THE
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
STAFF
SENATE
(NORMAN
CAMPUS)
Wednesday,
July 16, 2008
Chair Beth Gatewood called the meeting
to order at 1:33 p.m. in the Scholars Room of the Oklahoma Memorial Union.
Officers present — Beth
Gatewood, Chair; Linda McCarty, Chair-Elect; Betty Love, Immediate Past Chair; Kathy
Gross, Recording Secretary
Staff present —
Barbara Perry, Administrative Coordinator
Representatives present —
Hourly Employees Council: Diana Fitzpatrick, Ed Fontaine, Donna Stephens, Robert
Murphy, Carolyn Irons, Troy Schmidt, David Kizer, Connie Hall, Tim Winkelman, Dee
Hayes; Informational Staff Association: Michael Goodwin, Debi Gentis, Debbie
Copp; Organizational Staff Council: Cathy Brister, Jannie
Porter, Matt Berry, Cathy Trujillo; Administrative Staff Council: Sue-Anna
Miller, Robbie Wahnee
Representatives absent — Hourly
Employees Council:, Kim Haddad, Melanie Wilburn; Informational Staff
Association: Elaine Bradshaw, Lisa Bowles; Organizational Staff Council:, Sandi
Emond Tami Kinsey; Administrative Staff Council: None
Guests present — Nancy
Matthews, Department of Mathematics; Lezlie Pilkington, Administrative Affairs;
Linda
Smith, Price College of Business; Dick Trim, Office of Compliance; Dan Hough, Oklahoma Biological Survey;
Theta Dempsey, Parking and Transportation Services; David Houck, Physical
Plant; Amanda Holloway, UOSA; Cindy Simpson, College of Continuing Education;
Eric Sourie, Human Resources; James Tyree, The Oklahoman
CHAIR’S COMMUNICATIONS
Chair Beth Gatewood
introduced two new Hourly Employees Council members: Tim Winkelman and Connie Hall. Beth said she and Chair-Elect Linda McCarty had met earlier
in the month with UOSA President Amanda Holloway. They discussed upcoming projects. UOSA would like staff
involvement in their fall blood drive and offered UOSA’s support during the
2008-09 Staff Week activities, such as serving at the ice-cream social. Beth updated the group on the
Contribution Strategy and Health Insurance Options Committee. She had learned from Julius Hilburn
that the committee was continuing to meet although they have not reached any
conclusions yet. A memo will be
going out to campus in the next few weeks that will ask for input and questions
from the campus community. Beth
said she was scheduled to meet with Vice President Nick Hathaway the following
day.
ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES OF
JUNE 18, 2008
On motion by Matt Berry, the minutes of the June
18, 2008, meeting were accepted as written.
OTHER
COMMUNICATIONS
Hourly Employees Council: President Diana Fitzpatrick reported that HEC met on July 9
for an end-of-year picnic. Next
year’s members were invited and several attended. An issue came up for discussion and the following motion was
passed: “The Hourly Employees
Council sternly opposes the Physical Plant’s new random drug testing policy
which singles out Physical Plant employees as ambiguous and ill-conceived and
insists that any such policy, if instituted, be applied equally to all
university employees, faculty, staff, supervisors and administrators.” Diana said the motion passed
unanimously, and HEC wanted to be sure Staff Senate was aware of it.
REPORTS
The
following reports were linked to the July agenda:
Staff Senate
Foundation account report.
STANDING COMMITTEES
Staff Professional Development Committee: Chair Dan Hough attended to give a
year-end report on the activities of the SPD Committee. He provided a handout
with statistics. He said for
the 2007-2008 year, the committee received 45 applications; 42 were approved
and 3 were denied. The total
dollar amount approved by the committee was $16,700. Dan thanked his committee members: Cheryl Barton, Linda Berardo, Lisa Bowles and Tena Smith for
serving.
OLD BUSINESS
Discussion of motion
regarding use of extended sick leave:
PPC
Chair Linda Smith said she had contacted the PPC members by email since they had
held their last PPC meeting. Linda
reported that the motion sent to PPC at the June meeting for endorsement was
approved by the PPC with no changes.
Beth
pointed out that we had Tulsa’s endorsement and PPC’s endorsement, but we had
not heard back from the Health Sciences Center. Beth said Administrative Coordinator Barbara Perry had
contacted HSC regarding the proposal.
Barbara confirmed that HSC was aware of the proposal and they had been
asked for input, but we had not received a response regarding it. David Kizer made a motion to vote on
the motion as amended at June’s meeting:
In the event of an
illness, an employee who has a 100% FTE appointment must use 24 hours of paid
leave before accessing accrued extended sick leave. For those with appointments less than 100% FTE, the amount
of leave time will be adjusted based on FTE. The
motion was seconded and passed on a show of hands with one opposed. Beth said a letter would be sent
forward to President Boren.
NEW BUSINESS
Approval of
volunteers to Staff Senate standing committees: The list of volunteers was linked to
the agenda. Matt Berry moved for
approval of the volunteers. The
motion was seconded and passed on a voice vote.
MISCELLANEOUS
A plaque from all of the
members was presented to Chair Beth Gatewood on behalf of her service and
leadership as Chair of Staff Senate during 2007-2008.
ADJOURNMENT
As there was
no further business, the meeting adjourned at 1:45 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara
Perry
Administrative Coordinator
Kathy Gross
Recording Secretary