Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
12:15 — 1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall
MINUTES

I. Call to Order

B. Cornell called the meeting to order at 12:20 p.m.

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda (B. Cornell)

B. Cornell asked if there were any late additions to the agenda, and there were three; Approval of three (3) sets of EA minutes, Discussion on EA Attendance policy, and United Way discussion.

III. Report from the Chair (B. Cornell)

B. Cornell thanked all former and current members for their hard work on the EA. Executive Committee has met for the first time, work is beginning and it is exciting. He said he welcomes everyone’s input and stated that he will have an open door policy for all members. He then reminded everyone there will be a few events this summer, and they will be looking for volunteers and good participation.

IV. Trustee’s Report (M. Esposito)

M. Esposito reported that the Trustees met last week in NYC. He had a meeting with the Buildings and Properties committee. The designs for the Cornell Childcare center were approved. Mary Opperman has worked very hard on this. Also, there will be a meeting next week in Ithaca of the local communications committee chaired by Carolyn Newman. D. Goss wanted to make sure to correct the story from the Ithaca Journal that the center will be located on Pleasant Grove Road, and not Warren Road.

V. UA Representative’s Report

Currently Leon is our only UA Representative. We will discuss this further later in the meeting. This will now be a standing agenda item.

VI. Committee Reports

a. Executive Committee — Goals

They are working on a smooth transition right now between the old Execs and the new Execs. It is important to increase and broaden the reach of the EA. This will likely include an insert for the “new employee packet”. Also, we need to use the list serve more or develop a new mechanism for communication, get more people involved with elections, and also rotate the locations of our EA meetings occasionally. We need to continually work hard to identify who we represent, where they are located, and how we can reach them. We also wish to have better staffing of committees, better succession planning and orientation of new members, and more communication with senior staff. \D. Stein commented that this was an ambitious list and the EA should be proud.

b. SRAC

L. Lawrence said the committee had not met recently, and there was nothing to report.

B. Cornell said that he would like to develop a way to recognize outgoing members. This may be an item for ComCom. The only thing now is a reception in May for all assemblies given by the Office of the Assemblies. P. Beach said that in past years there was a luncheon to thank the supervisors of EA people for their flexibility. He said he would like to do something internally.

c. Communications Committee — Ongoing projects

K. Howell is the new chair of this committee. She reported there are three ongoing projects; wrap up of Leadership lunches, insert for the New Employee Packets, and an EA brochure. They will meet again next week at East Hill Plaza, all are welcome to attend and weigh in on these topics.

d. Finance

B. Liddick reported that our budget is $9,400 for this year. He asked that all members think about the things they are interested in and committed to, and think creatively on how to manage these with the budget that we have. We can discuss this further at the retreat. K. Howell asked what the approval process is for EA brochures. P. Mahoney said that she needed to submit a budget request on the website with all details on the expenditure. All items over $250 go in front of the EA for approval. P. Beach asked that she be included in budget discussions, and offered that the EA brochures come from the Assemblies budget instead of the EA budget. They will be doing similar items for all the assemblies, and will use the EA as a model.

e. Emergency Grant Fund

D. Stein said that this committee has awarded this to one person this year, and it was given to a faculty member who suffered a house fire. There was some controversy at the time because the language is vague. Some wish to interpret the guidelines specifically, some wish to go ahead and give the support as long as the language does not specifically forbid it. There is 40K in the account now, and it is earning interest. Anyone is welcome to participate in this committee and help guide this process. Deb Billups is the contact person. K. Howell asked if anyone joins this committee to notify her and Peter so they can keep the committee lists up to date. D. Stein said that members could help guide the language, but not be involved in the committee if they were hesitant about making a long-term commitment.

f. Personnel Policy

D. Goss said this was an inactive committee last year, but she would like to chair it for this year. A mortgage benefit program for employees is an example of an item they would discuss. Mary Opperman is supportive of this, so is Steve Golding. Employee “sabbaticals” may also fall under this committee. She encouraged members to join this committee since these are interesting and important issues.

g. IOC

P. Korolov said he will convene the committee again soon so they can discuss issues such as the attendance policy, elections, charter revisions, etc. They will also begin recruiting to replace Bill Bryant.

h. University Benefits

D. Goss chairs this committee, and reported they have been recently discussing health benefits for retirees. They will be looking at options, and making a recommendation soon. There are 15 people on the committee, including faculty, staff and retirees. S. DeGiorgio asked how to refer people who contact him on these issues, what is the mechanism? Donna said it would depend on the issue, he could refer them to the committee, or to OHR directly. B. Cornell added they need to publicize the mechanism so that all staff know how to reach the EA, not just those with a question/issue to raise. If staff receive a good and positive response to their issues and questions, it could possibly encourage more participation.

i. Education

D. Goss added this, as it was not listed as a standing committee. D. Goss said the SEED event is forming now. Last year, this was a great event. The EA was instrumental in getting Empire State College there. L. Lawrence asked if this committee will be working on increasing tuition benefits to employees. Donna said yes, this disparity should be looked at carefully. Currently, children of employees receive up to 30% of CU tuition (approx. 10K), and employees themselves only receive $96 per credit hour up to 4 credits a semester. D. Stein said this is a great time for the EA to be looking at this issue and get involved with it. Donna said that a resolution would be developed at the committee level, and submitted to the EA for approval, to then be passed to the President and BoT for review. She will keep us posted as things develop.

There was some discussion on EA committees, UA committees, CU committees, etc.

P. Beach said that some of the committees are very active, some are not. Our office would like to revive some of these committees and have them report to the EA, and encourage the EA to report to them reciprocally. She expects that they will all meet at least once during the upcoming fall semester, and our office will help with it.

VII. Old Business

a. Appointing UA representatives (2) (Peter)

P Korolov reported that we will need to appoint members according to the charter, 5 employees, and at least 2 from the EA. A. O’Donnell outlined the meeting days/times of UA meetings for the group. K. Howell asked for a description of the responsibilities. P. Beach briefly outlined the structure of the assemblies. The UA’s primary responsibility is the campus code. There are also some connections to (non-academic) departments; transportation and the campus store are two examples. There is more information on our website. L. Lawrence added that academic integrity/honor code subject may come up this year. P. Beach said that Charlie Walcott is very interested in this, and it has been on hold while the campus code discussions were taking place.

b. Approval of Minutes

i. Approve Minutes from 1/17/07

I. Mahler made a motion to accept the minutes as written, K. Howell seconded the motion. All voted in favor to approve the minutes as written.

ii. Approve Minutes from 2/7/07

I. Mahler made a motion to accept the minutes as written, B. Liddick seconded the motion. All voted in favor to approve the minutes as written.

iii. Approve Minutes from 6/6/07

I. Mahler made a motion to accept the minutes as written, K. Howell seconded the motion. All voted in favor to approve the minutes as written.

VIII. New Business

a. Committee Membership (Peter)

P. Korolov reminded everyone that he sent out an email to ask for volunteers to sign up for committees, but noted there are many openings left.

b. Tracking of EA priorities (Bill)

B. Liddick explained he would like to keep a tracking system for our priorities. We can review periodically who is responsible and shift our priorities if necessary.

c. EA retreat — August

i. Date — August 1st is a tentative date for now. ii. Request EA members review previous retreat’s notes B. Cornell said that D. Stein has offered to host us again. D. Goss will contact Jim Sheridan to find out when he is available to join us.

d. Welcoming Picnic

i. Are we participating? B. Cornell said the picnic is set for Thursday, August 23, 2007 from 11 a.m. — 2 p.m. on the Arts Quad. There was discussion at the January retreat that we might like to be involved with this. P. Beach said this is part of the welcome week activities, and the coordinators would like to establish this as a tradition. She suggested the group wear nametags to identify them as EA members. B. Liddick asked for clarification as to what the EA members would be doing. P. Beach said that she would be in touch with the office that is organizing this and find out what volunteers are needed for. We can discuss this more at our retreat.

D. Goss made a point of order, and noted the time. K. Howell made a motion to extend the meeting until 1:40 p.m, and S. DeGiorgio seconded this.

f. United Way

D. Stein commented that this committee is looking for an EA member to join the task force to help with the effort to raise participation for next year. D. Goss volunteered.

g. Attendance policy

P. Korolov said there was not enough time to discuss this issue in depth, but encouraged members to email him with comments. L. Lawrence said his opinion is that our attendance policy is not user friendly, and suggested that we address this at the retreat. I. Mahler made a motion to table this discussion until the retreat, S. DeGiorgio seconded this. Voting was 8–0−1 in favor of tabling this discussion until the retreat.

IX. Open Forum

Due to time limitations, there was no open forum.

X. Adjournment

B. Cornell asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. K. Howell made a motion to adjourn the meeting. L. Lawrence seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 1:40 p.m.