Thursday, Oct. 1, 1998

Members Present: Shelly Appelbaum, Craig Bedra, Joyce Blinn, Deborah Boyce, Marilyn Braatz, Deb Burris, Sidney Childs, Claudia Clark, John Clark, Mike Failor, Pat Green, Linda Hamilton, John Hartung, Keith Hofacker, Paul Lopez, Gene Palmer, Jan Peterson, Mary Lynne Pozniak, Bonita Sanders-Bembry, Jane Schimpf, Matt Webb, Deb Wells, Duane Whitmire, Calvin Williams, Mary Beth Zachary

Members Absent: James Elsasser, Diane Cherry, Sharon Hanna, Dawn Mays, Penny Nemitz, Cheryl Purefoy, Jan Ruffner, Time Smith, Kurt Thomas, Robin Veitch, Laura Waggoner

Substitutes: Colby Blair substituting for William Blair Anita Knauss substituting for Judy Donald
Amy Prigge substituting for Sanda LaGro

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 1:34 p.m. by ASC Chair Deb Boyce.

Corrections to minutes: John Clark was not informed of the first meeting, so he was not absent for that meeting. The "Cooper" data referred to in the minutes is actually CUPA (College and University Personnel Association) which annually publishes a survey of administrative staff compensation. With regard to the discussion of the resolution on the off-campus Internet access fee, the constituent groups are defined as the Graduate Student Senate, Undergraduate Student Government, Faculty Senate, Classified Staff Council, and Administrative Staff Council.

Approval of Minutes: A movement was made to approve the minutes, John Hartung seconded, and the minutes were approved as amended.

Dr. Charles Middleton was invited by the ASC to help clarify and answer questions about a number of issues raised by ASC.

Introductory remarks: Dr. Middleton expressed pleasure at the increase in the size of the freshman class, the filled residence halls, and that the University is retaining more students from year to year than in past years. He also said that the administration's goal is to keep moving along.

On the issue of Communication: ASC is concerned that access to the president and the provost seems to have decreased compared to previous years. For example, some of the standing committees who dialogued with the president and provost were meeting less frequently or not at all. Dr. Middleton responded that in the interest of providing accurate information in a timely manner, his office had established a Provost's Question Box. Administrative staff members are to forward issues, concerns, or rumors to the chair of ASC, who will then forward them on without attribution to the Provost's Question Box. Responses will then be forwarded to the listproc. The president's meeting with University employees will continue into the spring semester. Dr. Middleton indicated that the president wanted to meet with the faculty first, so that is why staff members in the College of Arts and Sciences had been told that they would be meeting with the president at a later date.

On the issue of merit: Dr. Middleton said that the Board of Trustees had passed a resolution in May 1997 to have faculty and administrative staff evaluations to be 100% merit based. In response to ASC concerns about the fact that 100% merit is not defined, he said that merit is linked to whether the job performance adds to university quality. There are three tiers to merit: minimum performance (whereby an individual does not get merit, but keeps his job, anticipated to be no more than 1-2 percent of the employee base), a threshold above minimum performance, and extraordinary merit. Those who meet the threshold receive an average of 3%. Any raise money that is available above 3% would go to the small pool of employees who show extraordinary merit. No criteria has yet been established in administrative units and departments for what is meant by performance "above and beyond." Dr. Middleton added that the next pay raise is based on 100% merit.

On the issue of faculty-staff compensation: Dr. Middleton indicated that merit and placement are not integrated issues, and that one could be done without the other. He emphasized that merit pay raises are independent of the money set aside by President Ribeau for upward adjustments in salary. This commitment is meant to reward long-time employees whose salaries, through no fault of their own, have been losing ground to inflation and compare unfavorably with the base salaries of new hires. The president wants a five-year plan to implement this commitment, and will be setting up a blue-ribbon panel to give him recommendations. He indicated that that movement win be career-based merit, and not necessarily based on longevity, with the goal being to favor people whose contributions to the well-being of the University are greatest over time.

With regard to the Internet Access issue: Dr. Middleton indicated that the administration has no position on what's best -- and that they were open to proposed solutions, given certain facts. He reported that the ITC budgets in the past were based on certain assumptions: that long distance calls would continue to provide revenue for the modem access, that remote access users would not be growing exponentially, and that even increasing the number of modems would not be saturated. Dr. Middleton said that the revenue is down for long distance calls because of e-mail. Even the additional modems added have reached the saturation point. The ITC budget is running in the red. Money would be needed from another source to continue to offer free access. Undergrad fees cannot be raised because of a state cap. Also, undergraduates in dorms already pay the fees. The other option would be to re-direct funds from somewhere else in the university. Dr. Middleton welcomed suggestions.

Dr. Middleton also indicated that there would be 15 users per modem, and that Sprint had guaranteed that users will not encounter the busy signals and slow service that users are currently experiencing.

Discussion followed. There was an uncertainty as to when the 100% merit policy goes into effect because the Personnel Welfare Committee had received conflicting information from various sources. Also, discussed was the need to address administrative staff members' placement in the salary grades first so that their raises can be figured on a new salary base.

Chair's Report: Deb, on behalf of ASC, again congratulated John Hartung on receiving the 1998 Michael R. Ferrari Award. Also, Educational Forums for all employees remain a carry-over issue for the Constituent Groups' Caucus. Deb and Paul will be meeting with the Board of Trustees at their monthly meeting at BGSU.

Chair-Elect’s Report: no report

Secretary's Report: no report

Committee Reports:
Personnel Welfare Committee: is continuing to work on the career-based placement issue -- getting those individuals whose salaries fall below the mid-point of their salary classification into their appropriate quartile.

Amendments, External Affairs, Awards and Special Recognitions, Internal Affairs, Professional Development, Salary, Scholarship, and the Ad Hoc Committee on Administrative Staff Teaching Compensation Policies: no reports

Old Business: none

New Business: none

Meeting adjourned at 3:42 p.m. A motion was made to adjourn and was seconded by Mary Beth Zachary.

Joyce Blinn, Secretary, ASC