Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
12:15—1:30 p.m.
316 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

There were no late additions to the agenda.

IV. Report from Chair

B. Cornell said that President Skorton has requested a meeting with the EA next Friday, January 16th, at 3 p.m. to give an update on university budget plans. He and Mary Opperman want to meet with us before meeting with the board of trustees. B. Cornell then reminded the members that Mary Opperman will be attending the EA meeting today to discuss how to support staff during this difficult time. He also suggested reading this week’s PawPrint, which includes an article from employee trustee Beth McKinney.

V. Report from Employee Elected Trustee

B. McKinney said she will attend a board meeting at the end of January and will have more to report after that. She said she is on buildings and properties, government relations, student affairs and the alumni affairs and development committees, as well as a small local group of local trustees (community trustee group).

VI. Report from SA representative

No Report.

VII. Report From UA representative

L. Lawrence said there have been no recent meetings to report on.

VIII. Report from EA representative to the Faculty Senate

B. Cornell said there have been no recent meetings to report on.

IX. Report from Staff Climate Survey Steering Committee representative

B. Cornell said there have been no recent meetings to report on.

X. Approval of Minutes — December 17, 2008

B. Cornell asked the members to quickly review the minutes from December 17, 2008.

P. Mahoney motioned to approve the minutes. L. Lawrence seconded. The minutes for the December 17th meeting were voted on and approved.

XI. Committee Reports

a) Executive committee
B. Cornell said the committee met with Mary Opperman and discussed how to best support staff. They discussed holding open forums or info sessions as long as there is a theme to them. G. Stewart suggested the EA invite Steve Golding to speak at an upcoming meeting. B. McKinney suggested we should reserve space during February because it is likely to be a time when more information is available. B. Cornell agreed and asked for volunteers. B. McKinney volunteered to do this.
b) Staff Recognition & Award committee
B. Cornell said they are trying to schedule a meeting now to review all open nominations.
c) Communications committee
J. Seymour said there would be a meeting later this month.
d) Finance
No report.
e) Emergency Grant Fund
P. Mahoney said there will be a meeting of the committee tomorrow.
f) Personnel Policy
P. Mahoney said they are having a meeting tomorrow with Lauren Jacoby, from staff and labor relations, which is the office where the policies originate.
g) IOC
P. Korolov said some applications came in over break. He will review them and check for vacancies. He said he thought there was one application for the EA. He then said he has contacted Jim Sheridan on making plans for the retreat, and January 23rd is the target day. After receiving confirmation, he will secure a location.
h) University Benefits
J. Magura said there was a meeting scheduled for January 19th.
i) Employee Education
J. Seymour said there would be a meeting set for the end of January.
j) “Ad Hoc” Charter Review
P. Mahoney said another meeting is being planned.

XII. Old Business

a) Committee Staffing Review
This was covered previously.
b) Evaluating the EA’s Priorities
This was covered previously and will be discussed in depth at the retreat.

XIII. Open Forum

L. Lawrence asked if the upcoming retreat would replace the summer retreat. B. Cornell responded no. He said they intend to realign the goals that were established at the 2008 summer retreat to respond to the current budget concerns.

J. Magura asked to discuss the meeting with President Skorton. P. Beach said he wants to meet with some constituent groups before meeting with the Board of Trustees. He will give a bit of information on what we can expect to be announced after the Board of Trustees meeting, and that he intends to stay to answer questions from the members. She added she thought it was terrific of him to request this meeting.

D. Stein said he and Beth McKinney had attended Dennis Osika’s retirement party recently and commented that he thought Dennis had done a great job during his twenty-four years at CU. He suggested the EA might want to do a resolution on him or consider him for a future award. B. McKinney added she thought he was always looking out for what was best for all. B. Cornell said he would bring this up at the next SRAC meeting.

P. Beach said she had a sample resolution the Student Assembly had done for staff. She offered to circulate this.

III. Business of the Day-Vice President Mary Opperman

Mary Opperman said more details will be known after the January 16th meeting with the president. She said things are much the same as when the letter from the President came around. She said the next few years will be constrained, but the priority is to cut operating costs and find new revenue streams. She stated there are 60 regular employees on lay off notice and 50 construction workers off from the union side. She admitted the number of lay offs will increase as things progress, but they are trying to affect as few staff as possible. The colleges and units will get budgets for the coming year in the next couple of weeks and they will have cuts.

In regards to handling questions from staff, she said not to speculate, just listen and if needed send them to Human Resources directly or to the Ombudsman. She said she is available as well.

P. Mahoney asked how many lay offs are from core funds or grant funds? Mary said that so far most lay offs have been state funds or grants. Pat said she thought the case managers committee group has been doing a great job managing these layoffs. Mary said the hiring pause is making things difficult. Supervisors need to put money into training those laid off to fit them into other positions but the budget cuts are making it harder. She said she is close to signing a contract for outplacement services, which will help get some staff placed elsewhere.

B. McKinney said in February the EA is planning forums; if any good ideas come up let her know.

Mary said they are going to the Board for FY 2010 at the end of January but they have until July to finalize the budget. She thinks they maybe said too much too soon; it’s hard to be patient for so long with little information known. On a good note, spending has gone way down. She commented the report from the Cost Savings & Efficiencies Committee is very valuable.

She asked the Employee Assembly members to make themselves available; small meetings are best to get people to speak. She said the correction of jobs is small; 5–6% of staff at most.

P. Mahoney asked how the medical college is being affected? Mary responded they have a slow down too. They have a 12 million dollar problem on a 1 billion dollar budget (about 55 million dollar current year problem). They are increasing clinical operations to generate more revenue. Since they are a primary care and essential surgery medical center they do not suffer as much.

D. Stein asked if there has been an increase in mental health claims? Mary said there has been a slight increase, but highly educated populations tend to use these services more.

P. Mahoney asked how will increasing child coverage to 29 affect the situation? Mary said costs would increase.

L. Lawrence asked about lag pay? Mary said it does save money, but no. They are looking at low or no salary increases this year. This would work for one year but could not be continuous.

J. Magura asked what happens over the long term when people get more responsibility? Mary replied it was more important to stop doing some tasks rather than crunch it into other jobs. Employees need to be working on the departments’ priorities, and those priorities need to be identified by its leaders.

J. Seymour asked how new and different work plans will be communicated to faculty? Mary said they will be affected too. All of Cornell will be affected, this is not a one-year problem. Hopefully, behavior will be healthier at work.

D. Stein asked how programs that aren’t competitive will be eliminated? Mary responded they will happen over time as academic program reviews occur. Programs have closed, morphed and combined, just not in recent memory.

B. Cornell thanked Mary Opperman and said they will see her again on January 16th.

XIII. Open Forum-continued

B. Cornell said he thought it was a good update from Mary Opperman. We should be looking for ideas on how to get more information out there.

P. Mahoney asked if there was any information on “Expanded Group” meetings. P. Korolov said he thought the group had been discontinued. P. Beach said when the President was new he wanted to meet with larger groups, since that was what he was used to from Iowa. The EA is more active now and regularly meet with the president, so the larger group meetings have not been held.

G. Stewart thanked the Office of Assemblies for sending out information on the list-serve. B. Cornell said AAP has offered to come to give info.

XIV. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 1:28 p.m.