STAFF SENATE MEETING MINUTES
October 14, 2010
TE-354A – 2:00 PM
Present: Jackie Eberts, Lisa Gray, Todd Smith, Robin Hoffman, Paul Gasior, Marvin Pyles, Lucy
Hearn, Mary Luke, Karen Wilson, Betty Crockett
Jackie Eberts called the meeting to order at 2:00 PM. She thanked Betty for the Staff Senate
Appreciation lunch with the Executive Staff.
I.
Minutes a.
The minutes from the September 9 meeting were approved.
II.
Chair / Committee Reports a.
Human Resources (Marvin Pyles) – Marvin reviewed the goals and objectives of
Human Resources for the coming year. There will be a focus on recruiting and retaining staff. HR is half way through looking at policies around the exempt pay plan. The updated plan should go to the executive staff by January. This plan will include position, person, and market adjustment process. New negotiations with non-exempt staff will begin this spring. Marvin has talked with Jerry
Waldron about updating the Acceptable Use Policy, which at this point is very generic and broad. Any changes to the policy would need to go through the
Faculty and Staff Senates. The Faculty Senate wants HR and the Provost’s office to partner with the Faculty Welfare committee to assist them with updating the language in the committee’s charge. Same sex marriages from other states are being honored at SU for tuition remissions and nepotism. Health Benefits are only available if deducted post-tax. The Diversity Office is working on an affirmative action plan to try to improve campus / HR relations. The State is trying to bring contingent employees up to the non-exempt pay plan, however,
SU is already at that level. Employee discounts are on the HR web-site. There are approximately 104 businesses. This number will be expanded with businesses in north Salisbury and Ocean City. Perhaps signs could be placed at businesses notifying they give SU faculty, staff and students discounts.
b.
VP Administration/Finance (Betty Crockett) – The smoke-free campus was discussed. Some suggestions were to put out containers at areas where smokers gather to keep people from littering. Smokers are gathering near crosswalks and drivers don’t know if they’re crossing or not, which can be dangerous. We don’t want to litter the surrounding neighborhoods, however, if we accommodate the need for containers for butts, we’re not encouraging smokers to quit, which is supposed to be part of the reason for a smoke-free campus. A committee is looking into how to address this. For the fall semester people are allowed to

smoke in cars and between midnight and 6:00 AM outside residence halls, however, this will end when the spring semester begins.
There are two issues at the forefront of the budget at this point. SU has prepared several versions of a document requesting an adjustment to tuition for our campus. SU continues to lag behind other campuses when the tuition increases are based on percentage. Our quality and performance record is the same as other campuses so our tuition should more closely match theirs. There is a conceptual agreement on this at USM, but nothing positive. There is also an enrollment funding initiative. At some point in the future 55% of people will have some type of higher education degree. SU will be expected to accommodate a growth of 294 FTEs if funds are available. SU and Towson will receive an extra $6,000.00 for each extra student. This is the floor, other institutions will receive more i.e. Frostburg will receive $7,300.00 per student.
We’re asking them to reconsider. The President will not stop fighting for us.
We’re trying to get a more equitable share of the funds. SU is selectively hiring at this point only when there is a real need. Some campuses have not stopped hiring, however, this could mean more layoffs for them if the budget needs to be cut again, something that SU doesn’t want to have to do. c.
CUSS/PAT (Jackie Eberts) – CUSS is preparing letter templates for staff use when contacting legislators or committees re: the role of staff on campuses. Once finalized this information will be sent out to staff. PAT discussed a new federal
TRIOS program for historically disadvantaged students (low income, disabled, first generation to attend college). This program would follow these cohorts through their education at SU. A recent mapping grant, which allows police cars to pull up crime analysis in areas of the community, was presented by Art
Lembo. GIS technology was able to create this data program to be installed in police vehicles. This technology will allow the Salisbury Police to put resources on the ground where they are needed. The county doesn’t participate in this system yet plus many of the active, local police agencies aren’t familiar with how to use the system yet.
III.
Old Business a.
Legislative document review – There is some faculty contact before classes begin so we need to make sure this is apparent. Todd and Robin will work on using some type of chart and insert what staff do or how they’re involved in each of the student experiences throughout the day. b.
Employee Appreciation Day – June 8, 2011 will be the next date. No speakers have been retained yet. Marvin will work on this. What other activities would be appropriate for this event in order to make it bigger and better than last year ?

IV.
New Business – Staff Senates from other institutions are doing charitable activities for the holidays. Some ideas are drop boxes for donations, collecting money for charities, sponsor a family, Christmas stockings, bring something to the holiday social, etc. We need to check with agencies to determine what needs are in the area. Send any ideas to Jackie. We need to have more communication with staff.
Perhaps we could send out an email to staff when Todd puts the new minutes on the web-site each month.
V.
Other – Information is being sent out for Staff Awards. A preliminary application should be sent in. After review, some staff will be invited to complete a full application.
Paul, Lisa, Mary and Jackie will review the packets. Initial nomination packets are due 10/29. There’s a new award concerning effectiveness and efficiency (saving
$10,000.00 for the campus). A team award, for the E&E category , will also be considered by CUSS (to submit to USM-BOR) for a future year.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:40 PM.
The next meeting will be November 11 at 10:00 AM in TE 354A.