the P&S Compensation and Benefits committee and was able to
give the committee a flavor for HR issues and priorities, one of which is an HR database that is under
development. She offered to do an open forum to share HR issues with a larger audience.
 Collective bargaining is ongoing. They expect something to happen in Des Moines this weekend, but are not
sure what it will be. There is a lot of discussion with AFSCME regarding compensation, health care premium
contributions, and AFSCME being allowed to use the employers e-mail system, among other issues.
 What are your plans, now that Marlise is leaving, regarding Training and Development? She plans to replace it
at a management level, rather than an associate director level. Will the new person do training, as well?
Specifically, are there plans to get more trainers on staff or will that be outsourced? The number of training
staff has gone down but service has not diminished because they have been able to build cooperative
relationships and collaborate with others within and outside the university. She is looking for someone to
manage employee/labor relations and employee development. The new person would need to harness the
abilities we have for the development of employees.
 Concerning early retirement, there seems to be a claim that ERI violates federal law. How do others use it but
we cannot? The difference is a discretionary use of an early retirement incentive versus an open program that
essentially provides it to anyone who qualifies. As long as it is voluntary and used as a management tool rather
than an employee benefit, it can be used.
Council President’s Report
Rex –
 Thank you to Marlise, we are sorry to see you go. We appreciate all your efforts for a lot of things, and we wish
you the best of luck.
 Yesterday, Rex and Kevin met with Faculty Senate leadership (Max Wortman, David Hopper, Jack Girton,
Susan Carlson, Ellen Rasmussen, Ben Allen) to discuss some inconsistencies on the non-tenure track policy.
They agreed to adjust the language in some areas of the policy; other issues were clarified. Faculty Senate will
be discussing this again at their meeting next week. A couple concerns were: 1) Regarding the amount of time a
P&S can have written into their position for teaching responsibilities – no more than 30% is allowed. More than
that and perhaps it should be a faculty position rather than P&S. 2) Trevor’s question regarding Ames Lab has
been resolved. Max commented that they appreciated the opportunity to visit and help clear up a few things.
Discussion has already gone on almost 2 years on this policy, and if there are questions regarding any policy,
ask HR or the provost’s office, because misinformation is out there.
 Max has agreed to attend the March open forum.
Provost’s Office Report
Ellen –
2



The arrival of children policy got a hostile reception at the Board of Regents, and they have been working to
respond to Board questions. We now have learned that this is likely to be delayed even further (until the state
legislature is out of session, per a request by the Board). It is easy to look at this as a sort of stall, but it seems
out of our control. This is viewed as an additional benefit, and the Board does not want to deal with it while
legislature is dealing with budget. There has been a bit of rumbling in Faculty Senate that this might get further
if this was advanced for faculty only (for now, could be extended to P&S later). Ellen feels we should try to
extend this to everyone. Max commented that Faculty Senate is increasingly concerned with the delays and
plans to forward a stern resolution addressing how slow this is coming along. Carla noted that they had hoped to
present this to the Board when they met at ISU so we could present support. On the other hand, if we wait until
after the legislative session is over, the politics of the issue eases. UNI is not even on the radar screen because
they are all unionized. Are the responses to BOR questions going to bolster the proposal? Other organizations
are heading in this direction, we are not the only one out there. We feel as though we are on the forefront and
that is why it is a little scary for everyone, but we compete out there. We think it is really important to recruit
and keep the faculty and staff. Do we have any statistics about competing with other institutions that have a
similar policy? Not really, we cannot automatically infer that family reasons are why folks leave. Carla
commented that if it wasn’t for the fact that this is offering paid leave, then there would not be an issue.
Legislators do not want to pay for another benefit. It has become a perceived issue of money. Ellen – we will
keep you posted on this. There is a meeting to talk about the delay and what strategies to pursue.
Ombuds position (Max – this passed faculty senate in March almost 2 years ago; why isn’t it done yet?) – Ellen
agrees that the concept was passed; they now have a plan to implement (operationalize) this concept.
P&S tuition grant program – the program has received an increase in funding to correspond with tuition
increases, but the increase is coming from two directions: 1) use is increasing (program growth), and 2) tuition
is increasing. They have requested an amount to cover current use with tuition increases, but no program
growth. Ellen is not sure there will be an opportunity to ask for program growth, given the presidents focus on
increasing faculty. There may be a need to deal with the issue of possibly not being able to fully fund all tuition
requests.
Council Secretary/Treasurer’s Report
Cathy Good reported the following balances:
General Fund: $1,796.60 Campus Organization: $436.23
Professional Development: $845.03
Council Officer Reports
Kevin – gave Lynne’s report on Campus Leaders Breakfast of 1/28/03. President Geoffroy provided updates on the
Diversity Forum of Friday 1/24/03, Governor Vilsack’s Iowa Values Fund, and final approval for Morrill Hall.
Provost Allen talked a little bit about the Budget and Planning Advisory Committee activities. P&S topics addressed
the energy savings effort, the appointment of Provost Ben Allen and the unusual process used, the issue of “growing
individuals” (professional development in a career track, advancement opportunities, etc). There was some
discussion of the status of the Family Leave Policy.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Compensation and Benefits
Trevor – Thank you Carla for coming to the meeting. We did not conduct any regular business. Carla talked to us
about current Human Resources efforts and how our committee can help move some of those forward, especially
when it is toward a common goal. Trevor recommends that each new P&S Compensation and Benefits committee
meet with Carla before they set their priorities for the year.
Policies and Procedures
Dan – Marlise met with their committee. Thanks to Marlise for all her help. They have responses back from
committee members on restructuring and will be talking about that next time. They also spent time talking about
time for committees to meet. Sometimes an hour is not enough, but we need to accommodate extension folks as
well.
Representation and Awards
Bev – They are going to survey people who choose not to run for a second term on Council. That may shed some
light on the time commitment issue Policies and Procedures Committee is working on. There are three awards due
2/28/03. They will be working on those through the month of March. Officer nominations – start thinking about this
and let the committee know if you have any nominations or are interested in any position. Staff recognition – they
3
are working on getting a more concrete proposal together. Elections – Del Marks – 11 people have terms up; all are
eligible for reelection. Voting will be March 3 through 28 on AccessPlus.
Communications
Barb– they are working with Rex on the 25th anniversary event at Reimann Gardens and the professional
development day.
Retention and Recruitment
Kelly – the committee will be meeting to review reports and select presenters for the May open forum.
Peer Advisory
Brenda – she has had no contacts this month.
Old Business
No old business
New Business
Ann Doty – They need to appoint two people to the ISU Retirees Committee. Please think about your recent retirees
and consider nominating someone. Also, they would like to have some minority members on the committee.
Motion: Resolution for P&S Council Position for Future ISU Cemetery Planning. This action was requested by
administration. As such, it will be discussed today, automatically tabled until the next meeting, then will
automatically come off the table for a vote next month. This does not require a rapid response. Some was some
discussion on the university land use policy and the immediate use of adjacent land for parking. There is an
excellent web site on the cemetery (FP&M), and if we get any inquiries, we should refer constituents to that.
Discussion concluded. Motion tabled.
Executive Committee Resolution: Reaffirming the Arrival of Children Policy (aka “Family Leave”). This is just to
keep the issue on the table and in front of people. Marcia moved to amend the resolution as follows: line 21: “foster
diversity and to recruit and retain excellent faculty and P&S staff.” line 20: add P&S before “staff”. Motion
seconded and carried. Sarah moved that the sentence in lines 16-17 be struck. Motion seconded and carried. Marie
moved to change lines 15 (delete “new”) and 18 (change “which” to “that”). Motion seconded and carried.
The proposed Arrival of Children Policy, developed collaboratively by representatives of several university
groups including the Office of the Provost, Human Resource Services, University Committee on Women,
P&S Council, and the Faculty Senate, is awaiting formal consideration from the Board of Regents, State of
Iowa. President Geoffroy has scheduled a timeline for the issue to be presented to the Board. The P&S
Council supports this timeline and wishes to publicly reaffirm the importance of this campus-wide effort.
The P&S Council reaffirms its commitment to the proposed policy accommodating the arrival of children
into the families of faculty and P&S staff, expanding the opportunities for parents to care for children by
helping balance family and work commitments. This policy will formalize university-wide standards that
will help to establish a climate and culture at Iowa State that promotes gender equity for faculty and P&S
staff, and will be beneficial to the university in its efforts to foster diversity and to recruit and retain
excellent faculty and P&S staff.
Motion, as amended, carried.
For the Good of the Order:
March 25, professional development day begins at 9:00; P&S get-together/25th anniversary at Reiman Gardens follows.
Next Council meeting is Thursday, March 6, Gallery.
Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 3:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by
Cathy Good
P&S Council Secretary/Treasurer
4