Staff Advisory Council

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Classified Staff
Advisory Council

Staff Advisory Council General Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, December 4, 2001

PRESENT: Anne Abraham, Tessa Chalberg, Judy Greil, Gordon Groat, Gilbert Guerra, Kathleen Hart, Alice Keith, Barb Lancaster, Robbyn Lennon, Anne Lopez, Paula Lundquist, Candy Maynard, Rosemary Oviedo, Arlene Ozburn, Jose Solorzano, Karen Stanley, Lewis Tenney, Sara Thomas, Lisa Wakefield, Valerie Wunder

ABSENT (Excused): Denyce Berg, Patricia Bub, Carol Gloriosa, Kathleen Huffer, Abner Kalyanmasih, Linda Lee, Patty Piontek, Patricia Stewart-Lopez, Jon Eric Tureaud

GUESTS: Tina Alvarez (LQP), Cathy Nicholson (HR), Dennis St. Germaine, Heather Enos, Beth Riggs

OPENING:

The Meeting convened at 3:08 p.m. Lisa Wakefield welcomed everyone.

PROCESS AGENDA:

II. Treasurer’s Report: Sara stated that expenses have been covered for the Halloween Party and Emily Krauz

III. Executive Board Report: The Board has suggested to inquire of individual College Councils to identify activities that might be spotlighted on the SAC Website. Members from all ASU, NAU and UA participated in Legislative Day an event where they had the opportunity to talk to legislators (5 Democrats and 1 Republican attended). Legislators present support raises for staff.

IV. Human Resource Report: Cathy Nicholson reported that HR is designing a new web page and hopefully it will be up and running in the Spring. She reported as well that the flexible spending enrollment is somewhat small but has increased over last year.

STANDING COMMITTEES

Tri-University Executive Board: Will Meetin March at the U of A Campus. NAU and ASU have asked to include salary adjustments and would like this on the agenda.

Communications: No report

Emily Krauz Scholarship: No report

Employee Recognition: Anne reported that packets have been sent out and encouraged all to participate in this great event. Preparations are on track and going well.

HR Committee: This committee meets the 3^rd Thurs of each month from 12-1:30 in Rm 101G of the Admin Building. Valerie Wunder recommended that SAC establish a standing By-Laws Committee. Two policies were presented for approval of SAC: flexible work time and workplace violence. It was thought that SAC should approve these policies and forward them to Human Resources. A motion was made by Valerie Wunder to approve these two and seconded by Gordon Groat. Motion was passed.

The Workplace Violence policy states that "workplace violence in any form is unacceptable."

The Flexible Alternative Work Arrangement is designed "to recruit and retain qualified employees and to increase organizational productivity and effectiveness ... ." Flexible alternative work arrangements can take several forms, including:

Job sharing, where one full-time position is held by more than one person who shares time and responsibility with another.
Flextime, where the employee enjoys flexible arrival and departure and meal times.
Telecommuting, where the employee works somewhere other than a UA office, such as a home office, and communicates with the workplace using devices such as telephone and computer.
Flexible year positions where employees of departments that wish to make more efficient use of resources during the times of decreased activity during the summer can work 10 months instead of 12 months.

Cathy Nicholson, stated that all policies concerning classified and academic professional employees must go before SAC and APOC before being ruled upon by President Likins and his cabinet. "Anything that HR proposes to implement is first taken to the community for vetting," said Nicholson.

She also said that both policies have now been before other employee organizations, where some changes have been suggested. The policies will now go before University Attorneys who will determine if there are any legal impediments to implementing them.

Then they will go to Vice President for Student Affairs Saundra Taylor, who is also in charge of Human Resources. She will present them to the President's Cabinet.

Legislative Committee: Next week we will need to start contacting our Legislators to keep raises off the block. Economy has been slowing down during the last 2 yrs and 9/11 just sped up the recession. The Session could last until Spring. The Arizona Central Committee (Legislature) has all the articles since they went into session. We need to find a way of reaching out to everyone to contact his or her Legislators.

Membership Committee: Two new members are in process of joining, and one will be coming from Phoenix.

Activities Committee: No report – Linda Lee absent.

UNIVERSITY COMMITTEES:

APOC: No report

Campus Advisory Council: Campus climate report is out and according to students the University is doing a good job.

Faculty Senate: No report

Commission on the Status of Women: No report

Student Union Advisory Board: Building is on schedule but there is a lot of work yet to be done.

(SPBAC): In the process of reviewing salaries.

UCAT: Talked about making sure that performance evaluations are up to date, although the raises are not tied to the performance evaluation.

V. Round Table Discussion

· HR: Merit raises and performance appraisals are handled differently and are very inconsistent. Exit reviews reflect that 30% are leaving their jobs because of bad supervisors or salary.

· Alternative Work Arrangements: Covered above.

· Gordon Groat praised the University on all the resources we have.

· Parking & Transportation Committee – Judy Greil reported about the possibility of North Zone and South Zone parking passes but that they would not be interchangeable.

The meeting adjourned at 5 p.m.

The next general meeting will be Tuesday, Jan 8, 2002.

Respectfully submitted by Paula Lundquist

The Staff Advisory Council would like to thank News Services for portions of these minutes which appeared on LQP on Dec 5, 2001.

Maintained by Communications Committee
SAC Tel: (520) 621-3931