MINUTES
Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
12:15 - 1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall

I. Call to Order

T. Grove called the meeting to order at 12:19 p.m.

Present: D. Brooks, B. Cristelli, L. Croll Howell, B. Esty, K. Fahey, C. Ferguson, T. Grove, M. Kitchen, L. Meyerhoff, L. Morris, G. Osborne, L. Sayam, B. Schaffner, J. Seymour

Absent: J. Boodley-Buchanan, G. Stewart

Also Present: The Cornell Daily Sun, A. Epstein, A. O’Donnell

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

T. Grove added two late additions to the “New business” portion of the agenda. The first is in regards the Student Assembly Resolution on the appointment of Grant Farred as Chair of the Africana Faculty Search Committee and the second is in regards to an event occurring in December called Town Gown Awards and Recognition.

III. Approval of Minutes from last meeting

a) Approval to Amendment minutes from 10/05/11 meeting

L. Sayam added an amendment to the minutes from October 5, 2011 regarding the Employee Education Committee. B. Schaffner made a motion to approve the amendment. L. Meyerhoff seconded and the EA unanimously voted to approve the amendment to the October 5, 2011 meeting minutes.

b) Approval of minute from 10/19/11

L. Meyerhoff made a motion to approve the minutes from October 19, 2011. C. Ferguson seconded. The EA unanimously voted to approve the minutes.

IV. Business of the Day

a) TCAT changes to bus routes

B. Schaffner stated there is an article out in the Ithaca Journal regarding the changes TCAT will be making. There will be a lot of changes to the routes TCAT offers as well as an increase in fares, which will be implemented in January 2012. L. Meyerhoff confirmed the route discussed at the October 19 EA meeting, Route 52, will no longer be running into Tioga County. K. Fahey stated at the Campus Infrastructure Meeting held on November 1st, David Lieb explained TCAT and Tioga County are currently in good communications regarding what actions are next. The reason TCAT is dropping this route is because they are not receiving money. However, David Lieb believes the discussions between TCAT and Tioga officials are looking good which could be good sign for the people who use Route 52.

T. Grove brought the issue of transportation up with M. Opperman. M. Opperman said TCAT wants Cornell to pay more money, and Cornell is not in a position to do so currently. T. Grove concluded the discussion regarding TCAT by informing the EA that Joe Lalley would be coming to discuss the topic more in depth on the November 16th meeting.

b) President Address location

T. Grove stated A. O’Donnell has been looking for places to hold the President’s Address. She looked into Barnes Hall, but it is not available. T. Grove stated this year it was harder to find a location since the event does not falling during fall break so there are classes or student activities occurring in most buildings and lecture halls. Some locations still available for consideration include Milstein Hall, G10 Biotech, Anabel Taylor, and the Schwartz Performing Arts Center. B. Esty offered the use of Bailey Hall and the members discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the locations. After a lengthy discussion, all of the members were in favor of holding the President’s Address in Bailey Hall. T. Grove said M. Opperman would like the event to be live-streamed which means there will be additional expenses involved. B. Esty will be researching the cost of the live streaming and will help set up the equipment necessary for the presentation. T. Grove asked all the members to arrive by 11:30 a.m. to help with set up. She also requested the members wear their EA shirts to the event.

c) President’s award

The EA’s had a lengthy discussion on who should receive the award. (To preserve confidentiality, the discussion was held off of the record so no minutes or recording were taken.)

d) Suggestions for January Retreat

B. Schaffner sent out a poll regarding dates for the January Retreat and based on responses the best day for the retreat is Wednesday, January 4 for a half day. T. Grove then asked the EA members for suggestions of topics to discuss at the retreat. L. Morris said the Communications Committee has been discussing an EA survey that will ask employees what they think about the EA and its effectiveness. She would like to focus some of the retreat time on refining potential survey questions and figuring out what the EA would like to get from the survey responses.

K. Fahey asked if the EA could spend some time at the retreat looking at the calendar and beginning to set dates for events so that locations and times can be confirmed well in advance. L. Croll Howell suggested bringing in Kathy Burkgren to present Rewards and Recognition. T. Grove will be compiling a list of topics for the retreat and encouraged the EA members to send her topics they would like to discuss at the retreat. D. Brooks asked if the retreat could be held in a meeting room in the new Physical Science building. He will be looking into the process to use the rooms and the availability.

V. Report from the Chair

a) Meeting with Mary

T. Grove said she and M. Opperman discussed what the committees would be doing and she brought up the idea of the Personnel Committee amending the bereavement policy. T. Grove also brought up L. Sayam’s concern regarding the tuition difference between summer and regular school sessions. M. Opperman said there may not be anything that Cornell can do regarding this issue due to New York State and federal government policies. Finally, T. Grove stated she and M. Opperman talked about Awards and Recognition and transportation.

b) Reward and Recognition meeting

T. Grove explained there is a committee looking into awards and recognition for staff. They are looking into individual excellence awards, team leader awards, community awards, and Presidential awards. T. Grove said larger awards are great but there should also be smaller awards and/or recognition for individuals that occurs more frequently. L. Morris asked if the group could partner with the EA, perhaps on something like the EA “Kudos” program.

c) UA meeting update

T. Grove said the main topic discussed at the UA meeting was the discussion of the three committees starting up for the semester: the Codes and Judicial Committee, Campus Welfare Committee, and the Campus Infrastructure Committee. Members of these committees should have received e-mails regarding possible dates and times. The Campus Welfare Committee is still attempting to work out a schedule but they will be focusing on the staff survey and an update on childcare. K. Fahey said the Campus Infrastructure Committee has met twice and has discussed sustainability, the impact of Kuali, and transportation issues.

T. Grove noted President Skorton attended this meeting with Tommy Bruce and discussed faculty hires, need based financial aid, the New York City Tech campus proposal, the increase of capital campaign funds, and the progress on balancing the CU budget. The final issue discussed at the UA meeting was childcare. It was mentioned supervisors should try to be more sensitive, and meetings should not take place in the early morning or late afternoon since this causes conflicts with childcare schedules.

VI. Committee Reports

a) Communications Committee - Leslie Morris

L. Morris said their first meeting will be held on Friday, November 4, at noon. She asked A. O’Donnell for help with publicizing the President’s Address to the Staff. L. Morris also mentioned the committee is working on the creation of an EA survey to gauge the effectiveness of the EA and its connection to the staff. She intends to engage the Institutional Research Center for help in creating questions and sending the survey, which will cost a modest amount of money. Finally, L. Morris said the committee will be looking into creating an EA logo. She said this idea has been discussed for a long time and the EA could benefit from having their own symbol.

b) Education Committee — Lavanya Sayam

L. Sayam stated there are four members on the committee, and they had their first meeting on October 17. There are three main issues the committee will be looking at: employees receiving a certification outside of Cornell, the creation of a survey for employees who have completed a degree, and looking into the flexibility of scheduling work with classes. L. Meyerhoff stated that for the survey the committee should use the university approved Qualtrix and should ask questions to the graduates regarding how they handled working full time and taking classes. If the EA has any suggestions regarding questions for this survey they should e-mail them to L. Sayam. L. Croll Howell said the policy is “you are an employee before you are a student” and the supervisors are encouraged to be flexible but sometimes it is not possible due to the work flow in the unit/department.

VII.Old Business

a)Care Fund Auction follow-up — Gemma Osborne

G. Osborne was thrilled to tell EA the auction had surpassed their goal of raising $10,000, which was be a $4,000 increase from the 2006 auction. The online auction raised $5,700 and the live auction raised $5,260. This coupled with the money donated from pizza sales, the 50/50 raffle & hockey ticket sales equaled approximately $13,000. She noted the CARE fund has been able to help 47 applicants, most of which were flood related applications. Additionally, there has been about 102 applicants in the past year who have applied. C. Ferguson asked if the group has thought about changing the requirements for applicants in order to benefit more people. G. Osborne stated this has been done. Finally, the EA discussed other fundraising ideas including holiday fundraisers and publicizing applicants’ stories and quotes to gather more donations.

b) Means and Restriction follow-up

T. Grove mentioned at the last meeting the Means and Restriction group has asked for EA support. The EA will be drafting a resolution regarding supporting the Means and Restriction which will be discussed in later meetings.

c) Communications Chair resolution

T. Grove asked all of the members of the EA to take a look at the resolution. A. Epstein said it would be a good idea to look at a charter change so issues such as this do not have to go to President Skorton for approval. A. Epstein proposed the changing in the charter could occur in conjunction with the Communication Chair being added to the executive board.

VIII. New Business

Due to time constraints the “New business” portion of the agenda was tabled until the next meeting. T. Grove suggested the members of the EA review the SA resolution regarding the appointment of Grant Farred.

IX. Open Forum

There was no open forum at this meeting.

X. Adjournment

B. Schaffner made a motion to adjourn the meeting. C. Ferguson seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 1:32 p.m.