THE
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
STAFF
SENATE
(NORMAN
CAMPUS)
Wednesday,
October 19, 2005
Chair Joan Koos called the meeting
to order at 1:36 p.m. in the Scholars Room of the Oklahoma Memorial Union.
Union.
Officers present — Joan Monroe-Koos,
Chair; Debbie Copp, Immediate Past Chair
Officers absent — Betty Love,
Chair-Elect; Karla Woodfork, Recording Secretary
Staff present — Barbara Perry,
Administrative Coordinator;
Shanika Bivines, Administrative Assistant
Representatives present —
Hourly Employees Council: Pam Shoopman, Karen Stark, Patsy Montoya, David
Houck, Ed Fontaine, Diana Fitzpatrick, Robert Murphy; Informational Staff
Association: Sophia Morren, Annette Schwiebert, Elaine Bradshaw, Chris Cook;
Organizational Staff Council: Tina Ledgerwood, Linda McCarty, Jannie Porter,
Susan Hughes, Matt Berry; Administrative Staff Council: Sue-Anna Miller, Deborah Marsh, Deb
Wollenberg
Representatives absent —
Hourly Employees Council: Brian Candelaria, Carolyn Irons, Debbie Blevins, Larry
Craig; Informational Staff Association: Susan Lauterbach, Steffan Ice;
Organizational Staff Council: Michele Coroiu; Administrative Staff Council:
None
Guests present — Stacey Barry,
Administrative Affairs; Rod Henry, Physical Plant; Krishna Bedala, Student Congress
CHAIR'S COMMUNICATIONS
Joan said she had been asked to pass along
information concerning the annual benefits enrollment scheduled for October 24th
through November 11. She
said employees should begin receiving their enrollment packets within the next
few days.
ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES OF SEPTEMBER
21, 2005
Robert Murphy moved for acceptance
of the minutes of the September 21, 2005, meeting. The motion was seconded and the minutes were accepted as
written.
OTHER COMMUNICATIONS
Administrative Staff Council: President Sue-Anna Miller
reported that the ASC met on October 12.
A tour of the National Weather Center had originally been planned, but
the tour guide was unable to be there, so the group toured One PartnerÕs Place
instead.
Hourly
Employees Council: President Pam
Shoopman reported that HEC met on October 12th as well. Committee assignments were made. Pam said she had become aware that some
dependents are being refused dental service because they are not recognized as
covered members of the dental insurance program due to a glitch in the
system. The covered member asked
that HEC let Staff Senate know.
Joan said she would make sure Nick Kelly was aware of the
situation.
Informational Staff Association: President Sophia Morren reported that
ISA met on October 5. Steven Smith
from Purchasing was the guest speaker.
They discussed the ITC policy.
Organizational Staff Council: President Tina Ledgerwood reported that
OSC met on October 6. Nick Kelly spoke to the group about
benefits. Information Technology Council representative and OSC member Cheryl
Carney was present to answer questions regarding the network policy.
OU Staff Week Committee: Committee member Linda McCarty said the Staff
Week Committee was preparing for a fall sweatshirt sale. Hooded sweatshirts as well as
sweatshirts featuring a sketch of Boyd House will go on sale soon.
REPORTS
The following reports were linked
to the agenda:
Staff Senate Foundation account
report.
Minutes from Employment Benefits
Committee meeting of August 25, 2005.
OLD BUSINESS
Robert Murphy asked Joan about the
status of the motion that had been tabled at the September Senate meeting. Joan replied that she had been notified
by the ITC that a new network policy would be drafted by the Information
Technology Council. As a result, discussion on the network policies currently
circulating are moot. Joan said that although Staff Senate had a motion on the
table, we need not have any further discussion on it at this point. Robert asked if it would be proper
parliamentary procedure to withdraw his previous motion. Parliamentarian Debbie Copp said a
motion to dispense with the motion could be made. Robert then moved that all pending Senate motions concerning
the ITC network policy be withdrawn.
The motion was seconded and passed on a voice vote.
NEW BUSINESS
Discussion of group reallocations
within Staff Senate: Background
information and proposed constitutional changes were linked to the agenda. Joan explained that every three years,
Staff Senate examined the distribution of representatives in comparison to the
number of employees within each of the groups. She said the Executive Committee had met to look at this
issue during October and felt some changes were in line. Joan explained that the issue was being
brought back to the full Staff Senate for discussion. If changes to the number of representatives in the groups
are approved, a constitutional change will be required. She said a change to the name of
one of the member groups was being suggested as well. The Informational Staff Association is written in the
constitution as Informational Staff Council. She explained that this group has long preferred to be known
as the Informational Staff Association. The Senate discussed the issue
regarding numbers of representatives first. The recommended change would reduce
ASCÕs representation to two Staff Senate representatives and increase HECÕs
representation to twelve Staff Senate representatives. A member asked whether ASC agreed to
lose a member. Joan said that ASC
understood the rationale behind the change. She said she thought the full ASC would probably want
to discuss the matter because it could cause ASC some difficulties. ASC President Sue-Anna Miller agreed. She said the numbers do not support ASC
having as many reps as they have.
Sue-Anna said they may discuss alternative ways to ensure that they are
always represented on Staff Senate.
She said with only two representatives, their concern is that sometimes,
neither representative might be able to attend the meeting. A member asked if a vice-rep or
alternate could be appointed in such a case. Sue-Anna said the issue of whether to allow proxies for each
of the member groups had been discussed at the Executive Committee meeting, but
no decision was reached.
A member asked if Staff Senate had a
minimum or maximum number of representatives. Barbara said there is no maximum, but we needed to
keep the group to a controllable size.
Debbie added that we would never have true equal representation because
there is so much change going on.
She compared the group to the U.S. Senate, wherein every State has two
votes no matter what the population of the State is. She said we tried to keep representation somewhat
reflective of the groupÕs size.
Joan added that the numbers do constantly change and that was why the
numbers need to be looked at every three years and tweaked.
Joan reminded the group that the
issue could only be discussed at this meeting and would be voted on at the next
meeting at which two-thirds of the members were present to vote on it. Debbie added that since it is a
constitutional change, if approved, it would need to be approved by President
Boren and would need to be completed in advance of the groupsÕ 2006 elections
so each group would know how many people to elect for their upcoming
elections. Joan added that
any changes would not affect the current year. Tina Ledgerwood made a motion to send the issue to the
member groups for further discussion.
The motion was seconded and passed on a voice vote.
The group then discussed the name
change for the ISA. ISA President
Sophia Morren said they had been going by ISA so long, she had forgotten the
group was ever called ISC. Matt
Berry made a motion to start the process on the ISA name change. The motion was seconded and passed on a
voice vote.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Joan mentioned that Recording
Secretary Karla Woodfork was away due to emergency surgery and Chair-Elect
Betty Love was attending a conference.
MISCELLANEOUS
Joan announced that the new mass
email system for staff was making progress. She said training for the administrators and superusers
would take place on October 20.
ADJOURNMENT
As there was no further business,
the meeting adjourned at 2:03 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Perry
Administrative Coordinator
Shanika Bivines
Administrative Assistant