OPERATING STAFF COUNCIL MEETING
MINUTES
8:30AM – Holmes Student Center 406
Present: Elizabeth Buck, Judy Burgess, Gay Campbell,
Sara Clayton, Marcia Dick, Ada Hetland, Linda Jennings, Glenda Jones, Joe Koch,
Jay Monteiro, Dena Olson, Andy Small, and LaRonda Thuestad.
Excused: Michele Crase, Theresa Kinniry, and Rachel
Turner.
Guests:
Marlene Bryant, Tim Griffin, Donna Smith, and Jodi Tyrrell
The meeting was called to order by President Sara
Clayton at approximately 8:35 a.m. in Room 406 of Holmes Student Center. The first order of business was a letter
given to Clayton from Ada Hetland, announcing her resignation from the
Operating Staff Council, effective March 30, 2004. Section 7.31 of the OSC By-Laws states, “Should a vacancy occur during a term, the vacancy
shall be filled by the candidate who received the next highest number of votes
in the most recent OSC election.”
Clayton appointed Donna Smith to fulfill Hetland’s term beginning with
the April 8, 2004, meeting. The School of Nursing will host an Open House for
Hetland on April 5, 2004.
A motion was made to revise the agenda with Council
of Council’s 2004 meeting added to Old Business. The motion was seconded and passed.
III. Approval
of Minutes of January 8, 2004, Meeting
A motion was made to accept the minutes with a correction to a misspelled word. The motion was seconded and passed.
Treasurer Elizabeth Buck distributed copies of the treasurer’s
report for the seventh-month period ended 1/31/04 for the Council’s
perusal. After discussion of
expenditures, a motion was made to accept the Treasurer’s report. The motion
was seconded and passed.
1. Clayton
distributed the annual Council picture to each member.
2. Clayton
distributed copies of four articles discussing the raise given to NIU clerical
staff. Those
articles were as follows: February 11,
2004, MidWeek; minutes from the Secretarial
Advisory Council meeting held January 14, 2004; FY04 Salary Increment Guideline Memorandum from Human Resource
Services; and the January 16, 2004, article
from Northern Today.
3.
Donna Smith passed around a copy of the Illinois State University Civil
Service Newsletter OpenLine. [jeb1]
4.
Clayton also distributed copies to the Council of the United Educators
Newsletter, Safety Dispatch. One
may access all the issues of UE Safety Dispatch through the Members Only
Library at the UE website. If you do not
currently have a username and password, go to www.ue.org
and click the “Members Only Library” button. Choose “Click here to register” on the
right and complete the online form. Past
Safety Dispatches have covered many topics, including athletics safety,
crisis planning, alcohol and drug abuse, and dorm safety.
5.
Marcia Dick passed around the Gift Opportunity brochure that Founders
Library has just printed. This brochure
is good until 2010 because there are no specific timelines in the book. Dick also passed around a flyer announcing
Beth Finke, Visiting Author at NIU on March 3, 3004. Dick suggested the best time to attend during
the activities would be 3:30 p.m. at the Duke Ellington Ballroom. Many groups in the campus community helped
bring this young woman to campus. Ms. Finke became blind because of diabetes
that was not cared for when she was a child.
Dick reported that she is an interesting speaker.
6.
Dick reported that the Civil Service Employees Association, IEA-NEA has
a website for anyone interested in more information. The website is www.CSEA-NIU.org.
7.
Clayton passed around a copy of the advertisement from University
Resources for Women regarding a support and information group about
bullying. Those meetings are scheduled
for April 7, April 21, and April 27, 2004, from 12:00-1:00 pm at Blackhawk
East.
8.
Buck distributed copies of a table written by Margie Foshe,
Administrative Aide in LA&S, showing health insurance premium increases by
year since 1999. Ms. Foshe would like
the Council to bring the issue to the University Benefits Committee.
A. Personnel/Staff
Developments/Benefits
Hetland informed the
Council that the committee met and discussed health care issues. There
are many people on campus who are concerned about this issue, and have been contacting
Hetland. Hetland informed the Council
that she had contacted Deborah Haliczer,
Director of Employee Relations, with this concern. Health care costs are going up
everywhere and seem to be a nation-wide concern. Haliczer sent Hetland a copy of the Agenda for the
next meeting of the University Benefits Committee showing that concerns
about health insurance reimbursements and premiums was included. Council entered
into further discussion of this issue and would like for the sub-committee to continue
with study and research to find what options, if any, are available to
employees.
Our basic benefits all come
from Central Management Services and are negotiated by AFSCME. We do have a say, however, on how providers
in our area honor those benefits.
On another matter,
Hetland asked Dick if she would chair this committee until the end of the fiscal
year. Dick agreed, with the provision
that a new chair be elected for the committee
in June.
B.
Elections and Appointments
Linda Jennings reported that nomination/candidate
data forms for Council membership have been sent out. They are due in by Friday,
March 12, 2004. Jennings discussed the
ballot form and asked for suggestions and/or corrections on layout and content.
The Council voted to make the deadline for ballot returns May 12, 2004. The
deadline will not be extended.
C.
Public Relations
Joe Koch said the committee had a quick meeting and
discussed the Northern Staff News, the Outstanding Service Awards, and
the Dependent Awards.
Jay Monteiro asked that all articles for the
Newsletter be sent to him by March 15, 2004.
D.
Visiting Committees
Marcia Dick gave the Athletic Board report to the
Council. Dick distributed a copy to each Council member. Dick reported that NIU has over 400 athletes
and 188 of them have a GPA better than 3.0.
Women’s Basketball for last fall was 15th in the country for
a high GPA. Dick reported that Women’s
Gymnastics ranks 21st in the country for a high GPA, compared to 68th
four years ago. General discussion followed.
Marlene Bryant,
Retirement Counselor and Administrative Assistant from Human Resources Services, distributed a
handout from the SURS website to each Council member
regarding service credit for unused Sick Leave and Medicare Eligibility. Bryant
explained
that when an employee retires with SURS, one’s unused sick leave is used toward service
credit. There are three types of sick leave used when one leaves NIU. 1]
Extended illness leave, part of the Family Medical Leave Act, which gives an
employee 20 days on
the year they retire if it has not been used.
2] Prior to 1997, NIU employees were earning compensable
sick days. Those are the sick leave days
that if not used when one leaves the university,
actual cash is received. While one
receives actual cash for
half of those unused sick days, the other half go toward additional service
credit. 3] From
1997 to current, employees earn non-compensable sick days. Those have no actual dollar value when one leaves
the university, but they are sent to SURS for additional
service credit. The Illinois Pension Code for SURS sick leave states that an employee can
use their unused sick days toward one year of service credit. The Pension Code chart
can be accessed at www.surs.org.
In 2003, SURS proposed a
rule that would formally establish a two-year service credit schedule for unused sick leave. This rule came before the
Joint Committee on Administrative Rules [JCAR], a
legislative committee that reviews all rules prepared by state agencies,
on November 18, 2003. JCAR unanimously
voted to oppose the proposed
rule, stating that the statute limits sick leave service credit to one
year. In response to this legislative
determination, SURS has amended the rule to conform to the JCAR objection.
For those participants
who made a retirement decision based on the two-year service credit for unused sick leave, they must send a copy of
the agreement to SURS no later than
April 22, 2004. This will not apply for
a retirement date beyond January 22, 2008.
The SURS Board of Trustees has added a law
change to its legislative priority list for 2004
that implements a two-year schedule for service credit for unused sick leave.
The state of Illinois will
decrease the amount of funding to the State University Retirement System by 13.8% in fiscal year
2005. Sale of bonds will allow the state
to make pension contributions
for the next four years and reduce the amount of money coming from the General Revenue Fund
by $215 million. The 13.8% decrease in
funding reflects a reduced
state pension liability, not a reduction in the support system.
The Federal law reads
that if you are eligible for Medicare through yourself or your spouse or former
spouse, you are required to enroll.
Medicare, Part A, is the hospitalization
part. Medicare, Part B, is the doctor’s portion and one must be enrolled. There is an
enrollment period when one turns 65 and a premium to be paid. Check the website
at www.ssa.gov to learn details. After
retirement, Medicare is primary and the other
health care plan is secondary. Bryant announced a pre-retirement seminar on March 31,
2004.
E.
EAC
Clayton reported that EAC met on January 22 and 23,
2004, at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. Five incumbents were
re-elected and EAC now has 20 members, with the addition of a new member from
the State University Retirement Systems office, Mike Sheppard. Clayton was reelected as Secretary of EAC and
will serve on the Election Committee.
EAC voted to move their October 13 & 14, 2004, meeting from
Northeastern Illinois University to Northern Illinois University. This would correspond with the Council of
Council’s meeting planned for October 15, 2004, at NIU.
SURS – in January 2004 there was a payout for
retirement of 7.5 million, while the payout the year before was around 90
million. The rate to be given to
contributors at the end of August will be 8%.
The systems office has a new Information Technology person, Bob Curry,
who has redesigned the SURS website.
The following universities are participating in the
Pilot Program: SIU-Carbondale,
Edwardsville, Illinois University, Northeastern, Northern Illinois, Eastern
Illinois, Chicago State, Governor’s State, and SUCSS. The Extra-help bill has died in the
Senate. Tom Morelock will be creating a
work-study committee to look at the extra-help rules. The next EAC meeting is scheduled for April
15 & 16, 2004, at UI – School of Medicine, Peoria.
Minutes from the Merit Board are now on the
web. The next Merit Board meeting will
be May 19, 2004.
F. UAC. No report.
G. University
Council
Koch reported on the
January and the February 2004 meetings. In the January meeting, President Peters announced that the money saved during
the Christmas shutdown was significant. Nothing was said about a recision for FY2004
or 2005. President Peters announced that the
Higher Learning Commission is visiting the campus on February 23- 25, 2004. The commission will be on campus for an
on-site evaluation in order for NIU to retain
accreditation. The Illinois Board of
Higher Education [IBHE] has the budget and the
Governor’s speech is scheduled for February 28, 2004. The federal budget has been passed
and there should be money for NIU. President Peters announced the Presidential Policy Lecture Series to begin
this spring. The Supportive Professional
Staff Council, the Operating
Staff Council, and the Faculty all received one more voting member on the University Council.
The February 22, 2004,
meeting was chaired by Dean Harold Kafer from the College of Visual and Performing Arts. President Peters and Provost Legg were in
Washington, D.C.,
meeting with the Legislature. The
Grievance Procedures draft for NIU faculty and staff
were sent to the Rules and Governance committee. The recommendation for a new grading system was also sent
to committee. Koch reported that Pat Henry
made a report for the
Faculty Advisory Council to the IBHE.
The Rules and Governance Committee recommended
three actions that the University Council approved:
1.
That the name of the President’s Commission on Sexual Orientation be
changed to the President’s Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender
Identity.
2.
That the University Benefits Committee membership be changed to add a
designee for the Director of Human Resource Services.
3.
That a Task Force be appointed to develop a procedure for students to
pursue grievances against faculty and staff.
H. Special Events Committee. No report.
VII.
Old Business
A.
Wellness Fair
Clayton distributed a sign-up sheet for each Council
member to sign indicating their preference for times and jobs for the Wellness
Fair that will be held March 24, 2004.
We will have two tables this year.
The day will run from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.
A. Council of Council’s Meeting
Andy Small announced the
meeting to be held at Northern Illinois University on October 15, 2004. The Sky
Room at Holmes Student Center has been reserved for the day. Bus Tours and
Food Service for a Continental Breakfast and lunch have already been reserved. EAC and Tom Morelock have been informed of
the date. Small would like
to see a number of speakers outline the state of education in Illinois, as well
as nationally. Small reported that there is still a lot of
work to be done; i.e., parking arrangements,
overnight accommodations, packets of information for each registered delegate about Northern Illinois University and the
Council, souvenirs, etc. Small asked Council members to
let him know where they want to work.
A motion was made to adjourn the
meeting at 11:00 a.m. Motion seconded
and passed.
Gay
Campbell
OSC
Secretary
[jeb1] I reworded Jodi’s statement. Does it make sense now?