Staff Senate Minutes

October 31, 2003

 

 

I.          Call to Order – Brenda Stanley called the meeting to order at 9am. In attendance were: Brenda Boggs, Jeff Canada, Gary Grodzicki, Judy Lowe, Iva Riggin,  Brenda Stanley, Melissa Thomas and Judy Twilley.

Absent: Joey Faulkner, Byron Hughes, Bob Maddux, Kathy Pusey and Jeannette Schadler.

 

II.        Minutes – October 10, minutes were reviewed with the following changes: Section VI New Business, Item A RFP Vending should read: There is a three-part RFP out for vending services.  Part one consists of fountain/soda; part two is non-vending retail and part three is vending. With no further changes, the minutes were approved.

 

III.       Old Business –Committees – Melissa stated that all positions needs to be filled.  Staff Senate Committees -No nominations for Communications/Public Relations and Membership/ Elections committees, however she has received plenty for the Human Resources/Payroll Committee. University Forum eight out of fourteen positions still need to be filled.  Melissa voiced her concern that if we did not have staff active on committees we will loose representatives.  This is mostly due to collective bargaining.  We need voice and opinions at these meetings where faculty is strongly based.  It was mentioned/suggested at the University Forum that the role of the forum body is done away, and to restructure or integrate forum committees and refer to them as faculty/staff collaborations or joint committees.

Elections to start as soon as possible, will give staff till Wednesday, November 5 to turn in nominations.

Collective Bargaining – Meeting with President Eshbach and Executive staff to discuss collective bargaining and the affects of staff.  Anyone that Staff Senate represents, all exempt employees, contingent I and II and all non-exempt employees not covered by union. Anyone that has access to personnel records, private/confidential information is excluded from union representation. There is a compiled list of 40-50 non-exempt employees not covered.  By-laws already changed to reflect that.  We are in the beginning stages laying out ground rules. MOU negotiations may start late December early January. Assuming all is fine with negotiations and is signed into effect, there is a two-year contract before a talk of re-negotiations.  Technically, collective bargaining is not into effect but we are acting on good faith as if MOU is in effect.  This is the reason for open forum so we can identify who is or isn’t covered under collective bargaining and Staff Senate. Employees covered by collective bargaining cannot be excluded from these meetings but we can control discussion participation regarding, wage, working conditions, etc.

 

Meeting Adjourned

Respectfully Submitted

Iva Riggin, Secretary

 

Staff Senate Open Meeting

October 31, 2003

Minutes

 

I.          Call to Order – Brenda Stanley called to order the first Staff Senate open meeting at 9:30am and introduced the executive members.  Brenda then gave an agenda of today’s meeting starting with an overview of the budget, union/collective bargaining representation, strategic planning, search committee update, university forum representation and a follow-up with open discussion for other issues.  Dr. David Buchanan and Mr. Richard Pusey are the guest speakers today.

 

II.        Richard Pusey –

            A. Revenue - Fiscal year 03 (6/30/03) has been closed.  State side closed in black while auxiliary side closed with a negative. $3.4 million w2as transferred out of auxiliary state support side to balance last years budget. Auxiliary made up more than half of that which is a good thing.  As we approach this fiscal year, which ends 6/30/04, he can describe that we are in a balanced budget situation. Actually there is another large reversion of $1.4 million due to state allocations and latest round of lay-offs.  We are in pretty good shape for the year.  There are some unknowns (wild cards) out there.  We have a major tuition increase.  We hit enrollment projections with $24,000 under  what was anticipated.  Fewer enrollments create savings, no overload on contract provisions.

            B. Expenditures – Appears to be ok due to budget cuts, layoffs and positions frozen. A particular area of concern is utilities. If we should have a very cold winter and there is price escalation this could create a $200,000 issue.

            C. State Revenues -  Since major cuts from state money, the state is trying to predict what their revenue projections will be to finance the state and give subsidy to institutions like Salisbury University. They have to be creative. Unless revenue picks up in next few months, there could be another reversion. Mr. Pusey feels this is remote because the last round of cuts rolled into next fiscal year of 05 to help balance $800,000 to a billion dollar problem that year.  There have been some federal dollars from Busch tax cuts rolled into state to help offset this. If we do go thru a reversion again this year, it would not be at a magnitude as what we have experienced the past 18 months.

            D. Fiscal Year 05 – In the normal budget process. Last budget cuts can rollover same as last year.  Downside - fixed level of cost increases $2.4 million if we maintain same level of service.  To create revenue, tuition should cover 05’s budget.  Supplemental budget request for 05 is $61,000,000.  Likelihood of this being approved without revenue stream is almost impossible. There will probably be another round of discussions about increase of tuition and an increase in operating budgets.  $1.9 million set aside for SU. This will have an impact on our budget if not approved by Legislators. Worst may be over but not totally. 

            E. Budget, Wage Increase – 2.5% increase has been requested in budget. Don’t know if it will be approved. COLA is very unlikely because it’s never budgeted by submission. Done as lump sum.  Need new revenue stream.

            F. Collective Bargaining – MCEA certified. Have been working on MOU for University Police past nine months. MOU should be set in January and at that time Board of Regents has to approve ratification, then to Legislators for approval it if any new monies is involved. Non-exempt, going thru process need representatives to sit in on

 

Staff Senate Open Meeting

October 31, 2003

Minutes

 

 

F. Collective Bargaining – Continued,

negotiations.  Less intense process since the base and guidelines have already been established for U.P. This may be completed in next fiscal year.

 

III. Dr. David Buchanan –

            A. Strategic Planning – Reformulation  - Adopting final language and prioritize list of 4 goals and 39 objectives (distilled down from 400) proposed deadline is November 17th.  A meeting is setup on November 11th to discuss and reveal layout. Goals – New buildings - Library, Caruthers Hall and TETC.  No reason why we can’t have two projects going at the same time.  Identify private potential donors that could donate a potential substance of monies for these projects.  State would level costs according to private donations. The building of buildings comes from separate budget allocations than operating budget and is considered a capital project. This goes thru a different process. Tuition and appropriation monies are not used to build any capital projects. Monies are in next year’s budget for planning and architecture of TETC. Mr. Norm Conway was a guiding light to this project.  This was not on governor’s top list last year. (Info is available on web)

            B. Reaccredidation – the Middle States Agency studies the campus every 10 years. If we lose this, we could literally go out of business.  There is a steering committee of approximately twenty people that will be setup for working groups. Dr. Ron Dotterer is chair of this committee.  A site visit is set for the spring of 2006.

 

IV. Brenda Stanley –

A. Follow-Up on Collective Bargaining – Brenda Stanley announced that Staff Senate took steps to change by-laws to exclude those covered by collective bargaining. Staff Senate represents all exempt, Contingent I and II and any non-exempt employees not covered by collective bargaining. These employees listed above either have access to personnel files or personal information.  Staff Senate and University Forum will continue to have open meetings.  Campus is invited to attend but if covered by union cannot engage in discussions during meetings.  This will help ensure that we are not in violation with union contract. University Forum Committees allows representation for faculty, staff and students. The Forum may have to restructure in order to exclude non-exempts covered by the union.

            B. Vice President of Administration and Finance – Open campus meetings scheduled in Caruthers Hall Auditorium for the following dates:

                        1. Mr. Greig Mitchell – November 6

                        2. Dr. Glendon Forgery – November 13          

                        3. Mr. Richard Bartrem – November 19

 

Meeting Adjourned