Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
12:15 — 1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall
MINUTES

I. Call to Order (B. Cornell)

B. Cornell called the meeting to order at 12:18 p.m.

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

B. Cornell called for late additions to the agenda. P. Korolov asked to give a recap of the Best Employer luncheons. K. Howell asked to give a recap of her recent meeting with Mary Opperman.

III. Report from Chair (B. Cornell)

B. Cornell introduced the visitors, Debra Howell, Carly Miller, Julie Magura and Kelly Speiser.

IV. Report from Employee Trustee (M. Esposito)

M. Esposito said the Trustees were on campus last month for meetings and the State of the University Address. President Skorton said the campaign is going well and there will be a staff and faculty component eventually. At the Board of Trustees’ meeting, President Skorton mentioned the vision and the mission that the executive staff is working on, the $20 million investment in global infrastructure, and Cornell’s statement on the bias-related incidents that have been occurring in the Ithaca community. There was a financial report by Joanne DeStefano. In community academic affairs, they approved several new BS degrees. There is a lot of building and renovation happening.

V. Report from UA representatives (B. Liddick & R. Orme)

B. Liddick reported at the last UA meeting, they approved resolution 4 in support of the TIMS. Mina Amundsen presented on the Master Plan. They are going to have future discussions about supporting the Master Plan.

VI. Approval of Minutes

a. May 16, 2007 Minutes

B. Cornell asked everyone to review the minutes. K. Howell made a motion to approve the minutes. P. Korolov seconded. The minutes for May 16, 2007 were voted and approved.

b. September 19. 2007 Minutes

B. Cornell asked everyone to review the minutes. P. Korolov asked to change a statement on page 2. The change was noted. P. Korolov made a motion to approve the minutes with the change. B. Liddick seconded. The minutes for September 19, 2007 were voted and approved.

VII. Committee Reports

a. Executive Committee

K. Howell said that she and B. Liddick, M. Esposito and D. Stein met with M. Opperman. They discussed holding an event with President Skorton in the Spring; unfortunately, while he is excited to work with the EA, his schedule is full. The President is still committed to giving the President’s Address to Staff every Fall.

They also discussed the Expanded Staff Council. M. Esposito said this group met three times last year and were going to meet again on January 17 to discuss CU’s mission and vision.

b. Staff Award Recognition

D. Stein said he was working on pulling the group together for a meeting, and promised there would be a George Peter Award for Dedicated Service winner by the end of the year.

c. Communication

i. Tracking sheet (B. Liddick)

B. Liddick said they developed a tracking sheet during the retreat. He would like to put the sheet where all members can access it and make updates. He said everyone needed to make a commitment to keep the sheet updated.

ii. EA Blog (K. Howell)

K. Howell said she had a conversation with A. Epstein about putting together a communication blog. She said that if there were topics for which they wanted more feedback, the blog would be a vehicle for this. Other assemblies have already tried this. She said they are still in the discussion stage on this but she would keep them updated on the progress of the blog initiative.

In response to a question about how they would publicize the blog to the community. K. Howell said they would publicize it through vehicles of communication such as PawPrint.

iii. Chili Chat & L/L summary (P. Korolov)

P. Korolov said the Chili Chat and L/L executive summary had been circulated that morning. He asked the EA members to review it and send comments or corrections to him. In response to a question about the latest draft, he said the latest circulation was the latest draft.

In response to a question from D. Stein regarding the timeframe for the summary’s release, P. Korolov said he estimated it would be released in two weeks and could be published in January.

d. Finance

B. Liddick said he examined the history of the auction and found they had been inconsistent in allocating expenses. He said he would contact Deb Billups to find out how much they had raised from pizza sales. He said he thinks they pay $100 and the rest should come from the Auction. If they are going to change this next year, they need to discuss how to do that.

P. Mahoney asked why the EGF has not stayed within their allocated budget. She said she thought the pizza sales should offset the purchase of the pizza and that $100 from the EA should be enough.

B. Cornell said he received a response from M. Opperman about helping to support the President’s Address.

e. Emergency Grant Fund

The Emergency Grant Fund Committee had nothing to report.

f. Personnel Policy

D. Goss said the committee was meeting soon to discuss the Wellness Initiative. They would like to start crafting a resolution. They also plan to meet once a month until the end of the year.

In response to a question from P. Beach about the purpose of the resolution, D. Goss said it would recommend that employees receive a minimum of 90 minutes of wellness time per week.

In response to B. Cornell’s request for the specifics of wellness activities, D. Goss said that “wellness activities” were defined as “activities that promote the health and wellbeing of the individual, such as physical exercise, health assessment and training, weight loss, nutrition classes, stress management and smoking prevention.”

g. IOC

P. Korolov said they had met a few weeks ago. He reiterated their current focus was recruiting EA members. He asked Debra Howell to make a statement and answer a few questions.

D. Howell gave a brief statement of why she wanted to be a member of the Employee Assembly.

There was a brief question and answer session.

The EA went into executive session for a few minutes.

P. Korolov made a motion to accept Debra Howell as an EA member. I. Mahoney seconded the motion. The EA voted unanimously to accept Debra Howell as an EA member.

h. University Benefits

D. Goss said the University Benefits committee had not yet met.

i. Employee Education

D. Goss said she met with Maureen Brull who manages the Tuition Reimbursement program for the university. They are planning changes to the program. D. Goss said she would like to see the employee tuition benefit match the children’s tuition benefit. Hopefully, HR will meet with the committee to share their work.

j. President’s Climate Commitment Implementation Committee (D. Stein)

D. Stein said he attended a meeting on October 23. The committee has good representation. They are trying to “firm up” the charge that President Skorton signed for Cornell to have neutral carbon emissions by the year 2050. The committee will have 2 years to put together a plan to achieve the initiatives of the charge. Cornell is already involved in “green” initiatives but it still needs to clearly define what the “campus” is.

VIII. Old Business

a. Best Employers Luncheon

P. Korolov gave a recap of the Best Employers Luncheons, which were to obtain staff feedback about Cornell receiving an award for being a top employer for working mothers and people over 50 people. The third and last luncheon was at Statler last Monday and went really well.

b. Polo shirt and pen proposal (K. Howell)

K. Howell said the committee came up with the idea of purchasing shirts and pens as a way to raise awareness and recognition of the EA. She said the money for the shirts and pens would come from the committee budget but was not a line item.

There was a discussion about the practicality of purchasing shirts when EA members changed every year. Pins and nametags were suggested instead.

K. Howell motioned to approve the purchase of just the 500 pens at $215. D. Goss seconded the motion. By a unanimous vote, the purchase of the pens was approved.

P. Beach said she would order nametags for all the EA members, from the assembly budget.

IX. New Business

a. R.5 Resolution in Support of the TIMS (K. Howell)

K. Howell introduced resolution 5 in support of the TIMS, and asked for feedback.

A. Epstein asked for a change to show, TIMS meant Transportation Impact Mitigation Strategies.

D. Goss asked for a change to the third “whereas” clause. The change was noted.

D. Stein asked that resolution read they were supporting the TIMS draft. The change was noted.

K. Howell made a motion to approve resolution 5, with the changes. H. Hall seconded the motion. By a unanimous vote, the resolution was approved.

b. Campus Life meeting workshop opportunity 1/8/08 (B. Liddick)

B. Liddick said that Campus Life was going to have an all staff meeting on January 8. They have asked the EA to participate in one of the workshops. He asked if any members would help to host a workshop. Some of the EA members volunteered.

X. Open Forum

B. Cornell asked if the EA would like to hold a winter retreat at his house. He said he would work on the details and discuss this further at a future meeting.

XI. Adjournment

B. Cornell adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m.