Draft Workshop Notes

 

Thursday, December 12, 2002

1:00-3:00 pm by video and audio conference

 

1.         Call to order and roll call                                                      

 

            X = present

                AE=absent, excused

                A=absent

 

            Voting Members:

                       

X         Robert Sewell, Chair; President, UAS Staff Alliance

            A         Brodie Anderson, Vice President, Associated Students of UAF

            AE       Amber Clarke, President, Prince William Sound CC Student Association

            AE       Hilary Davies, Vice President, UAA Assembly

            AE       Larry Duffy, past president, UAF Faculty Senate

and past chair, Faculty Alliance

A         James Hale, Representative, UAS Faculty Senate

            X         Larry Ledlow, President, UAF Staff Council

            X         John Mitchell, President, Statewide Administration Assembly

            A         Casey Reynolds, Legislative Affairs Director, Union of Students of UAA

            X         Jennifer Leosch for Justin Whittington, Senator, United

Students of UAS-Juneau

            X         David Woodley, President, UAA Assembly

 

            Ex-officio members:

 

            A         Mike Everette, President, UAF Alumni Association

            A         Lynne Johnson, Executive Director, UAS

Development for the UAS Alumni Association

            A         Suzette Mashburn, Executive Director, UAA Alumni Association

 

            Others:

 

            X         Pat Ivey, Executive Director, System Governance

 

Quorum requires a simple majority of the voting members. No quorum was reached so the meeting continued as a workshop.

 

2.         Adopt agenda – not voted upon due to lack of a quorum

 

3.                  Approve November 14, 2002 minutes – not voted upon due to lack of a quorum.

 

4.         Chair's report

 

Robert Sewell had no chair's report, indicating that the main reason for the meeting was to consider the BOR comments on the strategic plan.

 

5.                  Strategic Plan for 2009                                                         

 

Pat Ivey was directed to work with Jim Johnsen regarding a date and time either Jan 6, 7, or 8 to mark up the next draft of the strategic plan and then coordinate with Council members to ensure a quorum.   Members will review the document and provide input.

 

6.                  System Governance reports – not taken up.

 

7.         Local governance reports – not taken up.

 

8.                  Institutional approaches to diversity

 

Larry Ledlow brought this issue before the Council. The rationale is to establish a working mechanism at this level of governance to address diversity and tolerance in the work place.  There are people whose job it is to make sure everyone adheres to the law, but that doesn't cover everything.  At UAF, there has been a fair amount of success in engaging the office of multicultural affairs and other entities to address some of these issues.  It was thought the System Governance Council would be the appropriate mechanism for addressing issues across the system. 

 

Woodley asked what the mechanism would be and how it would benefit the university.  Ledlow said it is unknown whether or not there is a problem.  This group could assess the campus climates as the first step.  AT UAF, there are scheduled a series of forums where people can come and talk and communicate about the things that bug them.  Generally these things fall outside policy and regulations as they stand today.  The next half of that is to take the assessment and develop recommendations for program awareness and policy changes in order to explain and remind people of what principles the university embraces and that people are constantly reminded to adhere to those principles.  Woodley said the proposal would be beneficial to the UAA diversity council, the faculty senate diversity committee and the office of multicultural affairs in that they would be able to coordinate things. 

 

Woodley said it would require the development of a mission for the group.  Ledlow will send out the charter for the UAF diversity and tolerance committee.  The System Governance Council committee would oversee the work of the campus groups.  Ledlow said the intent is to develop the data so we can see where we need to develop a cohesive philosophy across the campuses.  Mitchell said he was concerned that the group would be subsumed by the hot button or politically correct issues and ignore the overall need to be positive in the workplace.

 

UAS is not prepared to comment at this time due to lack of information but will check and report back.  There is nothing formal at statewide at the present time.  SAA attempts to do this on a one-to-one level.  Mitchell is in support of this concept, saying that it is a good employee retention tool.

 

At UAF people were reluctant to talk about their issues for fear of retribution and because they feel no one can do anything about it.  Through the UAF diversity working group, however, they do come forward.

 

Sewell was reluctant to set up a permanent committee when the scope of the problem is unknown.  He suggested establishing an ad hoc committee to determine the scope of the issue and make recommendations about what to do next.  There are larger issues of reluctance of Alaska Natives to participate in the university.  Sewell said Byron Mallot, one of the new regents, is of Alaska Native extraction and has spoken in fairly empassioned terms about the university's nonresponse to Native concerns.

 

Ledlow said with a little investigation a number of problems have been uncovered.  Ledlow thinks that the effort at the system level would be more of a quality assurance effort that would provide oversight on a continuous basis.

 

Sewell said the Council could entertain a motion to establish a permanent committee.  Mitchell wondered of the distributive approach wasn’t a better approach because  each campus has a different view.  He recommended that each governance group take responsibility on their own campuses.  Ledlow said the System Governance Council is the only group covering faculty, staff, students and alumni that provides direct interface to the president and regents and provides assistance to the groups on the campuses.

 

Ledlow will develop a proposal for the establishment of the group and can either develop the mission and/or charter or have the subcommittee do it.  This item will be placed on the agenda for action at the next  meeting. Ledlow will send his proposal to the Council members as soon as possible.

 

9.      Student employment wage scale

 

After the first of January, minimum wages will go up. The Board of Regents adjusted the first two ranges of student employment.  Two additional steps were added to the top two ranges.  Sewell said the top range student assistant IV beginning step is $9.25 which was  far below what can be made in Juneau as a janitor. 

 

Mitchell felt the problem was that there are students employed at the university whose responsibilities range far above what is called for in the regulations.  Some of them should really be temporary employees and or efforts should be made to make sure their duties fit within the student range.

 

10.       Agenda items for next meeting, January 2003, date and time TBA

 

*          Strategic plan

*          Student employment

*          Institutional approaches to diversity

 

11.       Comments

 

            There were no additional comments.

 

10.              Adjourn

 

The workshop was adjourned at approximately 1:55pm.