Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer
Employee Communication Council
MINUTES OF
THE MEETING
THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2014 AT 1:30PM
VIRGINIA FOUNDATION FOR THE
HUMANITIES/EDNAM DRIVE
MEETING
STARTED AT
1:30pm
CHAIR
Lorie Strother
VICE CHAIR
Edrina Allen
SECRETARY
Sandy German
MEMBERS
PRESENT
Lorie Strother, SWaM/ Procurement And Supplier Diversity Services
Edrina Allen, Student Financial Services
Bill Peairs/VP-Research-EHS
Brett Schnell, Athletics-IMR
Nancy Eagle/President’s Office
Kelley Tobler, University Advancement
Nina Morris/Facilities Management
Sandy German, CIO
Michael Ludwick, Office of Sponsored Programs
Sandi Murray, Student Affairs
Monica Petrich, UVa Human Resources
Anna Rugo/Business Operations
Shawn Comeau, Housing and Residence Life
Tim Eckert, Student Affairs
Molly Castle, Audit
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Melanie Price/Office of the Architect, Dawn Robinson/UVa Human Resources, Cindy
Garwood/University Bookstore, Pat Hartsook/Office of the EVPCOO, Linda Blacke/Dining Services,
Judy Craig/University Police, Charlotte Toney/Printing and Copying Services, Kendall Howell,
Parking & Transportation, Norman Werlitz/Facilities Management-Housing
WELCOME
WELCOME
Lorie Strother welcomed everyone to the meeting.
APPROVAL OF
MEETING
MINUTES
MINUTES
A motion was made to approve the meeting minutes of April 17, 2014. The motion
was seconded.
CONCLUSIONS
The April 17, 2014 minutes were approved.
ACTION ITEMS
PERSON RESPONSIBLE
DEADLINE
Post minutes to EVPCOO website
Secretary
Done
Hot Topics
Employee Councils into 1 Council
 Working 2 months on the plan to merge
 Margaret Weeks from Provost Employee Council present
 Lots of work involved. Thanks to our reps who worked on this project:
Dawn Robinson, Sandi Murray, Melanie Price, Bill Peairs, and Lorie
Strother.
 Feel that this plan will give 5,147 staff the best voice and impact at the
University.
 New name will be Staff Senate
 Bylaws, mission statement, letter to constituents, representation
comparison chart, notes of our concerns when this was first brought
up. Our current bylaws, etc. have also been included. Study these
before voting on June 19.
 Transition plan is for August 2014-August 2015.
 Officers of current councils will serve as officers on Senate.
 All current reps will retain voting rights for the transition year.
 Transition committee and bylaws have been drafted.
 Staff Senate representative term: 3 years, staggered so someone is
coming off and someone new is coming on every year.
 Staff Senate officers will serve 2 years.
 Each unit will hold elections for representatives
 Staff Senate will meet in August for a special session
 Staff Senate will report to Susan Carkeek
 There will be 7 standing committees and each rep will serve on at least
one.
 May 20, 2014, letters go out to constituents about this proposal —Lorie
sending us this letter.
 July 17, 2014, officers will be elected. Nomination committee chosen
before that.
HOT TOPICS
& UPDATES
Look Back/Look Forward during the August meeting.
 What have we done?
 What do we want the Staff Senate to look like?
Next meeting: Thursday, June 19, 2014, 1:30-3:00 in Newcomb Hall
Room 481. Guest: Christopher Holstege, Chair of UVa Faculty Senate
Member Updates
No member updates.
GUEST
SPEAKERS


Kevin McFadden, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
Susan Carkeek, Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
General Comments
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (Kevin McFadden)
VFH has been a department of the University ever since President Edgar Shannon. The Foundation’s
role is to deal with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the State Humanities Council for
Virginia (every state has one). They follow the mission set by the federal government. Much of VFH’s
work is done through grants from the state. The National Endowment for the Humanities also provides
some money. The Foundation itself makes proposals to various groups and corporations for funds.
Groups wanting to put together a program in the humanities can apply for funding through the
Foundation. Requests are reviewed by the Foundation.
Since its founding in 1974, VFH has produced more than 40,000 humanities programs serving
communities large and small throughout Virginia, the nation and the world. In addition to
Foundation-directed programs including festivals, publications, CDs, digital initiatives, conferences,
teacher institutes, and public radio programs, VFH has contributed to more than 3,000 grant
projects and 300 individual and collaborative fellowships.
VFH encourages discovery and connection through the humanities by supporting and producing
cultural, civic, local, and global educational programs for broad public audiences. We work with
individuals and communities to explore the past, confront current issues, and discover a promising
future. We focus our efforts on Community Programs, Scholarship and Digital Initiatives.
For more information about each of these areas of focus, please see the VFH website at
virginiahumanities.org
The UVa Staff Survey Update (Susan Carkeek):
History: Commissioned by President Sullivan as a way to hear from staff and set priorities. Staff survey
committee established through employee councils. Survey done in partnership with the Center for
Survey Research. Participation was anonymous and voluntary. 63% response rate.
• 85% were satisfied with UVa as a place to work
• 86.9% agreed that people they work with behave ethically
• 82% would be happy to spend their career at UVa
• 92% agree that UVa treats all employees with fairness and respect
Areas for improvement from the survey: Pay, Performance Evaluation, Promotion
Councils prioritized the top 8 issues around these areas. Researching and working on these has
been HR’s work plan for the past 18 months.
1. Pay-Related Initiatives
 Communications: People wanted to know more about 9 areas for example: leave, salary
increases, health plan, discounts, educational benefits, etc. Have completed 7 of the 9.
 Did an entire campaign last year on the educational benefit. As a result, the policy was
updated. Additional promotional work was done.
 Last year, a lot of promotion was done around the health plan.
 Just launched a discount program. Used some of the same discounts of the medical
center side. Got some of our own. Vendors offering a discount can now go on our website
(HR) and post those. Elizabeth Carey (UHR) is monitoring this program. <
http://www.hr.virginia.edu/hr-for-you/university-staff/university-staff-benefits/LocalDiscount-Program/>
 Have done communications around our compensation plan. HR has been managing a 5year compensation plan to bring salaries closer to market.




More info about allocation from BOV to address specific employee issues each year.
Has gone to support lowest paid employees.
Reward and Recognition. Look at who is doing what around the U. Compile best
practices.
Development of total compensation statement. Done for each individual. On your
record in Benefits@ (at the bottom). Lists all the benefits you receive from the University.
Still need to work on leave and raises. Will work on these throughout 2014.
University has one pot of money for benefits. Should the money go to pay raises or to employee
benefits? Perhaps employee councils can talk about this and give some advice.
2. Performance-Related Initiatives
 Survey done the first year we were on the Lead@
 A lot of feedback about technical issues of the system

Reorganize existing system to be more user friendly

Optimize for printing

Make common tasks easier

Send forward/back buttons
 Comments about the conversation around goals, etc.
 Did an upgrade on the Lead@ system (March 2014)
3. Promotion-Related Initiatives
 Loosen restrictions on mid-year salary increases. Lifted in January 2014. Focusing more on
merit pay.
 Create a class for supervisors on developing skills and talents of their direct reports;
starting with an inventory of classes already offered
 Communication issues—will be addressed through the Job Family project. Provides some
great web-based tools. Announcement in the next month or so.
What’s next?
 In addition to these University-wide priorities, schools/units received individual reports.
 Will wrap up last remaining priorities
 Focus on staff development initiatives in the Cornerstone Plan
 Begin planning for follow up survey
For the PDF of Susan Carkeek’s presentation, please go to
<http://www.virginia.edu/employeecouncils/pevp/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/staffsurveyupdate.pdf
There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned.