THE
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
STAFF
SENATE
(NORMAN
CAMPUS)
Wednesday
February 18, 2009
Chair Linda McCarty called the meeting
to order at 1:32 p.m. in the Sooner Room of the Oklahoma Memorial Union.
Officers present — Linda
McCarty, Chair; Diana Fitzpatrick, Chair-Elect; Beth Gatewood, Immediate Past
Chair; Elaine Bradshaw, Recording Secretary
Staff absent — Melissa
Hosler, Administrative Coordinator, KeYonna Wynn, Student Assistant
Representatives present —
Hourly Employees Council: David Houck, Linda Smith, Connie Hall, Kim Haddad, Tim
Winkelman, Bobby Hardcastle, Carolyn Irons, Mary Peters, Cindy Simpson, David
Kizer; Informational Staff Association: Michael Goodwin, Chris Cook, Debbie
Copp, Dan Hough; Organizational Staff Council: Sandi Emond, Fran Stephens, Cathy
Trujillo; Administrative Staff Council: Terri Sarsycki;
Representatives absent — Hourly
Employees Council: Donna Stephens, Troy Schmidt; Informational Staff
Association: Dick Trim, Debi Gentis; Organizational Staff Council: Luanne Howk,
Nancy Matthews, Tami Kinsey Administrative Staff Council: Robbie Wahnee;
Margaret Vennochi, College of Earth and Energy
Guests present — Michelle
Boydstun, Payroll and Records; Melanee Hamilton, Director of Web Communications
MICHELLE BOYDSTUN, PAYROLL AND
RECORDS
Michelle
spoke
about going to paperless earning statements. By doing this personal data will be protected more and there
will be a huge cost savings to the University. To print earning statements the
cost for paper alone is $11,000.
HSC implemented paperless earning statements in January 2009 and had
very few complaints or problems.
There will still be certain departments/areas that will receive printed
statements and they are working with these departments currently. The campaign about going paperless will
be starting very soon and the target date for implementation is April. A PDF will still be available for
everyone through People Soft self-service. By going paperless departments will get their statements
faster from People Soft. Currently
the only problem reported is that comp time cannot be seen on the report, but
they are working to fix this.
MELANEE HAMILTON, DIRECTOR OF WEB
COMMUNICATIONS
Melanee talked about new Website
Guidelines. There were test
audiences that web communications had navigate through the OU Home Page. These groups of individuals consisted
of an external University audience, alumni’s, internal users, and prospective
students. Through these groups
input, web communications has established two main things that they are encouraging
everyone to do. First is
usability, they would like to implement a global navigation bar that will only
be 10 pixels high and a footer that will have legal and trademark
information. Second is
accessibility, meaning no matter what type of browser or computer you have you
will be able to access the web pages.
Web Communications is focusing first on the top 50 sites with the most
traffic. (They have contacted these areas to help them improve their web sites
first). Feel free to call web
communications with any problems or questions that you may have, they are more
than willing to help. Dan Hough
asked about the new student portal and staff groups. The student portal will go live over Spring Break 2009 and
the staff groups will go live in the Fall of 2009. Also the most recent web guidelines did not go through Staff
or Faculty Senate (the old guidelines did), but the guidelines did go through
legal, public affairs, and then President Boren.
CHAIR’S COMMUNICATIONS
Linda said she met with
Nick Hathaway and talked about budget.
We are hoping that we may get some money from the stimulus package or a
rainy day fund. He didn’t have
much information at this time. The
benefits report should be out by the end of the month. (Debbie Copp said that
the end of March is more realistic, since the committee hasn’t met yet but will
on March 6th.) They should still
be taking e-mail questions and concerns.
Michael Goodwin went to the meeting last Monday and said that the
comments will be filtered through the committee so President Boren might not
necessarily see them, so people may need to submit them differently if they do
want him to see them.
ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES OF
January 21, 2008
On motion by Debbie Copp, the minutes of the January
21, 2008, Staff Senate meeting were accepted.
OTHER
COMMUNICATIONS
Hourly
Employees Council: President David Houck
said HEC met on February 11, 2009. The committee discussed having their own web
page that they will maintain and create, now that they know they can do
it. The matter was turned over to
their Communication Committee. The
Ice Cream Social for Staff Week will take place in the Armory.
Organizational Staff Council: President
Sandi Emond said OSC met on February 5, 2009. The committee toured the OU IT
Store. They developed a committee
for the staff merit awards. They
discussed Bingo and Relay for Life, future meeting plans and possible guest
speakers.
Informational Staff Association: President Michael
Goodwin said ISA met February
4, 2009. It was a regular business meeting. The committee is still supporting
the Angel Food Ministry. The Art Show for Staff Week is on schedule. The logo contest had 17 entries and is
still ongoing.
Administrative Staff Council: Vice President Terri Sarsycki said ASC
met on February
17, 2009. The guest speaker was Nick Hathaway, he spoke about budget, the
threat incident on campus on February 13, and that it was very important to
take Staff Performance Evaluations seriously. Also the Staff Picnic sold more
tickets than the previous year.
STANDING
COMMITTEES
Awards
Committee: Chair Dan Hough said
the
committee was on track.
Communications
Committee: No report
Personnel
Policies Committee: No report
OU Staff
Week Committee: Chair Karen Buntin
reported that the committee meets tomorrow. T-shirt designs should be out the
first week in March. Look at the
Staff Week website it has pictures from last years events and all of the
committee members. The theme for
Staff Week is posted on the site but not the logo (still going through
licensing office). 38 people have
already registered for the Craft Fair and letters are going out for the Health
Fair.
Employment
Benefits Committee: No report
CORRESPONDENCE
The link to
the foundation account and minutes was not working.
REPORTS
The
following reports were linked to the February agenda:
Staff Senate
Foundation account report.
Minutes of
Employment Benefits Committee meeting for October and November 2008.
OLD BUSINESS
NEW BUSINESS
The Executive Committee met to
discuss Melissa’s role. Things
that she can do for the member groups and what they expect from her. Melissa is working on setting up
distribution lists; she will be the owner and maintain the lists for the
committees etc. Also talked about
websites, the Staff Senate website needs to be updated and consistent with all
its member groups. Robbie Wahnee is chairing an ad hoc committee for staff
group’s websites. The committee
will be looking at constitutions and bylaws to make sure they are all the same.
Robbie will need two volunteers
from each member group to assist: ISA: Dan Hough and Chris Cook; HEC: David
Houck and Diana Fitzpatrick; OSC and ASC will report back.
MISCELLANEOUS
Melissa got
married she is now Melissa Lane and will back at the next meeting.
Discussed
the March meeting, it occurs during Spring Break (March 18th) so Dan Hough made
a motion to move the meeting to March 25th. The motion passed by a unanimous vote.
Debbie Copp
announced that 95% of people enrolled for benefits online.
ADJOURNMENT
As there was
no further business, the meeting adjourned at 2:08 p.m.
NEXT REGULAR
MEETING: March 25, 2009 in the Scholars Room
Respectfully submitted,
Melissa
Hosler
Administrative Coordinator
Elaine Bradshaw
Recording Secretary