Minutes of Administrative Staff Council
April 3, 2003

Call to Order
Laura Emch called the meeting to order at 1:35.

Members Present
John Clark, Wayne Colvin, Jim Dachik, Carl Dettmer, Laura Emch, Mike Fitzpatrick,
Deb Fleitz, Dave Garcia, Brady Gaskins, Terry Herman, Deborah Knigga, Susan Kozal,
Sue Lau, Lona Leck, Joe Luthman, Sandy Miesmer, Emily Monago, Penny Nemitz, Tom
Scavo, Phyllis Short, Ron Skulas, Robin Veitch, Barbara Waddell, Robert Zhang

Member Substitutes
Greg Dickerson for Sally Johnson. Dawn Burks for Kim Grilliot.

Absent
Ann Betts, Amelie Brogden, Nora Cassidy, Tina Coulter, Dave Crooks, Karen Schwab,
Cindy Smith.

Approval of Minutes
Wayne Colvin moved and John Clark seconded approval of the minutes from
March 6, 2003.

Chair’s Report
The written report submitted by the Chair is reproduced below:
ASC Chair’s Report—April 3, 2003
1) The ASC Executive Team meetings included discussions on FMLA, ASC
Elections, ASC Salary recommendations, and Holiday Closure proposal.
2) A reminder to all that our Spring Reception is on Wednesday, May 14th
from 3:30-5 at 202b Union.
3) On March 12th, I represented ASC and presented at the New Employee
Orientation.
4) Conversations have continued with members of Upper Administration on
BGSU’s plan should the Homeland Security Advisory System be under
HIGH or SEVERE alert status.
5) I represented ASC at the Financial Affairs and Facilities Committee of the
Board of Trustees. Major topics included Auxiliary Improvement projects,
Easements for the Wooster Street Widening, the Hillcrest Renovation, and
the Master Campus Plan.
6) On April 1st, I presented to the Board of Trustees an update of ASC
activities.
In addition, Laura mentioned that if the nation goes to a Severe alert status, the University would
not close as it is a residential community. More harm than good would be done if the University
closed and students had to make arrangements to get home.
She said money for the renovation of the President’s home are coming from the Foundation, not
from the operating budget.
Laura handed out materials concerning the Higher Education Funding Rally and a presentation
Dr. Linda Dobb gave to the Board of Trustees on collaboration efforts at the University.

Vice Chair’s Report: None

Secretary’s Report
Nominations for Council and University standing committees are being accepted.
Deadline is April 11. Nominations are now being taken for officers for Council and
Executive Council.

Committee Reports:

Amendments: None

Awards and Special Recognition:
Deb Fleitz stated that they are in their third week of accepting nominations for BG Best
award. Currently they are concerned because they have only received one nomination.
John Clark suggested that they might get more if applications could be available in the
various offices across campus. Deb replied that they are trying to use the web as a source
for applications in order to save resources. It was decided that a reminder would be sent
out through the listproc with a direct link to the web in it.

External Affairs: None.

Internal Affairs: None

Personnel Welfare: None.

Professional Development:
The professional development sessions occurred earlier today. Because of competing
events such as the Classified Staff Receptions, the committee felt that the event was not
as well attended as last year.

Salary: Dave Garcia reported that they are moving forward with a proposal for salaries to
include the following:
a.) Mention that all groups should get a raise, if any are given. Faculty getting raises and not
other constituencies would be viewed as problematic.
b.) Proposal for across the board raise of $1500 will be made with 2% merit available.
c.) Proposal to increase pay ranges on paper.
A question on whether pay range increases were supposed to occur automatically was asked. It
was indicated that the ranges increase at the request of Administrative Staff Council.
Scholarship:
Applications have been distributed for committee members to review. They have $3600
to give, of which on scholarship much be $1000. The had 74 applications for the
scholarships.

Faculty Senate:
John Clark reported that the Senate had not met since the last ASC meeting.

Classified Staff:
Ron Skulas reported that he was in Columbus and unable to attend the last CCS meeting.

Old Business:
Holiday Closing Policy
Laura Emch explained that the proposed policy is to make the Friday after New Year’s
Day a mandatory day off for which staff will have to take some type of vacation time or
leave without pay. Earlier in that week (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) departments
may choose to close if their Vice President deems it possible. Again, time would have to
be taken to cover the days the department is closed. Laura stated that the intent of the
policy to give smaller areas without much public traffic the flexibility to close.
Sandy Miesmer stated that such a policy would be hard to administer. It would also be
hard for offices that had to remain open to know what other offices were open for
services.
Laura stated she was not sure where CSC was on the policy. The Executive Council and
HR have discussed it. There was not a clear feeling if closing would represent any
monetary savings. The proposal originated in CSC, and there were HR facilitated
meetings with representatives from both constituencies.

New Business

FMLA – First Reading
After general discussion concerning the definitions of family being proposed, Joe
Luthman made a motion to add the clause “and for those for whom an employee is a legal
guardian”. The proposed change would be brought forward to HR.
There was a question of whether the issue of domestic partner had been addressed. Laura
indicated that it had and the response for HR was that the federal law did not cover
domestic partners.
Larry Weiss – Associate Vice President, University Relations and Governmental
Affairs
Larry Weiss met with Council to explain the critical nature of the budget situation for
higher education and urged all staff to take the time to contact legislatures regarding the
impact additional cuts would have on the quality of education provided by BGSU. He
said that one proposal would cut budgets for higher education by $400 million over the
next two years. He indicated that budget cuts have been easy for legislators as they do
not hear the public outcry over them as they do over other cuts (or proposed increases).

Adjournment
Adjournment was moved and seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.