WCU Staff Senate Meeting Agenda
November 8, 2012 (8:30-10:30 am)
Cardinal Room (University Center)
Members
Tammy Ammons-Hagberg
Present
Excused
Suzanne Baker
Kay Benson
Paula Carnes-Ashe
x
Michelle Cooper
x
Wiley Danner
Pam DeGraffenreid
Phyllis Franks
Patrick Hinkle
Robin Hitch
Alison Joseph
Jason LaVigne
Amy McKenzie
Gwen Nicholson
Jen Nickel
Caden Painter
Joseph Philpott
David Rathbone
Emily Sharpe
Will Shivers
Andy Voelker
Shawna Young
Dianne Lynch (Ex-Officio Member) – David Belcher
Kathy Wong (Ex-Officio Member)
Mary Jean Herzog (Faculty Senate Chair – ex-officio)
Alecia Page (SGA President-ex-officio)
x
x
I.
II.
Not Excused
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Approval of the Meeting Agenda (Robin Hitch)
approved
Approval of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting (Robin Hitch)
approved
III.
External Informational Reports
a. Office of the Chancellor Updates (Chancellor Belcher/Dianne Lynch)
Not present
b. Human Resources Report (Kathy Wong, ex-officio member)
i. 2013 Holiday Schedule: we always have 2 state holidays and have memorial day and
veterans day which covers us through xmas week and we would be back at work MT
then off for New years on Wednesday then back at work on Th. Do we want to ask
employees to take MT off before new years?
Discussion:
c.
Michelle cooper: how will this effect any students who may be here?
Kathy: we always keep essential personnel and offices open even when the business
side of the university is off.
Amy: what is the impact on those with kids in K12?
Gen answer: mostly K12 is off through new years and is trying to sync with each other
Robin: what about those without leave?
Kathy: yes, they would have to time without pay
Robin: can we survey staff?
Kathy: we need to have the calendar out this month
Jason: can we share sick leave (Michelle: bonus, community leave)
Kathy: no, that can’t be used
Gen discussion: chances are good people will take the time off anyway – general
agreement
Kathy: I need to run this by exec council, they may not want the university closed for
that long
Michelle: of concern is getting feedback from those who are required to work as part of
essential function of university
Kathy: SPA get special compensation and time off at a later date
Michelle: EPA doesn’t get special compensation
Kathy: Wiley thoughts?
Wiley: we need to be here anyway
Kathy: there are ways to compensate EPA
Michelle: that’s not being used
Kathy: we can be sure to better publicize that opportunity
Suzanne: what happened to the ‘good old days’ of leadership sending an email before
Thanksgiving that we could leave early without taking vacation time.
Kathy: Legally the chancellor doesn’t have the authority to do that
Kathy: clarifying that she can take the holiday schedule to exec
Wiley: should we ask how those we represent feel
Robin/Kathy: send input to Kathy
New Topic: time and leave reporting – an email will be going out soon, we will be
transitioning permanent employees currently reporting time on paper to online
reporting. They will need to report time every 2 weeks. Will be working with UPD to
work out the variances in their reporting. Everyone – those who submit and those who
approve and proxies – should attend the upcoming training sessions.
Michelle: it’s been helpful to have a choice in participating in online or in person
training.
Kathy: the email going out does have a ppt
Tammy: since UPD is on a different schedule, can we have a training specifically for UPD
Michelle: we could add this to the January newsletter
Jason: what is the status on the market study?
Kathy: that is complete and has been reviewed by the chancellor. We are creating a
policy relating to market rates to be reviewed by exec cmt. Once approved, this can be
a special topic for SS.
Faculty Senate Report (Mary Jean Herzog or designee)
IV.
V.
Sent a resolution to the Faculty Assembly and Pres. Ross to have faculty input in UNC strategic
planning process and as a result. Mary Jean will be sharing her chair report with Robin to be placed
on sharepoint. FS had discussion on suggestion box (gen discussion) basically responses have been
coming in and a single document has been compiled and sent to the chancellor for review. The FS is
compiling an ‘expert list’ under special topics – list of topics will be shared and ask constituents if they
are interested in signing up – unclear what will happen with this list.
d. SGA President Report (Alecia Page or designee) – not present
Sub-committee Updates
a. Governance Committee (Joe Philpott) – no report
b. HR Committee (Joe Philpott)
Include an HR corner in the SS newsletter on things that are timely, or staff need to be reminded
– general agreement that this is a good idea
c. PR Committee (Alison Joseph) – no report
d. Resources and Environment (Andy Voelker) – no report
e. Scholarship (Amy McKenzie)
Table tomorrow to publicize scholarship and SS at faculty/staff lunch
So far we have sold 8 ornaments; ---------need to be sure to publicize----Post ad on MyCat, digital signs
Internal Informational Reports
a. Treasurer Report (Paula Carnes-Ashe, Treasurer) – total budget will be emailed
b. Staff Assembly Report (Andy Voelker)
Big concerns – funding, budget and salary – many special guests from UNC system to discuss with
assembly. The UNC system will have extra funds available for schools who meet performance
funding. Believe budget cuts are over and even feel there’s a possibility of 4-5% growth in the
next 4-5 years. Most of the legislators are new. Healthcare will increase in the upcoming year.
Met with Pres. Ross and discussed strategic planning and funding career banding. Not optimistic
about funding career banding from the UNC system considering the infrastructure needs in the
system. Salary support will probably need to come from local funds. Bipartisan support for the
UNC system and medicare budget deficit a risk for funding for UNC. ----get notes from Andy--In salary adjustments there’s a 20% limit, but the system is supportive of adjusting salaries to
market rate. ECU has been aggressive in addressing the market rate problem and have been
successful. Appalachian has also set a goal of being at 85% market rate in the next couple of
years.
Jason: other universities cover student fees when staff use tuition waiver. WCU is the only
university in the system that requires staff to pay application fee and student fees. This
information has been shared with the chancellor.
Kathy: he sent that information to Robert Edwards, HR and asked Robert to put it on the exec
cmt agenda.
Jason: discussion about each university do something for Sandy relief – not sure what we want to
do about that
c.
Chancellor’s Leadership Council Report (Robin Hitch) – no report, haven’t met yet
Robin’s meeting with Dr. Belcher: he was impressed by Jason’s research on tuition/fee waiver
and asked to find out how many people are taking classes on tuition waiver
Kathy: ran a query on staff taking classes – 52 people are taking classes on tuition waiver –
information sent to the chancellor and he put this on the exec cmt agenda
d.
e.
VI.
Michelle: this is prohibiting people from taking classes
Tuition and Fees Committee (Robin Hitch)
Have been holding open forums and have held a closed forum for students only. Students have
actually been very supportive of the proposed increases. SGA has even proposed a $10 ‘green’
fee to address sustainability issues
Campus Master Planning (Shawna Young)
Open forums being held and tours of facilities ongoing; RFP has been published and hope to have
vendor selected by early spring
Michelle: important to have meditative/contemplative space near Bird/Brown in master planning
– we would have campus minister support – important to consider accessibility
Tammy: could we use the space we selected for the memorial garden
New Business
a. Staff Senate Retreat – Next steps (Robin Hitch)
(reference goals2012=2013.doc) Exec committee split the goals by subcommittee to address.
Each committee meet and review what’s been assigned to each committee and report back at
the December meeting
b. Sharepoint Demonstration and Training (Joe Philpott/Robin Hitch)
Be sure to bookmarkwcuhub.wcu.edu
Wcuhub is meant to be the university intranet – holds information that university needs to share but
doesn’t need to be online on the public website
Joe: review sharepoint and let me know what questions you have and we will set up training
Michelle: this also speaks to the orientation we want to create
Andy: sharepoint doesn’t work well with mobile devices; need shareplus light app to use on ipads,
etc.
Michelle: add users guide for site on the homepage of sharepoint
David: is access closed?
c. Smoke-free campus resolutions (Robin Hitch)
There is some confusion on SS support of this resolution. The SS is not opposed to this resolution
but we simply feel certain things and accommodations need to be considered. Also concerned
about enforcement.
Gwen: we have feedback from some staff members that we can share with the chancellors
Paula: we weren’t opposed to the resolution, but were concerned about the way the resolution
came about and didn’t go through the proper governance processes and how the policy would
be implemented
Andy: a concern is litter and use of the concrete urns
David: the university has invested roughly $15K invested in the urns
Amy: we may want to talk to the Whee for Life committee who wasn’t consulted either. We may
also want to include something in the newsletter about this in January. Whee for Life also wants
something on smoking cessation included in the Jan newsletter
Mary Jean: the FS did pass a resolution on this but did remove the date suggested in the original
petition from the nursing students
Kathy: policy 45 covers smoking in university buildings – it could be that we ask the
administration to review and possibly update the policy
VII.
Old Business
a. WCU Suggestion Box – Update (Robin Hitch/Mary-Jean Herzog)
Chancellor currently reviewing and asking for additional feedback. Robin trying to get this out
before the end of the year. Will be working to keep this open for comments/suggestions to be
answered monthly.
b. Reminder: November 9th staff appreciation day at Courtyard Dining Hall (Amy McKenzie)
(see scholarship update)
Adjourn: 10:15
Next Staff Senate Meeting:
8:30 – 10:30 December 13, 2012
UC Cardinal Room