Wright State University Unclassified Staff Advisory Council USAC Minutes 6/11/02

Minutes

April 17, 2003

The meeting was held in Room 158 University Hall. USAC Chair, Carol Vuckovich called the meeting to order at 2:34.

Attendees included:

Mendy Beverly, CaTS
Jeff Bowman, CaTS
Lura Clapper, Budget Planning/Res. Analysis
Cheryl Lauricella, University Libraries
Jacqueline McMillan, Office of the President
Beth Millard, Music
Simone Polk, Director Of Public Safety
Jacqueline Robinson, Office Of The Controller
Robert Sweeney, Professor, Finance And Financial Services
Donna Totten, VP Business and Fiscal Affairs
Carol Vuckovich, Business and Fiscal Affairs
Susan Wehmeyer, University Libraries
Cindy Young, Director, Office Of Communications And Marketing
Rick Zech, Budget Planning and Resource Allocation

APPROVAL of MINUTES

The minutes of the USAC meeting of March 20, 2003 were not raised for approval at this meeting but will be considered at the May meeting.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Rick Zech, Athletic Council, Wellness and Recreation
The Athletic Council has not met since the March meeting. Staff are reminded about the Heart Walk on Saturday, May 3rd. Contact USAC walk captain, Tom Brookey for more information

Solomon Cooper, University Dining Services
USAC was unaware that Solomon has left the University. As a result, a USAC representative did not attend the meting. Those interested in filling the position should contact Carol Vuckovich. Dining Services meets the 3rd Thursday of the month immediately before the USAC meeting. View Dining Services Minutes prepared by Gloria Sickles

Kevin Watson, Parking Services
Parking Services has not met since the March meeting.

Jeff Bowman, Mike O'Neal, Donna Totten, Carol Vuckovich, Susan Wehmeyer,
University Staff Council:

The topic for the next University Staff Council meeting is the budget. A date has not been set for the meeting.

OLD BUSINESS

Survey Question Development
Survey questions have been downloaded into the Human Resources software. The survey will be tested on USAC members on Monday, 4/21 and soon after will be available to all unclassified staff.

Elections
Jeff Bowman met with Human Resources to prepare the ballot lists for open positions. Nominating ballots will go out Friday 4/18 and must be returned to Carol Vuckovich's office by Friday, 4/25. Two positions will be open in Academics, three positions in Academic Support, one in Business and Fiscal Affairs and one in Student Affairs. Mike O'Neal and Mendy Beverly who were appointed to fill unexpired vacancies until the next election are eligible to run for the remainder of the term.

Human Resources Issues

Vacation and Sick Leave

Donna Totten and Carol Vuckovich met with Gary R. Moyer, Interim V.P. Human Resources to discuss reporting of sick leave and vacation before the March meeting. Wright State does not have a written policy about when unclassified staff should report leave for deduction. Some departments follow an unwritten "4 hour rule" dating back to a previous administration which directed that leave of less than 4 hours should not be reported, but this procedure is not followed consistently across campus. Human Resources reports that this issue will not be easy to resolve. HR surveyed the Ohio Interuniversity Council and found no reasonable convergent point. HR will continue to work on the problem and will bring it before Business and Fiscal Affairs.

Handbook

Publication is still pending. A hang-up is the accrual of leave limit. [Classified staff may accrue more vacation leave time than unclassified staff. For example a classified employee with 15 or more years of service can accrue up to 480 hours of leave, but an unclassified employee may accrue 352 hours. At 25 years the classified accrual is 600 hours, unclassified 352 hours.] Human Resources will frame the issue for a senior management decision in May, so that the handbook can be distributed in June or July.

NEW BUSINESS

911 procedures

Simone Polk and Cindy Young presented an overview of an emergency handbook they are preparing for all WSU employees. The handbook is based on models from other universities and will include how to report an emergency, how to respond to menacing persons, disruptive students and natural disasters. It is hoped that a copy of this handbook will be placed under each telephone.

Chief Polk also discussed improvements planned by the police department and/or the university as a result of a review of the weather-related situations which occurred in February:

Dispatchers will prompt 911 callers for additional specific information if it is not offered by the caller. The dispatcher will call for emergency personnel before WSU police arrive on the scene when the situation is determined to be severe during the course of the 911 call.
The university will consider closing whenever Greene County issues a level 2 or 3 emergency.
The decision to delay will be made more quickly than in the past.
Library closings will not be issued separately from university closings. It should be noted that the Nutter Center operates independently of the university.

Staff are reminded that 911 calls made on a cell phone from a WSU location are referred from the Fairborn Fire Department or Green County emergency squad back to the WSU Police. 911 calls made on campus phones go directly to the WSU police. Time can be saved by calling 2111 directly from a cell phone.

A constituent brought forward a concern about 911 calls at Lake Campus. The constituent reported that Lake Campus does not have caller ID which hampers 911 service. If someone hangs up after dialing 911 at Lake, the only way to find out whether there is a problem or its location is to dial every campus phone and ask. Although Simone Polk agreed that this seems a severe problem which should be resolved, Lake Campus is not in her jurisdiction.

Kenny Chesney
USAC members expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to attend the Kenny Chesney concert with their CSAC counterparts as guests of Dr. and Mrs. Goldenberg.

Pay Schedule
Several constituents brought forward a request that the unclassified pay schedule follow that of the classified staff and students (i.e. bi-weekly). Human Resources said that such a change would be expensive to the University and they would not be inclined to pursue it unless USAC pushed strongly in favor of it. A suggestion was made to table this issue in recognition of the cost-cutting measures WSU is likely to face in the near future.

Baseball Outing
USAC members expressed no interest in planning a baseball outing for spring.

Strategic Plan 4th Draft

Robert Sweeney presented the draft of the strategic plan which will be presented to the Faculty Senate as new business in April and will be voted on in May. The plan will go to the Board of Trustees on June 13th. [A copy of the draft will be posted to the USAC website as soon as it is available]

All subgroups of the Strategic Planning Committee have had an opportunity to work on each goal in the plan. Specific operation details will be added at the college, division, department and unit levels. For example, the Department of Finance is initiating a Peer-2-Peer Debt Counseling and Education community service project in support of Goal 3. (The kickoff is Monday, 4/21 from 11- 1 in the Student Union Atrium.)

A question was raised about how progress on the plan will be monitored. Dr. Sweeney said that monitoring methods are under discussion. He offered some draft-stage thoughts:

This plan will have some sort of systematic evaluation, as opposed to previous plans which did not.
The plan will need to be assessed on a regular basis to determine if the strategies are leading to the desired outcome.
The goals should be evaluated yearly for accomplishments.
The goals should be evaluated yearly to determine if they are still desirable.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 4:10 p.m.

NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of USAC will be held Thursday, May 22, 2003, 2:30 pm -- Room 158 University Hall.

Minutes submitted by Susan Wehmeyer, USAC Secretary, 4/21//03