THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

STAFF SENATE

(NORMAN CAMPUS)

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Chair Betty Love called the meeting to order at 1:31 p.m. in the Sooner Room of the Oklahoma Memorial Union.

Officers present — Betty Love, Chair; Beth Gatewood, Chair-Elect; Chris McNabb, Recording Secretary

Officers absent —Joan Koos, Immediate Past Chair

Staff present — Barbara Perry, Administrative Coordinator

Staff absent — Shanika Bivines, Administrative Assistant

Representatives present — Hourly Employees Council: Ed Fontaine, Diana Fitzpatrick, Karen Stark, David Houck, Patsy Montoya, Ben Stapp, Troy Schmidt, David Kizer; Informational Staff Association: Kevin Jarnagin, Debi Gentis, Lisa Bowles; Organizational Staff Council: Linda McCarty, Cathy Brister, Matt Berry; Administrative Staff Council: Sue-Anna Miller

Representatives absent — Hourly Employees Council: Cheryl Barton, Cindy Goode, Kim Haddad, Robert Murphy; Informational Staff Association: Brook Barnes-Weber, Elaine Bradshaw, Annette Schwiebert; Organizational Staff Council: Kristi Wright, Kathy Gross, Jannie Porter; Administrative Staff Council: Rennie Cook

Guests present — Dan Hough, OU Staff Week Committee Chair; Lezlie Pilkington, Administrative Affairs

CHAIR’S COMMUNICATIONS

Chair Betty Love said she had met with Vice President for Executive and Administrative Affairs Nick Hathaway in January. Nick informed her that the panel on health insurance issues (aka the “Blue Ribbon Panel”) is going forward. There will be a staff representative from the Norman campus as well as one from the Health Sciences Center Campus or Tulsa Campus. Betty said she welcomed suggestions for a possible representative for the Norman campus.

In December, Betty received information that the OU retiree representative on the Employment Benefits Committee had been tentatively approved to be a voting member on that committee. Betty asked Nick if that representative had been fully approved yet. Nick informed her that President Boren was waiting to hear from Staff and Faculty Senates regarding this. She said this issue would be discussed later in the meeting and Staff Senate would respond to the President.

Following the December Senate meeting, the Staff Senate Executive Committee met regarding the mass e-mail guidelines. Recent mass e-mails had been sent out to staff regarding discounts for Staff/Faculty Night for OU basketball and to let staff know about discounted Hornets’ games tickets. Betty said some were concerned that we might not be following our guidelines, which state, “Our e-mail system can not be used to advertise the sale of items that are not university related.” She said after the committee met, and discussed the guideline, they decided that the guideline meant that we would not allow companies to use our mass e-mail to advertise. However, if we felt an e-mail would benefit morale or would be something that the majority of our staff members would have an interest in, we would have the discretion to send an e-mail out. Betty said she spoke to Nick about our concern that an extremist might make a case that we were sending out too much mail and our privilege could be taken away. Nick said that President Boren is very pro-communication and is aware of our e-mails. Betty thought our use of the mass e-mail system was appropriate.

ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES OF DECEMBER 20, 2006

Beth Gatewood asked for a correction under ANNOUNCEMENTS. In the first sentence in that section, OU Women’s Build should be changed to Cleveland County Women’s Build. With this change, the minutes were accepted as amended on a motion by Matt Berry.

OTHER COMMUNICATIONS

Organizational Staff Council:  President Linda McCarty reported that OSC met on January 11. Nick Key was their guest speaker. He spoke about upgrades in IT and talked about SPAM mail. The group discussed forming their awards committee and briefly discussed bingo.

Informational Staff Association:  President Kevin Jarnagin reported that ISA had a meeting scheduled for today, but it was cancelled. They will meet on January 24 instead.

Administrative Staff Council: President Sue-Anna Miller reported that ASC met on January 11 and toured Partner’s Place One and Two.

Hourly Employees Council:  President Ed Fontaine reported that HEC met on January 10. They are making plans for Staff Week. At their February meeting, Human Resources representatives will be present to answer questions regarding retirement. Members are getting a list of questions ready. Ed added that the response for tickets was very positive and several people in his shop had taken advantage of the mass e-mails.

STANDING COMMITTEES

OU Staff Week Committee: Chair Dan Hough reported that the Staff Week Committee met on January 11. The logo has been finalized. T-shirts were discussed at the last meeting; colors were chosen.

REPORTS

The following report was linked to the January agenda:

Staff Senate Foundation account report.

NEW BUSINESS

Voting Privilege for EBC Retiree member: Referring to her comments made in Chair’s Communications, Betty asked if the group was in favor of the Employment Benefits Committee retiree member having voting privileges. She reported that in her meeting with Nick Hathaway, he had said that whether they vote or not, retirees still have a voice. He said they have no thought of taking away benefits from retirees. Future changes might affect someone who came to work later, but not those of us who are currently employed or retired. There are some in the private sector that fear even after you retire with privileges earned after 25, 30, or 35 years of service, a corporation can take away those privileges that you have worked all of your life to achieve. Betty said as long as we have President Boren, we have the assurance that our retirees’ rights will be protected, but it is still good to have a voting member. The group was unanimously in favor of the retiree member being a voting member.

A member commented that the retirees are a big part of this University and many employees are committed to put in the time for retirement. Betty said the retirees have a group that meets and represents them, the OU Retirees Association. Many of the members were not aware of that group.

MISCELLANEOUS

Betty announced that an additional holiday had been added to the holiday schedule for 2007, Statehood Day. It will be Friday November 16, for celebration of the State’s Centennial.

She said the staff merit awards nomination letter would be going out in the next day or so. She encouraged everyone to participate and nominate co-workers that are deserving and hard-working. Faculty members can nominate staff as well. There is a link in the letter to get the form. If you don’t have Internet access, contact Betty or the Staff Senate Office and a form will be sent to you.

Betty thanked the Physical Plant for their efforts to make the sidewalks and parking lots safer during the icy weather. She said the products they used this year were a great improvement. Sue-Anna thanked her for the comment. She said they had done a lot of planning for this year and appreciated hearing comments like that.

ADJOURNMENT

As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 1:51 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Perry

Administrative Coordinator

Chris McNabb

Recording Secretary