Minutes of Administrative Staff Council Meeting

December 7, 2000

Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 1:35 by Chair, Mary Beth
Zachary. She welcomed the 3 new Reps: Sandra DiCarlo, Susan Sadoff, and Tom Scavo

Members Present: Linda Bakkum, Colby Blair, Pat Booth, Nora Cassidy, Sidney Childs, John Clark, Wayne Colvin, Sandra DiCarlo, Deborah Fleitz, David Garcia, Keith Hofacker, Tony Howard, Thad Long, Paul Lopez, Jane B. Myers, Keith Pogan, Mary Lynn Pozniak, Cheryl Purefoy, Susan Sadoff, Anne Saviers, Tom Scavo, Diane Smith, Jack Taylor, Nancy Vanderlugt, Robin Veitch, Mary Beth Zachary

Members who sent substitutes: Joyce Blinn for Sally Dreier, Beth Long for Laura Emch, David Garcia for Kay Gudehus

Absent: Ann Betts, Claudia Clark, Sandra Miesmer, Penny Nemitz, Pamella
Phillips, Barbara Waddell

Guests: Rebecca Ferguson, Patrick Kelly, Donna Wittwer, and Doug Kruzel,
(Office of Human Resources); Paul Yon (Archival Collections)

Guest Speakers from the Office of Human Resources Rebecca Ferguson
Rebecca Ferguson introduced Office of Human Resources staff members Patrick Kelly and Donna Wittwer from the Benefits/Compensation area; and Doug Kruzel from the Employment/Employee Relations area. She called our attention to the information sheet that was distributed which details the various areas within the office and gives names and contact information for the staff within these areas.

Donna Wittwer
Donna Wittwer spoke next and began by giving an overview of the areas within the Office of Human Resources. The Benefits area is currently working with the results of the open enrollment period for health insurance. The new plans will go into effect on January 1. Next year everyone must fill out enrollment forms for health insurance. The Health Wellness Committee will analyze benefits and eligibility. Health care costs have increased due to prescription drug cost increases that are a result of direct marketing to consumers by drug manufacturers.

The Employment/Employee Relations area works with Classified and
Administrative Staff. The manager of this area, Doug Kruzel is currently
working with the ASC Salary Committee regarding teaching compensation for Administrative Staff.

The Records area works with personnel files, Classified and Administrative
Staff handbooks, performance evaluations, and leaves including FMLA. One issue the area will work on is spousal use of FMLA when both work at BGSU. Another project for the area will be to identify and compare all forms of leave across the three employee groups, examine similarities and differences, and note reasons for the differences. There will be also be two people from each of the three constituent groups working on this project.

Darlene Whipple and Kate Augustine staff the Training and Development area.

-Compensation
Wittwer then addressed compensation issues. Scott Cook from Mercer was hired to look at positions, especially those that are not competitive with the market. Two areas that are being looked at are ITS and Development. Some possible results could be that separate pay ranges are established for these areas or perhaps market adjustments are given. Caps are currently an issue because pay ranges were frozen. A question was raised as to why Administrative Staff are the only group with caps. The question was raised as to whether or not there is a percentile target for Administrative Staff salaries. There is not.

Wittwer next discussed the Administrative Compensation report she prepared for this meeting. The information presented is a scatter gram snapshot of the November payroll. Interim positions are not included because they skew the data. The report compares the number of years in current position to salary for 510 Administrative Staff members. This is shown by grade. The top of each grade chart is higher than the cap in order to allow those above the cap to be included. Discussion during the presentation included a variety of points. The observation was made that there is a preponderance of staff below the salary midpoint. The point was raised that there are several new hires who are earning more than those with more years in position. Wittwer said that in some cases the person could have been re-graded or the new staff may have had a lot of prior experience. The point was raised that there could be someone in a position
for several years and someone new with similar experience is hired for more
money. A suggestion was made to color code the dots in the report to
differentiate those who were new to BGSU from those whose were already at BGSU and their positions were reevaluated. A question was asked about how to reevaluate a position. Wittwer suggested that a good time to reevaluate the Job Analysis Questionnaire would be at the time of the Performance Evaluation if it is shown that there is a need. The signature of the supervisor is required for a reevaluation. The observation was made that there is a shelf between those with 7 years or less and those with 9 years or more in position. One reason for this could be the fact that those positions occupied with the same person for 9 or more years were examined during the first year of the Administrative Compensation Plan. The point was raised that although ASC may want to look at years of service, the administration does not. They want to look at merit. Also, if someone moved from a Classified Staff position to an Administrative Staff position, only the years in the Administrative Staff position were taken
into account. Wittwer said that Human Resources is also looking at staff whose positions have not been reevaluated since 1994 to see if the positions are in the appropriate grade level. When looking at positions, there are 2 issues. The first is the grade of the position, which measures the value of the position. The second issue is the salary, which has to do with the value of the person in that position. The observation was made that the University is not doing market reviews of positions unless a person receives an offer elsewhere or there is a request for a market review from a University vice president. It was mentioned that PERS has increased benefits for those with more than 30 years of service in order to encourage staff to work longer and that there are possible changes for new hires regarding defined benefit. The concluding point was made that the goal is to work toward fairness in Administrative Staff salaries.

Approval of Minutes: Cheryl Purefoy moved, Keith Pogan seconded, and the minutes were approved as distributed.

Reorder meeting agenda
Mary Beth Zachary asked that the meeting agenda be reordered so that the Performance Evaluation revision could be discussed next. Keith Hofacker moved, David Garcia seconded, and it was approved to reorder the agenda.

Old Business:
- Performance Evaluation revision
There was discussion regarding the revision. Mary Beth Zachary shared
feedback that she received after the document was sent to the ASC listproc. There was concern that there is not enough consistency across campus. Inge Klopping said that the reason for developing the new document was that a survey of Administrative Staff found that the previous document was overbearing and not appropriate to units. Therefore each unit created a merit document. The Performance Evaluation document is designed to be used in conjunction with the unit merit documents. Determination of merit and super merit is addressed within the unit merit document. Some units created a merit document without
employee input. If an employee feels the document is not fair, this concern
should be addressed within the unit. Units should be encouraged to periodically review their merit documents. Employees who feel they were not treated fairly in the evaluation process can contact Rebecca Ferguson or Doug Kruzel. Keith Hofacker called the question and the revised Performance Evaluation document was accepted. Inge Klopping, Judy Donald, John Clark, Doug Kruzel, Beverly Stearns, and Karen Woods were thanked for the work they did to produce this document as members of the Performance Evaluation Revision Committee.

Chair Report:
Mary Beth Zachary reported that she attended meetings with the Executive Committee, Human Resources, and the Constituent Group Caucus. Zachary issued a reminder that the next ASC meeting is January 4th in the Pallister Conference Room with guest John Folkins.

Executive Committee:
The Executive Committee discussed, at length, what needs to be discussed with Human Resources. Topics are below in the notes of the meeting with Human Resources. Strategies were chosen to complete the membership of council. It worked. We filled council seats in the areas of Firelands, Technology, and Student Support. Looked at the Council's budget, this year's expenditures, and potential expenditures prompted by a request for funds for the ice cream social. We decided to draft a "philosophy of compensation" in bullet form for consideration by the President's Compensation Group.

Human Resources:
Most discussions encompassed the information to be presented to the Council on December 7th. Topics to be addressed briefly include: An update on work with Mercer; year 3 of the compensation plan; and overall admin staff compensation picture (perhaps in the form of scatter-grams); health insurance challenges and open enrollment; FMLA; performance evaluation; teaching compensation; changes in % of PERS payments after 30 years of service; violence in the workplace. The appropriate ASC committees will follow up on topics that require pursuit.

Constituent Group Caucus:
Zachary and John Clark attended the Constituent Group Caucus meeting on
November 30. See the minutes, which are included in the Chair-Elect report.

Chair-Elect Report:
John Clark reported that he has heard from H.R. Director Ferguson and from
Faculty Senate Chair Chiarelott that the President's Compensation Group is
engaged in developing a philosophy of compensation for BGSU employees. Clark also distributed minutes from the November 30 Constituent Group Caucus meeting.

Minutes from Constituent Group Caucus 11/30/00
In attendance: Popovich (USG), Zawodny (CSC), Tracy (CSC), Chiarelott (FS), Clark (ASC), Zachary (ASC), Dietrich (GSS)

The meeting convened at approximately 10:00 a.m.

First, Chiarelott shared his intention to meet with President Ribeau in the
next week to present a Faculty Senate concern: lack of formal representation by the leadership of the employee constituencies in the President's Compensation Group. Faculty Senate's position, that the discussions of the Compensation Group should include leadership from the three employee constituencies, was approved (as presented by Chiarelott) by CGC representatives from Classified Staff Council and Administrative Staff Council.

Next, Zachary brought up an invitation from Rebecca Ferguson in Human
Resources. Ferguson is seeking two volunteers from each employee constituency, who would then join with H.R. representatives to form an ad hoc committee for studying, analyzing, and potentially rewriting policy documents regarding all forms of employee leaves. Chiarelott requested that Zachary ask H.R. for a formal invitation to each constituent group, which Zachary said she would do.

Classified, Administrative, and Faculty representatives at today's meeting
agreed that the proposed committee and its charge can be beneficial and deserve our support.

Then, reporting an ongoing concern of USG, Popovich discussed meetings of the Academic Advising Committee and their conversations aimed at improving student advising support. As Popovich reported, a forum to explore these concerns recently ended without significant resolution, but the student government representatives at that meeting and the deans and other administrative representatives who also took part intend to continue their efforts until progress is made. Several issues have arisen in discussions to this point, but each will require further exploration.

On the topic of a potential Wellness Initiative (primarily targeting employee
groups at the university), Zawodny and Tracy were unsure whether Classified Staff are being represented on the Health Care Task Force. Zachary volunteered to research the membership of that group and to communicate this information to CGC. [She has now done so; members of the Task Force are Steve Horowitz, Donna Wittwer, Joanne Navin, Carney Strange, Cathy Swick, and Barb Keeley.] CGC representatives then briefly discussed a draft of a Wellness Resolution survey, faxed earlier on 11/30 to Zachary, from Barb Keeley. Zawodny mentioned her constituency's interest in free employee use of exercise facilities on campus, but, as Zachary related, a source in H.R. has already told her that our university budget will not support this additional benefit. In conclusion, CGC members concluded that small beginnings would be best for the Wellness Project, and that the survey would benefit from an initial disclaimer (e.g., "not every idea on this survey necessarily will be enacted, and not necessarily simultaneously").
On the topic of a Catastrophic Sick Leave Pool, Zachary suggested that the issue might be folded into the charge of the incipient Employee Leave Policies subcommittee. CGC agreed.

Regarding a potential coalition for health care with other regional
institutions, Zachary reported H.R.'s conclusion: Our health care benefits being the best among our region's institutions, we would only lose by a general-area consortium. Chiarelott also mentioned that the other regional institutions are themselves lukewarm about the idea.

Dietrich then reported conversations GSS has had with Bruce Edwards and Ed Whipple (separately) regarding improved support for International Graduate Students. Focus groups and other concerted efforts at determining appropriate approaches will be conducted in the spring, according to Dietrich. As well, Dietrich reported that Georgia Folkins, wife of our Provost John Folkins, will assume a new post as Interim Graduate Student Coordinator on Dec. 1st and will be housed in the Student Affairs area. One of her major duties in this position, Dietrich noted, will be to aid International GAs, but the broad-perspective focus of her position will be to aid all graduate students at the university. GSS has a list of issues they will be presenting to Ms. Folkins at their earliest opportunity.

On the agenda item "Diversity Issues," Zachary suggested that the Affirmative Action office, and specifically Barbara Waddell, have been mandated by President Ribeau to show university areas and hiring committees how to better recruit, promote, and retain employee diversity. In this regard, Popovich noted that the Campus Diversity Committee, on which he serves, has recently restructured into several issue-oriented subcommittees, each targeting diversity efforts in different aspects/elements of the university situation. Meetings of these
subcommittees will resume after winter break.

As a final item, Dietrich announced that GSS will propose Faculty/Staff
parking permits--or at least, such permits with limitations--for Graduate
Teaching Assistants during the term of their teaching at the university. Pros and cons of this issue were briefly discussed by CGC members.

Respectfully submitted by John M. Clark

--Administrative Staff Council