WCU Staff Senate Meeting Agenda
September 13, 2012 (8:30-10:30 am)
Cardinal Room (University Center)
Tammy Ammons-Hagberg / x
Suzanne Baker / X (Shawna proxy)
Kay Benson / x
Paula Carnes-Ashe / x
Michelle Cooper / x
Wiley Danner / x
Pam DeGraffenreid / x
Phyllis Franks / x
Sheila Frizzell / x
Leah Hampton (no longer at WCU – replacement pending)
Robin Hitch / x
Alison Joseph / x
Jason LaVigne / X (Shawna proxy)
Amy McKenzie / x
Jen Nickel / x
Caden Painter / x
Joseph Philpott / X (Michelle proxy)
David Rathbone / x
Will Shivers / x
Andy Voelker / x
Shawna Young / x
Dianne Lynch (Ex-Officio Member) – David Belcher
Kathy Wong (Ex-Officio Member) / x
Erin McNelis (Faculty Senate Chair – ex-officio) / x
Alecia Page (SGA President-ex-officio)
I. Approval of the Meeting Agenda (Robin Hitch)
Motion and approved
II. Approval of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting (Robin Hitch)
Motion and 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)
1. The Employee Assistance contract is in place. HR sent an email went out yesterday. The new contract will allow up to 5 visits/employee/month on a variety of topics and issues. The company also has counselors available on call. Their website also has a lot of good resources for life, legal, financial and personal issues.
2. Employee Appreciation day will be held Oct. 3rd in Ramsey.
3. NC Flex Annual enrollment will be open Oct 1-26. Employees can enroll online for the tax year starting Jan. 1. There aren’t any substantial changes in the NC Flex programs. The most significant change is that the IRS has reduced the amount an individual can put into a healthcare savings account to $2,500
4. SPA raises have hit and EPA raises will be in the Sept. paychecks. EPA checks will be retroactive to July.
Wiley Danner: Is a department required to hire the most qualified applicant - one that has met the preferred requirements?
Kathy Wong: Yes
c. Faculty Senate Report (Mary Jean Herzog or designee – Erin McNelis)
Faculty Senate has met once and is currently looking for nominees for the Program Prioritization and Master Planning committees.
d. SGA President Report (Alecia Page or designee)
Not present
IV. Sub-committee Meeting Time and Updates (20 minutes) – groups have already met
a. Governance (Robin Hitch)
a. Committee is investigating a possible change in senator term limits: Most UNC senates as well as the UNC Staff Assembly have a 3 year term requirement. Our 2 year term has WCU representatives off cycle to most senates and the Staff Assembly and has the additional negative impact of rotating half of the senate off in any given year.
b. HR Committee (Joe Philpott/Michelle Cooper)
a. Henry Wong met with HR committee to discuss the gender equity salary study. The AAUW requested a gender equity study to be conducted with faculty. Dr. Belcher approved the study for the entire campus in Oct. 2011. Faculty, SPA then non-faculty EPA employees will be studied. Currently an RFP is out to contract out the statistical work. A database on faculty has been compiled and prepared for the statistician. The SPA study will be conducted early spring and the non-faculty EPA will be conducted in late spring. Henry is available for individuals concerned about the process and interested in meeting one on one. The study is using College and University Personnel Association (CUPA) for HR data to find national comparisons per job for faculty and non-faculty EPA. SPA salaries being compared to UNC averages. If there isn’t comparable data for a position, a case analysis will be conducted. Henry is considering a public presentation this spring. The project will be wrapped up March 2014.
Kathy Wong: HR has provided employment and salary information for the study.
Tammy Ammons-Hagberg: Henry said that if there aren’t 30 people doing a comparable job across the system, it will be reviewed individually on a case by case basis.
b. Next month Cory Cosby will be meeting with the HR committee to discuss banding.
David Rathbone: Are we doing anything to update personnel evaluations to incorporate service to the university as a positive?
Kathy Wong: Service to the university can be included in the current evaluation system –employees can include it as part of your self-evaluation. Whether it’s taken into consider in the supervisor evaluation is up to the department and the individual supervisor.
c. PR Committee (Alison Joseph/Shawna Young)
a. Staff Forum – Oct. 1
b. Food drive at Employee Appreciation Day – benefits go to the Community Table
d. Resources and Environment (Andy Voelker)
a. Exploring some possibilities and soliciting input from others. Looking forward to talking with staff at Staff Forum and Employee Appreciation Day.
Wiley Danner: Why has computer system been so slow lately?
Andy Voelker: We’ve had security issues due to the phishing problem. The IT infrastructure has been stressed and required upgrades. There’s also been a significant increase of use in the system.
Michelle Cooper: Are we still black listed because of the phishing problem?
Andy Voelker: Currently, there are 14 filters being applied to incoming emails. We’re not having as much problem with other email providers, but still have a couple of providers that are black listing WCU. Problems coming from multiple areas and other campuses are experiencing similar problems.
e. Scholarship (Amy McKenzie)
a. Ornaments are in and available at the bookstore/gift store and online.
b. We will have a donation jar at employee appreciation day and faculty/staff appreciation lunch November 9th. The committee will have raffles at each event.
V. Internal Informational Reports
a. Treasurer Report (Paula Carnes-Ashe, Treasurer)
$1,404.63 in discretionary fund, know we have staff forum expenses coming up
b. Staff Assembly Report (Andy Voelker)
Next meeting is in October.
David Rathbone: They are seeking nominations for leadership positions and will be voting new leadership in October.
Andy Voelker: We’ll need to fill Caden’s seat on the Assembly.
c. Chancellor’s Leadership Council Report (Robin Hitch)
Mary Ann Lochner discussed the new Board of Governor’s policy on disclosing money earned outside of WCU. Also, employees can’t use their WCU position to promote political views. There is a committee tasked with reviewing tuition and fees for the upcoming year. It is anticipated that students will see an increase in both tuition and fees.
d. Board of Trustees Report (Caden Painter - absent)
Kathy Wong: Caden shared with the Board of Trustees that the Staff Senate would be devising goals for the upcoming year and report back to the BOT on them.
VI. New Business
a. WCU Strategic Plan
Amy McKenzie: We will be discussing this at the 10/18 mini-retreat.
b. Employee Emergency Fund
Robin Hitch: is this something we want to pursue?
Erin McNelis: I think an account was set up for this.
Kathy Wong: Yes, there was an account set up and payroll deduction for the account has been set up.
Tammy Ammons-Hagberg: Let’s table until we can get a copy of the guidelines and follow up with Legal Affairs and the Development office.
c. Discounts at area businesses for WCU employees
General discussion: If you know of area businesses that give discounts, let Shawna know. We’ll add to the website and include in the newsletter.
d. Staff appreciation days at Courtyard Dining Hall
Robin Hitch: Are we going to do this as a general Staff Senate rather than specific to the Scholarship committee in November?
Amy McKenzie: Do we want to do this once each month?
Will Shivers: It needs to be a PR event for the Staff Senate in general not simply a donation point.
Amy McKenzie/General discussion: The Staff Senate will table every other month beginning in November.
Other Discussion:
Amy McKenzie: What are we going to do about filling the empty seats left by Leah Hampton and Caden Painter?
Andy Voelker: Leah is professional classification and Caden is technical.
Robin Hitch: The bylaws state that we go to the next runner up from the original voting.
Andy Voelker: Jeff Tatham ran voting and should have the names of the next runners up
David Rathbone: We also need to look at filling Caden’s Staff Assembly position.
General discussion: Robin is automatically chair and will take the Staff Assembly position. Joe Philpott will be the alternate.
VII. Old Business
a. Staff Senate goals for 2012-2013
This will be an agenda item at the mini-retreat.
Erin McNelis: The 2011-2012 goals have been good goals for the Staff Senate and good progress has been made.
Staff Senate Goals from 2011-2012
· Build community and spirit
· Improve morale
· Build influence and credibility of Staff Senate – retaining balance
· Increase connection and visibility to staff
b. Budget Advisory Committee – Representatives
Paula Carnes-Ashe, Alison Joseph, David Rathbone, Shawna Young
Paula Carnes-Ashe: We have other committees to fill as well like the Master Plan.
Amy McKenzie: Caden hasn’t taken his new job yet, he’ll be sure to follow up.
c. WCU Suggestion Box – Results and Dissemination
Robin Hitch: We don’t have any update on this.
Erin McNelis: I’ve been trying to touch base with Jason and Caden on this. I’m happy to pull the group back together.
Paula Carnes-Ashe: the Chancellor wants the data summarized in some way
Erin McNelis: Yes, we’ll need to summarize and include full comments minus personal identifiers. Jason was taking notes at the last meeting on this.
Shawna Young: I can contact Jason and we’ll follow up.
d. Robin Hitch: Do we need to nominate Vice Chair now?
General Discussion: let’s wait until the October meeting.
Michelle Cooper: Let’s fill our empty seats and then nominate a vice chair
Shawna Young/Andy Voelker: Andy will contact Jeff Tatham about the names and Shawna will email the runners up.
Next Staff Senate Meeting:
8:30 – 10:30 October 11, 2012
UC Cardinal Room