Chancellor's Staff Advisory Committee Meeting

Minutes

March 17, 1999

 

Members present: Steve Honeycutt, Jan Scroggs, Mary Chakales, Roger Penley, Maggie Smith, Mary O'Day, Mike Honeycutt, Richard White, Delacy Bradsher, Elise Henshaw, Steve Parrott, Charles Shivers, Marilyn Lonon, Terry Bailey, Kathy Higdon, Anthony Thomas, and Linda Franklin, staff liaison. Absent: Nancy Williams, Melanie Rhodarmer, Harold Johnson. Others in attendance: Doug Geister, acting director, Human Resources.

The meeting was called to order at 1:37 in Room 37, Highsmith Center by the chair, Steve Honeycutt. Minutes of the last meeting were approved.

Steve asked for input on what he should include in his presentation to the Faculty Senate on April 8th. Issues suggested: staff morale, including equity in salaries, treatment, evaluations (Steve reported that UPC passed a resolution that vice chancellors be evaluated on an annual basis), and promotions; shared governance - employees having a say in the governing of the university; span of control; explain establishment of CSAC. Important to keep the tone so we don't appear confrontational or like we're attempting to intrude on their territory.

Turnout at the staff session for the first chancellor candidate was good and elicited lots of comments. The new chancellor probably will be named, and be present, at the April 9th Board of Governors meeting. Steve requested everyone give feedback to the search committee. At least two names must be submitted, alphabetically and without ranking, to system president, Molly Broad.

The next newsletter should include the promotion policy information gathered by Marilyn Lonon (Do we want to use this as information only or submit as a recommendation to the chancellor?), a chart showing a salary comparison of UNCA to other schools in the system, and information from a Citizen/Times article on state salaries in Asheville. Marilyn suggested that we print the e-mail addresses for our legislators and encourage staff to make their opinions and concerns known. The "Did You Know" section of the newsletter has generated a great deal of interest. The last issue of the academic year will include a scorecard, i.e., what we've proposed and what's been done.

A sufficient number of people volunteered to run in the upcoming CSAC election. Of 297 ballots mailed out, 151 have been returned. Steve Parrot, who was serving a two-year term, and Charles Shivers, serving a one-year term, have switched terms.

Doug Geister, Human Resources acting director, reported on the selection process for the new HR director. Campus input on the desirable qualifications has been solicited through focus groups and e-mail. Some of the comments have concerned the issue of pay, leave reports, training and development, and that the director be open, flexible, and gain the confidence and trust of campus. Human Resources is working on a set of UNCA values using the university's mission statement.

Steve, reporting on his meeting with the Chancellor's Council, said they have a difficult time believing that there are some supervisors who will not let employees attend workshops, etc. Dr. Reed asked, and Steve agreed, to let the VCs know which areas are concerned.

Regarding Mike Honeycutt's proposed staff scholarship, Mary Chakales said the scholarship can be identified as a CSAC Scholarship and the money can be kept separate. We can put the parameters on the scholarship and we can recommend to Financial Aid who gets the scholarship. The question was posed, do we want to add to the staff solicitation letter with a box to check for CSAC?

It was suggested that we set a deadline of May 1st of each year to make the award for the fall semester and have a subcommittee to evaluate applications. Vehicles for announcing to students could include Financial Aid Office and flyers. Linda suggested that someone from CSAC contact Appalachian State whose staff have awarded a scholarship for years.

The holiday 2000 schedule was discussed and will be voted on at the next meeting.

The format for the Staff Forums will consist of brief comments by Steve, reports from each subcommittee chair, Terry Bailey, Mike, and Maggie Smith, followed by a question and answer period. Richard White and Delacy Bradsher will handle the salary issue. Nancy Williams will moderate the forums. The second forum on April 1st will be shortened to one hour (11 a.m. to 12 p.m.), with the first hour devoted to the staff session with the last chancellor candidate.

Terry reported for the Morale Committee: the policy for snow days is a state-mandated policy and, although faculty and students are not required to come, staff are expected to come to work or take leave time; the search for a Director of Human Resources has a lot of staff focus, the span of control issue is coming up again. Arthur Foley has volunteered to come to the April 22 meeting to talk about this and what we can expect. When this issue was first addressed, we had one supervisor per 4.33 employees resulting in a budget cut of $35,600. The current goal is one supervisor 5.4 employees. The vice chancellors project that one per six may be the next goal, with an ultimate goal of one per eight. A permanent state office is being set-up to study span of control. The evaluation of vice chancellors is an issue expected to surface again. Leave reports may be computerized soon.

New business:

WEB access for employees to view their Human Resources data.

We need to review the by-laws. Mike, Elise, and Mary O'Day volunteered to serve on a by-laws committee.

Maggie has a list, furnished by Tom Byers, of eight committees upon which we will investigate staff representation. All are Faculty Senate committees. We need to determine each committee's purpose and, if it has campus-wide focus, we would like to have staff representation. The University Planning Council is one of the committees to investigate for staff representation. The list from Academic Affairs comprises about 50 committees. We will look at these next month to determine to which of these we feel it is appropriate for us to seek representation.

 

The next meeting will be April 22nd at 1:30 in Highsmith 37.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Elise Henshaw, Secretary