Attending: Gena Carter, David Fraley, Karol Kain Gray, Todd Hux, Brenda Malone, Jackie Overton, Myra Quick, Marc ter Horst, Carol Tresolini
Vice Chancellor Brenda Malone called the meeting to order at 10 a.m. She wished Forum delegates well for the upcoming new year. Malone outlined the layoff numbers that the University has undergone through the last fiscal year. She said that this fiscal year there had been 57 SPA separations or layoffs and 27 notifications of layoffs. There had been 90 layoffs in FY 10-11, 141 in FY09-10, and 61 in FY08-09. This past fiscal year there have been 17 EPA non-faculty end of appointments, compared to 24 in FY10-11, 21 in FY09-10, and 18 in FY08-09. She broke down the number of layoffs by division, a series of numbers that is available on the Human Resources website. Associate Provost Carol Tresolini said that many positions have been left vacant in lieu of layoffs. Malone agreed that the impact to the institution has been broader than that to the individual. She said that this year 190 vacant positions have been eliminated. Malone guessed that the majority of these positions were eliminated in academic areas. She said that she had not heard a lot from the Legislature concerning this year’s budget.
David Fraley asked about temporaries being made to leave for their appointed 30 day break with no one to replace them. Vice Chancellor Karol Kain Gray said that she would prefer to see a pool of temporaries work on rotation. She would speak with Associate Vice Chancellor Carolyn Elfland about making this possible. Fraley said that with different housekeepers on restrictions the work cycle leaves some employees forced to do twice as much work cleaning bathrooms in a particular shift. He said that an employee cleaning 14 bathrooms could end up with as many as 28. Gray said that she would look to reinstate positions in Housekeeping if budget relief arrives from the Legislature.
Regarding the housekeeping director search, Jackie Overton reported that the search had narrowed down to six candidates. There was a question as to whether there would be open forums for the candidates or whether candidates would be interviewed by the housekeeping advisory committee. Overton thought that transparency required open forums. (It was later decided that in the interest of time the advisory committee would conduct the interviews.) Malone noted that Employee & Management Relations Consultant Chris Chiron has been assigned to Housekeeping and would establish residence there, working with Facilities Services Human Resources Director Tracy Agnew.
Todd Hux asked about the elimination of permanent employees’ positions to be replaced by part-time or student employees. Malone said that this practice is not supposed to take place as no part-time, students or temporaries are supposed to be hired to do the same job as a laid off employee. However, she said that the work does not go away. Hux cited the basket room at Fetzer Gym and the audio-video work at Beard Hall. Malone said that she would counsel units to make sure that this does not happen.
Malone spoke on personnel flexibility and the possibility of using this flexibility to provide raises. She noted that the employment market was opening up and it is becoming more difficult to hold onto good employees. Overton noted that the 20th anniversary event was still in the preliminary planning stage. Overton noted that she had been swamped with work between her current job, her department’s accreditation work, the housekeeping director search, and the Forum Chair position.
In the absence of further discussion, the meeting adjourned at 10:45 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Matt Banks, Recording Secretary