Minutes
Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday November 7th, 2012
12:15 −1:30pm
401 Physical Science

I. Call to Order (0:00:09.9)

T. Grove called the meeting to order at 12:20pm.

Present: R. Blanco, A. Capogrossi, B. Cristelli, L. Croll Howell, B. Esty, C. Ferguson, T. Grove, E. Lee, G. Mezey, L. Morris, G. Osborne, B. Schaffner

Absent: J. Ambrosetti, N. Bell, J. Boodley Buchanan, D. Brooks, M. Kitchen, L. Sayam, M. Stefanski Seymour

Also Present: A. Epstein, C. Lender, A. O’Donnell

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda (0:00:17.0)

E. Lee asked to make an announcement at the end of the meeting.

III. Approval of Minutes from last meeting (0:00:30.6)

G. Mezey made a motion to approve the minutes from October 15, 2012. C. Ferguson seconded and the EA unanimously approved the minutes.

IV. Business of the Day - Resolution for earlier elections (0:00:56.9:)

T. Grove explained C. Ferguson has been working on a resolution to change the Employee Assembly elections calendar. She then asked C. Ferguson to explain the resolution, which she will forward to the EA members after the meeting for review. C. Ferguson stated the reason for the change to the election schedule is to put the EA in line with the other assemblies by changing the election dates from March-April to January-February. The change will allow new members to vote for (or serve on) the University Assembly. Finally, C. Ferguson thanked the assemblies office for their help. T. Grove then opened up the floor for discussion on the resolution.

L. Morris asked if moving the elections schedule forward to January will give the Communications Committee enough time to publicize. C. Ferguson said it appears as though this will not be an issue. B. Schaffner suggested sending something out in the middle of December to inform employees, especially the dining staff, who leave for winter break and do not return until the end of January. T. Grove asked for any further questions or comments. She explained the resolution will be sent to the members and voted on at the December 5th meeting.

V. Report from the Chair (0:06:30.8)

a) E.S.T. (0:06:34.4)

T. Grove said she met with M. Opperman and the Employee Survey Teams and many of the committees have decided to go back to the drawing board for their recommendations. She said a lot of the recommendations were lead by human resources and they weigh heavily on HR decisions. However, M. Opperman has urged the committees to re-evaluate their recommendations since the survey was for the employees the recommendations should be employee led vs. HR led. M. Opperman is also hoping the EA will be able to help host a few Open Forums before winter break for the committees to discuss. T. Grove said the dates and locations of the forums will be set to allow for a variety of employees to attend.

C. Ferguson asked what the committee suggestions were such that they have to be re-evaluated. T. Grove said that one of the committees that is re-working their recommendation is for the workload imbalance. The committee is working on making new recommendations regarding how the online request for a review is dealt with, especially in regards to is it ideal for the employees. L. Morris said another reason they are going back is because M. Opperman has suggested the recommendations be more forceful. T. Grove further explained for committees like the wellness committee the recommendations should be bolder and state specifically what steps or improvements should be made. The initial point has to be the boldest because it will only become less as time goes on.

G. Mezey asked in terms of wellness if it is the employee’s responsibly to request it? He asked how the committees are working for employees so they do not always have to ask up to their supervisors but so that their supervisors ask down as well? He also asked how the data collected from the colleges independently is going to be used? T. Grove said the college information will not be given directly to the committees, although the information could be requested by the committees. B. Cristelli said the CALs committee has emailed recommendations before the dean, the deans have came back and the recommendations were not agreed upon thus they are reprioritizing their recommendations.

C. Ferguson voiced his concern there has been no forward movement and that the survey is getting lost with all of the committees. He stated it has been a year and no solid recommendations have been made or put out to encourage the employees. T. Grove said the team is looking at the period before winter break as a time to move forward since it is a time period where historically there is less work and stress. T. Grove also encouraged the EA members to look at the Employee Survey website regarding a more detailed timeline.

T. Grove stressed in the past what was in our favor was pushing it through the Employee Assembly. She suggested the creation of an EA resolution that would strongly urge each college to submit some type of report to the employees. This could be used to rank the colleges among themselves, since there is always more motivation when there is competition. T. Grove asked for volunteers to help draft the resolution. G. Mezey volunteered.

Finally, T. Grove explained there is an intern, a senior from the ILR School, who will be helping with the scheduling and preparations for the open forums. B. Schaffner also suggested the employees at Geneva should be considered and if possible there should be a video conference option for them. T. Grove also said there will be a spotlight or some type of highlighting of people in The PawPrint to tell employees what is happening and encourage them to talk about it. T. Grove suggested have the E.S.T present to the Employee Assembly and suggested inviting them to the December meeting.

b) Trustee-Council Annual Meeting (0:38:11.2)

T. Grove noted she had attended the recent Board of Trustee meeting. She said a lot of the meeting was spent discussing campus safety. There is a very interesting new video regarding gorge safety the university is looking to implement for students. They also discussed diversity initiatives, the online “respect” program, and the official name of the NYC Campus, which is now The Cornell Tech New York City Campus. T. Grove said they also talked about students and alcohol.

B. Cristelli asked about the respect for Cornell item. T. Grove explained it is an online program that people are able to go to which informs them about respecting others. L. Croll Howell said the program includes diversity and discrimination, including Title IX information. The goal is to get seventy five percent of staff to complete the program.

VI. Old Business

a) Care fund auction (0:44:08.9)

G. Osborne said there have been a lot of issues with the online auction website, which may be turning people away from bidding. She has been discussing the issue with B. McKinney and they are working on finding a solution. T. Grove asked if it would be beneficial to either extend the auction or to freeze it and begin it again once the issues have been fixed. L. Croll Howell said the Care Fund is extremely depleted and really needs the funds. G. Mezey suggested reaching out to the Special Events and Catering at the Hotel School since each year they hold an auction and donate their proceeds to charities.

VII. New Business (0:50:21.7)

a) UA report - Greg Mezey (0:50:22.7)

G. Mezey stated there have been two University Assembly meetings since the EA last met. On October 16th the topic was diversity for Cornell. On October 30th, Mary Beth Grant presented and clarified the judicial code. There was also some discussion on hazing and harassment. President Skorton also attended this meeting and brought up similar issues as the ones discussed at the EA meeting with him. He suggested working across the assemblies more and working at the ground level for some issues.

B. Schaffner added Kathy Zoner had presented at the October 30th meeting about public safety. She said the Cornell Police have assisted with a large number of escorts this year and unfortunately will not be able to continue to sustain the increase without additional funding. Therefore, the Cornell Police are looking for student groups to help. T. Grove asked how many of the EA members know other employees who have to work late hours. She said one idea would be to lift parking restrictions in order for employees with late night shifts to park closer to their building. C. Ferguson stated that it should be brought up the number of blue lights is not substantial and they are not in obvious locations.

b) Infrastructure Committee report - Brigitt Schaffner (0:59:40.4)

B. Schaffner said there will be a few new blue lights added on campus. There is also a campus lighting survey going on. She explained at the UA meeting T. Grove brought up to the President that there are surveys but there are funding issues so many of the survey recommendations are not addressed with solutions. B. Schaffner said the university is also installing a couple of surveillance cameras the Cornell Police will have access to. Finally, the committee will also be discussing the Revolving Green Fund, which is a program where the campus would invest in energy conservation and then repay their investments with the money saved from the green energy. She asked if any of the EA members have ideas or concerns that they would like the committee to look into to please email her.

c) Committee Staffing — Bridget Cristelli (1:04:03.2)

B. Cristelli said there is currently one EA member of the CJC and the CWC. The University Assembly would like there to be two employee representatives on both of these committees. G. Mezey volunteered to be chair of the CJC. B. Cristelli also said that the EA needs an ambassador for United Way, which meet every other week at the vet school from 8:30 to 10:30am. If anyone is interested or knows other people interested, they are encouraged to contact B. Critelli.

E. Lee said The PawPrint schedule might be changing deadlines for the EA featured members. He will be sending the new schedule out along with a revised list of the EA’s designated deadlines.

VIII. Adjournment (1:08:42.5)

G. Mezey motioned to adjourn. It was seconded and the meeting was adjourned at 1:29 p.m.