CIVIL SERVICE EMPLOYEES COUNCIL
March 5, 2009
Library Room 180
Minutes
I. Roll Call
Present: Suzanne Boussaard, Jim Buffalo, Laura Caldwell, Amber Dodds, Carla Farniok, Richard
Hamilton, Ed Lavin, Greg Phelps, Dan Rathjen, Kim Sedgwick, Jamie Shuda, Martha Youngmeyer, Bill
Rubert, Sheila Kirby
Excused: Hilary Churchill, Lois Retherford, Jackie Thompson
II. Minutes (Carla Farniok)
– The minutes from February’s meeting were approved with a motion from Jamie.
Greg seconded and the motion carried. The minutes for the January meeting were approved with a motion from Greg. Laura seconded and the motion carried.
III. Treasurer’s Report (Jamie Shuda) – All scholarships have been paid and there is a balance of $6,970.04 in the Scholarship Account. The General Account has $5,161.65 and the Endowment has $99,632.07.
Martha made a motion to accept the minutes and Greg seconded. The motion carried.
IV.
President’s Report
(Ed Lavin)
–
Presidents Advisory Committee – The main topic was budget
Flowers were sent for Bowen
“Skip” Watts. The council is considering having a scholarship presented in his honor with his wife, Carol, presenting it. There was discussion about whether it should go to an entrepreneur or a small business major since this is how WATTS started out. The scholarship committee would select who receives the scholarship. There was also discussion about doing a points system from the interviews of the candidates and the candidate with the top points would get this scholarship.
Greg made the following motion: To honor the contribution that Bowen "Skip" Watts and Carol Watts have made to civil service employees at WIU, the CSEC will honor Skip by naming a dependent scholarship in his honor to be given to the highest scoring candidate. Jim seconded and the motion carried.
V. Civil Service Employee of the Month (Laura Caldwell) - Jo Davis from Global Education is the recipient of the March 2009 Employee of the Month award. Her presentation will be on Thursday, March 12th at
2:00 in Stipes 326. I hope to see you all there!
VI. Vice President for Administrative Services Report (Jackie Thompson) – No Report
VII. Director of Human Resources (Pam Bowman)
– No Report
VIII. Employee Advisory Committee Representative (Sheila Kirby)
– Meeting January 22 & 23; UIUC
Chancellor Richard Herman spoke to the group. He was literally just back from attending the inauguration. He talked about several things they are doing there. The whole UOFI system is doing more to work with Jr. Colleges. UIUC has started a program called “Illinois Promise” which uses privately raised funds for students at or below the federal poverty level. Dr. Herman had also called a public forum that evening to discuss their financial situation which is very bad. Their president is saying their system should prepare for a 15% reduction next fiscal year. They are likely looking at many layoffs and have already had several hundred at UIC’s hospital.
SURS Report: Judy Parker is the interim chair. During the last calendar year, they are 27.8% in the red. They have a great website if you haven’t looked at it. We need to be watching for the bills that call for combining the pension systems as we have the best, we don’t want to see that happen.

Director Morelock talked about the system office budget which is very grim as they only rely on the state. They are hoping to just maintain what they have. He gave us new rule revision handouts about classification spec and exam changes we are to read before our April meeting. We also received handouts of the proposed amendment changes. We spent several hours discussing the academic professional situation and how we can keep from losing civil service jobs. Pam, Bill Griffin, and Sheila attended the merit board meeting February 18 by video conference. It was a lively meeting. The UOFI wants to delay in the proposed changes the system office has worked on for 2 years. On a split vote, the merit board decided to table the vote until their May meeting.
IX. WIU Quad Cities Campus Report (Lois Retherford) - $1 million to the QC Campus was received last week for the Engineering Program.
X. Representative Reports to Council
1. Affirmative Action Internship (Amber Dodds)
–
The applications Need to be turned in by Friday the 13th of March but they will be reviewing them till the end of spring.
2. Accreditation Committee (Martha Youngmeyer) – No Repor t
3. Women’s Center (Martha Youngmeyer) - March is Women’s History Month, and the 2009 national theme is "Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet." O ur Women’s History Month
Calendar of Events has been distributed around campus and in the community, and daily postings about Women in History are being done through the month of March. We are busy with sponsoring a number of activities, including: our Women’s Art Exhibit in the University Library (opening reception was March 3) which will be on display through the end of March; our Women’s Voices
Journal, which will be printed in April; the International Women’s Day REAL Women Brown Bag
Lunch presentation, “She Has the Power to Change Her World; You Have the Power to Help Her
Do It”, which is scheduled today, March 5 from 3:30-4:45 p.m. in the University Union Sandburg
Theatre; our “Women’s Roles Around the World” booth at the International Bazaar March 6 & 7;
“The Clothesline Project” Display (Wed. April 15) t-shirt making sessions, including one on March
11 from 46 p.m. in the Women’s Center Conference Room. Take Back the Campus will be April 9 from 5:00 p.m.-12:00 midnight in the University Union Grand Ballroom.
The Multicultural Center construction completion is now scheduled for the end of March, and we hope to move mid-April. The Women's Center newsletter will be out this week, so look for information about these and other programs and activities. Other information is available on our web site at www.wc.wiu.edu
.
4. Web Page (Jim Buffalo) - The constitution is going to be added to the documents on the CSEC website. There will be a flyer posted on the website for the upcoming election. Jamie will do the
Tele-Stars for the flyer to go out through email. The committee descriptions have also been updated.
5. Provost Advisory Council (Greg Phelps) – No Report
6. Training and Development (Carla Farniok) – A brochure went out for Go Western so be sure to sign up for some of the activities being offered.
XI. Committee Reports
1. Appeals (Greg Phelps)
–
The committee heard 1 appeal this month. Greg handed out a proposal for appeals committee membership. This is a system that is already used here on campus that is similar to the membership on the Judicial Review Board. 1. An email and letter would be sent out letting employees know that there would be an open registration period for people interested in the appeals committee and a description of what it does. 2. Those that sign up are put into a pool of names with all appropriate contact information. The committee chair would be responsible for maintaining the list. 3. When a case comes up, an email or letter is sent out to all the people in the pool and the first 5 that respond would be the committee for that case. This way, it spreads the responsibility around and gets more people involved.
2. Award Fund (Amber Dodds) – Amber passed out the scratch cards. There are 25 sheets of coupons to hand out. For every 2 scratches, someone gets 1 sheet of coupons. Each scratch card

is worth $100.00 and everyone should turn in their money to Jamie every week. Amber will email in 2 weeks to find out how everyone is doing.
3. Award Selection (Dan Rathjen) – No Report
4. Constitution / Election ( Jim Buffalo) – Send any ideas for the language of the constitution to Bill.
The bi-laws describe the functions of the council and the constitution tells what the council is about.
Will it be a 2/3 majority vote when adopting the bi-laws? This will be discussed at next month’s meeting.
Election
– Statement of Candidacy are needed by March 30. The new members are announced in
April and seated in May. There is an opening in every group 1-6.
5. Education (Hilary Churchill) – No Report
6. Mentoring (Kim Sedgwick)
Mary Kay Flesner, Clerk, University Housing and Dining Services, 3/23/2009
Monte Colley, Mechanical Engineer III, Physical Plant, 3/16/2009
Rhonda Hofmeister, Payroll Specialist III, Payroll, 3/9/2009
Amelia Crouch, Office Support Specialist, Psychology, 3/5/2009
Don Mutch, Environmental Health and Safety Technician II, Physical Plant, March 2, 2009
Timothy Schroll, Customer Service Rep I, Geography Department, 3/1/2009
7. Salary (Suzanne Boussaard) - No Report
8. Social Events & Development (Jamie Shuda)
– No Report
9. Committee on Committees (Richard Hamilton)
– No Report
XII. New Business:
Blood Drive – 68 people signed up for the blood drive with getting 48 units. The council decided to hold off until next fall for another blood drive.
President’s Open Forum –
The open forum is going to take place on April 2 from 11-12 and 3-4 in the
Sandburg Lounge. The meeting that is to take place that day will be rescheduled.
Golf Outing – Ed and Bill will get together for a meeting about the golf outing.
XIII. Old Business:
1. Group Concerns:
2. Announcements: Next meeting: April 1, 2009 in Room 180 in the Malpass Library at 10:00.