STAFF ASSEMBLY EXECUTIVE COUNCILMINUTES

April 17, 2002 12:00 – 1:00p.m.

Crosby MultipurposeRoom

Members Present: NevaBishop, Anne Thomas, Krystal Burns, Bill Kostelec, Janice Resch,Theresa Castillo, Kim Gieber, Brett Hendricks and LisaSmythe-Rodino from the Compensation Committee

Members Absent: KeithGauthier, Barbara Kolbet and Molly Spilker

The meeting called to order by President BillKostelec at 12:08

Minutes from 4/3/02 approved as written

Minutes from 4/10/02 approved as amended

Business

Mike Casey reported to Bill Kostelec on his resultsfrom taking the list of suggestions to the cabinet.

·       Mandatory Manager training was approved.  HR will administer theprogram at a price of $15000.00.  HR is partnering withanother area school in this effort.

·       President’s Lottery of $100.00 gift each monthwas approved.  StaffAssembly Executive Council will administer.

·       Anniversary Card and thank you gift certificatewill be sent to each staff member on each anniversary.  HR will administer.  The day off that wasrequested, as a part of this package was not approved.

·       Community picnic was approved.  All campus staff, facultyand administers and their families will be included.  Staff Assembly toadminister.

Bill met with a UR representative and wasasked to encourage all staff to attend the Why Gonzaga?kickoff.

Review of open meeting with Chuck Murphy – Q& A follows

Summary ofQ & A Session with Chuck Murphy

OpenMeeting of the Staff Assembly

April 4,2002

Bill Kostelec, President of the StaffAssembly, opened the meeting. 

Upcoming elections – Bill made call to serveour fellow employees and the need for new faces and newperspectives to sit as elected representatives, while continuing tomove forward in our relationship with theAdministration.

Question – Is a mechanismin place to measure the mood or morale of the staff?

Answer –It is coming with the accreditation process.  The Staff Assembly isputting a small survey in with the ballots that will be mailed outin the near future. This survey will help us pinpoint issues for the incoming StaffAssembly to pursue. The information will also be used to help write the StaffSatisfaction Survey that is a requirement of the upcomingaccreditation process. Several members of the Staff Assembly and its CompensationCommittee are helping Thayne McCulloh to write this requiredsurvey.  Once in place,it will recur on an annual basis.  The last survey results arestill used by our Compensation Committee when they makerecommendations to Human Resources regarding our Benefits.  The results were also usedto justify a proposal to Father Spizter for more time off lastChristmas.  HumanResources and the Staff Assembly Executive Council are currentlyworking a list of moral boosting suggestions approved by FatherSpizter, based again on the information from the lastsurvey.

Question– Has the Staff Assembly considered using the website to poll thestaff?

Answer –Yes.  However, thestaff of GU seem to respond better to paper, than to any otherforms of communication.

The web address of the Staff Assemblyis www.gonzaga.edu/staff

Debbie Cerenzia, Benefits, was in theaudience and the other attendees asked a few questions of herbefore the open session officially began.  Following is a recap of theinformation she provided.

·       Alternative medicine is included in the June 1plan.  Cost -approximately $2.00/family.  Cap - $2000.00

·       Adding eyewear – No, take to the Staff AssemblyCompensation and Benefits committee for consideration in futureyears.

·       Contraceptives – available through Group Health– since it is an HMO it is regulated differently than the MSCmanaged self-funded program.  The board is consideringwhether to add it to MSC.

·       The rates for FY02 benefits are not yetavailable.  However,Group Health is supposed to have a substantial increase and theincrease for MSC is only to bring us more in line with our claimsexperience.

Question – How can adepartment fund big items like furniture and computers if budgetsonly fund basic needs like paper, pens and postage?  Even if we end the yearwith some funds remaining, they are lost on 6/1 and we cannot buildon them from year to year.

Answer

·       Try to save dollars within the departmentaloperating budget

·       More money has been allocated for capital itemsin the next fiscal year (03)

·       Encourage departments to come up with creativeideas regarding funding

·       Don’t turn down creative fundingideas

·       For the upcoming fiscal year VP’s were askedfor a prioritized list of items for the departments under them,most of the capital items that were considered top priority by theVP of that area, were approved

Question – Why does GUonly pay from the low end of the salary scale to themid-point?  Why is thatGU employees are only considered to be worth the mid-range and notany more?

Answer

·       Salaries are based on surveys from otherschools and local markets – mid-point of the range is considered tobe average wage for that position

·       The Executive Budget Committee is looking atways to pay beyond the average based on performance

·       Need to figure out how to fairly rewardperformance, also need to consider longevity, but only as afactor

·       The problem is how to identify those thatdeserve additional pay

AudienceComment and Question – Need to take a look at the entire paysystem, Human Resources has been making this same suggestion forquite some time now. An outside consult worked well for Admissions, why not forCompensation.

Answer –Does not really like the idea of a consultant, the system by whichwe pay employees is not a bad system, we just need to be able toidentify those who performs above and beyond.

Question – If a raise camedue last fiscal year but was deferred in part or in full until thisupcoming fiscal year, will the employee receive, retroactively, themoney that they are owed?  If not, why?

Answer

·       Perhaps this occurred because last year for thefirst time there was a cap of 10% on equity adjustments

·       no cap in place for FY03

·       No – retroactive raise doesn’t work becauseequity and salary are fluid and change from one FY to thenext

Against current policy

Question –For two years in a row we havehad a bumper crop of freshman and good retention and have been toldthat the projected budget is realistic and everything is fine.  So, why has the AVP’soffice been approaching various schools requesting they come upwith money to give back?  This request comes EVERYSpring Semester, why? Doesn’t your office know how to establish a workable budget… onethat does not fall short EVERY Spring?

Answer

·       Several things can make this happen…

·       A VP may need to reallocate money withinhis/her area of responsibility, for example if one department has asurplus and another has a deficit, the VP may move money from onebudget to another to make things balance

·       More new requests than new money

·       Need more information to fully answer thequestion

Question – What are thepriorities for setting a budget?

Answer

1.    Cost of Sales items – cost of goods sold has tobe covered

·       Financial Aid

·       Bookstore

·       Sodexho

2.    Fixed costs

·       Utilities

·       Telephone

·       Postage

3.    New Operating Expenses – need to maintain newfacilities

4.    New Positions

(Items one through four were described as itemswithout much leeway – the Executive Budget Committee sees them asitems that must be funded.)

5.    Salary survey adjustments and Benefitsadjustments

6.    VP Prioritized list of new items, the majorityof which are capital items

7.    Qualitative items (It would be nice is we hada….)

Question –What processes are in place forspecial funding?  Howdoes GU prioritize funding?  What are the top fiveconsiderations? Why?

Answer

Requested a clarification of specialfunding

Clarification – When alldepartments within a certain area have been told that no moneyexists for capital expenditures, then suddenly an office isremodeled or gets new furniture or computers.  Alternatively, whensuddenly a new position is created, funded and filled.

·       VPs/Schools/Dean/Department Heads havediscretion within their own budgets

·       All new positions go through the ExecutiveBudget Council which consists of:  Father Spitzer, ChuckMurphy, Wayne Powell, Mike Casey, Rick Jones and SteveCarrozzo

·       Always fund emergencies and try to fund highestpriority items

Considerations

1.    Funding within VP area

2.    Quality – will it improve what wedo?

3.    Does it fit withinstitutional/departmental/school goals?

4.    Need and length of time the need has goneunfilled

5.    Growth

Question – To easeworkload and increase pay, has GU considered moving employees backto a 40-hour workweek?

Answer

·       No, except in Plant Services, no requests forthis have been made. When Plant Services has made the request and documented the need,funding has been made available, and the employees have been movedto 40 hours.

·       This could happen with other departments ifthey made the requests, but no push will be made to move everyoneback to a 40 hour work week

Question – What are thebenefits to budgeting based on a lower number of students thanactually attend?  Thistype of budgeting creates a surplus.  Where does itgo?

Answer

·       We budget conservatively in case one area such asgraduate school, law or under grad fails to hit its projectedattendance goal

·       It would not be wise to budget based on actualAdmissions goals.  Ifyou fall short, you would start the academic year asking for moneyback.

·       Surplus first goes to shortages in any areasuch as grad/law/UG

·       Surplus covers increased expenses such asunusual utilities increase

·       Surplus covers debtretirement/depreciation

Question –For the past couple of years GUhas made it a high priority to hire more Faculty to teach theincreasing number of students.  Are there plans to increasethe number of staff to help with the increasedworkload?

Answer

·       New staff positions have to be requested by theVP over a specific area

·       The request needs to flow up from thesupervisor/director of an area all the way up to the VPlevel

·       Need to be more creative in finding ways to getthe job done

·       To get new positions, you need to proveworkload – documentation starts the process

Question –65% of the budget goes tosalaries.  Where is theother 35% spent?  Isthis 65% consistent with other schools oursize?

Answer

·       Utilities

·       Capital Expenditures

·       Debt Service

·       All operating expenses

·       Tuition waivers for employees, dependents andRA’s and RD’s

·       Hard to compare us to other schools unless allfactors are the same

·       For example is another school outsources someservices such as custodial and maintenance, then this cost wouldnot show as salaries, it would show as expense

·       Food service – does the school we are comparingto have internal or outsourced food service?

·       What type of school is it?

·       Are the employees unionized at the otherschool?

Question – Why withincreased workloads and a budget surplus are we only getting a 2%increase?

Answer

·       Fully funding equity at a much higher rate thisyear than last

·       FY 02 – equity raises were$783,00.00

·       FY 03 – equity raises will be$1,200,00.00

·       Renovations take up available money

·       Utilities continue to rise from $1.4 million in99-00 to $2.8 in 02-03

·       The average equity increase will be5.2%

·       Only 15% of non-faculty will be getting thebase raise of 2%, the rest will be getting an equity raise thisyear

Note

In mid-February, a list of questions was forward toChuck Murphy and Steve Doolittle for answers that could bedistributed at this open meeting. No answers to the questions wereprovided.  Thesequestions are based on the information that was provided in theinformational meetings that Father Spitzer and Chuck Murphy held inNovember.  This list ofquestions appears below.

1.    Exactly how was the Average Percentage Increaseby Classification (APIC) derived?

2.    What was the standard deviation for the APICdata?

3.    What were the median and mode for the raw APICdata?

4.    Please provide a histogram of the raw APICdata?

5.    For each year, how many persons were in eachclassification?

6.    Please break our average, median and mode foreach year for the Administrative, Professional, and StaffClassifications in the following way:

         1.    Employees with 5 or fewer years ofemployment.

             a.     Employees with a job reclassification orpromotion

b.    Employees without a job reclassification orpromotion

2.    Employees with 5 or greater years ofemployment.

a.     Employees with a  job reclassification orpromotion

b.    Employees without a job reclassification orpromotion

7.    Please break out average, median and mode foreach year for the Plant Services Classification in the followingway:

            1.    Separate the data into each time slice forpayroll (SOMEBODY IN PLANT SERVICES NEEDS TO PROVIDE THISINFO)

8.     A pie chart showing what percentage of thetotal salary increase was given to each Classification (Faculty,Administrative, Professional, and Staff, and PlantServices).

Question -The following question was added to the bottomof the sheet, and the questions were distributed in the openmeeting.  BOTTOM LINE – Where didthe averages for salary increases come from that are on the handoutthat was distributed in the November meetings with Chuck Murphy andFather Spitzer?

Answer

·       Is it necessary to expend the time andresources to gather the data?  We have a policy and we payby it.

Question – At this pointBrett Hendricks helped to clarify the need to have theinformation.  While thespreadsheet that we were asking questions about stated an averageincrease much higher that the usual 2% and since it didn’t seemlike that was a real reflection of the pay increase that staff haveexperienced, we wanted to know how the numbers were derived. 

Answer

·       Example – If you have a pool of salary dollarsfor existing employees that is $20,000,000.00 and the salaryadjustments equal $1,000,000.00 then you have a total averageincrease of 5%.  Notevery employee in the given pool received a 5% increase.

Question – Most employeesrealize a good increase in pay over the first five years ofemployment at GU, but then increases are small, often times noteven keeping up with the cost of benefits.  So, some years someemployees go backward in take home pay and this is notjust.

Answer

·       No, it is not fair.  Nevertheless, we are payingby policy. 

·       Chuck expressed hope that this is an aberrationand frustration that is does happen with our current paysystem.

Question – Contrary towhat you said earlier about the consultant, doesn’t that imply theneed for an outside consultant?

Answer –At this point Chuck reiterated that he thinks the only part of ourpay system that needs revision is that we need to find a way toreward our best performers. 

Question – Washington is ahire at will state. Doesn’t the fact that an employee has been here for a number ofyears, like 15 or 20, tell you that the employee is a goodworker?  If not, whyare they still employed here?

Answer –Longevity would be a consideration, but any pay system that awardedfor merit would have to be based primarily on performance, notlength of service. 

Scheduling of future meetings

Next Meeting will be held on April 24,2002.

Future meetings will be held each Wednesday in CrosbyLarge Conference Room from 12:00 – 1:00.  Since this is the lunchhour, please feel free to bring your lunch.  All SAEC members will benotified if there is a change to this recurring meeting.

By virtue of the bylaws, all StaffAssembly meetings are open unless otherwise designated by theExecutive Council. Everyone is welcome to attend.

http://www.gonzaga.edu/staff        email: staff-assembly@gonzaga.edu