Iowa State University
Professional and Scientific Council
Regular Session
Council Meeting Minutes
Thursday, March 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.
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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
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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
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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; Anne Krapfl, news writer from University Relations (Inside Iowa State). Substitutes:
Bonnie Whalen, Manager, Academic Information Technologies, for Paul Kapke.
Following general introductions, all substitutes were given full voting rights and privileges.
Establish a Quorum
A quorum was present.
Presentation of Committee Motions
Compensation & Benefits Committee: Accessibility of P&S Classification Information
See under “New Business”
Compensation & Benefits Committee: Concurrence with Compensation & Benefits Committee Subcommittee
Report & Implementation Schedule
Whereas: The P&S Council concurs with the analysis, conclusions and recommendations set forth in sections 4,
5, and 7, of the Compensation and Benefits Committee subcommittee report: Review of the Iowa State
University “Annual Report on Professional and Scientific Salaries”: History of changes and evaluation of its
effectiveness as an aggregate and individual analysis tool.
It is moved: The P&S Council will forward the aforementioned subcommittee report to the following Offices:
President, Provost, Vice President of Business and Finance, and Assistant Vice President for Human Resource
Services; the Council recommends the following implementation schedule for changes to the “Annual Report
on Professional and Scientific Salaries”:
Fiscal Year 2003:
5.0 Recommendation for the Annual Report: Provide adequate resources
5.1 Statistical Methods:
5.1.2 Statistically appropriate market composite ratio
5.1.4 Midpoint operationally defined
5.1.5 Accounting for midpoint suppression
5.2 Report Organization:
5.2.1 Updates to Appendix A
5.2.1.1 Table organization by grade then alphabetically
5.2.1.3 Addition of high and low salary columns
5.2.1.6 Reintroduction of an incumbent numbers column
5.2.2 Updates to Appendix C
5.2.2.3 Addition of high and low salary columns
5.2.3 Updates to the Market Analysis
5.2.4 Definitions
Fiscal Year 2004:
5.1 Statistical Methods:
5.1.1 Statistically sound sampling procedure
5.1.3 Incorporation of reliability measure
5.2 Report Organization:
5.2.1 Updates to Appendix A
5.2.1.2 Grade-specific market ratio
5.2.1.4 Sample distribution charts
5.2.1.5 Salary survey source citations
5.2.1.7 Inclusion of Affirmative Action category trending
5.2.2 Updates to Appendix C
5.2.2.1 Grade-specific salary distribution charts
5.2.2.2 Multi-axis, grade-specific, salary distribution charts
5.3 Other Recommendations: educational demographics
Fiscal Year 2005:
5.0 Recommendation for the Annual Report: Complete review of P&S System
The Council requests a response from the Office of Provost, V.P. of Business and Finance, or Asst.V.P. for
Human Resource Services concerning this motion no later than one month following passage of this motion.
Compensation & Benefits Committee: Concurrence with Compensation & Benefits Committee Subcommittee
Report’s Policy Recommendations
Whereas: The P&S Council concurs with the policy recommendations concerning the set forth section 6.0 of the
Compensation and Benefits Committee subcommittee report: Review of the Iowa State University “Annual
Report on Professional and Scientific Salaries”: History of changes and evaluation of its effectiveness as an
aggregate and individual analysis tool.
It is moved: The P&S Council will forward the aforementioned subcommittee report to the following offices:
President, Provost, Vice President of Business and Finance, and Assistant Vice President for Human Resource
Services. Furthermore, the P&S Council shall begin immediate discussions with these offices concerning:
1) Clearly defining expectations for penetration into the P&S Pay Matrix (i.e., salary growth within a pay
grade).
2) Developing a policy per the defined expectations for penetration into the P&S Pay Matrix.
3) Allowing managers discretion to offer salaries for new-hires up to the midpoint value.
The P&S Council charges the P&S Council Executive Committee with the organization of said discussions, and
shall provided a progress report at the next P&S Council meeting.
Resolution for P&S Council Position for Future ISU Cemetery Planning (2 nd presentation)
See under “Old Business”
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Approval of the Agenda
The agenda was approved as presented.
Approval of the Previous Meeting’s Minutes
The minutes of the February 6, 2003, Council meeting were approved as corrected. Corrected minutes have been
forwarded for posting on the Council web page.
Provost’s Office Report
No report.
Council Secretary/Treasurer’s Report
Cathy Good reported the following balances:
General Fund: $1,602.60 Campus Organization: $136.23
Professional Development: $845.03
($300 has been paid for the Reiman Gardens reservation from the Campus Organization account; the remaining
balance in this account will go toward refreshments).
Council President’s Report
Rex:
 Reiman Gardens get-together follow-up. Approximately 40 have RSVP’d they will attend. ISU Dining Services
will cater the ice cream. Our campus organization fund will not fully cover this, but the Provost’s office will
chip in to help cover that. There may also be some help from the Professional Development Day fund.
 Council elections are open. Everyone is encouraged to vote if you haven’t already. Council officer elections are
coming up in May; think about running for office.
 The Memorial Union is in the process of coming under the administration of the university. Several Memorial
Union staff will become university employees. We should make an effort to invite them to the Reiman Gardens
get-together.
 Arrival of Children Policy. Someone questioned whether the proposed policy has changed much from about a
year ago, and the answer is no. The delay in presenting the policy for Board of Regents approval is because
some research was required to answer questions from the Board Office. Rex forwarded the responses to the
questions to the Executive Committee. The Policy will not be brought up at the March Board of Regents
meeting next week. We don’t know when it will be considered but expect it will go forward in the next few
months. Rex will offer his availability to speak to the Board on the proposed policy if President Geoffroy would
like him to do so.
Council Officer Reports
Lynne – February 26 campus leaders breakfast: President Geoffroy provided updates on budget, ratification of the
merit contract, and fundraising for Morrill Hall. Other topics discussed include mileage reimbursement rates
(especially a problem for extension personnel); the recent suicide on campus and the potential of DPS being armed;
P&S salaries, matrix, and hiring range; and the engagement mission of the university and developing a public forum
series for faculty to share their expertise with the lay public. The date of the next campus leaders breakfast has been
changed to March 24.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Compensation and Benefits
Tim – Mileage: this is a significant issue for extension field staff, who each travel an average of 10,000 miles/year
for ISU. The area directors will be submitting a request for increased mileage reimbursement to Stan Johnson, who
is supportive of the request, next week. The C&B committee plans to bring forward to Council next month a
resolution in support of the extension request.
Policies and Procedures
Dan – Ellen has replaced Marlise as an administrative liaison on the committee. The committee discussed the
surveys on committee restructuring. They have a couple motions they plan to forward to the executive committee for
discussion. Some possibilities are 1) A suggestion of using 12:00-2:00 p.m. on Council meeting days for committee
work. The open forum would then need to be scheduled at another time. 2) A resolution requiring each committee to
prepare a description, scope, membership, schedule of tasks, etc, in addition to an annual report, for the next year’s
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committee (as a transition mechanism). 3) A resolution addressing the critical need for a “motion log” to record all
motions for historical purposes. 4) Something on policies and procedures for the operation of the Council.
Representation and Awards
Del – Elections: They received 30 or 40 names from council members, and ended up with 21 candidates for 10 seats.
They were able to fill the full slate of candidates. Thank you to all who submitted names. Voting is in progress and
will continue through March 28.
Bev – Awards: They are reviewing nominations for 3 awards. The employee recognition award has been named –
the P&S ExCyllence Award. There will be four awards made per quarter, and the award will consist of a free
membership to Reiman Gardens, an item from the Trademark office, and a photo of President Geoffroy presenting
the award. Officer nominations: candidates are needed for vice president and the two at-large positions. They hope
to present a slate in April, then again in May when they will also take nominations from the floor for elections.
Communications
Barb – Bruce Van De Velde is speaking next month at the open forum (April 2); Ben Allen will be speaking at a
special forum at 3:30 on April 23; the P&S professional development day is March 25. The next e-newsletter should
be out in the next week or so. Jeff Sorensen will be updating the email tree over the summer.
Retention and Recruitment
Kelly – The committee met last week and selected four of the programs to present at the May open forum.
Peer Advisory
Brenda – no contacts this month
Ad hoc committee
Kevin – Kerry Dixon is expected to call a meeting soon on the president/president-elect issue. It will be important to
make a decision very soon on this.
Human Resources Report
Carla Espinoza: They will soon close on the position of manager of employee relations. They have a good pool of
candidates, but please encourage anyone to apply. When do MU staff become ISU P&S staff? Food service/catering
staff are already in the university system. The goal was to get the rest in by March 1. They now hope to make that
happen by April 1. All the agreements have not yet been signed. They are working really hard to make sure these
people do not get laid off because the corporation that ran the Memorial Union, as an entity, will no longer exist and,
therefore, will be unable to have employees.
Old Business
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.
Following brief discussion, the vote was called. Motion carried.
New Business
C&B Motion: Accessibility of P&S classification information. Jeff moved for an amendment, changing “It is moved:
The Iowa State University Professional & Scientific Council urges the Vice President of Business and Finance to
give priority to creating an electronic classification inventory of generic or generalized P&S classification
descriptions, as well as employee-specific PIQ inventories, and publishing said inventories electronically.” to “It is
moved: The Iowa State University Professional & Scientific Council urges the Vice President of Business and
Finance to give priority to creating a publicly accessible electronic classification inventory of generic or generalized
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P&S classification descriptions, and employee-specific PIQ inventories.” Seconded. Motion for amendment failed.
Rex made the following friendly amendments:
 throughout, change “Vice President of Business and Finance” to “Vice President for Business and Finance”;
 “VP” should be spelled out – “Vice President”;
 for consistency in referring to Human Resource Services, in the last line, delete “Department of”;
 under each “Whereas”, change “are” to “is” [Whereas: Access to information … is …];
 under the fourth “Whereas”, insert “therefore” [… electronically, therefore HRS must: …].
Amended motion:
Whereas:
Access to information concerning classification and job descriptions for P&S positions is
important as it allows employees and managers to:


Whereas:
understand the functions of specific classifications
evaluate an employee’s position within a classification and determine whether
reclassification is warranted due to growth in innovation, knowledge and experience,
complexity, internal interactions, impact on institutional missions and leadership
responsibility
Access to information concerning classification and job descriptions is important for the P&S
Council because it allows the P&S Council to:

Whereas:
have free and timely access to classification information necessary to study classification
issues and to fulfill its role as an advisory council; and
Access to information concerning classification and job descriptions is important for Human
Resource Services (HRS) because it allows them to:


Whereas:
efficiently gather important information for annual reports, surveys, and study and explore
current and future classification and job description issues
provide complete information to the Council, managers, and employees as requested; and
Access to information concerning classifications and job descriptions is not currently
available electronically, therefore HRS must:


Whereas:
manually gather the requested materials
interrupt their normal workflow to gather and distribute the materials; and
Iowa State University does not have comprehensive web-based listing for P&S classifications;
though ISU has started this process, there are currently only 4 of 440 job descriptions
available on the HRS web site.
It is moved:
The Iowa State University Professional & Scientific Council urges the Vice President for Business and
Finance to give priority to creating an electronic classification inventory of generic or generalized P&S
classification descriptions, as well as employee-specific PIQ inventories, and publishing said inventories
electronically.
The Council strongly recommends that sufficient resources be allocated to accelerate the creation of the
classification inventories and recommends an implementation time frame of 12 to 24 months.
The P&S Council requests that the Vice President for Business and Finance respond by April 2, 2003, to
this motion by answering the following questions:

Will the Vice President for Business and Finance make the creation of P&S classification and
PIQ inventories a priority?
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


Will the Vice President for Business and Finance make electronic publication of P&S
classification and PIQ inventories a priority?
If so, what would be the target date for implementation?
What additional resources will be made available to Human Resource Services, and other
necessary units, to accomplish successful implementation of this task?
The vote was called. Motion carries.
C&B Motion: Concurrence with Compensation & Benefits Committee Subcommittee Report & Implementation
Schedule. Motion to table. Seconded. Carried.
C&B Motion: Concurrent with Compensation & Benefits Committee Subcommittee Report’s Policy
Recommendations. Motion to table. Seconded. Carried.
For the Good of the Order:
Rex – Pete Taylor passed away yesterday. He has been an ISU employee since 1990 and has been the voice of the
Cyclones for 33 years. He was a P&S staff member. I would like to officially recognize Pete Taylor and send
condolences to the family.
Next Council meeting is Wednesday, April 2.
Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 3:51 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by
Cathy Good
P&S Council Secretary/Treasurer
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