Meeting Minutes

August 2017 Minutes

Council of Academic Professionals

Thursday, August 3, 2017, Illini Union 314A

Meeting Minutes submitted by Jenny Ehrnthaller, Secretary

 

Attendees: Richard Gegg (1), Kristina Miller (1), Jenny Ehrnthaller (2), Amy Hovious (2), Maggie Jarvis (3), Todd Spinner (3), Rick Atterberry (5), Carl Baker (6), Elizabeth Wahle (6), Betal Escobar (7),   Brian Brauer (8), Chantelle Thompson (8), Becky Ferrell (9), Richard Stokes (9), Elizabeth Rockman (10), Nancy Walsh (10), Jeff Stein (11), Elyne Cole (Ex Officio)

 

Excused Absences: Beth Hall (11), Tanisha King-Taylor (7), Mindy Spencer (5), Andrew Reynolds (4)

 

  1. Call to Order – Chair Jeff Stein called the meeting order at 1:17 PM.

 

  1. Public Comment – 2 visitors; no comments.

 

  1. Review and Approval Previous Month’s Minutes – No corrections to minutes, passed by consensus.

 

  1. Chair’s Remarks (Jeff Stein) – Campus now has a budget and also implemented a salary program for this year, which is positive news. Jessica Beaudoin is resigning her seat due to a new position in her career (we wish her the best). CAP will need to move forward with nominations for her replacement (district 4). The annual report and revision to the bylaws were completed and transmitted for review and accepted by the chancellor’s office, and the website has been updated with the new version of the bylaws.

 

  1. Announcements – Fire Service Institute is working to add defibrillators to locations around campus, so please reach out to Brian Brauer if you are interested in having one in your buildings.

 

  1. Committee Reports:
    1. CAPE Awards Committee (Kristina Miller) – The list of volunteers to serve on selection committee is in progress. An e-week reminder will go out on Sunday, and Jeff will send another email reminder on the week of the 14th. If any district is below 2-3 people, Kristina would request an email to be sent by the district representative to the district (the email template will be provided by Kristina). Question: can volunteers be CAP members? CAP discussed that these are opportunities to engage AP members outside of the council, but if not enough volunteers, it was determined that CAP members can serve.
    2. University Professional Personnel Advisory Committee (UPPAC; Jeff Stein) – nothing to report since the June meeting was at the President’s house (no additional activities).
    3. AP Senators – There was no senate meeting this summer (the calendar is available online so anyone can view to see when these begin).
    4. Senate, Campus, and University Committees– No report.
    5. Procedures and Elections (Brian Brauer)
      1. Faculty Senate Committee Elections – During the vote, it was discovered that there were issues with eligibility, so there will be a revote through an online ballot within the next week for CAP members to complete and submit.
    6. Communications (Richard Stokes) –
    7. Grievance (Tanisha King-Taylor) – No activity and no need for a closed session.
    8. Ad Hoc Committee on Senate Representation (Jeff Stein) – The committee met on July 12th to focus on scoping out the work of the group with respect to representation of AP members on the faculty senate (currently 7 seats on the committee). CAP would like to see better representation either for more seats or a seat that represents a larger group of APs from a district.  This leads into the notion of redistricting to where potential districts to be represented are equal in size. It was agreed to make informal conversations with faculty members on the senate to engage discussions and get their feedback in this manner. Jeff is looking into targets and wants to approach this in a fair manner (there are certain units on campus that are non-starters and which could turn into a negotiation type process during discussions). Jeff will report back as more progress is made – the committee plans to write a report of recommended next steps, CAP would then review and approve this report. The suggested timeline is as follows: the conversation with senate leadership will take place about ½ way through academic year, and then the rest of the year would be utilized to implement the new policy, and update bylaws. There was a comment about re-asking and not confirming, and the response was that initial conversations are designed to alert the senate that CAP is working to pursue this (and give them a heads up as to not alarm them). There was a concern of pace – not trying to delay the process but with the understanding that it might take some time to implement the process correctly and respectfully with the senate

 

  1. AHR Report (Elyne Cole):
    1. The budget was passed, which is great news.
    2. AP Professional Development Fund – there was a request sent to the Provost Office for any consideration for a revist of these funds (opening for a discussion), but there were no responses as of date.
    3. Elyne was also asked to schedule meetings with a list of invited guests (Chancellor, etc.) waiting on confirmation of these dates.
    4. Benefits updates – with the budget bill that was placed, there is a new SURS bill that will need to be passed for a Tier 3 program update, which will be 2018 or 2019 before it comes available. When this happens, anyone who is in Tier 2 will be able to switch into Tier 3, which is more of a “combination” approach.
    5. Salary Program – all individuals are eligible (not those who were hired past a certain date, or received promotions who were ineligible in the past). There were comments from CAP representatives that APs in their districts are very appreciative of the increase.

 

  1. Unfinished Business – None.

 

  1. New Business – None.

 

  1. Closed Session (called if required) –

 

  1. Adjourned – 1:58 p.m. Approved (Richard Gegg), Second (Kristina Miller).