Northern Illinois University
Supportive Professional Staff Council Meeting
MINUTES
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Sky Room, 10:00 A.M.
Present
Pat Anderson, Nancy Apperson, Sam Baker, Frankie Benson, Bobbie Cesarek, Kay Chapman,
Abby Chemers, Jen Clark, Dana Gautcher, Norden Gilbert, Deborah Haliczer, Todd Latham,
Cynthia Nelson, Grant Olson, Jonathon Ostenburg, Lyndon Perkins, Scott Peska, Donna Smith,
Michael Spires, Michael Stang, Rachel Turner, Phil Young, Rita Yusko
Guests
Tim Griffin
Absent
Monique Bernoudy, Cliff Bottigliero, Steve Builta, Dan House, Al Mueller
I.
Call to Order
SPS Council President Bobbie Cesarek called the meeting to order at 10:05 AM.
A. The agenda was approved with the following additions:
Announcements:
C. Benefits Choice Period, Haliczer
D. Campus Recovery
New business:
C. Constitutional Amendment
B. A motion was made and seconded to approve the July 17, 2008, minutes with a
correction to Rita Yusko’s name. Motion carried to approve the minutes as
amended.
Attendance was taken and a quorum was confirmed.
II. Announcements
A. Archives. Cesarek reported that Smith sent FY 2008 SPSC materials to Regional
History Center and Archives. They responded that they are missing minutes and
agendas from 2000-2007. Cesarek asked Council members to look through any
materials they may have for that time period and send copies to Smith to be
forwarded to Archives. Smith noted that she was able to print minutes from the
SPSC web page from January 2005 through June 2007. So all that is missing is
materials for 2000-2004. Chemers suggested that the Communications Committee
may have old minutes.
B. Feb. 14th Anniversary Planning Committee. Cesarek reported that she is on the
committee that is planning a February 14th recognition. She asked for Council input.
C. Benefits Choice Period. Haliczer reported that many state employee benefits are still
in negotiations with the Association of Federal, State, County, and Municipal
Employees (AFSCME) and the state.
D. Campus Recovery Efforts. The offices of Advocacy and Support and Employee
Assistance Program are coordinating workshops for faculty and staff to continue the
healing and recovery process. Included in the sessions will be advice on how to deal
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with students who are having difficulties related to the events of February 14.
Haliczer noted that her area is focusing on classroom dynamics and how faculty and
staff are doing and what are the challenges. Micky Sharma, director of the
Counseling Student and Development Center, will speak about how to handle
distressed students.
III. Committees of the Council
A. Awards
Gillis and Haliczer will be co-chairs. Faculty development grant opportunities will be
announced in September or October. The committee also discussed the advertising
of the SPS presidential awards. In mid-October a notice will go out with a December
3, 2008, deadline. The Awards Committee will then bring their recommendations to
the January Council meeting.
B. Communications
Turner reported that the committee has not met. She stated that until a new chair is
selected, Pickett should be the contact person. Cesarek asked the committee to
look into updating the SPSC website with a new picture for the home page. She
would like a picture of the executive committee to be that picture.
C. Constitution and Elections
Gilbert and Spires will remain co-chairs. The committee’s agenda is set by the
constitution.
D. Events
Chapman will be chair. Instead of an SPS orientation, the committee is pursuing the
idea of a series of lecture lunches. Chapman routed a list of topics and asked
Council members to give her feedback on the list and/or other topics to consider.
Chapman noted that this committee will basically be an oversight committee and will
solicit help from Council members for specific events.
E. Finance
Chemers reported that the committee met and reviewed last year’s activities. She
reported that there is $2,480 in the NIU account and about $1,000 of that is flexible
to use as needed. There is about $290 in the Credit Union account from donations.
She has submitted the committee’s procedures. Cesarek asked the rest of the
committees to contact Chemers with any foreseeable financial needs.
F. Legislative
Latham reported that Peska will be the chair. Latham also reported that he spoke
with Ken Zehnder, associate director, External Affairs and Economic Development.
Zehnder continues to monitor what is happening in Springfield.
G. Technology Resources
It was reported that the committee is meeting within the week.
H. Workplace Issues
Benson and Perkins will be co-chairs. The committee discussed what they have
worked on over the last year or two. Issues of priority are morale, quality of work life,
and reasonable work load. Other issues the committee is reviewing are tuition
waiver policies, which vary depending on the employee’s classification (faculty, SPS,
operating staff, etc.); Human Resource Services’ progress with mandatory
supervisory training; SPS evaluations and the collection of samples for templates;
and examination of temporary SPS, specifically employees who have had temporary
SPS status for a long time.
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I.
Vice President
No report.
IV. Old Business
A. HRS/Steve Cunningham update
Cesarek announced that Cunningham had been invited to this meeting, but was
unable to attend. She provided Council members with a written report of her last
meeting with Cunningham, then made note of several issues.
1. SPS Evaluations. There was a 70% response rate for 2006-07 for regular and
temporary SPS. Reminder notices for the remainder will go out shortly.
Discussion followed regarding an effective means of communicating information
about evaluations. It was suggested that the right to an evaluation be
communicated through the SPSC web site in addition to posting sample
evaluations. Employees might also be encouraged to develop their own
templates/evaluations to present to their supervisor. It was suggested that an email be sent to employees who have not had their evaluations and Cesarek
noted that it might be better to wait and send a mass e-mail to all employees in
January, at the same time supervisors are notified of the process for a new year.
Haliczer stated that she will work on downloadable templates and also clarified
the time frame; supervisors have from March 1 to June 30 to complete their
evaluations. Several Council members shared their evaluation experiences.
2. Job Descriptions. Human Resources Services is currently conducting an audit
on the status of job descriptions. If a job description is two to three years old, a
request for an upgrade will be sent to the supervisor.
3. Salary Survey. Human Resources Services is still trying to fill the Compensation
Coordinator position. Cesarek felt that there probably would be no progress with
the salary survey until the position is filled.
4. Mandatory Supervisory Training. Cesarek reported that she had the opportunity
to review the curriculum for the training. Cesarek also asked Haliczer if she
could provide the Council with bullet points of items to be addressed at the
training. Haliczer added that the Workplace Issues Committee will continue to
keep track of this issue.
5. 10 + 1 contracts. Cesarek noted that Cunningham was not aware of any issues
with this type of contract. Haliczer added that there are very few SPS who have
this situation, but it is something Workplace Issues can look at along with
temporary SPS issues. She also suggested doing a query to see exactly how
many employees are affected. Nelson asked if this was the type of position that
was routinely audited and Haliczer responded that it is. Nelson made a motion,
seconded by Spires, that Cesarek formally request from Cunningham the number
of SPS who are under the 10 + 1 contract. Motion passed unanimously.
6. Internal Mobility. Cesarek noted that NIU has good policies compared to other
institutions. She suggested that Council members review the Academic Policies
and Procedures Manual (APPM) personnel section for SPS, specifically the
internal promotion policy. It was clarified that internal promotion could cross
divisions and that they don’t always come with an increase in salary. It was
discussed that now may be a good time to review this policy since it hasn’t been
updated in almost 20 years. Spires added that internal promotion has been a
point of contention in the last two surveys.
7. The Supportive Professional Staff Name. The SPS name was voted on back in
the late 1980s to eliminate the use of “faculty/no rank.” Similar employees at the
rest of the state universities are called administrative professionals. There was
concern that if NIU went to this name it might be confused with the
secretarial/clerical staff as well as with administrators. Chemers added that it
doesn’t matter what the classification is at NIU, when employment reports go to
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the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), SPS are considered administrative
professionals.
8. SPS Handbook. Haliczer reported that HRS is in the process of revising
procedures regarding employment issues. The handbook will eventually be a
searchable, clickable document. She was unsure of a completion date.
9. Constitutional Convention. The issue will be on the ballot in November. Human
Resource Services is well aware of the issue and ramifications.
10. Grievance Procedure. The Council still needs to work with HRS to finalize
changes in the HRS documents. Spires noted that there are two procedures.
One is the new procedure that was developed by an ad-hoc committee of the
University Council and is used if there is a grievance involving SPS employees
and/or any other employment classification except student employees. The other
procedure is the appeals procedure for an employee terminated for cause.
Discussion followed regarding the need for two policies. Griffin added that there
are issues with the new policy including the fact that it may be confusing to have
conflicting policies and that student employees are not covered. Haliczer pointed
out that there are two issues: 1) clean up the issue of “termination for cause,” 2)
student rights. Spires noted that cleaning up the issue of “termination for cause”
may simplify getting people to volunteer for the grievance committee pool. He
added that he was the SPS representative on a committee to work with the
students and they met only once. Haliczer made a motion, seconded by Spires,
to create an ad hoc committee to resolve the aforementioned issues. Motion
passed unanimously. Haliczer and Spires will meet to collect pertinent
materials and Griffin and Perkins will also serve on the committee.
B. Athletic Board Representative
Cesarek distributed a list of self-nominees for the position and asked Council
members to vote for two. Council members had the opportunity to voice pros and
cons of the nominees. A vote was taken and Angie Flannery and Todd Latham were
selected to have their names go forward to President Peters for his selection.
V. New Business
A. Constitutional Amendment
Spires introduced the amendment to the SPSC constitution, which provides guidance
on filling vacancies on university committees with SPS representation. Discussion
followed to clarify the amendment. “Concurrence of Council” means that the Council
gets to vote on the representation. There would not always be public solicitation for
volunteers. Also, the language was left open so that an e-mail vote would be
acceptable. Discussion followed regarding Council members who did not get a
chance to either provide input to or review the amendment, so the first reading was
tabled until the September SPSC meeting.
B. SPS Sabbaticals
The committee is still working on this issue.
C. Parking Appeals Committee
Cesarek announced that Sabrina Hammond is stepping down from the committee
and the vacancy needs to be filled. Cesarek was contacted by Norm Jenkins from
the Holmes Student Center who is interested in serving. Griffin pointed out that
Jenkins was the recent chair of the Campus Parking Committee. Baker stated that
Jenkins would be a great person for this position and recommended that the Council
appoint him. Discussion followed regarding the procedural issues of making a
committee appointment when it isn’t during the regular call for nominees to university
committees. Haliczer made a motion, seconded by Ostenburg, to appoint Jenkins to
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the Parking Appeals Committee for this academic year, and then include the vacancy
in the call for nominations next spring. Motion passed.
D. Ride Share Program
Chemers reported that Jill Zambito, director of Commuter and Nontraditional Student
Services, worked with a programmer to clean out the old ride share database.
Programmers are looking at updating the program. Haliczer noted that HRS is
receiving more inquiries about car pools and it is timely to get that updated and
better publicized. Cesarek offered to speak with Cunningham to keep things moving
on this issue.
VI. University Committee Reports
BOT report. Latham reported on the special BOT meeting on August 6, 2008. The
BOT discussed pending litigation regarding the Photon Therapy Facility.
VII. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 11:45 a.m.
Minutes submitted by Donna Smith, SPSC secretary.
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