Current Representatives
Next agenda
CIC APSC Teleconference
April 4, 2005
9:00 - 10:35 am (CT)
Attendees: Marietta Giovanelli (Illinois-Chicago); Midge Grosch, Vera Mainz, Stacy Wilson (Illinois-UC); Carly Shank, Jerry Burkhart (Illinois-Springfield); Steven Wietstock, Jane Rogan, Isabel Piedmont (Indiana), Ella Born, Sheri Sojka, Michelle Wichman, Cheryl Reardon, Julie Gilmore (Iowa); Frank Douma, Rany Croce (Minnesota); Rebecca Griffiths, Stacy Oliver (Northwestern); Jay Young (Ohio State); Pat Mull (Purdue); Bruce Beck (Wisconsin).
Chair: Ella Born (Iowa)
1. Welcome and process
2. Minutes and News
a. The minutes from the January teleconference were approved
b. News from attendee institutions
Illinois-Chicago - The university has a new president. The professional staff committee has moved forward to get 3 voting academic professional employees in the university senate. There will be an open house for academic professionals this Thursday with guest speaker from HR who will talk about contracts.
Illinois-UC - The professional staff council is meeting with the new president this month
Illinois-Springfield - Chancellor's excellence award will be given to an academic professional for the 2nd year this spring. They are updating membership on the campus and addressing compensation issues. They are trying to get a voting representative on the university senate steering committee
Indiana - Professional staff are still dealing with follow-up to the FLSA review of exempt vs. non-exempt staff classifications. The professional staff who were changed to overtime eligible (non-exempt) will be affected by new policies regarding overtime and time reporting. The university-wide Compensation System Initiative is reviewing professional staff positions and comparing salaries to market rates.
Iowa - Possible unionization is still being discussed. SEIU is the union that is being considered. A new survey on professional staff compensation has been undertaken, which HR is willing to share with other CIC institutions.
Minnesota - Strategic reports from the university will probably lead to administrative consolidation/downsizing. CAPA (professional staff group) will elect its first set of senators to the university senate this month. A professional and administrative staff recognition ceremony will take place on April 18. Graduate student employees will vote soon as to whether or not to join a union.
Northwestern - Highest Order of Excellence document has been released. The staff is trying to participate more actively in long-range planning of the institution. Hewitt has been hired by HR to consult on university benefits in 5-year vision plan. This may result in a push for changes in health care. Service awards and employee of the year award will be given during a recognition ceremony in May.
Ohio State - The professional staff organization's annual staff benefits and compensation report was submitted to HR in February. No formal response has been received yet. Changes in health care programs are being made, and a shift of coverage period to a calendar year means that other changes won't be made until 2006. There is a greater emphasis on wellness, preventative care.
Purdue - The OnePurdue Executive Oversight Committee will make a recommendation to the Board of Trustees this week on a software vendor for the program's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The choice has been narrowed to PeopleSoft and SAP.
Since HR will be looking at job descriptions and classifications for their portion of ERP, this is a good time for the Administrative and Professional Staff Advisory Committee (APSAC) to take on the Provost's charge of preparing an A/P Advancement Proposal. The proposal will take some time to formulate and will outline a procedure for advancing within the A/P ranks. Any information from other institutions on their procedures would be appreciated.
Wisconsin - An extensive job titling system is being formalized. It would
provide for a job title sequence, for example:
Associate Data Analyst
Data Analyst
Senior Data Analyst
Distinguished Data Analyst
Review of process by which administrative professionals are promoted.
Governor's budget is proposing reductions in administrative positions
at the university. Collective bargaining has been stalled over the past
two years for different employee groups. Staff awards will be given again
this Spring. The "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" proposal to amend
the state constitution may limit public spending, which is of great concern
to the university.
Minnesota (addendum) - Taxpayer Bill of Rights came up in Minnesota legislature but never made it out of committee. It was passed in Colorado.
3. Update on communications - Steve Wietstock, Indiana
Still no response from Barbara at CIC regarding the website. He will call her soon. It was suggested that she may have changed positions, so Steve should check and see who the new contact is.
Ella asked whether Steve had enough information regarding benefits for professional staff at CIC institutions in order to update the survey done in 2002-03. Steve requests that all universities send updates for this survey to him (swietsto@indiana.edu). Ella suggested we also update the CIC APSC comparison chart which describes each professional staff organization. Isabel asked that such updates be sent to her (ipiedmon@indiana.edu).
4. Bylaws - Subcommittee: Ella, Randy, Rebecca, and Vera
a. Mission Statement
Randy asked us to email him (rcroce@csom.umn.edu) the following information
to help make the mission statement more accurate:
" What are the staff called whom we represent?
" Is your organization more a governing body, advisory body, or advocacy
body?
" How are other employees on your campus represented?
It was reported that the Michigan State group that has been coming to APSC meetings is a group of"academic specialists," and that MSU representative Craig Gunn has considered that perhaps their body should not be represented by APSC. But he is communicating with another staff group on campus which may be more appropriate to involvement in APSC.
b. Membership
Isabel suggested that the bylaws actually list the founding members of
APSC. Randy suggested they could be added as a footnote. There was consensus
to do this.
c. Representation and eligibility
Isabel referred to the draft text that says that names of contact people
should be reported to the APSC chair at least 1 month before the face
to face conference. She asked whether it might be a better idea to put
a specific date in the bylaws. After some discussion, we agreed that leaving
it dependent on the date of the conference was better.
d. Officers' Terms and Duties
According to October 2004 minutes, there should be 2 people from the current
host institution on the executive committee. Randy said that the draft
bylaws will be amended to reflect 2 people from the current host university
instead of just one. One person will be the chair and the other person
should be the minute-taker.
e. Voting
Bruce questioned the need for secret ballots. Since most of us are elected
representatives, he said, we are accountable to our constituents and should
not have the option of secret ballots. We all agreed to strike the secret
ballot option.
5. Updates from subcommittees
a. Domestic Partner Benefits - Bruce Beck, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The governor of Wisconsin has proposed domestic partner benefits (DPBs)
in his budget proposal and has asked for financing in the amount of $500,000
per year. The Republican-controlled legislature is against it. Comparison
with other Big Ten universities has been repeatedly referenced in the
media.
Someone asked whether other CIC institutions offered DPBs for opposite-sex partners as well as same-sex partners. Iowa has DPBs for opposite-sex as well as same-sex partners. Ohio State offers opposite-sex domestic partners health insurance coverage, but it is not subsidized like the same-sex DPBs are.
Bruce reported that his professional staff group has changed its strategy. They will rely less on comparisons with other universities, which are now widely known, and will instead seek support from large private corporations that offer DPBs. So UW doesn't need letters of support from other universities at this point. BUT, please DO send information about the number of employees that are using the DPBs and how much it is costing the institution. Bruce will send a "worksheet" to gather this information via e-mail.
Ella reported that the University of Iowa president agreed to send a letter of endorsement for the Wisconsin DPB campaign, but now will probably not be asked to follow-through. The president had asked whether the faculty at UW have the benefit? Bruce replied that no UW employees have the benefit, neither faculty nor staff.
b. Vacation accrual - Frank and Randy, University of Minnesota
HR is re-examining all leave policies, including vacation. The professional staff council has recommended language that would allow staff to accrue and carry-over vacation days up to 2 years. They are also asking for 2 more vacation days per year. Use of vacation time is to be tracked through Peoplesoft. They report that there is currently a great variance among units as to how strictly vacation hours are tracked.
Michigan State is the other instituion that does not have vacation accrual carry-over, but no one from MSU was present to give an update.
Rebecca of NWU asked whether Minnesota wanted information from other institutions about vacation accrual? Frank was not sure whether Beth Emshoff, who was spear-heading this project, still needs information.
c. Staff tuition benefits - Ella Born, Iowa
State law requires that all tuition be paid. The Iowa professional staff council's internal education committee will investigate options further. Frank at Minnesota would like to pursue this issue as well. Minnesota has staff tuition benefits but not dependent tuition benefits, and UMinn is the only institution in the state that does not cover dependents. Vera suggested to keep the issue on our agenda for the next meeting. She reported that at Illinois, civil service staff can take free courses at any state university, whereas professional staff and faculty can only take free classes at the university where they work.
6. Additional issues
a. Efforts to contact Penn State, Michigan, University of Chicago
Ella has emailed some people at Penn State, and their group will hopefully join us for the June teleconference. She has also emailed President Mary Sue Coleman inquiring about the professional staff group at Michigan. Ella asked if one of the Univ of Illinois campuses had contacted someone at the Univ of Chicago, and they had not. Ella will try to pursue this. For Michigan State, the Administrative Personnel group may be more relevant than the academic specialists group that has been represented at past CIC APSC meetings.
b. Upcoming teleconference (June 6) and October meeting in Chicago
Ella will send emails to see who will attend, updates on phone numbers, etc, for the June 6 teleconference. Email Ella with any concerns (ella-born@uiowa.edu).
c. Software concerns
Rebecca reported that NWU is currently undergoing a huge technology shift. The HR system and student information system have already been converted to Peoplesoft, and they are in the process of acquiring Peoplesoft for their financial system as well. On the other hand, their Research Database Warehouse System technology will be built in-house. She asked how similar software changes have been implemented at other universities.
Illinois reps said that their university has had problems with the Banner system. Steve reported that at Indiana, Peoplesoft has been implemented for HR and student information system functions in a 5-year process. Staff were told they were getting Peoplesoft, not really consulted. Different advisory groups formed to suggest program modifications. Major, costly changes were rejected whereas minor changes were implemented. The implementation ran into a major budget problem in that no money was designated for staff training. There are only 5 trainers system-wide. The "train the trainer" approach that was implemented out of necessity was not very successful.
At Iowa, the Peoplesoft HR system was rolled out in 2000. There was a good training structure. The staff were divided into 21 organizations for training, with one person responsible for training in each org. A new general ledger system is to be rolled out this summer. Pilot groups were formed for implementation. The student info system is just being developed and will take 4-5 years and about $10 million to implement. The research database program was developed in-house, and Iowa is perhaps willing to let other institutions buy it.
At Wisconsin an appointment, payroll, and benefits system was purchased from the software vendor Lawson and $22 million was invested, but implementation was suspended due to multiple major problems.
Rebecca from NWU pointed out that universities are trying to implement systems not made for educational institutions. They are made for corporations. We are trying to fit what we are doing into corporate technology instead of developing technology based on what we do.
Cheryl from Iowa reported the trend that more and more work is being pushed to the department level. Another trend is a blend of being at work and being at home, since all the work can be accessed at home. There are growing expectations of approving electronic forms while on vacation or on weekends.
Midge from Illinois agreed and said that often there is just one person in a department that has to learn how to do everything. Also, the system for student records is not necessarily good for human resources. Morale is a problem in that staff feel overworked.
The Minnesota representatives reported that Peoplesoft had significant cost overruns and it took a long time to adapt to an academic institution. After 5 years, it seems to be working OK. Implementation of changes to benefits were stopped because "Peoplesoft can't do this." It often seemed the case of the tail wagging the dog.
Steve reported that at Indiana the estimated implementation cost is $53 million, plus $3-5 million per year for upkeep. Rebecca said that at NWU, which is using only the financial system of Peoplesoft, the cost is $30-40 million. Pat from Purdue reported that $73 million has been budgeted for an entire new software project.
We all agreed to talk more about this issue at our next meeting.
7. Questions/comments
Since the time was already 10:34, Ella asked that any questions or comments
be emailed to her (ella-born@uiowa.edu).
Minutes submitted by Isabel Piedmont, Indiana University.