Administrative and Professional Assembly
March 20, 2007
2:30 p.m.
Room 208 Foy
Meeting Minutes (Approved April 24,2006)

 

Call to Order

Drew Burgering, Chair of the Assembly, called the meeting to order at 2:33 p.m.

Roll Call

Representatives Present: Pat Deery, Kristen Perkins, Barnese Adair-Wallace, Mark Wilson, Julie Nolen, Katie Mantooth, Lisa Fleming, Teresa Logiotatos, April Staton, Ellen McManus, Tony Ventimiglia, David Hennessey, Todd Storey, Drew Burgering, Harriette Huggins and Maria Folmar (16)

Representatives Absent: Latresha Brady-Pinkston, Gary Wittekind, Vivian Miller, Greg Ruff, John Owen and Jane Hoehaver

Number of A & P Members Present: 15

Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the February 20, 2007 meeting were approved as posted.

Comments from the Chair

Budget Committee Meeting - Drew Burgering indicated that he and Maria Folmar had attended the Budget Committee Meeting held on March 12. Discussion was held on salary increases for the upcoming fiscal year. These increases would either come from the Legislature or from a tuition increase. The next meeting of the committee is

April 9. It is expected that discussion on possible salary increases will continue at that meeting.

Presidential Search – Dr. Conner Bailey, Immediate Past Chair of the University Senate and a member of the Presidential Search Committee, gave an update and insight on the Committee’s work to date. He explained that several candidates had been considered for the position of President at Auburn University, and visits had been made to see several candidates, but Dr. Jay Gogue was the only candidate who agreed to visit campus without a guarantee of getting the job.

Dr. Bailey encouraged everyone to try to meet Dr. Gogue at one of the forums available on Wednesday and Thursday, March 21 and 22. He also encouraged everyone to express comments by way of the website. That “Comments” section may be reached by clicking on the Presidential Search box of www.auburn.edu and viewing the section entitled “Public Feedback invited.”

Drew indicated that he had recently received a copy of a letter from Dr. Bailey and Dr. Cindy Brunner, also of the Presidential Search Committee, explaining their thoughts on the search. That letter is noted below:

Senators

Why just one candidate coming to town? Because (as was clear to those at the meeting yesterday) the others effectively withdrew their names. The search committee developed a consensus around several names. All but one set an unacceptable recondition before allowing their names to become public: they would only come to campus if they were guaranteed in advance that they would be hired.

Why would people do that? Because they have good jobs that they felt would be at risk if it became known publicly that they were interested in jumping ship.

Would anyone have felt better if we had invited someone with such a precondition to campus for an interview? How about making such advance promises to two or three candidates?

In the end, only Jay Gogue was willing to come without preconditions. The search committee worked hard to ensure we had more than one candidate. Several search committee members flew thousands of miles to talk with another candidate who finally declined to come without a commitment in advance of the interview.

Yes, we both would have preferred and had hoped for multiple interviews of top flight candidates. We all would have learned something by interacting with such individuals and could have offered our opinions on who would be the best choice. That is not how it unfolded, despite our best efforts to the contrary.

In our view, Jay Gogue is an excellent candidate and was at the top of our own lists of candidates. We hope many of you will take the time to visit with the candidate during his campus visit.

Please share this message with faculty and staff within your units.

Conner Bailey
Cindy Brunner

Harriette thanked Drs. Bailey and Brunner for their work on the Committee.

Dr. Bailey expressed his appreciation for the hard work and professionalism shown by the Committee members.

Information Items

Child Care Survey Update – Jenny Swaim and Wendy Pechman, Co-Chairs of the University Staff Council, were introduced. Jenny then gave an update on the child care survey and results.

Jenny explained that discussions have been held regarding possible child care on campus since 1995. She indicated that she and Dr. Donna Sollie, Assistant Provost for Women’s Initiatives, have worked together on this child care possibility. In 2005, Jenny received numerous comments from University employees about the need for a child care facility on campus. To further support this idea, the Fisher Report in 2006 suggested the need for child care for University employees.

In November 2006, Jenny put a survey together and online for University employees. Results are as follows:

287 – Faculty (15% of Faculty on campus)
346 – A & P employees (26% of A & P employees on campus)
212 – Staff employees (7.9% of Staff on campus)

845 Participants

63% of the respondents indicated that they will still need childcare in five years.

Survey showed the following desires in order of priority:

·         Flexible work arrangements

·         Child care on campus (47% said very important; 25% said important; having care available on campus was a top issue; cost of care was of lesser concern)

·         Enhanced health care plan

·         Retirement planning assistance and increased benefits

Jenny indicated that more specific information needs to be gathered in order to move ahead with this concept and stated that the following questions must be answered: How could this child care be funded? Where would it be housed? She indicated that the child care possibility has already been discussed with Greg Parsons, University Architect, and John Mouton, Special Advisor to the President. Mr. Parsons has offered ideas on possible building space, and Mr. Mouton has added this to the list of possible facility needs.

Currently, there is a comparative analysis taking place with other colleges and schools to gather more information. Assembly member David Hennessey asked about the Birmingham Early Leaning Center as a possible site to model. It was explained that the Center had been contacted for guidance; however, it is not a traditional child care facility and the mission and goals of the two would not be the same.

Jenny asked any who may be interested in helping with this child care project to contact her.

Updates from A & P committees:

·         Nominations and Elections Committee – Victoria Tate of the Nominations and Elections Committee gave the results of the recent A & P Representative elections for the terms running from April 1, 2007 to

March 31, 2010. Those results are as follows:

·         Place 1 - Christopher O'Gwynn

·         Place 5 - Lisa Powell

·         Place 6 - Seth Humphrey

·         Place 7 - Julie Nolen

·         Place 9 - Phillip Coxwell

·         Place 15 - Jane Hoehaver

·         Place 16 - John Folmar

Rob McKinnell was elected to serve Place 18, replacing Todd Storey, the new Chair-elect. The term ends March 31, 2008.

Victoria congratulated those newly elected Representatives.

On another issue, Victoria indicated that five A & P members had expressed interest in serving on the University Master Plan Committee. Two names were submitted to the President’s Office, and one of those will be selected by the President’s Office to serve on the committee.

The Nominations and Election Committee’s full report is found below:

Auburn University
Administrative and Professional Assembly
Nominations & Elections Committee
Auburn University , Alabama 36849
March 20, 2007

 

MEMORANDUM

 TO : Drew Burgering, Administrative & Professional Assembly Chair

FROM : Victoria Tate and Kimmie Webster, Co-Chairs, Nominations & Elections Committee

SUBJECT : Annual Report – Nominations & Elections Committee

Current committee members :

Leon Bowman, 2007
Jacqui Dozier, 2008 – moved to NC March 1
Harriette Huggins, 2009
Rob Kulick, 2008
Kevin Mullins, 2008
Michele Owsley, 2009
Jessie Shealey, 2007
Victoria Tate, 2007
Kimmie Webster, 2009 – Moving to TN

Information:

·         A Meeting was held on October 18 th , Jacqui Dozier and Victoria Tate were named co-chairs. Another meeting was held January 10 th Jacqui announced she would be leaving the University. Kimmie Webster agreed to be co-chair with Victoria. The committee outlined responsibilities for handling the election of officers and representatives.

·         Committee members managed the election of officers at the Feb 20 th meeting of A&P Assembly.

·         Committee worked with OIT and the election of representatives was held electronically, the following representatives have been elected to term ending 2010:

Place 1 - Christopher O'Gwynn
Place 5 - Lisa Powell
Place 6 - Seth Humphrey
Place 7 - Julie Nolen
Place 9 - Phillip Coxwell
Place 15 - Jane Hoehaver
Place 16 - John Folmar

Robert McKinnell was elected to serve the unexpired term of Place 18 ending 2008.  

·         Two names were submitted and one will be selected by the President’s office to serve on the University Master Plan Committee. Five (5) A&P employees expressed interest in the committee.

·         There are currently two vacancies (2008. 2009) on the N&E committee. We have been involved with representative election, but plan to submit names to the new Executive Committee in early April.

·         We should be receiving requests from the President’s office about A&P nominees to University committees later in the spring.

·         During the summer we will be receiving names of nominees to serve on A&P committees to present to the Assembly in August.

 Action item:

 Nominations & Elections Committee has been informed of a vacancy on the Welfare Committee (2008) and nominates Judith Sanders to fill the unexpired term.

I move adoption of this recommendation.

The Assembly voted to approve the recommendation.

Welfare Committee – Brenda Wood, Chair, spoke on behalf of the Welfare Committee. She explained that the Chair attends the Auburn University Insurance and Benefits Committee. Brenda explained the recommendations for 2007-2008 by the Welfare Committee, as noted in Section III of the Agenda below. Discussion on this topic followed regarding a desire for the A & P group to be proactive on promoting enhanced, and proportionately affordable, health care and wellness opportunities for employees with respect to claims and money being spent on illnesses. Jenny Swaim spoke on behalf of the Staff Council and said that there is a currently a group in place on that Council to address this issue.

Welfare Committee Agenda items (and recommendations – Section III) from the March 7, 2007 meeting may be found below:

AGENDA

I. Introductions

II. Duties and Responsibilities of Welfare Committee

The Welfare Committee shall consist of nine members from the Administrative and Professional group. The Welfare Committee shall review and make recommendations about Administrative and Professional salaries, benefits, and evaluation procedures.

III. Review of Insurance and Benefits Committee Recommendations for 2007‑08

·         Recommend tax deferred annuity increase from $30,000 to $35,000. (AU currently matches retirement contributions of 5% of gross salary up to $30,000 = $1500 annually, or $125/mo.). An increase to $35,000 would increase match to $1750 annually, or $145/mo.

·         Extend tuition waiver for dependents to deceased employees, or employees killed on the job. Must have been employed at AU for at least 10 continuous years at the time of his or her death..

·         Cover spouses in smoking cessation program. Provide one time incentive for 3 month supply of non prescription nicotine replacement therapy (up to $120).

·         Increase tier for health benefits (by same percentage of average salary raises to prevent a potential salary decrease for the lower compensated).

IV. Other Items discussed

·         Discussion about possibility of full tuition waiver for dependents. Committee member was going to check with other SEC schools to see how many offered full tuition benefit to dependents.

·         Sick leave bank.

·         Include Roth 403B as another retirement option.

V. New Business

VI. Adjourn

___________________________________________________________________________

Grievance Committee – There was no representative present for the Grievance Committee, as no grievances have been filed of late.

___________________________________________________________________________

Professional Development Committee – Drew spoke on behalf of this committee. The committee has been responsible for the proposed Consulting Policy, which was approved by the A & P Assembly and forwarded to Dr. Richardson for consideration. See Memorandum below:

 

http://www.auburn.edu/administration/governance/ap/minutes2007/clip_image002.jpg

 

 

 

ADMINISTRATIVE & PROFESSIONAL ASSEMBLY

MEMORANDUM

March 15, 2007

 

To: Dr. Edward R. Richardson
President, Auburn University

Through: Dr. Don Large

Executive Vice President

 Through: Ms. Lynne Hammond

Assistant Vice President for Human Resources

From: Mr. Drew Burgering

Chair, Administrative & Professional (A & P) Assembly

CC: A & P Executive Committee

Re: Consulting Policy, Approved By The A & P Assembly

At its February 20, 2007 meeting the Administrative & Professional Assembly passed a motion to approve the Consulting Policy that the Professional Development Committee presented. This is a policy that has been in the works for many years and I hope the Administration will see the need and benefits of such a policy.

I would like to not only present this proposed policy for you to consider, but I would also like to make some comments on behalf of the Administrative and Professional Employees that I represent and who would be using this new policy. There has been a lot of work put into both composing this policy and looking at other institutions and how they handle this issue. The proposed policy does several things, one of which is it gives back a benefit that some employees were allowed before they were moved into the A & P group when it was formed. In fact, I think the consulting policy these employees were previously under was allowed to be used for a time after the new A & P group was formed.

This proposed Policy is drafted with the Faculty policy as a blueprint. There was much discussion between all members of the Professional Development Committee, the A & P leadership as well as the Executive V.P. and the Assistant V.P. for Human Resources. The main point in most all of these discussions has been centered on the allowance of up to 16 days leave, on approval by the supervisor, to allow A & P employees to consult. This leave would be available above the employee’s annual leave granted by the University. After all of the discussion for or against the additional leave, the Assembly felt a policy that was consistent with the faculty policy that is already in place and allows a maximum of 52 additional days off, would be the most sensible.

All University employees, faculty and non-faculty, are granted annual leave and are required to document and request for this time off. This information is filed and stored in the Human Resources Office for all employees. The Professional Development Committee and the Assembly again felt that because all of the issues dealing with leave were consistent between all employee groups that the consulting policy also be consistent between both employee groups. The Staff Council leadership did not see a need to include the Staff employee group in this policy, but the Assembly would not be against including them if this is deemed appropriate.

I would like to thank you in advance for consideration in accepting this A & P Consulting Policy as stated and approved by the Assembly. I look forward to hearing back from you after your review and welcome any questions you may have in regards to any aspects of the policy.

Intercollegiate Athletics Committee – Jimmy Stucky spoke on behalf of this committee, explaining that the committee’s function is to recommend seating, handle compliance, and assist the President and Athletics Department. The committee, comprised of 14 voting members, has several sub-committees. This past year, the committee oversaw the NCAA certification process, which was its biggest project of late.

Jimmy explained that a change in ticket priority is being implemented this year for seating at football and basketball games. The memorandum explaining these changes is included below:

CHANGES TO THE PRIORITY POINT SYSTEMS FOR
ORDERING FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL SEASON TICKETS

·         This point system is based on rank or grade, years of continuous service and years of purchas­ing season tickets for employees whose hire date is prior to July 1, 2006

·         This point system is based on years of purchasing season tickets for employees whose hire date is after July 1, 2006.

·         Employees hired prior to July 1, 2006 will have their total points set as a threshold and they will never drop below that level as long as they remained eligible to purchase tickets. (Individuals serving temporarily in a position that provides increased base points – such as interim department chair – would have their “threshold points” based upon their permanent title.)

·         Beginning with the 2007-2008 season employees hired prior to July 1, 2006 will be awarded four points for each future year that they order tickets, in addition to their “threshold points.”

·         Ticket priority for employees hired after July 1, 2006 will be determined solely on the basis of the number of years that tickets were ordered. Four points will be awarded for each year that tickets are ordered.

·         In order to be eligible to purchase employee tickets as a retiree, an employee retiring after July 1, 2006 must have been employed full-time at Auburn University as a state retirement system employee within one year preceding the official retirement date.

·         In the event of the death of an eligible employee or retiree who ordered season tickets in the year of his/her death, ticket ordering privileges will be extended to the surviving spouse for the next season only. This privilege is not transferable to any other individual.

·         Beginning with ticket orders for the 2007-2008 season no additional employees of cooperating state and federal agencies will be added to the list of those who are eligible to order tickets.

·         Those employees of cooperating state and federal agencies who have not ordered tickets in any of the previous five years will no longer have ticket ordering privileges.

·         The only retired employees and employees of cooperating state and federal agencies who receive order forms by mail are those who ordered season tickets the preceding year.

Executive Committee – Maria gave an end of year report for the Executive Committee. That report is included below:

Auburn University
Administrative and Professional Assembly
A & P Executive Committee
2006-2007

Report to the A & P Assembly
March 20, 2007

Members:

Drew Burgering – Chair
Harriette Huggins – Past-Chair
Maria Folmar – Chair-Elect
Missy Long – Secretary (4/06 - 11/06)
Julie Nolen – Secretary (11/06 – 3/07)
At-Large Members:
Vivian Miller
April Staton
Todd Storey

The Executive Committee regularly met on the first Wednesday of each month.

The following is a summary of items to which the Executive Committee attended:

·         Provided Orientation for the newly-elected Representatives on April 11 2006.

·         Organized and provided a retreat for Representatives on June 9 2006.

·         Convened thirteen Executive Committee meetings.

·         Convened seven regularly-scheduled Assembly meetings and 2 called meetings.

·         Provided information sessions during Assembly meetings.

·         Formed two ad hoc committees:

o    Fisher Report priorities and implications for A & P

o    Grievance Policy and Procedure

·         Provided resources, information, and support surrounding the passage of two Constitutional revisions: meeting attendance by Representatives, removal of out-of-date Grievance Policy from the Constitution.

·         Conducted a membership survey and identified characteristics essential for the new AU President. Provided report to the President and to the Board of Trustees.

·         Identified components of the Fisher Report of interest and concern to the Assembly. Provided report to the President and to the Board of Trustees.

·         Achieved A & P representative membership on the AU Master Plan Committee and on the Student Academic Grievance Committee.

·         Continued to develop and enhance communications with other AU governance groups.

Unfinished Business – There was no unfinished business brought forth.

New Business – There was no new business brought forth.

Open Forum – Karen Rankin expressed her thanks to outgoing Chair, Drew Burgering, for a job well done. She indicated that the three-year commitment in this role is a big job, and she appreciated Drew’s excellent service.

Jenny Swaim expressed her thanks from the Staff Council to Drew and the A & P Assembly for serving as a sounding board and support unit for the University Staff Council.

Recognition of Those Completing Service to Assembly – Drew expressed his appreciation to all those who have completed their service on the Assembly and are rolling off or completing a service. He presented Certificates of Appreciation to the following:

Latresha Pinkston-Brady Place 5 2006-07
Pat Deery Place 1 2003-07
Tony Ventimiglia Place 16 2003-07
Gary Wittekind Place 6 Nov. 06 – March 07
Vivian Miller Place 9 2003-07 and At-Large Member
Julie Nolen Place 7 Nov. 06 - March 07 – Secretary
Maria Folmar Chair-Elect
Todd Storey Place 18 Now Chair-Elect
Harriette Huggins Past Chair

Final Remarks to Assembly by Chair – Drew expressed his thanks to Maria and Todd in their upcoming roles as Chair and Chair-Elect, respectively. He also thanked Harriette for her support as Past Chair. Drew’s parting remarks to Maria were as follows, “Be the leader you’ve been elected to be. Make yourself known to the people.” Drew was then presented with a gavel/plaque in appreciation for his service. With that, he handed the meeting over to new Chair, Maria Folmar.

Adjournment – There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned by Maria at 3:56 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

 Julie Nolen, Secretary