University of Nebraska Kearney

Staff Senate Minutes - May 20, 1997

Employee of the Month: Dee Ellingson, Staff Secretary for Psychology.

Present: Sue Betterman, Sue Downey, Terry Fraley, Mike Heffernan, Carleen Jurgensen, Anita Kucera, John Lakey, Kathy Livingston.

Absent: Marilyn Andersen, Glennis Nagel, Jane Sheldon.

Guest: Dee Ellingson, Mary Tiedeman and Rochelle Krueger.

Minutes:

Guest Speaker: Mary Tiedeman, one of our representatives to the U-Wide Benefits Fringe Benefits Committee, addressed Staff Senate. The committee serves in an advisory capacity to John Russell, the Associate Vice President for Business and Finance and Director of Human Resources. The committee meets at least four times a year in Lincoln.

The following items have been requested, researched and denied or approved, and will not be addressed this year:

1. Vision care - cost prohibitive.
2. Donation of use-or-lose vacation time for a "crisis leave bank" for emergency employee leave. This has been in a pilot program and will be implemented on all campuses. However, only vacation hours can be donated to this bank. University-wide implementation of the policy is pending approval by the Board of Regents.
3. Fertility promotion - cost prohibitive.
4. Tuition waiver - It was endorsed by the U-Wide Committee in 1995 for part-time employees but not implemented because of funding.
5. LTD (Long-Term Disability) - The benefit of employees paying LTD premiums in after-tax dollars and the effects on taxable income in case of disability was discussed. However, this has an added cost liability to the university.

The U-Wide Benefits Committee met on Thursday, May 22, 1997.

The UNK campus representatives are as follows: Renee Besse, Dr. Allan Jenkins, and Mary Tiedeman. Please call any one of these representatives with concerns or suggestions.

Agenda

The Staff Senate meeting agenda was approved. (Sue B./Judy W.)

Minutes

Minutes of the April, 1997 meeting were approved. (Sue D./Sue B.)

Unfinished Business

1. A sample of suggested stationery was reviewed. Changes were made and will be submitted for printing by Judy S.

2. John Lakey reported on the Staff Senate Web page. At this time, the information is linked to the Human Resources page. Currently only the brochure information has been input. Future plans are to add Staff Senate bylaws and agenda.

3. It was suggested setting up an ad-hoc committee to work on the web pages.

Staff Senate Committee Reports

Standing Committees:

1. Committtee on Committees. No report.
2. Election Committee. Kathy Livingston reported on the policy for replacement of an unexpired term. The vacancy is filled by selecting the next person from the results of the prior election keeping in mind the balance of the committee.
3. Employee Recognition Committee. (Judy W.) EOM recipient for July has been selected. The Pratt-Heins Service Award is still under review. Also, the idea of a staff award is being researched. Terry Fraley will be the new chair.
4. Executive Committee. (Anita)
5. Performance Management Committee. Sue B. reported the avenues of discussion are (1) on-campus day care, (2) wish list attached to minutes, and (3) Mike Heffernan has stepped down and Sue Betterman will chair the committee.
6. Procedures Committee. (1) Carleen J./John L. reported on progress of the Employee Handbook. Future plans include putting the handbook on the web, but before this can be accomplished, the policies need to be consistent with university policies on all campuses. (2) Committee is reviewing the Staff Senate bylaws for revisions and will make recommendations on vice chair designated to cover for secretary in absence, replacement of committee member/chair, parliamentary procedures, committee reports to exectutive board prior to meeting, etc.
7. Professional Development Committee. Sue B. reported on suggested ways to improve communication on snow days through television and radio coverage; voice mail; use of University stations, etc. Several avenues are still being explored.

Campus Committee Reports:

1. Budget: Anita reported that the budget hearings have been concluded. Dr. Wubbels and Mike Bonhoff will complete the report and forward it to the Chancellor.
2. Gender Equity: John L./Kathy L. reported on the Gender Equity meetings that were held on campus. The Chancellor has appointed a new committee on Gender Equity. Judy Spellman has been appointed to a two-year term as the office/service representative.
3. Strategic Planning: Kathy L. reported that the mission statement has been revised and sent to the Chancellor for approval.

New Business

1. Procedures Committee and Committee Chairs: Discussion on how to replace committee chairs was delegated to the committee for review for recommendation at the June meeting.

2. Salary Increases: John Lakey shared the guidelines for salary increases. A 3 percent pool of funds has been identified for distribution with 2.2 percent allocated for cost of living and the balance to be used for performance/market increases and to address salary inequities.

3. Ad Hoc Web Page Committee: A request for volunteers or suggested people to work on the Web page resulted in the following: (1) Kathy Livingston, (2) Jeanne Cutler (with her acceptance/acceptance given), and (3) Linda Johnson.

Announcements:

1. Judy Willett announced her resignation from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and the need for her replacement on Staff Senate.

2. Staff Senate brochures were distributed to everyone today.

Future Meetings:

June 17 Ann Young - Gender Equity Chair
July 15 Steve Robinson - Enrollment Services
August 17 Judy Spellman - Parliamentary Procedures

Adjournment:

The meeting was adjourned. (Mike/Carleen)