Iowa State University
Professional & Scientific Council
Executive Committee Meeting
Regular Session
Monday, April 21, 2003 2:00 p.m.
Room 234, Memorial Union
Attendance:
Voting Members
X Heer, Rex
X Kane, Kevin
X Good, Cathy
X Mumm, Lynne
X Roberts, Kurt
X
X
X
X
X
X
A
A
A
A
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: Mary Huba, Assistant Vice Provost; Alicia Carriquiry, Associate
Provost; Mark Chidister, Assistant to the President.
Call To Order: Kevin Kane, Vice-President, called the meeting to order at 2:10 p.m.
A quorum was present. The agenda was approved with additions (committee meeting time
recommendation under old business; committee reorganization under new business).
Meeting Minutes: March 17, 2003, minutes were approved with minor correction.
Special Reports
 ISU Accreditation: Mary Huba, Alicia Carriquiry, and Mark Chidister presented materials on
preparation for the next all-university accreditation, scheduled for FY 2006.
 Alicia commented that this just happens to coincide with the strategic planning process.
The offices of the Provost, President, and Vice Provost for Research and Advanced
Studies are leading the effort for the next accreditation review. They are meeting with
various groups on campus. The self study must be ready by fall 2005, and the goal is for
it to be inclusive, transparent, interactive, and to which everyone can contribute. There
should be a skeleton of an active website by fall 2003, with plans to start presenting it to
campus by spring 2004.
 Mary discussed the purpose of the accreditation process, current and new criteria, the
change in focus, and current themes.
 Mark discussed time lines. This is a year of preparation, for laying the groundwork for
both processes (strategic plan and the accreditation review). Ben Allen will be chairing
the committee on the next strategic plan. Alicia will construct the working committees for
the self-evaluation in preparation for the accreditation.
Alicia anticipates asking P&S Council to appoint representatives to various committees.
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President’s Advisory Committee on Budget and Planning:
Kerry Dixon: The committee is meeting weekly. The first major recommendation is going to
President Geoffroy: hiring a chief information officer. They are addressing a lot of compliance
issues; the budget is up in the air until legislature gets done—range is $0.5M surplus to $15M
shortfall. President Geoffroy has made a firm statement that we will give employee raises this
year. They will continue to look at ways to reduce expenditures without hurting the institution or
cutting faculty/staff lines. They are looking at creative ways to generate funds such as
standardizing administrative costs charged to various units.
President’s Report
Rex reported:
 Calendar survey – Friday is the last day to complete the survey on the web. The impetus for
change came from Faculty Senate wanting to have a longer winter break. President Geoffroy
put this out for broader (faculty, staff, and student) input. President Geoffroy wants P&S
Council to bring forward a group recommendation, so this will be an item for consideration
at the May 1 Council meeting.
Motion was made that this be voted on at full council via a rank order ballot and a
recommendation forwarded to President Geoffroy of rank order preference. Motion seconded
and approved.
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Rex did forward to the appropriate administrators, as directed, the information Trevor and
other members of the Compensation and Benefits Committee put together that was voted on
at the last meeting. There was supposed to be a response for this meeting, but first Carla was
sick, then he was sick, so there is nothing to report.
Expectations for penetration of the pay matrix – there are misperceptions about what the
expectations are or should be.
Chief information officer position has been announced; there is a new committee looking at
this, with significant P&S representation (from the IT fields, as opposed to P&S Council).
We just need to keep informed; and Alicia has agreed to keep Rex in the loop, as a
compromise to having a P&S representative on the committee.
Rex is on the search committee for the Director of the Memorial Union. That is getting under
way.
Ellen Rasmussen requested that P&S Council appoint a representative to a grievance panel.
The person should not be from that particular area or know much about the case. Just needs
to be a P&S person, not necessarily a Council member. Rex will consider and forward
something.
Regarding the misunderstanding with the roles of Max Wortman (his thinking he was a ex
officio member of Council), and Rex (who always thought he attended Faculty Senate as a
guest), this should probably be a reciprocal agreement with similar rights and privileges. We
need to keep communication lines between these groups open. Kevin suggests that we leave
Faculty Senate president as an invited guest. Max did not ask for reciprocity, and he now
understands that he is a guest. A faculty senate report will be added to the agenda so they
have an opportunity for input at P&S Council meetings.
Rex has been asked to address compensation issues and the arrival of children policy at the
May 21–22 Board of Regents meeting. Jack Girton will speak for Faculty Senate. That might
be an opportunity to bring up the issue of merit contracts. Trevor will draft a paragraph and
forward it to Rex.
Officer’s Reports
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Cathy Good: Treasurer’s report: Account balances:
 General Fund $1,734.95.
 Campus Orgs account $136.23.
 Professional Development fund $845.03.
Lynne Mumm: distributed notes from the 4/17/03 campus leaders breakfast. She already has
one question for next time on ID badges. The next breakfast will be May 28.
Kurt – regarding the Memorial Union 75th anniversary, there is nothing major going on; he
will update us again in the summer.
Standing Committee Reports:
Compensation & Benefits:
Trevor – he has another subcommittee report on P&S/Merit overlap. He plans to distribute a final
version to Council and to forward a concurrence motion at the next meeting.
Policies & Procedures:
Dan – there are several recommendations from the committee (one would require a bylaw
change): To assist P&S Council committees 1) add more “seasonal” members to committees that
have a heavy workload at a specific time of year, and/or 2) get assistance from someone who
works in a support role for the Council. For P&S Council Committee Restructuring 1) divide
Representation and Awards into two committees, or 2) increase the size of Representation and
Awards, then have subcommittees within it focused on specific projects/tasks.
The Executive Committee approves Committee restructuring recommendation 1, dividing
Representation and Awards into two committees, so they will draft a bylaws change to present at
the May 1 Council meeting.
The ombuds position has been put on hold. Ellen Rasmussen said this will be taken up again in
the fall.
Representation and Awards:
Judy –
 they have chosen nominees to forward for the regents award (will forward 6 of 8
nominations).
 Trevor suggested working with the University Benefits Committee to try to assure that a
Compensation and Benefits Committee member will be on the UBC, or establish some other
link between the two (ex officio member, or some other formal linkage).
 Ballots will be done (and color coded) for the officer voting at the next meeting.
 Low-cost/no-cost awards packet will be put together to give to President Geoffroy before the
end of the year.
Communication:
No report
Recruitment and Retention:
No report
Peer Advisory:
No report
Ad Hoc Committee Reports:
None
Old Business:
Policies & Procedures recommendations on reserving 12:00-2:00 p.m. for P&S standing
committees and moving the open forum to noon on a different day: We may need to open the
open forums to a wider audience. Bylaws do not tie the open forum to Council meetings. How
big an audience is needed to make it worthwhile? We could cut the open forums to every other
month, then on the alternate months, have 2 hours for committee meetings. Rex suggests that we
leave this issue for the next Council (and Executive Committee) to decide.
New Business:
None.
For The Good of the Order:
 Can we set the August retreat a bit earlier? Need to get it on people’s calendars.
 Next Council meeting will be May 1 in the Gallery, Memorial Union
 Next Executive Committee meeting will be May 19 in the Regency Room, Memorial Union.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 4:35 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by:
Cathy Good, Secretary/Treasurer, P&S Council