February 21, 2007
Staff Senate Meeting Minutes
February 21, 2007
10:00 – 12:00 p.m.- ECC 1775
Present: Neely Benton, Kesha Burton, Karen Carmichael, Maria Corral, Gabriela de Anda, Crystal Dootson, Reuben Gutierrez, Beatrice Henson-O’Neal, Florante Ibanez, Jim Kelly, Janet Lee, Nora Jayne Mallen, Mary Moore, Gwen Part, Faith Sauerwald, Renée Sikes, and Teri Taylor
Absent: Rita Brenes, Mike Carty, Alexis Dolan, Elmo Johnson, Elmira Melgoza, Katleen Saturné, Tangee Smith-Hill and Rebecca Vizcarra
Vice President Henson-O’Neal called the meeting to at 10:00 a.m.
I. Process of Approval of Staff Senate Meeting Minutes
• Rosa Calderon, Staff Senate Coordinator, will prepare the first draft of the minutes and forward it to Maria Corral, Staff Senate Secretary.
• Maria will review it and edit the draft as needed and forward the edited draft to Beatrice Henson-O’Neal, Staff Senate Vice President.
• Beatrice will review the edited draft and make any additional changes and advise Rosa when the draft can be emailed to the Senators to review and approve.
• Rosa will email the approved draft to the Senators and provide then with a deadline in which they can email her any corrections/additions.
• Rosa will compile the list of the corrections/additions submitted, if any, and forward them to the Executive Board for approval before making any changes to the draft. Once the Executive Board approves the requested changes/additions, the final copy of the draft will be forwarded to the Staff Senate and a request for a formal approval will be made at the next Staff Senate Meeting.
II. Approval of January Minutes – Vice President Henson-O’Neal
It was moved and seconded to adopt and approve the minutes for January 17 and to include the changes made during the meeting. The minutes were approved unanimously.
III. Absences
• Due to continued absences by a few Senators to the Staff Senate Meetings, the Senate engaged in a conversation about the importance of participating and being present at the Staff Senate Meetings. It was indicated that the current Staff Senate By-Laws state that each member of the Staff Senate must attend the meetings. If a Senator should miss three meetings, the Staff Senate Executive Board may make a recommendation to the Senate to vote the member off the Senate.
• After further discussions about the continued absences, the Senate agreed to address it in the By-Laws. The Executive Board will contact each Senator who is absent from meetings three times to evaluate the reasons for the absences.
• The Executive Board informed the Senate that they must email the Staff Senate Secretary, prior to each meeting that they are unable to attend.
• The Senate requested that the Executive Board communicate with President, Rebecca Vizcarra and speak to her about her continued absences. The Executive Board agreed and will report back to the Senate at the Staff Senate Leadership Retreat on March 2.
IV. President’s Report
• Due to President Vizcarra’s absence, the President’s Report was not provided at the meeting.
V. Liaison Reports
• Academic Affairs
• The Children’s Center – Staff are concerned about the high cost for childcare. It was formally requested that the Staff Senate look into other options and/or discuss with Administration the possibility of lowering the fees for childcare and/or working it into our comprehensive benefits.
• Student Affairs
Gold/Silver Card – This has been an ongoing concern for many years. This issue has been brought up to the Staff Senate and we have not been able to address the concern. First, we will need to research the current benefit. The silver/gold service card proposal would allow staff members, who have served LMU for 15, 20 or 25 years or longer (exact number of years still to be determined), their spouses and children to have free tuition for life and modified medical and dental benefits. This benefit would be comparable to the one offered to staff at USC. USC’s policy is that after 15 years of service their employees have lifetime tuition remission even if the employee elects to leave the University before retirement. There are staff members on campus who have elected to have children later in life and will retire before their children can benefit. Also, staff may work here for 30 years, but not retire from LMU. In that scenario, they do not receive any benefit for their tenure. This proposed policy would reward staff for their years of service. Another argument for this is that many staff only serve LMU 8-10 years, long enough to take advantage of the benefit of tuition remission and then depart. Whereas, staff with twice their years of service may never have the same opportunity to send their children here using this valuable benefit. We perceive this as a social justice and equity issue as well as staff tenure service award.
VI. Committee Report
• Staff Picnic Committee
• Potential dates for the picnic are Friday, May 11, May 18 or early June.
• A suggestion was made to hold the picnic at Leavey Field (soccer field).
• The suggested time frame for the picnic was 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
• An email will be sent to Judy Delavigne, Fr. Lawton’s Executive Assistant, to ensure that the Senate receives Fr. Lawton’s approval to hold the picnic on the suggested date and time, and to encourage supervisors to allow their staff to attend.
• T-Shirts will be disseminated to all faculty and staff, who RSVP to the picnic. However, due to several comments and concerns about faculty and staff not receiving T-Shirts at last year’s picnic and previous other picnics, further discussion regarding the distribution of the T-Shirts will be held with the Staff Picnic Committee to ensure that the process is handled appropriately and to ensure a smooth process. Discussion continued over whether or not every staff member should be given a T-shirt or whatever the appreciation gift is, regardless if they are able to attend to the picnic or not. It’s a staff appreciation picnic and every staff should be shown their appreciation by this token gift whether or not they are able to attend the picnic.
• Raffle Prize Committee
• Nora Jayne Mallen is preparing the template of the letter that will be distributed to the donors.
• Thank you letters were mailed to all the vendors that donated items during the Christmas Party.
• A recommendation was made that the Raffle Prize Committee should secure a prize/gift for the future Staff of the Year recipients.
• Staff of the Year Committee
• Timothy O’Neil was the recipient of the 2007 Staff of the Year Award. The award will be presented to Timothy on Friday, February 22.
• A recommendation was made to revise the current criteria for the Staff of the Year Award to provide the entire staff with the opportunity to meet all the requirements necessary to win this award. The current criteria decreases the number of staff members that could qualify.
• A request was made to obtain a copy of the Law School’s revised criteria for this award and use it as a reference guide to help make the necessary revisions to the current criteria at LMU.
VII. Old Business
• Computer Loan Lottery Results/Updates
• The Staff Senate expressed concern about the disorganization of the Computer Loan Lottery this year and ultimately held the Chair accountable. The Senate agreed that it is critical that we manage all matters with the utmost professionalism and ensure that all processes run smoothly.
• The Staff Senate Executive Board will further discuss who will Chair this event in next year. The topic will be placed on an upcoming meeting agenda.
• It was noted that the Senate received the following feedback regarding the process of this year’s Computer Loan Lottery.
1. The Lottery wasn’t properly publicized
2. There was a short turn around to apply for the loan
3. The Loan Department received many calls from faculty and staff that were upset about the process
4. A few faculty/staff that did not apply for the loan received notification that they were selected for the Computer Loan Lottery
5. The Law School had many complaints about the Computer Loan Lottery
• Leadership Retreat on March 2
• The Staff Senate Leadership Retreat will be held on Friday, March 2, from 8:00 – 5:00 p.m., in Huesman Lounge.
• A continental breakfast and lunch will be provided.
• All Senators are required to notify Maria Corral if they will not be able to attend the retreat.
• Dustin Reece, Manager of Learning and Development will facilitate the retreat.
• A Staff Senate Group photo will be taken.
VIII. New Business
• Identifying liaisons of departments within divisions
• The Senate broke into groups and discussed the divisions that each would represent and provided Rosa with the breakdown so that she can compile a formal chart for the upcoming leadership retreat.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m.
Prepared by: Rosa Calderon
Submitted by: Maria Corral and Gwen Part