THE
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
STAFF
SENATE
(NORMAN
CAMPUS)
Wednesday,
January 16, 2008
Chair Beth Gatewood called the meeting
to order at 1:31 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;
Ke’Yonna Wynn, Student Assistant
Representatives present —
Hourly Employees Council: Diana Fitzpatrick, Ed Fontaine, Robert Murphy, Kim
Haddad, Jack Shoopman, Donna Stephens, Carolyn Irons, Troy Schmidt, David Kizer;
Informational Staff Association: Debbie Copp, Elaine Bradshaw, Michael Goodwin;
Organizational Staff Council: Cathy Brister, Sandi Emond, Matt Berry, Cathy
Trujillo, Jannie Porter; Administrative Staff Council: Sue-Anna Miller
Representatives absent — Hourly
Employees Council: Melanie Wilburn, Dee Hayes; Informational Staff Association:
Anna Love, Debi Gentis, Lisa Bowles; Organizational Staff Council: Tami Kinsey;
Administrative Staff Council: Robbie
Wahnee
Guests present — David
Houck, Physical Plant; Lezlie Pilkington, Administrative Affairs; Nancy
Matthews, Department of Mathematics; Linda Smith, Price College of Business
CHAIR’S COMMUNICATIONS
Chair Beth Gatewood introduced
the new Staff Senate student assistant for the Senate Office, Ke’Yonna
Wynn. Beth said staff merit award
nomination letters had gone out and were also available on the Senate website. She encouraged people to nominate
coworkers. She said she had spoken
to Vice President Nick Hathaway about the budget for the upcoming year and said
the situation did not look promising at the current time. Beth reported that the budgets and logo
for Staff Week had been approved.
ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES OF
DECEMBER 19, 2007
Beth noted that a correction needed to be made
to the minutes of the December 19, 2007, minutes under OU Staff Week. Dave Annis’ title should be listed as
Executive Director of Food Services instead of Director of Food Services. With that correction, Matt Berry made a
motion to accept the minutes of the December meeting. The motion was seconded and the minutes were accepted.
OTHER
COMMUNICATIONS
Administrative Staff
Council: President Sue-Anna Miller reported that
ASC met on January 15. Staff Week
Chair Melanie Wilburn and Executive Director of Food Services Dave Annis were
guests. Staff Week was discussed.
ASC will sponsor a picnic this year instead of a Food Fair. Tickets will be $2.00 to the event. Dave is working up a menu and it will
probably include fried chicken.
The group is hoping for a big crowd and would like to have the event
outdoors if the weather cooperates.
Sue-Anna said the time for the event would run from 11:30 to 1:00. People could come anytime within that
timeframe with their ticket.
Hourly
Employees Council: President Diana Fitzpatrick
reported that HEC met on January 9. She said Linda Smith updated the group on
the extended sick leave proposal.
The group discussed the survey they are planning to do in conjunction
with their election ballot next month.
Organizational
Staff Council: President Cathy
Brister said OSC met on January 10.
The group discussed where they would like to hold Staff Week bingo. They discussed holding it in Santee
Lounge again. They formed a
committee for their merit awards selection committee and discussed speakers for
upcoming meetings. They also had a
brief discussion about the carpool issue.
Informational
Staff Association: ISA member Debbie
Copp reported that ISA canceled their January meeting that was scheduled for
January 9. The group plans to meet
at its regular time in February.
STANDING
COMMITTEES
Personnel Policies
Committee: PPC Chair Linda Smith
said PPC did not meet in December.
Linda said PPC would meet on January 24th. She said she had met with Nick Kelly
for a brief discussion about ESL.
Linda passed out a handout with questions concerning FMLA/ESL and asked
that people respond to her. (1)How
many staff personnel (hourly & monthly) has your department placed on FMLA
or ESL? (2)Did you pay for a Peak
or temporary employee to cover for these absences? If yes, what was the cost to the department?
Employment Benefits
Committee: Debbie Copp reported
that EBC would meet on January 17.
Debbie said she had an item to bring up later under New Business.
OU Staff Week: Administrative Coordinator Barbara Perry
reported that Staff Seek had chosen the colors and styles for the spring
t-shirt sales campaign. The
committee will offer a short sleeve blue t-shirt and a long sleeve t-shirt in
grey. The logo, a dreamcatcher,
with the OU logo in the center, has been approved. Shirts will go on sale toward the end of February. The theme is “Making Your Dreams
Come True.”
Communications
Committee: Barbara said the Communications
Committee met earlier that morning.
The group discussed their ongoing projects for the year. They will continue to pursue their
netiquette project and their people skills database project.
REPORTS
The following
reports were linked to the January agenda:
Staff Senate
Foundation account report.
NEW BUSINESS
Debbie Copp said the
Employment Benefits Committee would meet the following day, Thursday. She explained that the Faculty Senate
at the Health Sciences Center passed a resolution this past October, a copy of
which she passed out to everyone present, asking the insurance review committee
to be sure to include the health care providers at the Health Sciences Center
as a group to provide services to the faculty and staff as the new health care
insurance providers were being selected. Debbie suggested that Norman Campus Staff Senate
support the resolution and thought it would be a good idea for the Norman
Campus to encourage the committee to promote Goddard Health Center as an option
for health care for our campus. Senate
members agreed with these comments.
Debbie then made a motion that the Norman Campus Staff Senate go on
record as supporting the resolution from the OU Health Sciences Center Faculty
Senate that is addressed to the insurance review committee, and asked that we
add to that discussion that we believe that it is important that Goddard remain
as a health care provider option.
The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The next Staff Senate meeting
will take place on February 20, 2008.
ADJOURNMENT
As there was
no further business, the meeting adjourned at 1:43 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara
Perry
Administrative Coordinator
Kathy Gross
Recording Secretary