Senate Meeting Minutes
Wichita State University
Classified Senate Meeting Minutes
August 2000 - March 2001
Present: Members - Ellen Abbey, Suzie Ashbridge, Gary Bequette, Arian Boger, Roger Dick, Suzanne
Drago, Ellie Duram, Philip Elliott, David Fyfe, Bill Gilmore, Shelly Kellogg, Michael
McMillan, Val Peck, Valerie Pittier, Ruth Ann Priester, Randy Sessions, Bernard Smith,
Kathleen Verdugo, Kathy Wolff
Excused: Warren Carter, Marilyn Dotts, Sally Fiscas, Mardi Hammond, Karla Hutcherson, Donna
Rice, John Wilson
Unexcused: Donald Brooks, Joyce Hadley, Michelle Howell, Kelli Jones Guests: President Beggs,
Anita Kirkpatrick, Nickaila Sandate
I. Open Meeting and Welcome - David Fyfe The Classified Senate met on Wednesday, August 9, 2000 in the Great Plains Room, Rhatigan Student Center. President David Fyfe opened the meeting at 3:30 p.m. He welcomed all present and briefly spoke about the Executive Board Meeting which dealt with expectations and goals that the Senate could accomplish and that communication will be a big issue this year.
David extended the Senate's appreciation to President Beggs for coming to the meeting and speaking to the group and turned the floor over to him.
President Beggs spoke about his establishing his role with the Senate and spoke regarding the joint meetings with the Vice-Presidents and including the Senate President in these monthly meetings. He spoke about the parking lot renovations and there is a lot of work in this coming year, in particular, planning a document on people’s roles here at the University, and how we are expending money, although this will not affect peoples jobs. As 82% of the University’s budget is personnel, there will be a breakdown of assignments and a redefining of jobs within the University in an effort to retain and support the students and their activities. There is also the issue of what to do with the classified structure. President Beggs is optimistic, knowing that people here really care about their jobs and that the Senate represents the people that are critical to this University and it is important to show cooperation. His style is to listen, take into consideration, but the final decision is his. Beggs also stated that he would pass a word to Eric Sexton, to get together with David on the Legislative issues. There was a discussion about the 22% of classified personnel that are under the Board of Regents. WSU has 400; KState has 17,065, KU (including the 700 from KU Med.), 15,075. David asked President Beggs to present a service award to Suzie Ashbridge from the Boy Scouts.
Copies of the Classified Senate Constitution and by-laws were distributed. Discussion
followed with the role of a Senator. All classified employees may attend the Senate
meetings. It is the role of a Senator to keep co-workers informed. Each EEO group
will be divided amongst the Senators. This has only been done half-heartedly in the
past, but Senators need to open the door of communication and ask their constituents
what they want to bring up to the table, for example, salaries, classification of
positions, and longevity. Ask what can we do as Senators to change what has been done
and what do you expect or see your job as?
Discussion continued regarding the position paper and what issues need to be addressed.
It was evident that work on the paper needs to be done earlier, prior to the elections
and that perhaps pushing the cost of living increase rather than increasing steps.
Senators were encouraged to contact their constituents and promote a letter writing campaign to their individual Legislators. It was noted that the Association of the National Guard got all its members plus its retirees to do a massive phone-in and they received enough support and money to restore the armories. David will speak to Eric Sexton about getting the names of the individual Legislators out. There was further discussion regarding the upgrading of several positions with in the University, many were just a change in job title, but job stayed the same. There needs to be a state-wide look at re-classification that the Legislators killed after the 1st rotation of the process that should have taken place every 5 years.
Tom Veltman will continue to monitor the ListServe and all were encouraged to use this as a tool for information.
II. Committees
-Race against Hunger (last week in Sept) Arlen Bogner & Mike McMillan Shocker Pride Picnic (Apr. time-frame) Mardi Hammond, Warren Carter
-Web Page: Tom Veltman
-Holiday Tree Lighting: Val Peck, Ruth Ann Priester, Suzanne Drago Position Paper: David Fyfe, Randy Sessions, Val Peck, Valerie Pittier, Roger Dick, Sally Fiscus, Suzanne Drago
-RSC Board: Kathleen Verdugo, Kathy Wolff, as alternate Traffic Appeals: Bill Gilmore and Ruth Ann Priester Committee members are to give reports regarding their respective meetings to the Senate either as an oral or written report, to keep the flow of communication open.
Gary Bequette brought to the table the idea of forming a steering committee to look into the possibility of selling discount tickets to events such as concerts and movies. The funding would come from a payroll deduction and would be a way to sponsor some family events. The steering committee will be Gary Bequette, Valerie Pittier, and Ellen Abbey.
David mentioned an idea of sponsoring a Classified Senate golf tournament to show support to community affairs. David introduced the new employee manager, Nickaila Sandate.
Minutes of the May meeting were approved.
V. Adjournment - David Fyfe The next Classified Senate meeting will be Wednesday, September 13, 2000 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., in the President’s Room, Room 305, Rhatigan Student Center. Meeting adjourned at 5:05 p.m.
Submitted by Kathleen Verdugo, Secretary
Present: Members: Arlen Boger, Donald Brooks, Warren Carter, Roger Dick, Marilyn Dotts, Ellie Duram,
Sally Fiscus, David Fyfe, Mardi Hammond, Karla Hutcherson, Shelly Kellogg, Michael
McMillen, Val Peck, Dixie Rice, Bernard Smith, Kathleen Verdugo, Kathy Wolff
Excused: Ellen Abbey, Suzie Asbridge, Gary Bequette, Phillip Elliott, Bill Gilmore, Joyce
Hadley, Valerie Pittier, Ruth Ann Priester, Randy Sessions, John Wilson Unexcused:
Kelli Jones Guests: Anita Kirkpatrick, Nickaila Sandate, David Seagraves
Open Meeting and Welcome - David Fyfe The Classified Senate met on Wednesday, September 13, 2000 in the President's Room, Rhatigan Student Center. President David Fyfe opened the meeting at 3:40 p.m. David started the meeting by passing around a notepad for those Senators who wanted Eric Sexton to supply the names of their Legislative Representatives. Due to a conflict in his schedule, Mr. Sexton was unable to speak at our meeting, however he related to David that everyone should spend time on the election process and individually become acquainted with their legislators and their platform.
The minutes of the August 9, 2000 meeting were mailed prior to the meeting. The minutes were approved with corrections. The corrections were misspellings of the names of Arlen Boger and Dixie Rice. (My personal apologies to both Senators) Bill Gilmore, now an EEO5, and has agreed to finish the term as a member of the Executive Committee to replace Suzanne Drago who passed away on August 19, 2000. Hugh "Butch" Thompson, EEO7 is a new Senator. Michelle Howell, EEO7, has resigned from the Senate. A replacement will be selected from the election list.
Shelly Kellogg informed the Senate body that flowers were sent to the memorial service for Suzanne Drago.
The idea of having WSU logo shirts for Senators (as individuals), to wear on Senate days and other occasions that would identify them as a member of the said group was introduced by David, and was well received. Shelly passed around a denim shirt that Human Resources personnel wear. It was decided to have a variety of options available such as short-sleeved/long-sleeved denim, kakai, and polo shirts. Sally Fiscus volunteered to be in charge of this endeavor.
Update on the Employee-type club suggested by Gary Bequette: The other campus Senates will be invited to pool together in this venture. Legalities need to be looked into and will require a steering committee. This venture will probably take up to a year before putting it into place.
Holiday Tree: The original Holiday Tree died, due to overwatering, and climatic changes.
A new, mature tree from Webster Farms will be planted soon. The grounds staff people
will undergo training to learn how to properly care for the future tree.
Holiday Tree Lightening: Val Peck (Chairman), collected all past information from
Ginger Cox, the committee includes Cindy Hodge, and Ruth Ann Priester. The ornaments
are in storage and there will be no need to purchase any new ones.
Warren Carter gave his Food Service Advisory committee report, commenting on ARAMARK's desire to improve their service, surveys to campus staff and students will be forthcoming.
Position Paper: The combined meeting of the 6 regent schools Senate committee members will be on Saturday, Sept.30th, in Pittsburgh. Longevity, pay increases plus COLA, and the addition of steps will be among the items to be put on the agenda. In addition, a pay analysis will be requested for all classified positions.
Meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m. Next meeting will be Oct.11th at 3:30 p.m. in Room 305 (President's room) at the RSC.
Respectfully submitted, Kathleen Verdugo Secretary
Present: Members: Ellen Abbey, Suzie Ashbridge, Arlen Boger, Donald Brooks, Warren Carter,
Ellie Duram, Sally Fiscus, David Fyfe, Bill Gilmore, Joyce Hadley, Mardi Hammond,
Karla Hutcherson, Shelly Kellogg, Michael McMillen Val Peck, Ruth Ann Priester, Dixie
Rice, Randy Sessions, Bernard Smith, Kathleen Verdugo, John Wilson, Kathy Wolf
Excused: Gary Bequette, Roger Dick Unexcused: Marilyn Dotts, Kelli Jones, and Valerie Pittier
Guests: President Beggs, Cyndy Hodge, Anita Kirkpatrick, David Strange, and Mike Turner
Open Meeting and Welcome – David Fyfe
The Classified Senate met on Wednesday, November 8, 2000 in the President's Room.
President David Fyfe opened the meeting at 3:32 p.m.
President Beggs spoke briefly about the draft proposal regarding release time, and passed a copy to Fyfe. Shelly Kellogg ran copies for all the Senators to read prior to the next Senate meeting in December. Comments and questions can be forwarded to Randy Sessions through his e-mail. President Beggs stated to keep in mind that the job comes first. The second topic President Beggs brought to the Senate, was regarding the budgetary process in Topeka, and added that he has asked the Board of Regents to allow Block Grant funding for higher education. It would permit the university to try to do its own salary decision making for its employees. Kent Glascock will come down and meet with Pres. Beggs and discuss how to get away from statewide ideas in terms of classification in salaries.
President Beggs defined his leadership style as very active, positive and visible. Now that the Vice-Presidents are in place, his job will be more toward fundraising. Regarding the salary questionnaire that was sent out, we received at 63% return. We learned that 37% of the respondents have a 2nd job, 13% of those with a 2nd job are on permanent status, and 53 of the respondents are working 3 jobs. 60% of those with other jobs work 15-30 hours a week. Of the total respondents, 4% are also on public assistance, 27% also have another income such as military pension and/or child support. There will be a statewide survey of all classified and unclassified employees that will go out later, this will be a preliminary survey with about 100 questions. The cost of this survey is $150,000. The survey will be mailed and Senators are requested to "get the word out" to fellow employees to respond to the survey. There was discussion regarding the need for the elected representatives to get a wage comparison study.
Next on the agenda was John Koppenhaver, Director of International Education. John spoke about their responsibility and changes in the department. He spoke about their Intensive English Language Center and informed the group that there are 1,300 international students on campus. Because of this high number of students, the University was able to count 3,500 credit hours in their budget. There were 13.7% new international students enrolled this fall, meaning an 18% plus in credit hours. There are students here from 116 different countries, or 9.5 of the student population. K-State and KU only have 5% of foreign students. These students pay 4.1 times the tuition rate than a resident of Kansas pays. The best market for students is from Southeast Asia, but the University will begin recruiting students from a formally untapped market, Mexico and South America. Looking ahead, the renovations have begun at the old ATO house, which has been designated as the International Education House. President Beggs has committed to raise 1 million dollars, in private funds, to gut and remodel the house. Plans include a lounge area, satellite news programs in a plethora of languages and will house all the administrative offices. Mr. Koppenhaver expressed his gratitude to the university community that hires the international students.
Committee Reports:
-Holiday Tree Lighting: will be on Dec. 1st. Refreshments will be served in the Fireside
Lounge at 3:00 p.m. followed by the throwing of the tree light switch. Val Peck requested
more volunteers.
-Traffic Committee: Nine tickets were written to eight persons, six of which didn't
show up.
-Position paper: Still in the works. Eric Sexton will be asked to speak at the Dec.
meeting to prepare the group for Legislature's Day.
-Treasurer's Report: We have a balance of $964.02, following the $70.62 expenditure
to the Copy Center and $6.05 for postage.
-Shirt update: Sally Fiscus reported the shirts would cost $23.00. Following a show
of hands, the denim shirts were selected.
David reminded the group that contact with their newly elected legislators is important. There was a move to adjourn, and seconded. Meeting adjourned at 4:45 p.m. The next Senate meeting will be on December 13, 2000 in the Presidents Room at the RSC.
Respectfully submitted, Kathleen Verdugo Secretary
Present: Members: Gary Bequette, Arlen Boger, Warren Carter, Roger Dick, David Fyfe, Bill
Gilmore, Mardi Hammond, Shelly Kellogg, Ruth Ann Priester, Carroll Newman, Dixie Rice,
Randy Sessions, John Wilson
Excused: Ellen Abbey, Suzie Ashbridge, Marilyn Dotts, Ellie Duram, Philip Elliott, Sally Fiscus,
Joyce Hadley, Karla Hutcherson, Kelli Jones, Michael McMillan, Val Peck, Valerie Pittier,
Bernard Smith, Kathleen Verdugo, Kathy Wolff
Guests: Mike Turner, Anita Kirkpatrick, Nickaila Sandate
Open Meeting and Welcome - David Fyfe The Classified Senate met on Wednesday, December 13, 2000 in the President's
Room. President David Fyfe opened the meeting at 3:30 p.m. Pay Plan Options: Mike
Turner from Human Resources was first to give a talk on different options, concerning
plans to improve pay and benefits. He had done some research on the Internet and came
up with 5 different plants that possibly could be utilized to approach the legislators
with. Mike suggests that we pick one of these or come up with one of our own, but
have some plan to presents to the legislators. The 5 pay plans are:
1. Merit pay - merit pay plans seem desirable in that they, in theory, reward employees
who contribute more to the organization. An article published in "Human Resources
Management," in the summer of 1998, described some problems with merit pay that seem
to reflect the concerns to a number of our employees when it was proposed by the legislature.
According to this article, some of the significant problems are poor measurement of
performance (low validity of the supervisory ratings), poor acceptance of supervisory
feedback (disagreement with the evaluation), and limited desirability of the merit
reward (the typical merit increases are too small).
2. Group pay - Tracking a work unit's production through the use of performance ratios
and rewarding the group on their contributions sometimes utilized in organizations
committed to Quality Management Circles. This might be desirable in some production
oriented type of unit, but might be hard to utilize in some service unites and departments
where only one classified employee is in the group, such as an academic department.
3. Broad banding - Collapsing job clusters or tiers of positions into a few wide
bands with great flexibility since there are no "pay steps" or automatic progression
toward a midpoint, since the midpoint is eliminated. Implementing broadly banding
in a culture of level-oriented, stable organization does not work well; it is most
effective in rapidly changing companies with few levels of supervision.
4. Skill Based pay or Competency pay - This is a person-based system rather than
a job-based system, which compensates employees for the skills they can use in the
organization, rather than for the specific jobs they may be performing. This concept
could tie into the Competency Model the state which has begun developing, starting
with supervisory competencies, but eventually expanding into other competencies. The
state is developing this model for training purposes rather than compensation purposes
at this point in time.
5. Cafeteria plans - Full flexible benefit plans provide employees with many choices
from a menu of options. An allowance would be provided with which to purchase benefits
from the menus. Employees construct their own benefit package in this type of plan.
Survey: Randy Sessions discussed the survey that was sent out concerning people being able to serve on the senate. Randy suggests that somehow we need the different departments to understand that President Beggs does support the Classified Senate. Possibly a letter could be sent out with President Beggs signature. Anita Kirkpatrick suggests that we try and figure out what our objectives are in the senate, so we have some direction as to what we are going to accomplish.
Traffic court: Ruth Ann Priester reported that on the last meeting with the Traffic Committee, there were 3 written appeals, 3 in person and 1 no show. She also commented that it would be great if there would be a food drive all year long, and since agencies have to buy the donated food, the food should be donated straight to the people in need.
Classified shirts: Will be discussed after the first of the year.
Classified Senate Mission: David Fyfe emphasized that we need to come up with a mission statement, since we don't meet just for the fun of it. Shelly Kellogg stated that in the past, the senate wasn't really heard, but feels that we are getting our voices heard. David feels that President Beggs treats the Classified Senate as equals with the other Senates on campus.
David also informed the Senate that Eric Sexton would be at our next meeting on January 7, 2001.
Food Committee: Warren Carter gave his report on the food committee and said that the new name of the committee is Dining Service Food Committee. Not many changes to report on and will comment as changes are discussed.
Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 4:45 p.m. Submitted by Arlen Boger
PRESENT: Ellen Abbey, Suzie Ashbridge, Gary Bequette, Arlan Boger, Donald Brooks, Warren Carter,
Sally Fiscus, David Fyfe, Bill Gilmore, Mardi Hammond, Shelly Kellogg, Michael McMillen,
Carroll Newman, Val Peck, Ruth Ann Priester, Randy Sessions, Kathleen Verdugo, John
Wilson, Kathy Wolfe.
EXCUSED: Marilyn Dotts, Valerie Pittier, and Dixie Rice UNEXCUSED: Ellie Duram, Joyce Hadley,
Lloyd Harp, Bernard Smith, Hugh Thompson.
GUESTS: Anita Kirkpatrick, Nickaila Sandate, and David Strange.
Open Meeting and Welcome: The Classified Senate met on Wednesday, January 17, 2001. Classified Senate President David Fyfe called the meeting to order. Minutes were read and approved.
Announcements:
Welcome to Ellen Abbey to the Executive Council; Roger Dick has moved to an unclassified
position, the open position in the EEO6 will not be filled until after the next election.
Senate Shirts: Sally Fiscus took orders for the Classified Senate shirts to be ordered from the Wichita Shirt and Cap Co. Senators selected their choice of either a long-sleeved denim shirt, for $20.50 or a short-sleeved polo shirt for $24.00. The shirts will come in two weeks after the order has been received.
Survey of Wages: The results of the wage survey that was taken in November will be posed to the Senate web site, as well as a synopsis of the comments. Volunteers are needed to compile the comments. President Beggs is out of town, but will be receiving a copy of the survey. We are also waiting for the results of the survey sent out by the state.
Gov. Graves: Discussion ensued regarding Gov. Graves' State of the State Address. Topics included the cost of living raise (1 _% in July, and another 1 _% next January), the elimination of steps at the beginning of the pay scale, and that state legislators are considering a 208% salary increase for themselves.
Presidents meeting: Randy Sessions will be attending the next Presidents meeting. David will provide Randy with a copy of the changes reflecting the proposed university budget. Legislators Day: This will be on February 14th, David passed around a sign up sheet for those Senators who want to go to Topeka. David will see about getting release time and a vehicle. Discussion followed about the position paper. Anita Kirkpatrick noted that there has been a 12.5% employee turnover at the university, a 2.5% is considered to be an acceptable rate. The importance of sending letters and e-mails to the legislators was once again stressed.
Employee Club: There was a 25% response, all were positive; Gary will have more detailed
results next month.
Committee Reports:
-It was noted that the Employee Recognition Committee needed to meet.
-Fund Raising: A suggestion was brought to the Senate regarding an Open Car Show,
with proceeds to be donated to charity. There would be an event charge to the participant,
and it would be a great way for the Senate to bring itself some communal recognition.
-Release Time Draft: There was a consensus of the fact that President Beggs draft
did not address the issue that was presented to him, it only reflected an administrative
view, which formalized what an employee should do. President Beggs recognizes how
valuable the Classified Senate is, but classified staff gets more flack on release
time for serving on the Senate. It was motioned and passed that Sally and Randy work
on a prototype of a letter that should be sent to all supervisors to allow release
time. It was suggested that a more positive approach, perhaps in the form of a congratulatory
letter with a copy to the person's supervisor, could be sent from the President, another
suggestion was that a letter be included in the new employee welcome packet including
a note of endorsement. Shelly made the motion and John Wilson seconded, motion passed.
The next Senate meeting will be moved to February 21, 2001. Shelly will check for
an available meeting room.
The Executive Board will meet on February 7th. Meeting adjourned at 4:52 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, Kathleen Verdugo, Secretary
Attendees: David Fyfe, Shelly Kellogg, Marilyn Dotts, Kathy Wolff, Joyce Hadley, Ellen Abbey,
Val Peck, Valerie Pittier, Donald Brooks, Gary Bequette, Bill Gilmore, Lloyd Harp,
Warren Carter, Mardi Hammond, Suzie Ashbridge
Excused: Karla Hutcherson, Randy Sessions, Kathleen Verdugo, Sally Fiscus, Ruth Ann Priester,
Dixie Rice, Bernie Smith, John Wilson Unexcused: Arlen Boger, Ellie Duram, Mike McMillen, Carroll Newman, Hugh Thompson
Guests: Nickaila Sandate
Open Meeting and Welcome - David Fyfe The Classified Senate met on Wednesday, February 21, 2001 in the President's Room. President David Fyfe opened the meeting at 3:30 pm. Minutes for the January meeting were approved.
Old Business:
President Beggs has been given a copy of the survey and is pleased with the results.
He will use the findings in discussions with the Board of Regents. David will contact
Tom Veltman to post the survey comments on the senate web page.
Senate shirts will be available for pick up at Sally Fiscus' office on March 9th.
Legislature Day has been tentatively rescheduled to March 12th due to inclement weather on February 14th. David will contact other universities to set a firm date. It was suggested that we invite legislators to visit WSU during spring recess for a question and answer type forum. We are all encouraged to attend a Sedgwick County delegation constituency forum held at the Hughes Metroplex on 3/17 and at the Sedgwick County Extension building on 3/3 and 3/31. All meetings will begin at 10:00 am and will last for one hour.
Sally and Randy continue to work on a rebuttal to the President's Time Release draft.
The next car show meeting will be March 22nd. The committee will discuss the final details.
New Business:
Budget Concerns: WSU is requesting a 9.8% budget increase to recoup base reductions,
which include salary increases that were mandated and not funded. KU and KSU are under
a hiring freeze to cover fuel costs.
Elections: Val Pittier volunteered to chair the election committee again this year. Ellen Abbey, Marilyn Dotts and Mardi Hammond volunteered to assist. We still need one more volunteer.
Shocker Pride Picnic: Jane Eshelman volunteered to chair the Shocker Pride Picnic committee. Suzie Ashbridge volunteered to assist. We still need three or four more volunteers.
Food Committee: Warren Carter reported that Aramark put together a Catering Guide without prior approval from the committee. The committee made changes in the language regarding charges. The corrections will be made on the next printing.
Traffic Court: The court heard 3 in-person appeals and had 8-10 in writing. Next meeting is scheduled for February 28, 2001. This committee still needs an alternate member.
Position Paper: There was discussion to add three steps to the top of the matrix but it was not approved. Lloyd Harp was introduced as new senator for EEO7.
Meeting adjourned at 4:30.
Respectfully submitted, Ellen Abbey
ATTENDEES: Ellen Abbey, Suzie Asbridge, Gary Bequette, Arlen Boger, Donald Brooks, Marilyn Dotts,
David Fyfe, Bill Gilmore, Val Peck, Ruth Ann Priester, Dixie Rice, Randy Sessions,
Bernard Smith, Kathleen Verdugo, Kathy Wolff
EXCUSED: Warren Carter, Ellie Duram, Sally Fiscus, Lloyd Harp, Mardi Hammond, Karla Hutcherson,
Shelley Kellogg, Michael McMillan, Valerie Pittier, John Wilson
UNEXCUSED: Carroll Newman, Hugh Thompson
GUEST: Anita Kirkpatrick
Senate President David Fyfe called the meeting to order at 3:36 p.m. in the President’s Room, RSC. Val Peck made the motion to approve the minutes of the February meeting, seconded by Arlen Boger. All voted in favor, motion was carried.
David started the meeting by giving his report on his trip to Topeka for Legislator’s Day. Other attendees were Fort Hays, KU, Pittsburgh, Kstate and Emporia who had 8 representatives. David took the information that was gathered here on campus and included copies of the survey and its results. The Legislator’s that he spoke to understood the pay concerns and saw the problems of the pay matrix, and were supportive of the alternate pay plan, but that it needed to get out of committee. Jean Shordoff noted that she had personally been contacted by state employees and noted that more state employees than ever before have contacted other Legislators.
Rip Gooch, Senator for the WSU area was also very supportive of the raises. But noted that the governor is pushing the legislators for $180 million for education, coming back after he originally asked for $60 million. Governor Graves wants to raise the sales tax 2/10 of a percent and 2 cents per gallon of gasoline rise. On the question of longevity, the governor’s proposal is to include and possibly increase it.
David also met with Joe de la Torre, one of the governor’s right hands, outside of the governor’s office. He took a copy of our position paper, along with our concerns. Mr. De La Torre was supportive, but was concerned as to how to pay for it and said that he would give the position paper to the governor.
David has been unsuccessful in getting the attrition rate of the Highway Patrol, to see how the governor came up with more subsidization with them than others. The person that he spoke with was either unwilling or unable to answer any questions, and therefore there is no information forthcoming. Our voluntary attrition rate is 12.
Two related events are coming up that need to be announced to all classified staff.
They are both meetings with Sedgwick County Legislators. The first one is this Saturday,
March 17th at 10:00 a.m. at the Hughes Metro; the second meeting will be on March
31st at the Sedgwick County Extension Office. Each legislator is given 3 minutes to
speak about issues, followed by a question & answer time from the audience. Senators
need to get the word out to their co-workers about attending and question the legislators
about the alternate pay plan and how will House bill 2305 be funded if passed. (This
deals with employees moving to the highest range when on step 15).
It was noted that both Kstate and KU have instituted a hiring freeze based on their
high cost of fuel and their 1% budget cut in October.
State Survey Results: All that is available at this time is the preliminary raw data; the actual results will be available in a week or two. There were 28,000 surveys that were sent out, the percentage of return is not known at this time. There were 11 categories with ranking from 1-6; the highest was 4.4. Anything over 3.5 is considered satisfactory, although the majority fell on unsatisfactory. Roger Matthews is working on re-classifications. The next survey, which will be based on wages, is waiting for legislative funding.
Shocker Pride Picnic: Jane Eshelman is unable to chair the committee as previously reported however she is willing to continue serving on the committee. The other members are Suzie Asbridge, Arlen Boger and Cyndi Hodge. The picnic is scheduled for May 1st. Michael McMillan will be asked to chair this event.
Employee Club Survey: With the survey results being positive, the next step would be to set up a committee, look into the legal issues, postal, marketing, and setting up guidelines. It is hoped to have the club up and going by next July. Gary Bequette made the motion to continue, with Ellen Abbey seconding, Senate body voted, motion passed unanimously.
Traffic Committee: Ruth Ann Priester gave the following report: There were 11 written appeals and 2 in-person appeals. Ruth Ann also intimated that Cyndi Hodge was willing to fill the open position of alternate.
Library Committee: Gary Bequette requested that another person take his place on this committee, he is an alternate and the committee has requested that all members be present, and he is unable to meet that obligation.
Car Show: This is coming along, it is up on the web site, and sponsors have come forward for the trophies and door prizes. There will be a $12.00 early entry fee, $15 for late entry fee. The show will be on May 20th from 9 to 3, west of Cessna Stadium. The National Guard and Coleman will have displays; a DJ has been scheduled. Flyers are being distributed at other car shows. There was a discussion regarding the possibility of a 50/50 pot, with the proceeds also going to the Wichita Children’s Home. The committee came up with 12 categories such as WSU Employees, President’s Choice, and discussed the possibility of making this an annual affair with a traveling trophy. To date 10 participants have signed up.
Election Committee: This will be put on hold due to the changes in the configurations. The Executive Board will get together for a special meeting later this month.
HR Involvement in Future Interviews: Supervisors of classified personnel received a memo from Human Resources that a member of their department will be part of future search committees. David met with Nickaila Sandate for information, and Anita Kirkpatrick gave further information to the Senate. The purpose of Human Resources getting involved in the interview process is to help process quality interviews, such as making sure that questions stay within the legal parameters. There have been a number of probation failures and there is currently a very poor pool of applicants. The HR members will each take a turn (with the exception of Anita Kirkpatrick and Mardi Hammond). David will call Nickaila and suggest that the search committees will need to know who the HR representative will be so that they can be involved from the beginning and not just to show up at the interviews.
A motion to adjourn the meeting was made, seconded, voted and passed. Meeting adjourned
at 4:35 p.m. The next Senate meeting will be April 11th, 2001 in Room 305 (President’s
Room) at the Rhatigan Student Center.
The Executive Board was called to meet following the Senate Meeting.
Respectfully submitted, Kathleen Verdugo Senate Secretary