THE
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
STAFF
SENATE
(NORMAN
CAMPUS)
Wednesday,
February 15, 2006
Chair Joan Koos called the meeting
to order at 1:32 p.m. in the Scholars Room of the Oklahoma Memorial Union.
Officers present —
Joan Koos, Chair; Betty Love, Chair-Elect; Debbie Copp, Immediate Past Chair
Officers absent —
Karla Woodfork, Recording Secretary
Staff present —
Barbara Perry, Administrative Coordinator; Shanika Bivines, Administrative
Assistant
Representatives present —
Hourly Employees Council: Pam Shoopman, Carolyn Irons, Debbie Blevins, Karen
Stark, David Houck, Larry Craig, Ed Fontaine, Patsy Montoya, Robert Murphy;
Informational Staff Association: Sophia Morren, Susan Lauterbach, Elaine
Bradshaw, Annette Schwiebert; Organizational Staff Council: Tina Ledgerwood,
Linda McCarty, Kristi Wright, Jannie Porter, Susan Hughes, Matt Berry;
Administrative Staff Council: Sue-Anna Miller, Deborah Marsh
Representatives absent — Hourly
Employees Council: Brian Candelaria, Diana Fitzpatrick; Informational Staff
Association: Kevin Jarnigan, Chris Cook; Organizational Staff Council: none;
Administrative Staff
Council: Deb Wollenberg
Guests present —
Theta Dempsey, Parking and Transportation Services, Rick Adamo, Parking and
Transportation Services, Ross McClish, Human Resources, Michelle Coroiu,
Personnel Policies Committee Chair, Josh Davis, The Big Event
Chair Joan Koos welcomed all of the guest
speakers. She said that Theta
would be speaking to the group first.
Joan congratulated Theta for having recently received the Professional
of the Year Award from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.
UPDATE ON PARKING BY THETA DEMPSEY, DIRECTOR,
PARKING AND TRANSPORTATION SERVICES
Director Theta Dempsey thanked the group for
inviting her to speak to them.
Theta said she had several topics to cover. First, she addressed permit rates for the coming year. She said she had reviewed their
financial position from the first six months of this fiscal year and had recommended
to the administration that there be no increase in permit rates for next
year. Next, she addressed the
affect of the recent increases in parking fines. The good news is that it had helped reduce the need for
increases in permit rates for next year.
Theta said she realized many were concerned
about parking problems associated with the closing of the Carson Engineering
parking lot when construction begins on the new engineering facilities. She said the lot will not close
until May 15. To help alleviate some of the problems, the University built a
new surface parking lot for commuter students across from the Field House
lot. The multi-purpose lot south
of Sarkeys that was used almost exclusively by commuter students will be
converted to faculty/staff parking.
Theta noted that a number of people were moving out of Sarkeys to the
National Weather Center, freeing up more space. She said it would be next fall before they would truly know
the impact of all the changes.
The construction of the Waggoner building will
probably begin in June or July, and the disability spaces on the south side of
Kuhlman Court will be closed during the construction and moved further
east. They will be reopened in the
same location when construction is complete, although some spaces will be
lost. Theta reported that the
first Weather Center occupants should move in during March or April. She said parking was built as part of
the project for that facility, as well as for Two Partners Place. Parking and Transit maintains those
lots, but did not have to pay for construction. Theta added that the new surface lot for commuter students
was paid for by the Engineering project.
Theta introduced Rick Adamo from Parking and
Transportation Services. She said
Rick had been promoted to Manager of Parking Operations within the past year
and had done an excellent job. She then answered questions from the group. She said as construction on the
Devon Energy Center gets underway, temporary lane closures on Jenkins or Boyd
could occur.
REPORT ON SHARED LEAVE BY ROSS McCLISH, MANAGER,
PAYROLL AND RECORDS
Ross McClish, Chair of the Norman Campus Shared
Leave Committee, provided a copy of the annual report from the Shared Leave
Committee. The report was linked
to the February Staff Senate agenda.
Ross said the program had completed its fourth year. In 2005, there were 14 applicants. Eight were approved and six were
denied. 2100 hours were
available for donation, with the value being approximately $52,700. Ross said since the program had been in
existence, the value of the hours donated had surpassed what had been paid
out. Ross explained that the
program is funded annually by the Office of the Vice President for
Administrative Affairs in the amount of $35,000. This past year, $32,169 was spent, with $24,224 being
carried forward from the year before.
That gave them a year-end balance of $44,574. He said the first year the program was funded with $25,000,
and the Norman campus depleted their funds and found it necessary to ask for an
additional $10,000. Since that
time, the program has been funded annually in the amount $35,000. [The Health Sciences Center Campus has
a separate Shared Leave program and is funded at $35,000 as well.]
Members wanted to know why staff members had
been denied. Ross explained that
the programÕs funding was limited.
If shared leave were awarded to everyone who applied, the money would be
exhausted in the middle of the year.
He said the illnesses that were approved were considered life threatening. A member commented that knee injuries
were serious in his line of work.
He said if that type injury is not completely healed and you are coming
down a ladder, it could be life threatening. Another member reported that she was one of the members who
had been denied. Her doctor told
her she would have to have a colostomy or she could die. She asked if that was not life
threatening. Ross said the letter
they sent out stated that if there were complications they could be
reconsidered.
Members had questions about whether the hours
donated transferred dollar for dollar or hour for hour. Ross said when the
program was originally set up, it was decided that the program would be an hour
for hour donation, and in order to have access to the funding, someone would
have to be willing to share or donate leave to them. Ross explained that when an individual donates hours to the
shared leave program, the hours in their paid leave account are reduced, but
the money comes from the pool of $35,000 that is provided by the Vice
PresidentÕs Office for the program.
Money does not transfer from the department. The department is funded with the employeeÕs salary only. Ross said hours donated could not come
out of an employeeÕs budgeted salary because the employee is receiving that
pay. He reiterated that the
money paid to those approved for shared leave comes from the $35,000 account
set up for the program.
In the interest of time, Joan encouraged those
with additional questions to contact Ross. Ross said he was glad to have so much interaction. He said the committee was always glad
to have suggestions. Ross said he
could be contacted at 5-5577.
PRESENTATION BY JOSH DAVIS OF 2006 BIG EVENT
ACTIVITIES
Josh Davis gave a presentation on the Big
Event. Josh said the Big Event is
the official University of Oklahoma campus-wide day of community service. The organization is run entirely by
students and they do all types of volunteer work in the Norman/Moore/Oklahoma
City area. Josh said they would
like to increase faculty and staff participation in the event. This yearÕs event will be held on
Saturday, April 8th.
Josh said the Big Event began 28 years ago at Texas A&M, and OU will
hold its 7th Annual Big Event this year. OUÕs event is the 2nd largest in the nation and
they are trying to grow to a level so they can compete with Texas. Applications are available on their
website at http://bigevent.ou.edu.
CHAIRÕS COMMUNICATIONS
Joan said she attended the January Faculty
Senate meeting at which President Boren addressed the faculty. She gave a brief
overview of that meeting.
She said much of the information was about funding and State
appropriations. She said the President reported that in 1980, Higher Education
received 18.55% of the State appropriation. Today it is 14.68%, and itÕs going down. He said, as a result, we have had to
increase tuition. Over the past 14
years, endowment funds have grown from $219 million to $850 million and there
are only 14 universities in the country that have billion dollar
endowments. President Boren said
they are hoping to work on a meaningful compensation program for faculty and
staff, but itÕs going to be a challenge with insurance and utility rates. Joan
said members could read the Faculty Senate minutes for all the details at: http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/minutes/106jrn.htm.
APROVAL OF MINUTES OF JANUARY
18, 2006
Under Other Communications,
Informational Staff Association, the name of Debbie Jensen was corrected to
read Debra Gentis. With that
correction, the minutes of the January 18, 2006, meeting were approved.
OTHER COMMUNICATIONS
Hourly Employees Council: President
Pam Shoopman reported that HEC met on February 8. President- Elect Rod Henry resigned and Ed Fontaine was
elected to replace him. The Awards
Committee is ready to work through its nominations. The Election Committee has not met, but will be sending out
a ballot for next yearÕs members very soon.
Organizational Staff Council:
President Tina Ledgerwood reported that OSC met on February 2. They made plans
for bingo. Staff from Information
Technology came to the meeting to discuss their new billing process. Relay for Life was discussed.
Informational Staff Association: President
Sophia Morren reported that ISA met on February 1. New member Dawna Nelson replaced council member Angela
Manchester. The group discussed
the Art Show and began discussion regarding the lack of any funding set aside
for staff promotions.
Administrative Staff Council:
President Sue-Anna Miller reported that ASC.met on February 10th and
discussed Staff Week and the Food Fair.
The Food Fair will consist of three sessions like last year. Tickets will be sold at the other Staff
Week events and will again be $5.
The group also talked about the reallocation issue with ASC having lost
one representative to Staff Senate.
ASC may bring a motion forward to Staff Senate regarding this.
REPORTS
The following reports were linked
to the agenda:
Staff Senate Foundation account
report.
Minutes of Employee Benefits
Committee meeting of November 17, 2005.
Minutes of Budget Council meetings
of December 14, 2005, and January 18, 2006.
Minutes of Environmental Concerns
Committee meeting of November 8, 2005.
NEW BUSINESS
Consideration of recommended
nomination to Environmental Concerns Committee: This item was linked to the
agenda. The Committee
on Committees recommended that Christina Wolfe be nominated to replace Aaron
Pence on the Environmental Concerns Committee. Sophia Morren made a motion for approval. The motion was seconded and passed on a
voice vote.
Consideration of rescheduling
March Staff Senate meeting due to
Spring Break schedule: After brief
discussion of this item, Tina Ledgerwood made a motion to change the March
meeting date to March 22, 2006.
Administrative Coordinator Barbara Perry confirmed that the Scholars
Room would be available on March 22.
The motion was seconded and passed on a voice vote.
MISCELLANEOUS
Joan reminded members that the
regents award nominations were due by Friday. She asked Barbara for an update on the staff award
nominations. Barbara said the
deadline for submitting nominations ended on Friday [February 10]. The Senate Office received 149 eligible
staff merit award nominations.
Twenty nominations were ineligible mainly because the individuals did
not meet the three-year service requirement. In addition, a total of 90 forms for the housekeeping
award were received. Of those,
about 20 were ineligible due to the three-year service requirement.
ADJOURNMENT
As there was no further business,
the meeting adjourned at 2:24 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Perry
Administrative Coordinator
Shanika Bivines
Administrative Assistant