August 2018 Minutes

Minutes for August 2018 Monthly CAP Meeting

Thursday, August 2, 2018, 1:15 PM | 314A Illini Union

 

Attendees: Richard Gegg (1), Brent West (1), Amy Hovious (2), Randall Sandone (2), Leslie Vermillion (3), Andrew Reynolds (4), Micah Kenfield (4), Ann Jones (5), Mindy Spencer (5), Lisa Merrifield (6), Betoel Escobar (7), Victoria Huart (8), Brian Brauer (8), George Gottschalk (9), Sol Roberts-Lieb (10), Nancy Walsh (10), John Scott (11), Jeff Stein (11)

 

Excused Absences: Maggie Jarvis (3), Carl Baker (6), Chantelle Thompson (7), Rebecca Ferrell (9)

  1. Call to Order
    • Meeting called to order at 1:16 PM
  2. Public Comment
    • No public comments.
  3. Review and Approval Previous Month’s Minutes
    • Jeff Stein moved to approve. Sol seconds. Approved with no dissent.
  4. Chair’s Remarks
    • Began by extending appreciation to Rusty Barcelo for their dynamic presentation and Q&A at the previous meeting.
    • A new District Five rep has joined the council
      1. Ann Jones, assistant to the head in Curriculum and Instruction.
    • We need to sign a new confidentiality agreement, but they will be released after this meeting.
      1. CAP members will be able to sign electronically.
      2. There are some minor wording issues to be revised from the current version released in 2008.
  • Carl has volunteered to support All Employee Expo and table, thanks. October 18
  1. Announcements
    • No announcements.
  2. Committee Reports
    • CAPE Awards Committee
      1. No report; process has not yet begun for the following year.
    • University Professional Personnel Advisory Committee
      1. Amy met with Tracy, the exiting chair, and discussed transition items as Amy enters as the new chair. Nothing else to report.
    • Academic Professional Senators
      1. Senate is not in session so there’s no update
    • Senate, Campus, and University Committees
      1. No report.
    • Procedures and Elections Committee
      1. Becky is out, but all elections are completed and there’s nothing else to report.
    • Communications Committee
      1. Mindy brought a signup sheet to the Communication Committee last time. If you missed out on joining last year, signup sheet was brought again. Several initiatives pending getting full.
      2. In the past, we’ve asked that district reps send out emails to their district. While some districts have had success, others have had some challenges reaching people. Are there preferences toward a single mass email versus district-specific ones?
        1. Betoel – we’ve alternated back and forth but we tend to trend toward one giant email.
        2. Mindy – It sounds like in general people tend toward a single email.
        3. George – it also makes it more clear the difference between things sent out as an individual versus things sent out on behalf of CAP
        4. Mindy – if people are comfortable with a single newsletter, the Communications Committee will begin to discuss options and send out surveys to CAP at large to gauge ideas
        5. Sol – We can also always send things out as needed on a district by district level.
  • Grievance Officer
    1. No report at this time.
  • Ad Hoc Committee on Harassment
    1. Mindy – we’re still considering issues regarding grievances, and have a number of questions that have not yet been answered. The ad hoc committee will follow up again directly for responses and complete the report
    2. With grievances, is there anything that outlines if you’re being bullied/sexually harassed and the normal channels aren’t sufficient? What are the rules on what constitutes a grievance?
      1. Jeff – the grievable matter must be a violation of university policy (e.g. CAM, Code of Conduct, and so on) and procedure (e.g. potentially unit-specific rules and guidelines).
      2. Betoel – we discussed in the past on what we include in the list of what is and isn’t harassment/bullying.
      3. Mindy – We’ve been discussing both the University-level approach as well as how divisions and departments handle things.
  • We are close to having a final report ready to go.
  1. George – what can non-CAP employees serve on? Amy – any CAP committee, including this one.
  1. Academic Human Resources Report Deb Stone, Human Resources
    • Begin by introducing Nicole Hemming, the Assistant Director for Labor and Employee Relations. She’ll be the new liaison for the grievance process.
    • The Confidentiality Agreement for CAP is still in development and won’t be addressed at this time.
    • $750 has been funded for the AP Development Fund with 2-3 remaining requests remaining.
    • AP Exemption Change has taken significant time to operationalize these changes, which go in effect October 1. We’ve been meeting with deans and major administrators to work on specifics, and in the next few weeks we’ll begin to have specific meetings with unit HR regarding the way process works for them. September and early October information sessions for employees at large are also on deck.
    • Civil Service System staff may push for the biennial audit of positions to move out until the beginning of 2019. We know definitively that it will be after January 2019.
    • Questions about compensable sick leave – what will change when APs change to Civil Service?
      1. For people who earned this while it was an option, people will retain it.
      2. There is a difference for the non-compensable sick leave, and we are looking at options on if we can standardize it between areas and, if so, who makes the decision to change it (e.g. University vs System). First, AHR is looking for their recommendation, then how things change.
    • Changes made effective October 1st involve filling a new position, a vacancy, or a change to an existing position. The Audit will be the trigger for what changes for existing unchanged positions.
    • On a biennial basis, all HR processes (including exemption process) are reviewed. The triennial audit is a full review of all AP and Civil Service positions, which will lead to significantly more effort than years past to review all position in terms of the new criteria. We don’t yet have the exact processes to review all 4,000 positions but we’ll be communicating that to campus once we figure it out.
    • “What exactly goes into effect October 1st
      1. There’s an IL State Law that says that all state university positions are to be Civil Service unless exempted from that statute (including exemptions for students, faculty, research and extension, the President, and ‘other principal administrative positions’).
      2. What constitutes exemptions under that clause has changed, which is what goes into effect October 1st. In the past we’ve had standard titles we could use for exemption. This has been removed, and now all positions need to be reviewed by the new criteria individually.
    • “Can you explain what’s happening to seniority?”
      1. The quick and dirty is seniority comes into play when bumping positions.
      2. Seniority is currently based on civil service classifications. HR will try to have experts on hand to discuss this at the September meeting.
    • Mindy: “At the last meeting, we discussed if there was something similar for the AP development fund, and that there are no Civil Service seats on Faculty Senate. Would it make sense to invite someone from Staff Advisory Council to come to this meeting as well?”
      1. Things are a little different with SAC – they’re smaller, non-public meetings. There’s also the Employee Advisory Committee, which is a SUCSS committee and works a little differently.
      2. Jeff – “A past chair of SAC seemed interested and amenable.”
  • Elyne meets with SAC in the same way she does here, and she’s a good common denominator on how to approach the new model.
  • “A question has come up in our unit on how to figure out how many people on campus have a position similar to mine?”
    1. Any position that has to be converted will be converted to another classification that has to be the best classification for that position. It depends on the specific duties of the job, and will be reviewed thoroughly
    2. Many broad exempt titles will see many incumbents converted to civil service, but this doesn’t mean everyone with that a specific title will be changed.
  • Positions will only be converted as they come up in the audit. There will be time when people will occupy similar if not identical jobs but some will be AP and others Civil Service.
  • A new Jobs Board is now online. Group consensus was that it looks very nice.
  1. Unfinished Business
    • Confidentiality Agreement
      1. No update as discussed above.
  1. New Business
    • No new business.
  2. Closed Session
    • No closed session.
  3. Adjournment
    • Sol moved to adjourn, George seconded, meeting adjourned at 1:59 PM.

 

Dates and Locations of CAP Monthly Meetings and CAP-Sponsored Events

 

Date Location Notes and Other Events
August 2, 2018 314A Illini Union
September 6, 2018 314A Illini Union
October 4, 2018 314A Illini Union
November 1, 2018 314A Illini Union
December 6, 2018 314A Illini Union
January 3, 2019 314A Illini Union