Minutes from
UPSA Executive Board Meeting
Thursday, April 10, 2003

Attending:  Thelma Simons, Pam Houston, Dan Consolver, Danny Kaiser, Jill Hummels, Kathy Stiers, Jeannette Johnson, Ola Faucher, Mark Nesbitt-Daly, Kathryn Nemeth-Tuttle, Sally Hayden, Joe Potts and Donna Hultine

Minutes:
Minutes from the March 13 13, 2003 Executive Board meeting were approved with one clarification - the vote that the classified employees will take part in is to determine whether university administration should pursue the possibility of making them university employees rather than state civil service employees.

Treasurer's Report:
No change.

President's Report:
SenEx: The proposal to add UPSA representation to all standing committees was approved by SenEx and is to be considered by University Council at their meeting today.  Once caveat is that appointees must know something about the discussion area of the committee to which they are appointed.

Provost Meeting:  Simons met with the Provost and the Chancellor.  They discussed the yellow ribbons around the trees in front of Strong and the issue of Social Welfare losing money for using what is deemed as "obscene" materials.  Also, there is a call for proposals to add 11 new unclassified staff positions with money from tuition enhancement.

Committees:

Governance and Representation - nothing new.

Professional Development - Hayden has confirmed Mike Hoeflich's talk on the Patriot Act for June 5^th.  Two meetings will be offered in May from Human Resources staff: Managing Change in Difficult Times and Everyday Creativity. One is offered over a lunch hour and one later in the afternoon.  Hayden asked the board to be thinking about other possible topics and speakers for the future.

Public Relations - Information has been put out about Warren Corman's presentation April 17^th.  Johnson has drafted a cover letter to go with our brochure to be sent to the Regents.  Simons and Hummels will look this over.   We talked about distributing the rest of the brochures to the new and current University Council.  Nemeth-Tuttle will take them to the meeting today, especially since the vote on UPSA representation on committees will happen today.

Committee Representative Reports:

University Council - University Council supports the idea of the student initiative to gather information on faculty and classes as long as it is gathered in an organized, respectful forum.

Ombudsman Search - The recommendation went to the Provost last week - only one person.  An interview is scheduled for next week.

Tuition Enhancement - Houston attended.  The Provost reviewed what was done with tuition enhancement dollars in the first year and there was discussion about what will be done with it for the second year – including the 11 new positions.  There was some discussion about merit increases as well.

Classified Senate:
Ballots have been approved to go out after April 23 and will be due back by May 5.  We discussed the effect of the announced layoffs at the Medical Center.  Faucher reported that most of these employees will not end up losing their jobs but will be absorbed by the private companies who will take over different duties.

HR Report:
Faucher reports that they are spending a lot of time on alternatives to civil service.  The employer subsidy will increase on GTA/GRA health insurance.  The state is making revisions in civil service regulations, including the Governor's Preference Program, which will require that any classified employee laid off from any state agency be given open positions where they meet the minimum qualifications.  She expects that there will be very limited exceptions to this policy.  Faucher also reported that tax bills are being refigured and resent to some classified employees who might not have added back in KPERS when figuring their state income tax liability.  She also advised that we would be seeing much more HIPAA information.

Old Business:
Nominations - Since we need to get on with elections, we agreed to work more over the summer toward a plan to be a more representative group.  We agreed that we needed to assure that representatives are elected so that we have staggered terms, someone new coming on every year.  Simons advised that Nemeth-Tuttle will be resigning at the end of her term this summer.

We discussed all of the open positions we will need to fill.  Hultine and Consolver both agreed to run again for secretary and treasurer respectively and will be happy to have other names on the ballot.  We agreed to call Nemeth-Tuttle's position an unexpired one year term, and we will fill the other opening representative spot (Joe Potts) with a full 3 year term.  We agreed to open up the President Elect position to all unclassified professionals. 

Nesbitt-Daly will draft a letter to ask for nominations and for self nominations.

Committee Appointments:

We will also need to fill lots of committee appointments.  We need to put a list of these committees on the Web site and direct unclassified professionals to the Web site.

Adjourned at 1:25 p.m.