Staff Council Meeting

Staff Council Meeting summary

August 1, 2012

Staff Council met August 1, 2012 at 2:00p.m. in 267 University Hall

Members present: Craig This, David Bringhurst, Kym Sellers, Edward Depp, MaryRaider, Vickie Slone, Susan Wehmeyer,  Audwin Jones, Lena Friend, Pat Fox and Jill Puthoff on phone

Guest: Henry Limouze, Associate Provost for Faculty & Staff Affairs

1)    Smoking policy

There has been no policy proposed regarding smoking that Henry is aware of.  There have been discussions, as Wright Way Policy is currently out of compliance with the law on the subject.  If a policy comes out of Cabinet, Henry will share it with Council.  A survey about tobacco on campus, which potentially may be distributed and which was shared at a previous Staff Council meeting was shared again.  If the Board of Regents ties funding to a smoking ban as they did conversion to semesters, we will have to comply.

2)    Wellness program

The creation of a Wellness Program has been talked about since 2008 or before.  There is need to move forward with this project.  Some suggestions from Council members of things they would like to see in a Wellness Program:

·      Paid time for exercise (e.g. walking, running) in addition to lunch break as some companies offer.

·      No charge to use fitness center.  The current plan is that the proposed $15 fee that will be charged for the use of the fitness center would be waived for participants in a Wellness Program.

·      Lake Campus employees have free use of the YMCA.  We could investigate potential reciprocal arrangements with other YMCAs.

·      Support for smoking cessation, weight loss, etc. as well as support groups for other types of health problems.

·      Medical clinic on campus for employees to include evaluations such as blood pressure and cholesterol checks, counseling as well as appointments for illness.

·      Bicycles available for use on campus which could be checked out using Wright One card.

·      Cost control of benefits.

The consultant hired to begin looking into a wellness program provided a very detailed analysis, but asking them to continue to develop a wellness plan was deemed cost prohibitive particularly in light of the fact that we have in-house specialists who can provide those services.

3)    Health insurance refunds

Henry is attempting to get information as to whether or not this will impact us since we are self- insured.  It is likely that no refund will be available.

4)    Policy updates

Since existing laws and policies were broken in the well-publicized BSoM issue, no policy changes are necessary.  It is apparent, however, that better auditing is necessary. 

A small group representing faculty, staff and student governance met some time ago with President Hopkins to discuss how to prevent situations such as that at Penn State.  Follow up on this is needed.  Henry will ask Robert Sweeney where this stands.

The need for gender neutral restrooms was mentioned.

Many issues discussed lead back to the need for supervisor training.

It was mentioned that changes to the Wright Way Policy are still not being communicated to the campus community.

5)    Town Hall meetings

There is need to follow up on the Town Hall meeting and to plan more such meetings.  Council will be mindful of Lake Campus and their scheduled events when planning future meetings.  Future meetings could be for combined groups of staff or there could be separate meetings for Classified and Unclassified Staff.  The possibility of a live feed for future meetings was discussed.  The possibility of a monthly email survey of questions staff members would like to ask of the Administration was discussed.  There is interest in developing this idea.

6)    Performance Reviews

Tracking of completion rates of Performance Reviews for the University as a whole and for specific units was discussed.  Publication of the rates might serve as an incentive to improve the rates.  The fact that the reviews are still a paper based system is a barrier to the development of a tracking system.  Meltem Kokaly will have to be involved in the development of any tracking system of our current reviews.  It was discussed that there also needs to be a way to track training of supervisors.

7)    Staff Removal Policy

Staff in leadership positions need instruction on how to proceed in the case that an employee must be terminated.  This issue will be raised in an SCHRC meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:05 p.m.

The next scheduled meeting of Staff Council is Wednesday, September 12 from 2:00 – 4:00 in 267 University Hall.