Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
12:15–1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall
Minutes

I. Call to Order

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

President David Skorton and Vice President Mary Opperman were introduced to the new members. B. Cornell explained the involvement of President Skorton and VP Opperman with EA meetings.

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

There were no late additions to the agenda.

III. Business of the Day-Update from President Skorton & VP Opperman (12:15–1 p.m.)

B. Cornell gave a brief overview of the talking points given to the President and Mary for today’s meeting. President Skorton said the university is doing better than some, but we are still experiencing many troubles. He then complimented the staff for doing so well handling layoffs and juggling work with so much uncertainty. The good news is that all staff who applied for the retirement plan will receive it. He also complimented staff for getting the word out to save money and to contribute to the suggestion box also. He said there is a small safety net with the hardship fund and the one-time bonus that is available to some staff.

President Skorton said tuition remains steady and the amount of applications coming in is amazing. He stated all higher education and municipalities have been given a negative outlook. The increased financial aid money will be coming from the endowment. We still do need to cut expenses and raise revenues. The board of trustees has moved to increase the liquidity of the university; the bond sale has aided this. He said during the bond sale, Joanne DiStephano was able to negotiate a better interest rate since the demand for the bonds was so high. He announced there is now a page online that outlines all the construction projects that will continue along with justifications and methods of payment for each. This is to keep in the spirit of the resolution for transparency.

Mary Opperman said out of the 1,300 employees that were eligible for the retirement plans over 33% applied. This exceeded the funding available, but they did accept all 432 applicants. This is expensive in the short run but will benefit the university in the long run. She also said it will be chaotic for a while filling in for all the retirees. Even after all this, there will be more layoffs but they will be targeted and strategic. There is still 90 million dollars more to reduce, so they can’t say the layoffs are over as much as they would like to.

President Skorton explained the 90 million Mary mentioned is the difference between our expenditures and our revenue. He stated the decrease of this difference will be work force reduction, revenue increases, and the addition of 100 more students in the next incoming class.

Mary then explained the bond sale is a loan, which has to be paid back, and is taxable. President Skorton said they are not using endowment money because it will save money. Mary stated that she has no prior experience with this. She commented that staff will figure their way through this as they have always done before.

President Skorton stated that the best thing is to know what is happening. He then drew a diagram with time in years on the x-axis and money in dollars on the y-axis. He drew two lines: one with and upward slope (expenditures) and one with a slightly constant slope (revenue). The difference in their slopes is the shortfall of revenue as compared to expenditures. He said staff could write to him to ask for more information any time.

B. McKinney stated that many employees are frustrated by only seeing the smaller picture. She said they need to communicate the larger picture to employees better. Mary Opperman and President Skorton acknowledged that this is a problem. B. Cornell asked if there is a place for staff to send staff efficiency ideas. President Skorton said Kent Fuchs is setting up committees to work on this. He suggested it would be a good idea to invite him to a meeting.

IV. Business of the Day-Update from CIT on “Ensemble” (1–1:20pm)

Chris Lyons and Beth Lyons gave a brief presentation on Ensemble. They stated several reasons for this change. Then they explained how staff, faculty and students will be affected. There have been many committees and groups involved with this. Some offices have already been running this to test it. There will be a unit-by-unit migration through next year. Several questions from members were answered.

J. Seymour motion to extend the meeting by fifteen minutes. G. Stewart seconded.

V. Report from Employee Elected Trustee

B. McKinney stated that she attended meetings all day. She said the board is being very transparent with the finances. She had several points of good news: the bond sale went well and President Skorton presented the university’s proposal to do so and they were impressed.

VI. Report from SA representative

No report.

VII. Report from UA representative

B. Liddick said there is a meeting tomorrow.

VIII. Report from EA representative to the Faculty Senate

A. Mittman said there was a meeting last week where Provost Fuchs gave a presentation on the budget in detail. A resolution was passed to start classes a day earlier. In return, there will be no classes on Labor Day. There is no confirmed year yet for when this change will begin.

IX. Report from Staff Climate Survey Steering Committee representative

L. Croll Howell, a newly elected EA member said they had voted to delay the survey for a year, until September 2010.

X. Report from Chair

B. Cornell said this was a longer meeting but it is so valuable to have the President attend, it is worth the extra time. He then said the Board of Trustees will meet again on May 23rd in Ithaca and said he will give his end of year report on the Employee Assembly. He said he met with Mary Opperman recently where they reviewed the 15 suggestions developed by the EA at the winter retreat. He said 85% of these suggestions have been answered. He will speak more about this during the next meeting when there is more time. He concluded by saying over 900 suggestions from the Cost Saving and Efficiency committee have been given to senior staff.

G. Stewart suggested we schedule a larger window for questions for the President and Mary next time.

XI. Approval of Minutes-April 1, 2009

Not enough members for quorum to vote. This was postponed until next meeting.

XII. Committee Reports

a) Executive committee

No report.

b) Staff Recognition & Award committee

B. Cornell stated that they have made their picks for the next two recipients. More information will come about this soon.

c) Communications committee

No report.

d) Finance

A. Mittman said we have a small budget deficit ($777) as a result of being billed more for the Barton Hall facility for the Presidents Address than was estimated. The Office of Assemblies has said they will make up this deficit.

e) Emergency Grant Fund (CARE Fund)

No report.

f) Personnel Policy

No report.

g) IOC

P. Korolov said elections are ongoing.

h) University Benefits

No report due to time constraints.

i) Employee Education

No report due to time constraints.

j) “Ad Hoc” Charter Review

No report due to time constraints.

XI. Old Business

None.

XII. New Business

None.

XIII. Open Forum

No discussion due to time constraints.

XIV. Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 1:45 p.m.