Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
12:15—1:30 p.m.
163 Day Hall
Minutes

I. Call to Order

B. Cornell called the meeting to order at 12:18 p.m.

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

a) B. Cornell asked to add three items to the agenda; the Magic Paintbrush Project, Energy Fair task list, and the EA representative to the Faculty Senate
b) P. Korolov asked to discuss the Bailey Hall anniversary

III. New Business

b) Cell Phones for Soldiers
B. Cornell explained this is a program where people donate/recycle their old cell phones and they are given to troops serving overseas. A. Mittman will confirm this is a legitimate organization, and if confirmed, we will publicize this, and there will be a box at the Energy Fair for people to drop phones in.
c) Magic Paintbrush Project
B. Cornell said this is an interesting arts program that offers seminars for children in the community who have special needs. A. Mittman said his office has a list-serve of Cornell parents of children with special needs and he offered to send this out to them.
d) EF Dining Lead
B. Cornell said this position has not been filled. He is looking for a volunteer, please e-mail him if you are able to take on this responsibility.
a) Discussion with Vice President Mary George Opperman (MGO) (Energy Fair, New Goals, Childcare Center, Flexible Work Times)
B. Cornell said planning is going well for the Presidents Address/Energy Fair on October 27th, 2008. He asked if an email could go out from her office to staff to encourage attendance. MGO said she would do this.

B. Cornell then asked her to talk about the plan for flexible time work schedules. She said HR and college officers have discussed how to get some people to avoid driving to campus on all five weekdays. However, budget cuts by NYS Gov. Patterson have impacted everything on campus, so some ideas for flex-time have been put on hold for now. College/Business managers are trying to manage budget cuts, but in the meantime, they don’t want people to stop arrangements that are working for them, they simply want to encourage more people to consider adjustments.

B. Cornell then asked for an update on the Bright Horizons Childcare Center. MGO said the Center opened its doors August 25th, but the grand opening/ribbon cutting will be October 15th. She said everyone is invited. She then said it is a beautiful center and a great facility, but admitted there is still a long waiting list and tuition is still too high for many to afford. J. Seymour asked why tuition rates were so high. MGO said it was due to the “gateway standards” they were required to follow which significantly increased the cost. She said they could not lower tuition fees too much because they do not want to draw too many children away from local centers. She said the second center is in the planning stage, and it will cost about half what the first one did since the plans are to build it off campus. She doesn’t think the second center will draw children away from the first one, but the second center may impact local centers.

B. Cornell said the EA had a summer retreat and wanted to explain their goals. He said the President’s address/Energy Fair is at the top of its list of priorities, and all their efforts are being put into that at the present time. He said their Charter review is also moving forward. He thanked the Office of Assemblies for providing a handbook for members, and for their help with committee staffing.

B. Cornell said there is a meeting this week to decide the next recipient of the GPADS. MGO asked they work around her schedule so she could participate. She then told the EA that when a Trustee passes away, a resolution is put into the minutes of the next Board of Trustees meeting. MGO said she would arrange for the resolution to be sent to the EA members. A. O’Donnell offered to put this on the website if we could get it electronically.

Mary Opperman said the good news is Cornell had been put on two “Best of” lists. The first is Working Mother magazine and the second is AARP — CU is the #1 employer on that list.

She then said the bad news is budget cuts coming from NYS Gov. Patterson will be big. They know the Vet College and CALS will have large cuts, but there are many unknowns still for the overall cut. The President is reviewing budgets now from senior staff. She said she would be happy to answer any questions or rumors they would like to ask about. H. Hall asked if there would be a hiring freeze or layoffs. MGO said yes, these are two possibilities that could be considered for temporary relief. P. Mahoney asked if the medical college would be affected. MGO said the hospital will be affected because Medicare/ Medicaid cuts will directly affect hospitals. B. Cornell asked if anyone would be forced into early retirement. MGO said probably not. This is a long process where the state would have to put this option in front of the legislature and this has not happened yet. Cornell could give incentives for people to quit or be voluntarily laid off. She stressed that people should not panic, donations to CU are excellent and admissions applications are strong, so construction and most other projects will continue as planned.

B. Cornell inquired about succession planning. MGO responded that campus priorities would stay the same. When the economy slows down, the turnover rate slows as well. People hold off retiring or changing jobs. There will be opportunities for faculty and staff to be involved and to present efficient ways to save time and money.

B. Cornell then inquired about development and training for faculty who manage staff. MGO responded they do have a faculty development program to train faculty who manage or supervise staff. Pam Strausser and John Silicano are the ones who can help with this.

IV. Report from Chair (Provost Search, Committee Staffing)

B. Cornell said he is the staff representative on the Provost Search Committee. He said they have met and they are making progress. P. Mahoney asked if any other staff members would have input. B. Cornell said if anyone had any questions or suggestions to please send to him by email quickly and he would try to submit it to the committee.

B. Cornell made the following announcements; P. Mahoney is the chair, and H. Hall is the vice-chair of the Emergency Grant Fund committee. B. Liddick is the EA rep to the HR Climate Survey committee. J. Seymour is now chair of the Education committee. G. Stewart is now on the Communications committee. They have been asked for a rep to the Faculty Senate, which meets 1–2 times a month. A. Mittman is interested in being the EA rep, but if anyone else is interested they can email B. Cornell. H. Hall has resigned from being Parliamentarian. An election for this position will be held at the next EA meeting, but nominations and self-nominations will be accepted by email in the meantime.

V. Report from Employee Elected Trustee

B. Mckinney said she had nothing to report because there have been no meetings. She said she will have more information after the October meetings on campus.

VI. Report From the UA Representative

Rodney Orme said they had their first meeting of the year two weeks ago, and reported he is now the Chair of the UA. He said they had discussed issues around PeopleSoft and Schedulizer, and they are working to get these issues resolved. P. Korolov asked him to explain the issues. R. Orme said PeopleSoft was a program within Cornell that had not successfully handled add-drop or pre-enrollment for students and that Schedulizer was an independent program for students that had experienced issues working with the registrar to obtain current course information.

R. Orme then said they are planning to host a multi-assembly meeting in the spring, and invited the EA to attend. B. Cornell said the EA will plan to attend.

VII. Approval of Minutes — September 3, 2008

B. Cornell asked for a motion to approve the minutes from the EA meeting on September 3, 2008. P. Mahoney motioned to approve the minutes. B. Liddick seconded. The minutes were voted on and approved as submitted.

VIII. Committee Reports

a) Executive Committee
B. Cornell said he had nothing further to report.
b) Staff Award & Recognition
B. Cornell said there will be a meeting tomorrow to review the nominations.
c) Communications
J. Seymour reported Steve Perina is working on a draft of the Energy Fair poster. He said he will make the program, and P. Mahoney will arrange for its printing in Geneva.
d) Finance
A. Mittman reported that the budget for the Energy Fair is $7,000-$8,000. This money was requested by the Assemblies office.
e) Emergency Grant Fund
P. Mahoney and H. Hall are working on details for the auction now-it is a lot. They have found some student volunteers to help with letters.
B. Cornell asked for a motion to extend the meeting. J. Seymour motioned to extend the meeting by 5 minutes.
f) Personnel Policy
A. Epstein said it’s on the website and there were letters sent in the mail. P. Mahoney is now the Chair. She said she has contacted Lauren Jacoby. She said she hopes to meet with her soon.
g) IOC (Handbook Feedback)
P. Korolov said Ari Epstein needs feedback on the EA handbook by email if you have any.
h) University Benefits
No report.
i) Employee Education
J. Seymour said he has two new members so he plans to set up a meeting with them soon.
j) “Ad Hoc” Charter Review
H. Hall said they have a meeting set for next week.
k) PawPrint
J. Seymour said this is a new agenda item. This will give Dennis Stein an opportunity to report his updates at each meeting.

IX. Old Business

a) Employee Assembly Vacancies
J. Seymour said this will stay on until the vacancies are filled.
b) President’s Address/Energy Fair Tasks (EMPT, President’s address format)
B. Cornell and J. Seymour went to an EMPT meeting and some questions came up that they are working to address.

X. Open Forum

B. Cornell wanted to reiterate with everyone that the Provost Search committee is in between meetings, and this was the first EA meeting since the committee met where he could report. He stressed there was no purposeful neglect of the EA during this process.

H. Hall asked for a wrap up of Chili-chat to be added to the agenda for next meeting. P. Korolov said he would have a final document at next meeting.

XI. Adjournment

B. Cornell asked for a motion to adjourn. P. Mahoney made a motion to adjourn the meeting. A. Mittman seconded. The meeting adjourned at 1:38 p.m.