Thursday, November 5, 1998

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

Corrections to Minutes: Marilyn Braatz was present at the October 1, 1998 meeting.

On the issue of parking privileges: Parking Services asked ASC to bring up the issue of parking for retired faculty and staff. Ramona Cormier asked that ASC support parking privileges for retired classified, faculty, and administrative staff members. Discussion followed.

President Ribeau was the guest speaker. He discussed the following issues:

On the issue of core values: President Ribeau asked that ASC share with their colleagues the vision and core values statements of BGSU. It seems that not all staff are familiar with these statements.

On the issue of making BGSU a premier learning community: Assessment of the academic and non-academic programs will be continuing. The assessment of the faculty starts with the departments formulating and evaluating their goals and objectives; then to the external reviewers (one from the respective department and two from the administration); the report then goes to a faculty committee for a reading; and finally, funding for the department will depend on the report and recommendations.

Dr. Ribeau said that both faculty and staff salaries need to be more competitive. He wants to present a 5-year plan to raise faculty and staff salaries to the Board of Trustees. To do so he wants input from faculty, classified, and administrative staff that compares salaries with similar institutions. So far the ASC has CUPA data for comparison. President Ribeau said that the $500,000 set aside that comes from the increased enrollment (2.5% annual growth is the goal), residence hall occupancy, tuition, state subsidy (we expect a 4% increase) etc.

The money is independent from the salary pool allocated by the Board of Trustees for faculty and staff. The objective for faculty salaries is an increase to the 70th percentile of peer institutions. For ASC, the benchmark is not known yet.

The plans from faculty, classified, and administrative staff will be put into a plan which will be circulated for suggestions before it is presented to the Board of Trustees in late winter or early spring.

President Ribeau also discussed the fact that we must prepare ourselves for the next 5-10 years and where the university should be at that time with an eye to the increasing of revenue. President Ribeau pointed out that we are funded by full-time enrollment by the state. The rest of the resources (ex. tuition, fees, and what students spend at the university (ex. bookstore)).

The emphasis is on student recruitment and retention. The university has met the challenge by increasing freshman enrollment by 22% with an increase in net enrollment of 2%. The 5-10 year plan is to keep systematically increasing the enrollment to 17,500 FTE till we get to the enrollment cap of 19,000-20,000 students. Our admissions outlook is to try to get the same number of applications with an eye to being more selective in the future.

New Business: Discussion followed President Ribeau’s comments about forming a committee to study compensation.

Personnel Welfare Committee's Proposal: A Rationale for Placement / Progression in the Administrative Staff Compensation Plan.
The motion to forward the forward the Personnel Welfare Committee's proposal to the new Committee was passed by the ASC.
The proposal included:
Administrative staff employed at the University for 4-6 years be adjusted to the first quartile. Those employed with BGSU for seven years receive salary adjustments to the midpoint.
The above would be a one-time adjustment of salaries and would place all administrative staff on an equal par as we move toward 100% merit-based performance.

The proposal included three scenarios (one year, two year, and three years) to correct the placement issue along with the associated cost of each scenario.

The Personnel Welfare Committee recommended the one-year scenario in which all salary placement adjustments are made at one time. The current year is the best time to correct these placement issues before 100% merit is implemented for the 1999 salary year.

Scenario two has the administrative staff who have worked for more than 10 years without reaching the midpoint of their salary range would reach that midpoint during the first year. During the second year, salaries of staff who have worked for seven to nine years would reach the midpoint, while those of staff who have worked for four to six years would be placed in the first quartile.

Scenario three has administrative staff members who have worked for the university for more than 10 years would be placed at the midpoint during the first year. Staff members who have worked for 7 to 9 years would be adjusted to the midpoint during the second year. During the third year, those who have worked for 4 to 6 years would be adjusted to the first quartile. The cost would be the same as the first two scenarios.

For all scenarios the estimated costs will change but there are certain constant factors:
(1) funding needed to move people in the range is allocated from sources other than future administrative salaries.
(2) movement of the pay ranges would be frozen until staff placement is corrected. People will still be able to move within the ranges.
(3) future movement of the ranges would be based on a market survey done by human resources every three years. Therefore, the ranges would be frozen for two years, then adjusted during the third year.

There was concern about those people who are close to the top of their range. What would happen to them if the ranges are frozen in terms of motivation within their job? Rebecca Ferguson, Assistant Vice President, Human Resources, had suggested bonuses as an option to keep good employees.
It was mentioned that Human Resources will have a web site that will be up in January with salary information.
The proposal for the rationale was voted on and passed.

Committee Reports:

External Affairs: Marilyn Braatz called for participants for the Holiday Parade to march, donate candy,
and make signs.

Awards and Special Recognitions: Laura Waggoner reported that the committee met for the first time.

Salary: Calvin Williams and the committee may help by providing data for President Ribeau.

Professional Development: The committee is resurrecting the Professional Connections group which matches new administrative hires with mentors to help in the adjustment to their new jobs.

Scholarship: has met twice. The members are looking to find prizes and strategies.

Ad Hoc Committee on Administrative Staff Teaching Compensation Policies: Jan Peterson and the committee are formulating recommendations.

Amendments, Internal Affairs, and Professional Development committees, Chair, Chair-Elect and Secretary: no reports.

For the Good of the Order: Claudia Clark said that a grief group will meet for students on Monday from 6-7:30 at the Counseling Center.

Old Business: none

A motion was made to adjourn by Mary Beth Zachary and seconded by Shelly Appelbaum. The meeting adjourned at 3:10.