Staff Senate
Full Senate Meeting
February 9, 2011
Senate Chambers
The meeting was called to order at 1:15 p.m. by President Lane. A quorum was present.
Roll Call
Guests: Doug Vinzant, Vice-President of Administration, Laura Alexander, Associate Vice
President of Human Resources, Mark Collins Associate Vice President of Operations,
Carolyn Smith, Director Auxiliary Services
Senators Present: Aimee Appelhans, Rebecca Ashley, Bonnie Botello, Beverly Bell,
Christi Byers, Lori Dockter, Cheri Frank, Farrell Graf, Carolyn Herman, Stacy Lane, James
Logue, Rachel Martin, Kelly McMicheal, Christy Nordmann, Katie Ogden, Thyra Page,
Heather Patterson, Jauque Schuman, Tod Scott, Linda Waggener, Kathi Zubrod
Senators Absent: Cyndi Cowardin, Mark Davidson, Al Emmons, Tonya Gerharter, Jamie
LeJambre, David McCoy, Maureena Walker
Proxies: Kathleen Bertoncelj for Ginny Becker, Laura Barton for Winter Hansen
Approval of Minutes and Agenda
A motion to approve the January minutes was made and seconded by Senators McMicheal and
Martin. Motion passed.
A motion was made by Senator Nordmann to approve the February agenda, second by Senator
Dockter. Motion passed.
Administrative Reports
Vice President of Administration, Doug Vinzant, reported Legislature is more than half way
through their session. The UW budget and salary recommendations were not supported;
however, the majority of other UW recommendations are being supported (Library, STEM, and
Insurance increase). Vice President Vinzant suggested that we invite Don Richards to come
present a full Legislative report after the end of session.
March Board of Trustees agenda items: New trustees, Taylor Hayes term expired.
UW construction projects have undergone criticism this legislative session. A new focus will be
to keeping money in Wyoming with a proposal of 75-80% of construction work to be awarded
to Wyoming contractors.
Senator Schuman asked a question regarding the outcome from the overtime discussions.
Earlier in the day Vice President Vinzant and President Buchanan had a discussion regarding
overtime. Associate Vice President Laura Alexander gathered together the major overtime
issues. A proposal has been made that units would make a request for special options to make
overtime available contingent on it must fit in the current budget and secured approval of the
unit reporting Vice President. This option will not be retroactive and will only be considered
from this point forward.
The new University Vehicle Policy will be presented. Currently there is a lot of misinformation
being circulated. We need to live in the present and have a policy in place that reflects current
times. The policy is looking at reducing the liability and exposure to liability to UW regarding the
use of University vehicles. There will be departures from prior practices. UW has had lawsuits
and claims filed against the university based on previous policy. As a result, there has been a
full review and revision to the policy. Mark Collins and Carolyn Smith have already presented
the new policy to Faculty Senate. The revision grows out of real costs to the University.
Associate Vice President Laura Alexander
Update on HR Staff, Chris Clements retired in January and her position was filled by an internal
candidate, Jana Brinkman from Benefits. There is a new job vacancy posted in HR for Jana’s
position.
Associate Vice President Alexander sent out an update on the revision to the nepotism policy
(Attachment 1). In the process of making the changes, other nepotism policies were reviewed
including the current State of Wyoming policy. The new regulation is scheduled to go before
the Trustees in the March meeting. The new definition includes in-laws and domestic partners,
both same sex and opposite sex. Supervisors will recuse themselves from employment actions
of family members. Context was added regarding not preventing action in paragraph three.
Faculty Senate asked that inquiries regarding spousal employment continue to be allowed.
Faculty Senate will review at the end of month prior to the Board of Trustees meeting in March.
Senator Patterson asked a question regarding the display of personal information on the new
PeopleFinder website. Some home addresses and cell phone numbers are being displayed,
Associate Vice President Alexander responded that she would check into it.
President Lane asked about the loss of Appendix A (Appendix A contains the information
regarding tuition waiver, social security and worker’s compensation) in the web version of the
employee handbook. Associate Vice President Alexander said she would look into getting
Appendix A back into the web version.
Carolyn Smith, Director of Auxiliary Services presented the new UW Vehicle Policy (Attachment
2). Laura Peterson and Mark Collins were also available as part of the presentation to answer
questions. UW Regulation 3-179 (Attachment 3) was last updated 1/1987. The policy was
vague and Vice President Vinzant charged the committee to fully review and rewrite the policy
in 2009.
Changes:
Format: Revised to reflect current UW Regulations as two separate documents, the
actual regulation and the separate policy.
Content: University Vehicle definition: “being used for University Business” includes if
you are using personal vehicle for reimbursement. Personal vehicles must have
insurance and if involved in an accident personal insurance will be tapped into first.
Conditions of use clearly identify misuse of University vehicles. Departments will be
responsible for paying deductibles on at fault accidents. Accident reporting procedures
are clearly outlined.
The committee has met with Faculty Senate and Deans and Directors. They looked at what
State of Wyoming and other schools have implemented. The update is scheduled to go to
Board of Trustees in May. The Motor Vehicle Records (MVR) portion of regulation anticipated
implementation will be July 1, 2011.
Senator Herman asked, for students driving how long the MVR will process take? Carolyn Smith
responded they anticipate most requests to be completed within 48 hours. The departments
will not be charged at this time for the MVR, Risk Management will pay fees.
Senator McMicheal asked if the process will be phased in for current employees and if fleet
vehicles or other department vehicles will require a separate MVR check. Carolyn Smith
answered that the current MVR will apply to all UW vehicles and they will be performed on an
annual basis for employees driving UW vehicles.
Senator Patterson asked for clarification regarding personal vehicles and reimbursement if a
spouse is accompanying. If vehicle does not qualify as a “UW vehicle doing UW business” there
will be no reimbursement for mileage on personal vehicles.
Senator Martin asked, what qualifies an acceptable MVR and will there be an appeal process?
Basically, if there are more than three violations, the MVR is unacceptable; there is no appeal
due to the nature of the official record. Senator Ogden added that if there is a mistake on an
MVR record the State Motor Vehicles Department will be where research and corrections
originate.
Vice President Frank asked for clarification to seatbelt requirements and the use of Gators.
Also, she would like to clarify that depending on the severity of any one incident that one
incident could possibly result in enough citations to lose driving privileges. Carolyn Smith
answered if the vehicles have license plates and are equipped with seatbelts, they must meet
the requirement. Carolyn agreed that a severe incident could result in the loss of driving
privileges.
Senator Botello asked for clarification on the deductible and the University obligations. If the
person is driving a personal vehicle, the individuals insurance will be drawn on first.
Departments will be responsible for deductibles on at fault accidents.
New business
First reading Resolution #197 Staff Wellness Benefit (Attachment 4)
Officer reports
President: President Lane presented an update from the fall to Board of Trustees. Faculty
Senate plan to move forward with a proposal for a salary benefits package for the next budget
and would like to work with Staff Senate to support staff and faculty getting raises.
Vice President: Vice President Frank thanked everyone for their support with the holiday
baskets and food drive. We are currently working on getting letters out to supervisors to use
during the evaluations process. Student Media update from Becky Adair included: Editor
positions are being advertised through February 18th, the board will be performing a
publications review, and Student Media is planning the third celebration to focus on the first
amendment in April.
Budget Officer: No report.
Liaison reports
ASUW Representative: Senator Appelhans had no report.
Faculty Senate: President Lane reported that the salary increase is a high priority project.
Committee Reports
Communications Committee: No report. Full committee report: Attachment 5
Next meeting will be held February 15, 2011, 11am-noon in the Skylight Lounge.
Compensation Committee: Resolution #197 (Attachment 4) was written and the first reading
was previously in the meeting. They will revisit the survey in the next month.
Next meeting will be held February 16, 2011, 4 pm - 5 pm in Coe Library, room 504.
Credentials and Elections Committee: Senator Nordmann reported that at the last meeting
there was discussion concerning empty seats and a resolution to open opportunities outside
specific areas for a Representative-at-Large. For seats that haven’t been filled, and those that
will become open, Senator Nordmann requested that those Senators eligible for re-election
please consider returning and also look for constituents to fill the empty seats.
Finances Committee: Senator Dockter, President Lane and Senator Appelhans had a meeting to
work with current documents to update the Finance Policy.
Recognition Committee: Senator Gerharter reported that nominations are currently open for
Staff Recognition Day awards, please encourage nominations. All nominations are currently
scheduled to close on March 18th. The Pete Simpson Golden Gloves Award is open to recognize
an outstanding Staff Senator. This process requires a Staff Senator nomination, as well as a
supervisor nomination. President Lane will determine the award recipient.
Full report: Attachment 6
Open Forum
A brief open forum followed the regular business of the Staff Senate.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:50 pm by President Lane.
Respectfully submitted by Cheri Frank, Vice President, and Lou Ann Chakmakian
Attachment 1.1
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Attachment 1.2
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Attachment 1.3
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Attachment 1.4
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Attachment 1.5
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Attachment 1.6
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Attachment 1.7
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Attachment 1.8
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Attachment 2.1
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Attachment 2.2
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Attachment 2.3
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Attachment 2.4
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Attachment 2.5
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Attachment 2.6
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Attachment 2.7
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Attachment 2.8
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Attachment 2.9
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Attachment 3
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Attachment 4
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Attachment 5
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Attachment 6.1
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Attachment 6.2
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