Meeting of the
System Governance Council
January 28, 1998
2:30-4:30pm
DRAFT MINUTES
1 Call to order and roll call
Present
Patti Thorne, UAA
Rita Bowen, UAS Staff Council
Shannon Christensen for Darlette Powell, UAF Staff Council
Josh Horst, USUAS-J
Janet Dye, UAS Faculty Council
Sheri Gray, UAS Staff Council
Hilary Davies, UAA Staff Council
Betty Dupee, Statewide Administrative Assembly
Pat Ivey
Brian Brubaker
Absent:
Ron Gatterdam
Jean Richardson
Rob Fitch, Kodiak College Student Assoc.
Josh Hunter, USUAA
Guests:
Ann Ringstad, UA Government Relations
Alisa Curry
MOTION: passed
"The System Governance Council moves to adopt the agenda for the January 28, 1999 meeting. This action is effective January 28, 1999."
3. Approve December 3, 1998 minutes
Hilary Davies said that she was misquoted about
transfering credits.
MOTION: Moved by Davies, seconded by Dupee
"The System Governance Council moves to approve the December 2, 1998 minutes as amended. This action is effective January 28, 1999."
4 Legislative and UA budget status— Ann Ringstad
Ann Ringstad gave an update about the legislative agenda for the university. She said that the Alaska Scholars Program is in the public eye and is going forward very well. The governor or a legislator may introduce a bill to fund this program.
Pat Ivey said that a federal program called LEAPP gave matching funds, 2 state dollars for every one federal dollar, two years ago.
Last year, the legislature zero-funded this program, also known as SEIG and SSIG. A prominent republican may look at bringing back this program which helps needy students with scholarships. Alaska is the only state that doesn't participate in LEAPP.
Ann Ringstad said that the new regents should be appointed next week.
The student legislative conference in Juneau February 17-23 was discussed. Alumni leaders are invited to attend.
6.1 Tuititon increases and tuition policy changes
Josh Horst said that students discussed this at one previous meeting and will discuss it again at their next meeting. The proposal is to increase tuition by HEPI, the Higher Education Price Index. Josh Horst believes that the Coalition is not necessarily opposed to this.
Pat Ivey said that the administration had intended to propose revisions to the tuition policy at this upcoming board meeting.
Betty Dupee said that the regents may try to approve an increase for two years, so that people can plan and know what tuition rates will be further ahead. Betty Dupee said that this is something that students have been very in favor of. Pat Ivey said that the regents may waive provisions of the current policy in order to approve rates for two upcoming years at once.
6.2 Grievance policy changes
Ivey said that the office received revisions to the draft grievance policy that stemmed from a January 7, 1999, meeting of administration and staff leaders. Leafy McBride, a SAA member, made many of the suggestions that were incorporated. The Staff Alliance meeting has been postponed until February 2, so as to consider these revisions.
Patti Thorne asked if the Council should look at the draft policy or leave it to the Staff alliance. Pat Ivey said that Patty Kastelic wrote that there were some concerns about the process to select a hearing officer; Pat Ivey was not sure how that changed.
Bowen said that the grievance policy applies only to non-represented employees. Thorne said that non-represented APT, Classified, and student employees are covered under this policy. Betty Dupee agreed. Alisa Curry said that they did not define the word "administrator" as they said they would.
Thorne said that the responses to staff questions were not always pleasant. Thorne feels that the proposals are pretty much a done deal. Thorne agreed with a sentiment expressed from UAF employee Kurt Carlson, that the new healthcare option is essentially a reduction in pay for employees.
Kurt Carlson is currently analyzing the state salary survey. Christensen said that she and Bev Frey met with Jim Johnsen this morning to express concerns about the way that health benefits information is being communicated to staff. She thinks that the problems that we've had in getting information has stemmed from differences in communications styles.
The reason for the push in health benefits changes is because we will going out to bid for health care provider. This information is needed to design an RFP (Request for Proposals).
Hilary Davies said that she asked Patty Kastelic if anything could be changed in the health benefits alternatives and that she answered no.
Rita Bowen said they had two forums in Juneau. She said that she believes the RFP has not gone out yet; she thought it would be due in spring (after March 21).
Davies said that there was reference to a state salary survey in the paper recently. Are university employees included in that survey? Are UA employees considered state employees?
Ivey said that the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee commissioned a report that came out last week. She alerted students, staff and faculty that the report can be obtained from your local legislative information office. In that report, there was a reference to UAF employee salaries only. When discussing educational benefits, the report may have discussed the university. Essentially, UA employees are not counted as state employees for the purposes of the salary survey; yet UA employees were asked general questions.
There were no other hot issues.
Tuition has been an issue that the Coalition of Student Leaders has been considering. Josh Horst said that they are working on the Fifteenth Annual Alaska Student Legislative Conference.
Dye said that the Faculty Alliance is still working on common grade and course level definitions policies; they have been two or three years in the making. The Faculty Alliance is meeting in Juneau the week of Feb. 14
Christensen said that the Staff Alliance has been doing a lot of work on grievance policy and health benefits issues. She hopes they will bring these to some sort of resolution at the next meeting.
Patti Thorne said that no UAA governance meetings were scheduled until February.
The UAF Staff Council installed their new members and did an orientation meeting for those new members. We're seeing a lot better response on all issues from their members.
Patti Thorne asked if the UAF Faculty had any more input about supporting participation in this council? Shannon Christensen said that she doesn't know about that. Patti Thorne said that it would be nice to hear from the UAF Faculty on this issue.
At UAS, Rita Bowen said that Tish Griffin is the new UAS Staff Council President and Sheri Gray is the new Vice President. This will be Rita Bowen's last meeting.
Ivey pointed out that the time for public comment at board meetings has been turned around. It now occurs on Thursday morning, instead of Friday. Please be aware of that. Also, a new method exists for making presentations to the board when issues are being discussed; this requires advance planning. For instance, student leaders will be asked to discuss tuition and the chair of the staff alliance is being asked to discuss health benefits and the grievance policy.
The Presidents of the UAF and UAA Faculty Senate and the UAS Faculty Council will be making a report to the Academic and Student Affairs Committee regarding progress of the common course numbering and grading policy proposals. This status report was requested by members of the board and Statewide Academic Council (SAC). This will be critical feedback on this issues and the process is turning out to be really positive.
Thorne asked what governance officers will be attending the board meeting. Pat Ivey said that she herself is prohibited from attending. She thinks that there will be students and alumni going to Juneau. Some individual groups may be sending members down.
Brian Brubaker explained that Alaska Airlines is sending out coupons for discounted fares to Juneau.
There were no other items of concern.
Dye said that she likes having the opportunity to hear what the other groups are doing and to interact. She thinks this is a viable forum for that; Patti Thorne and Hilary Davies agreed with that sentiment.
10. Adjourn
The meeting adjourned at 3:40 pm.