Employee Assembly Minutes
Wednesday, October 7, 1998
317 Day Hall
12:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

I. Call to Order and Introductions

C.J.Lance-Duboscq called the meeting to order at 12:29 p.m. She then requested Employee Assembly (EA) members and meeting visitors introduce themselves. C.Gardner introduced Julia Gordon, the new EA clerk.

II. Open Forum

a. Honoring Mary Opperman

T.Calvert suggested the EA do something for Mary Opperman, who has an admittedly stressful job. Perhaps, in connection with PawPrint, the EA ought to hold an event to honor M.Opperman for the work she does, to show the employee’s appreciation for M.Opperman and ensure they do not lose her help. T.Calvert suggested a reception similar to the one held for George Peter.

M.Esposito added M.Opperman had been a great asset to Cornell employees.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq stated she thought it was a good idea, and asked for people willing to work on planning an event.

L.Clougherty asked how big the event would be?

T.Calvert said it would be a reception.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq, M.Esposito, D.DiBene, and T.Calvert agreed to work on planning this event.

C.Gardner mentioned to the EA there was another option - to present M.Opperman with a service award for supervisors, to give a focus to the reception.

J.DeMarco said he felt would that not be enough.

T.Calvert said she had previously considered that, and decided against it.

b. Sexual Discrimination

D.DiBene said he was concerned Cornell University has a non-discrimination policy that includes forms of sexual discrimination, and yet it lets a campus group legally discriminate. He cited the ROTC program as an example of sanctioned discrimination. D.DiBene said he didn’t know if this issue fell under the EA’s purview, but he wanted to ask about it.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq said that it would be a good idea to look at the policy.

M.Esposito added the UA was already looking at the policy, and since the policy affected mainly students, perhaps the EA should look to the SA for their help and opinions.

C.Gardner mentioned there was SA research and dialogue about and with the ROTC program the EA could review.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq suggested D.DiBene get in touch with the Chairs of the UA and the SA about this issue.

M.Esposito said he wanted to mention that an issue directly that does affect employees is the Red Cross policy of discriminating against donors on the basis of sexual orientation.

c. Employee Day

J.DeMarco reported Employee Day went well, despite technical difficulties with independently minded lasagna.

M.Esposito said he felt the event was more disorganized than in past years.

T.Calvert added she felt most people enjoyed the event and were congenial.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq noted food ran out toward the end of the event, and created some conflict with the group. She made a suggestion the planners of the event review their numbers and ensure enough supplies for the entire event.

J.DeMarco reported the next employee night would include different types of chili, to eliminate confusion about choosing food.

d. Emailing

T.Hoebbel said he thought emailing unresolved EA business was a bad idea, and he felt the group had decided against conducting business on email.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq asked the Assembly how major an event they felt called for a resolution? She referred to a recent email about a resolution to honor an employee sent to the EA and also cc’d to people outside of the EA, including the potential honoree. She said she felt it put members of the EA in a position where they would have to honor said person.

T.Calvert said she thought it would be okay to solicit opinions, but not to conduct business through email. She also mentioned she thought the EA had agreed to only send congratulatory letters to honorees, not resolve to honor them formally.

M.Esposito said he thought honorary resolutions had been eliminated.

L.Clougherty said she felt it was inappropriate to cc people on documents or policies that had not yet been passed by the EA.

T.Hoebbel said perhaps EA members should bring points of inquiry to the Chair and see if they would be appropriate to be added to the agenda.

T.Calvert asked old resolutions be looked up that pertained to a specific EA policy regarding honorary resolutions.

T.Hoebbel noted he thought it would be better to not propose resolutions over email at all.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq stated until the EA made a decision on proposed actions, there should be no communication with people outside the EA on those decisions.

M.Esposito added the EA does still honor people, though not through honorary resolutions.

III. Approval of Minutes

a. Approval of Minutes

L.Clougherty made a motion to approve the minutes of 9/15/98 (seconded by M.Esposito) with the following correction:

III. Bullet 1: Substitute “Tom” for “Joe”

• The minutes were unanimously approved.

b. Discussion of Meeting Minutes

C.J.Lance-Duboscq asked whether or not the previous week’s decision to have summarized minutes was agreeable to everyone?

M.Esposito said as he stated during the last meeting, he wanted detailed minutes where he could see everything he had said, and take responsibility for what was printed. He also said he thinks it is a good historical tool to look back and be able to see the minutia of a discussion.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq mentioned those small details had been deliberately left out in order to save time.

M.Esposito said if the EA got the minutes in advance, there would be time to review them before the meeting.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq agreed and asked whether or not this kind of layout was suitable, if combined with the minutia of meeting minutes?

C.Gardner said this had always been the layout for meeting minutes before, and the only thing that has changed is the amount of detail in them.

M.Esposito said he didn’t like the short version.

C.Gardner said she thought that was what the EA had decided on last week.

T.Calvert said she thought the detail was important.

C.Gardner asked if the group wanted to do detailed and not summary minutes?

T.Hoebbel said they really didn’t need minutia, and he felt the group had already decided about this issue.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq said there was a past meeting where this issue was discussed.

M.Esposito said there was a discussion during the last meeting about how to record the minutes, and that wasn’t even recorded in the minutes.

C.Gardner noted part of this discussion was in the meeting minutes.

T.Calvert asked if the minutes are recorded, can’t somebody write them up with detail, but without excessive detail?

M.Esposito said the EA decided last time the minutes would be a hybrid of detail and summary.

C.Gardner said she was unclear, and thought the hybrid was only during an official vote or action as an Assembly, otherwise the minutes should be in summary form. She said it didn’t make a difference to her, but it was important for the office to understand how the EA wanted the minutes done so the office could meet the EA’s requirements.

T.Hoebbel said he thought C.Gardner’s understanding was right, and he prefers two pages of notes to six, and that they have only the essential information. He said he respectfully disagreed with M.Esposito, but he would go through the detailed notes if he had to.

M.Esposito said he still felt everything in the meeting should be in the minutes for people who missed the meeting, administrators or other Assemblies could review the meeting, and it was very unlikely someone would go to an office to review a tape.

C.Gardner cautioned by telling the clerk to only type what is important, the clerk’s interpretation may be very different from other’s interpretations of what is important. She would recommend that, since people would always disagree about importance, either the EA choose to do a basic summary except during official business, or they go back to detailed minutes, but not to leave the decision up to the clerk or any other single person.

D.DiBene asked what would be the importance of having detailed minutes stipulate what each person said?

M.Esposito said he thinks discussion is as important as the outcome. He said people might bring up minor points to reinforce an argument in your mind. He said in looking back at minutes, a summary doesn’t give you the discussion, just the decision.

T.Calvert noted during a discussion, someone might change their mind and need to be reminded of that.

M.Esposito said if another group sees the decision without the minutia of the discussion, they might think it was a unanimous decision, and certain points weren’t brought up, and they might choose to make those points to the EA. He mentioned if those gray areas were cleared up, the discrepancy wouldn’t be there.

L.Clougherty asked if we go back to the old style of minutes, everyone be recognized before they speak so the clerk would know their names.

D.DiBene asked if the staff person has a preference?

C.Gardner said it really didn’t matter to the office. We would do the minutes in the way that best meets the needs of the Assembly.

T.Hoebbel said since M.Esposito feels more strongly about this issue, he didn’t want to undercut him.

D.DiBene said he agreed with M.Esposito’s suggestion.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq said the EA would go back to the old style of notes and take a look at the format to see if they could come up with some more concrete suggestions for what they need.

IV. Announcements and Reports

A. Report from Chair

C.J.Lance-Duboscq mentioned that yesterday at the leadership meeting decisions were made about the hurricane relief effort in Arecibo. The efforts will be campus-wide. T.Hoebbel has taken up the issue and there will be an article about the EA’s involvement in PawPrint.

M.Esposito asked if there was a specific proposal mentioned?

C.J.Lance-Duboscq said yes, there was a proposal.

T.Hoebbel said those at the Assemblies’ executive breakfast wanted people to update them on the EA’s activities. He said he would. T.Hoebbel noted B.Cooke was very interested in what the EA was doing.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq mentioned B.Cooke had already told P.Bursic the EA was involved, and they were looking for faculty support. She also noted flu shots are starting at the clinic on October 15th, and asked if L.Kendall could be added to the agenda for the October 21st meeting, to give a presentation? L.Kendall wants to give a presentation on her work in Human Resources, which revolves around work and family. She also wanted to add J.Shephard to the agenda to make a presentation on career services.

T.Calvert said she thought those two presentations would be okay if kept to a short, strict amount of time, within 7–10 minutes.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq added she didn’t want to drop the social retreat from the calendar. She noted the EA mentioned the idea a few meetings ago, and she thought it was still a worthwhile idea. She also asked all Committee Chairs please submit a list of Committee members to her so the EA could send out letters of commendation to all of the Committee members, thanking them for their service.

T.Hoebbel mentioned this fall, his work serving on the EA and Chairing the Communications Committee had kept him very busy and out of his office for large periods of time. He noted this has had an impact on his co-workers. He said he wasn’t sure what should be done, but he thought it would be nice if M.Opperman could send a letter to his supervisor and co-workers thanking them for allowing him to spend time away from the office doing EA related activities.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq said she thought the letter should come from M.Opperman, F.Rogers, and H.Rawlings.

M.Esposito said he thought those letters had already been sent.

C.Gardner said EA members’ supervisors should have received a letter in June. One copy went to the supervisor, with a copy sent to the EA member.

T.Hoebbel noted while he wasn’t sure if his supervisor had gotten a letter, it was within the last month he had been out of the office the most often.

B. Report from Vice Chair on Assemblies’ Leadership Breakfast

T.Hoebbel noted he wanted to keep his comments brief because B.Bailey was planning on typing up a summary of the discussion for all the Assemblies. He relayed the SA was trying to get the University to agree to keep supporting the older versions of Bear Access because not all of the computers students own can carry the new program. The SA wanted the EA to support this decision, and he asked the issue be put on a future agenda. T.Hoebbel said he had very few details on the next topic but the Division of Biological Sciences was going to be undergoing some major changes in the next month or so, and these changes would have noticeable effects on undergraduate and graduate students, and some employees (because of consolidation of departments). He mentioned the hope was the Assemblies could produce a united recommendation about what those changes should look like. This project would involve some real active interaction among the Assemblies to come up with a united plan to present to the President before a final decision is made. He said this issue would be put on the Leadership Meeting for this month, so it would be discussed again. T.Hoebbel said M.Galin, the Executive Vice President of the SA had a limited amount of information, but more would be dispersed.

T.Hoebbel said the group also discussed the Alcohol Policy, and the fact that the GPSA said they never got an opportunity for input. He mentioned there were some changes to the policy that the EA would have a chance to look at and make recommendations about before the policy goes into effect, which could be relatively soon. He told the group the bigger issue to arise from this discussion was communication, or lack thereof. He reminded the EA that this body had speakers come in and explain the policy, and he thought the communication breakdown might have occurred when the policy was discussed in the UA, but never brought back to the GPSA by their representative.

D.DiBene added that in the UA meeting, someone asked a speaker to go to the GPSA, but the GPSA did not receive a timely response. He noted in recent UA meetings, what he had heard was the GPSA was never contacted.

T.Hoebbel said the perspective of two GPSA members was they never heard about it. He noted that M.Esposito said the issue had come up all last year.

M.Esposito added he thought the larger issue was the Assemblies weren’t being informed when policies were going through a review process.

C.Gardner noted clearly, that wasn’t true when it came to the Alcohol Policy.

M.Esposito said he thought in this situation, there was a change in the whole membership of different groups, and so not all the information was passed on.

T.Hoebbel said the underlying issue was that communication needed to be beefed up among all the different Assemblies, even if communication was just between the Chairs through a listserv, a place to put all relevant information out there. He said B.Bailey was looking into a listserv and she should know about the feasibility of having one by next week.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq thanked M.Esposito for organizing the last Leadership breakfast well, so the Assemblies were brought together on larger issues. She moved to the Business of the Day.

V. Business of the Day

A. Report from IOC - EA Vacancies

C.J.Lance-Duboscq said there were two candidates at the meeting who were running for vacant seats on the EA, and she asked if T.Calvert or J.DeMarco would like to introduce them?

J.DeMarco introduced Jayne Worden and Andrew Vail. He noted each of these candidates had submitted the required information to the EA, had attended the information sessions, and asked if they could please offer statements of intent to the EA.

J.Worden said she was a 16-year employee of the University, after having spent two years at Cornell as an undergraduate. She was interested in and had previous experience on the EA committees, and wanted to work closely with the EA to maintain the employee’s role in campus governance. A future goal of hers is to someday become an Employee Trustee and work with the campus governance on all levels. She noted she is a local Ithacite so one of her major areas of interest are town/gown relations and Cornell’s public image. She said she wants to represent the needs and interests of all employees to the university.

A.Vail said he would like to agree with all of J.Worden’s comments. He noted he received his Bachelor’s degree from Cornell in 1995, and had been working at Cornell ever since, and was proud of both having graduated from Cornell and currently working at Cornell. He became interested in the EA last year, but chose to serve within the committee structure before running for office. He mentioned when he sought signatures for his petition to run for the EA, over half the employees he solicited didn’t know what the EA was, and of the benefits it provides for employees. He wants to spread the word about the EA to other employees.

T.Hoebbel said he found it interesting over half the employees didn’t know about the EA.

A.Vail said the others he approached were worried he was there with a work citation for them.

T.Calvert asked if both candidates were on committees?

L.Clougherty said they were both on the Personnel Policy Committee.

M.Esposito asked if either candidate had any pressing issues they would want to work on?

J.Worden said she wanted to research how benefits were appropriated to employees.

T.Calvert noted M.Opperman said there could be no benefit changes until after P2K was implemented.

A.Vail said major issues of concern to him were staff salaries and parking, as well as the problems of untrained faculty and supervisors.

T.Hoebbel noted those issues were ones the EA had been talking about for quite some time.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq excused the two candidates.

The Employee Assembly members unanimously approved the appointment of Jayne Worden and Andrew Vail to the Employee Assembly for a term to commence immediately and end June 30, ‘00.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq welcomed the new members and congratulated them on becoming members of the Employee Assembly.

J.DeMarco wanted to mention M.Overstrom had done a lot of work with the IOC. M.Esposito suggested next year, the EA make the elections more user friendly, so there would be more candidates to fill all the spots.

J.DeMarco said people need to take responsibility to figure out what is going on in the University - the EA can’t be responsible for informing every single person.

A.Vail wondered what was the election turnout?

C.Gardner said every four years, when there was a trustee election, turnout was usually higher, with around 30 % of the employees voting. This year, with an uncontested race, there was a 17% voter turnout. There was little candidate outreach, which is the way you generally get people involved and voting. In the future, she reminded the group whenever there are referenda, the voter turnout is higher, and said the EA might want to consider referenda for the next election.

B. Paw Print Insert

T.Hoebbel mentioned he thought the discussion about PawPrint would dovetail with the discussion about goals. He said PawPrint would be a 4-page insert this year, and he thought the group should state goals and priorities for the year. The initial date for completion of the insert was October 21st. Because meeting this deadline would have created a skeletal insert, the issue was delayed until November. He said D.Stein encouraged the group to really think about what message they want to convey: whether or not the group wants to be action and issues oriented; if they want an interactive type of paper, so employees get pulled into a certain activity. T.Hoebbel suggested the EA make sure to include the three major events of the fall with pictures and lots of detail.

T.Calvert recommended captioned pictures to highlight events, because it really works and draws people in.

C.Gardner said at the end of the last year, M.Overstrom developed an excellent presentation for the Board of Trustees which included slides and photos. She thought the presentation, pictures and information could take a page of the insert, and mentioned it gave a good historical overview of the past history and accomplishments of the Assembly.

J.DeMarco mentioned that M.Overstrom became the first employee ever given an opportunity to address the Board of Trustees.

T.Hoebbel suggested the group go with the text-photo-text-photo format, because that seemed to work the best for the group.

T.Calvert asked if it held true, people elected to the Employee Trustee position usually moved up through positions on the Employee Assembly?

C.Gardner answered yes.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq asked T.Hoebbel what help he needed?

T.Hoebbel said the ideas mentioned today were good, but he needed a more concrete idea of what was to go on page 1, page 2 - what the EA thought people should see first as they opened up the paper.

M.Esposito said readers should see what the EA does, where they fit into the Campus Governance structure, and who they are.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq said there were pictures of each EA member on the EA web page, and asked if those could be added to the paper so members were more recognizable?

T.Calvert said suggestion was a good call - in working with the Transportation Committee, employees were made to feel like their jobs mattered because they got more recognition.

L.Clougherty wanted to include committee membership on the pages, so those people were recognizable.

T.Hoebbel said he felt last year, publicizing the committees wasn’t so effective.

L.Clougherty suggested then there could be a brief description of each committee, a statement of the charge of each committee, and a list of the members.

T.Calvert asked who would write up the text for the insert?

C.J.Lance-Duboscq said the Communications Committee and EA volunteers would be putting the paper together.

T.Hoebbel suggested publicizing only those committees that need more interest from employees.

J.DeMarco suggested highlighting the lesser known committees, like the one on Personnel Policy.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq noted it was important to get this paper off the ground, but T.Hoebbel should be getting more help.

T.Hoebbel said a bunch of people volunteered to help, but nobody showed up.

T.Calvert said she’d like to be involved but had no time.

A.Vail, J.Worden, and L.Clougherty volunteered their time.

T.Hoebbel suggested on October 8th and the following Thursday, the interested members of EA hold meetings to make decisions before his meeting with D.Stein.

T.Hoebbel said pictures were needed right away.

T.Calvert said she would recommend including pictures of people doing things.

J.Worden suggested the insert include graphics as well.

C.Gardner said it would be nice to recognize employees who serve people in all of the committees.

T.Hoebbel would like to pull together the hurricane relief efforts with the other projects the EA does, to illustrate how effective the body is.

L.Clougherty said it was important to her to include all the committees and the members in the insert.

M.Esposito said he was afraid the group was rushing to meet this deadline.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq noted the date was variable, to an extent.

T.Hoebbel argued the deadline had been postponed two times already, and he’d like to get the paper off the ground.

M.Esposito mentioned more people should volunteer so it wasn’t just T.Hoebbel and D.Stein doing the entire insert.

T.Hoebbel proposed the EA postpone the meeting of the Communications Committee tomorrow so all interested members of the EA could meet to decide what should go in the insert. He then suggested next Thursday, the EA at large and the Committee should meet together.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq asked T.Hoebbel if he would organize the meeting.

T.Calvert suggested the group meet on Wednesday, October 14th, at 12:15.

T.Hoebbel said the meeting would be in Comstock 2132.

J.DeMarco reminded the group they had decided to hold EA meetings in different places each week. With that said, he suggested in the insert, the EA ask if anyone would like to host a meeting in their office?

T.Hoebbel told the group D.Stein said although PawPrint doesn’t accept advertisements from businesses, they could print information about deals businesses are offering in the community. In addition, he thought it would be a good idea to use the insert to get feedback for the EA, by asking readers what they think of the EA issues and concerns.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq informed the group she and T.Hoebbel had given a recent talk to a Cornell group about the EA, and at the end, people asked questions and a great discussion ensued.

M.Esposito suggested since there was to be another meeting just on PawPrint, the group move forward on the agenda.

T.Hoebbel mentioned he would get a mock up from D.Stein as soon as possible to show the group. He also wanted to mention briefly at the upcoming Opperman/Rogers luncheon, issues of Transportation would be discussed (parking/scheduling), and C.J.Lance-Duboscq would write about this in her next column, and about the new Committee being formed around this issue.

T.Hoebbel asked who would head up this Committee?

C.J.Lance-Duboscq expressed her desire for the EA to have a Transportation Watchdog Committee.

T.Hoebbel suggested this Committee be comprised of a person in the EA and other employees.

T.Calvert said she didn’t want to Chair the Committee, but she’d like to be on it because of her role as liaison to the Transportation Advisory Committee.

T.Hoebbel noted all the EA really needed was someone to attend the meetings to bring information. back to the EA.

M.Esposito said he thought it would be enough if T.Calvert was there.

VI. New Business

A. Alcohol Policy

C.J.Lance-Duboscq said this topic had been already discussed, but noted she had copies of the changes made to the report since the spring, and she would get information to them as soon as possible.

B. Hurricane Relief Effort

T.Hoebbel said yesterday, he sent an announcement to D.Stein regarding the EA involvement with the relief effort, and now it has become a full fledged article would announce the EA is spearheading the relief effort on campus. P.Goldsmith has set up a PO box where people can write checks to Cornell will be sent to Arecibo. He said, also, he had contacted R. Medina in Puerto Rico to let him in on the EA efforts (see attached email text).

M.Esposito asked could students and faculty donate money as well?

T.Hoebbel said sure. He then read into the minutes an email he had received from P.Goldsmith (see attached email text).

M.Esposito said he thought this was a wonderful thing for the EA to show the campus how they are taking initiative on this issue.

T.Hoebbel offered to get in touch with the Cornell Chronicle, the Paw Print and the Ithaca Journal. He planned on sending the Journal a summary of the article and shots of Arecibo.

C.J.Lance-Duboscq asked if there were any committee reports or meeting highlights? She noted the date corrections to the luncheon meetings on the calendar.

T.Calvert mentioned she thought the EA should use their surplus budget on food for the luncheon meetings.

T.Hoebbel asked everyone to make sure they wrote down questions for the Leadership Meeting.

J.DeMarco noted there were some problems with Employee Night at the Court. Last year, this was coordinated with the hockey tournament, but somehow, this year, the hockey weekend and basketball weekend do not coincide. To solve this problem in the future, he wants to meet with athletics as soon as possible to figure out the times for these games. He also suggested coordinating this event with employee who have scheduled hoops night so that the units are working together.