University of Nebraska Kearney

Staff Senate Minutes - June 18, 2002

Employee of the Month: Val Vierk, Secretary III, Sociology Department

Daryl Kelley, President of Faculty Senate, has met with Student Senate and they want to have a "social" in the fall for all members. He asked if Staff Senate wanted to participate.

Present:
Directors -- Livingston, Roggasch
Managerial/Professional -- Kucera
Office -- L. Clark, Jones
Service -- G. Clark, Lange, Wilson
Ex Officio: Lakey

Absent: Anderson, Bressington, Danube, Ellingson

1. Call to order

2. Adoption of Agenda-Proposed deletion of section V, Committee Reports due to time constraints.
   1. Revised Agenda Adopted

3. Minutes and Correspondence
   1. Minutes of May 21, 2002 meeting were approved as written.

4. Unfinished Business
   1. Committee appointments - Livingston distributed a draft of committee assignments

5. Committee & Search Reports - Deleted due to time constraints.

6. New Business
   1. Budget Shortfall - Haack
      The discussion with VCBF Haack was very informative. The special session of the Legislature will be looking at a $200 million shortfall. The outlook for the University System may be a $20-$45 million permanent cut in budget. The Legislature meets the end of July, so UNK might know as early as the first part of August what portion of the cut we will be responsible for. The University received $413 million this year and is scheduled to receive $429 million next year-an increase of $16 million. If the University receives a $20 million reduction, or 5%, UNL would be responsible for approximately $10 million and the UNK reduction would be $3 million. Haack did not see that this kind of reduction could be met without some programmatic reductions. Suggestions made to meet the shortfall/cut have been to: defer allocation of Programs of Excellence money until next year, defer allocation of Diversity funds and scholarships, and not giving raises this year. Salary savings with the staff/faculty increases would be about $2 million. The concensus of Staff Senate was that staff would probably be willing to forgo raises to meet the cut but only if faculty were willing to give up their raises also. A suggestion was made to freeze equipment, travel and filling new positions to get through the first year. This would allow time to come up with a long range plan. Short term solutions might be different from long term solutions. UNK will have to work to bring in more outside funding to make up for the cuts. One goal of UNK administration will be to keep staff informed. Staff Senate can help by keeping informed and answering the questions of other staff. The next three years will be difficult for UNK with the additional budget cuts. UNK may become a smaller institution in size, things will change, but we will figure the best way to get there.

   2. July 1 Celebration - UNK Day, A New Beginning
      Breakfast is compliments of Chartwells. Lunch will be $4. New Chancellor Doug Kristensen will be the speaker.

   3. Monthly Newsletter - Would improve communication, increase visibility of Staff Senate. New hires and resignations could be included in the newsletter.

   4. Future Planning - An agenda for next meeting.

   5. Other
      Suggestions were made:
      1. to announce the Employee of the Month in the Hub.
      2. for the Staff Senate Executive Committee to have monthly meetings with the Chancellor
      3. to convert the SAFE award to a cash award
      4. to have the Employee of the Month automatically considered for the KUDO award.

7. Announcements
   1. Next meeting, July 16, 2002, Cedar Room, Student Union

   2. Making A Difference - October 22, 2002

   3. Let's Have Lunch - not meeting this month

8. Adjourned