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Minutes

Staff Council Meeting

June 22, 2006

I. John Mouton – Facilities, Space Management, and Building Science

            A. Walker and Associates conducted a parking study during fall semester for a week at 9:00, 10:00, and 11:00 a.m.  When they counted the vacancy of spaces, they determined that we had adequate parking.

             B. Student housing is about to increase by 1850 beds. Banning freshman from having cars on campus has been discussed.

             C. They are using AU Daily, AU Report, and Campus Connection to try to keep everyone informed of changes in parking and construction.

             D. Parking rates may increase later but not this fall. Our parking is cheap by comparison to other universities.

             E. No charge parking zones are being implemented at the old CDV housing location. They are in the process of tearing down the old student housing there. Also, no charge zones will be located at the intramural fields and the Jule Collins Smith art museum.  Tiger Transit will service these areas, but we should prepare for extra time to ride the bus.

             F. Parking deck will be opening July 10^th.  The A & B zones behind Haley will be closing shortly after so we will use deck till fall. Then it will be changed to the D zone. There will be an application process in the fall. They are not going to sell more passes than spaces. The price will be the same as A zone which is $60. A priority system will be used but it will be balanced for those who qualify for A & B zones. They are going to make it fair but if there are problems, they will work towards correcting them for next time. Will probably build more decks later but may be off campus. They are looking at two spots for these in the future.

            G. Questions/Answer from audience –

                        1. How are you determining who gets a space in the deck? A ranking system will be used – length of time of service, rank and a balance between the 65% B zones and 35% A zones. If this does not work, they intend to rework it next year. Staff with an A zone can compete for either an A or B zoned space.

                        2. Will the cost of the deck change later? Confirm rumors of $300 to $750 per space? Not sure but they are going to relieve the general fund and lay some of the cost on the employees. They are using other Universities as a model.

                        3. What about parking around campus when running errands on campus? If you purchase the D zone, then you cannot park in an A or B zone, only the D zone. The deck is for those who are parking for the day and not coming in and out.  You can get a loading zone permit to transport things from one area of campus to another.

                         4. Will the library deck stay as it is? Yes, the library deck will remain A & B zoned for now.

                         5. What about keeping students and illegal parking out of the deck? Parking personnel will be stationed outside at entrance to monitor the deck entrance as well as roads that are near there.

                         6. John Varner asked if Mr. Mouton would put the criteria in the AU Report and make it fair. Will you use years of service instead of rank? The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Fact Book on Higher Education is based on faculty numbers and tuition not staff. Our staff salaries are based on local not regional so parking costs should be too like the insurance tier system. John Mouton said he would consider a tier system for parking.

                         7. How will game weekends affect the deck? The deck will be used at donor spaces during the game but only on the weekend not during the week. Athletics will not close the deck during the work week.

                        8. What about handicap parking for Haley Center? There will be handicap parking in the lower level of the deck and on the west side of Haley. Also, when will the ramps for Haley Center be available? Jenny Swaim is checking on the opening dates for this.

II. Maurita “Tissie” Walker, Chair of the Council –

            A. Discussion on differences between the staff and A&P. The differences are in the way we are paid and exempt or nonexempt from overtime. It used to be just faculty and staff. Then they broke into faculty, staff, and A&P. This occurred when they designated between tenure and non-tenure track faculty.

            B. Tissie described the different committees on campus and within the Staff Council and which ones need representation. She asked for volunteers to serve on the committees.

             C. Dr. Johnny Green was going to serve as a special liaison to the Provost Heilman but has recently been appointed to serve in a diversity position under Dr. Overton Jenda. A new person will be named to serve as the liaison.

III. Jenny Swaim – Past Chair of the Council –

             A. Campus Wellness Program – a wellness committee has been formed with the AU Medical Clinic to provide a wellness program for AU employees in order to reduce insurance costs. The program would fund free screenings and information on health issues to be sent out to employees. AU Pharmacy has a smoking cessation program that is being funded by the University. AU Medical Clinic is open to all employees and has many beneficial services. AU Pharmacy will deliver your prescriptions to you on campus during work. They also have a healthy habits program for health and weight loss. AU Nursing offers services to employees also. AU Human Resources plans to offer a health fair next year. Health and Human Performance offers bone density tests.

             B. Child Care Study – waiting till fall so they will have full participation when they send out the surveys. Surveys will go out in AU Digest the 1^st of August. Hard copies of the survey will be sent out August 25^th. The survey will be in AU Daily on August 29^th. Both the Fisher Report and John Mouton support the child care center as something that is needed. It would help with not only those who have kids but also with those who have children visit. AU Marketing will be analyzing the data from the survey and then sending to the administration.

IV. Lynne Hammond, Director, AU Human Resources –

             A. Status of the Classification and Compensation Project – Feedback was given in focus groups who asked how raises, promotions, etc. are made.  HR knew they needed to involve stakeholders in the system redesign.  This takes a lot of time to request and receive feedback from all over campus. Position questionnaires were used and it took a long time. They could have used a one on one interview process but they did not have the resources to do it this way. Around 3,000 positions were reviewed electronically by questionnaire. Job descriptions were recently sent out and they did receive some good feedback. HR is using their website to keep everyone up to date on news and there is a question/comments section also. They are working on the policies and design for classification right now. Job families are created because employees like mobility in their current position instead of having to move around to move up. Not everyone will be in a job family but they are introducing some new ones. They received about 1,000 responses from employees who mailed back in their job descriptions. There has been some confusion about the difference between job positions vs. the job description. An example is an office administrator is a job description which is general as opposed to an office assistant who is under that description in that position.

             B. The compensation portion of the project is next. They are forming the structure by building from market prices. They use key jobs to set up a model to figure out where jobs fit into pay structure. They are moving towards pay for performance in order to change how department heads give out merit to a pay and wage policy for salary administration. The performance tool is a big part of this process. You should have met with your supervisor on performance planning process for this year by now. It is not just up to the supervisor but the employee’s responsibility now too. You can initiate an evaluation at any time. Vic Walker from Staff Council and Martha Taylor from A&P worked very hard on the Performance Management System Committee when this was being changed. Supervisors should have had training on the new system by now and been doing planning at the beginning of the performance cycle with continuous feedback through out the year and then evaluation at the end of the year. The review process is December through January. The budget process begins in the spring and any raises begin in the fall in October. The budget numbers are released after the Board of Trustees approves the budget sometime in August.

             C. Question and answer session –

                         1. John Varner asked if supervisors were doing the evaluations and if the number of those doing them had increased. Only got back about 60% in the past but now supervisors will have to have done an evaluation in order to give merit. About half of the supervisors are faculty and they are not good at managing people. HR is trying to require training for supervisors. They have built supervision into performance for supervisors.

                         2. Will staff have the chance to rate their supervisors? There has been some discussion on this.

                         3. When will we see the project’s impact on salaries? There will be no reduction in salary. Some will see an increase. How will raises be processed at this time? They are trying to tie it to the budget cycle so they are not ready this year for October. Possibly, it will be ready next year.  

                         4. Some people have fallen through the cracks during the study because changes have occurred. Some supervisors filled out the questionnaires and sent them back. Supervisors are using HR project for not promoting, etc. till project is finished. Lynne suggested that you bring these problems to HR.

                         5. Will market averages be from local, regional, or US? They are first looking at local and state and then regional if not found there. Pay structures change every year when raises of 2% are implemented then the scale must go up 2%. They want to base pay structures on market instead of University. They are looking at some job groups like administrative/support and facilities. The market is the median salary. They plan to set the median and the market rate for the job groups then slot the other jobs in this structure. HR needs resources to stay up to date with the market prices. They will be using other Universities and local city positions and then do an impact analysis. Once they do the study to see where everyone is, they may find that some are below minimum or over maximum and they will have to balance it all out.

                         6. Employees should use tools to document their performance throughout the year. Doe supervisor sign off on these tools? You have to check the form to see (I checked and only the evaluation that you request that your supervisor give for you needs the supervisor signature.). If supervisors do not do evaluations, then it will tie back to them on theirs.

                         7. What if when you get your job description later, it still comes back wrong? There will be an appeal process.

                         8. What happens when you max out in current job position? You may need to move on it yourself by applying elsewhere on campus or prepare for higher levels of work. Job development is something that HR would like to start helping with.

                         9. When was the last time the market survey was updated during this process? It was updated within the last year by Hewitt and Associates, the consulting firm helping with project. College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA) provide data for salaries but it is only for higher education. Will they put the market survey data in the AU Report? They may at some point but that would probably be Don Large’s decision.

                         10. When will we stop receiving paper check stubs? Around October 1^st is the last time we will receive a paper advice. You will have to go online to view your money, leave, benefits, etc.