Council of Academic Professionals
Thursday, November 2, 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), Andrew Reynolds (4), Judy Van Cleeff (4), Rick Atterberry (5), Mindy Spencer (5), Betoel Escobar (7), Tanisha King-Taylor (7), Brian Brauer (8), Chantelle Thompson (8), Becky Ferrell (9), Elizabeth Rockman (10), Nancy Walsh (10), Beth Hall (11), Jeff Stein (11), Elyne Cole (Ex Officio)
Excused Absences: Carl Baker (6), Elizabeth Wahle (6), Richard Stokes (9)
- Call to Order – Chair Jeff Stein called the meeting order at 1:37 p.m.
- Guest Speaker – Interim Provost John Wilkin
- Opening remarks – prepared to speak to preliminary questions presented to him. Academic Professionals are a significant portion of who we are as a university and wanted to address this to CAP. APs bring disciplinary expertise to the work that we do as an institution and valued.
- Questions:
- Budget – Provost’s Coffee session this morning (public session of budget reform process). Paul’s slides at the presentation will be uploaded to the Provost website in the budget section. Awareness that there will be a shift in costs (healthcare, etc.) and this is the primary motive for the budget reform process. This process has been in place for some time now, with emphasis on research on other institutions, to come up with the new budget model – for example: IU distributions (50%) to be distributed to units.
- There were a number of principles (transparency, understandability) that were laid out by a group/committee – CBATF to further define the model.
- Learned a lot around RCM (Responsibility Centered Management) to which is not going to be implemented here at the university – tends to skew things that do not allow the institution to invest in strategic initiatives broadly speaking. The core needs to be strengthened to implement the mission of the university.
- Schools/Colleges – need to hire Deans and Department Heads that are privy to the mission of the University. They need to think strategically – “not one size fits all” when it comes to teaching models and enrollments. Need to give the schools and colleges the resources they need to allow them to strategically grow. For example, Schools/Colleges do not pay for space – so to reduce costs in sensible ways.
- Non-tuition generating units (Beckman, for example) – committees are in place to review costs and rates to insure funding is being spent well.
- CAP Questions/Discussion
- Provost Communication 22 (AP Performance Reviews) – on CAP we have seen through grievances that often times performance reviews are not consistently given through time and it would be great if this important evaluation system is addressed/structured in a more modern and feasible way – online resources, etc. CAP could also be a resource to APs as needed.
- AP vs. Faculty representation within departments and units and how this is defined, along with budgets, which is typically through the UEO.
- Budget – Provost’s Coffee session this morning (public session of budget reform process). Paul’s slides at the presentation will be uploaded to the Provost website in the budget section. Awareness that there will be a shift in costs (healthcare, etc.) and this is the primary motive for the budget reform process. This process has been in place for some time now, with emphasis on research on other institutions, to come up with the new budget model – for example: IU distributions (50%) to be distributed to units.
- Public Comment – none.
- Review and Approval Previous Month’s Minutes – Spelling changes for council members and a few other minor grammatical changes submitted via email, and Elyne will review minutes due to the details of quest speaker comments – council will review and approve next meeting.
- Chair’s Remarks (Jeff Stein) – Inspirational presentation by the Chancellor over the lunch hour meeting. Chancellor touched on the strategic planning process. CAP communicated a list of 43 APs as suggestions for participation in these four focus groups (4 pillars of strategic plan) – 50 in number across the university as a whole. Provost search is on-going and hopes to have someone in place by the end of the calendar year. Faculty Senate Executive Committee (Jeff serves) met with each of the candidates so CAP had voice. New Interim Vice Chancellor for Research – Susan Martinez
- Announcements – none.
- Committee Reports:
- CAPE Awards Committee (Kristina Miller) – Deadline extended to Friday due to low number of nominations (only 11) – selection committee meets on Monday, so quick turn-around time to review eligibility. As of now, the number has been increased to 31 applications. Additionally, this year had a self-nomination to which the instructions were not explicitly clear that self-nominations are not accepted. At this point, the process itself should deselect the candidate from moving forward (as the candidate being the nominator would have to solicit their own recommendation letters). Suggestion from the public to provide a form letter to a nominee stating they have been nominated – there is a letter that goes out providing this information but not until the finalists are selected.
- University Professional Personnel Advisory Committee (UPPAC; Jeff Stein) – Next meeting is a teleconference on Monday (November 6th). Agenda includes discussion on statewide council of councils, which refers to the staff advisory council for Civil Service employees on each of the campuses – planning to have an annual meeting joining these councils, (Urbana has not ever hosted one) and due to this, Urbana will be hosting the one in 2018. The question is whether or not this will be created for APs. Deb will be present. Other agenda item is the definitions of Civil Services positions.
- AP Senators – Very brief senate meeting, resolution of support of those who would be impacted by the DACA situation.
- Senate, Campus, and University Committees
- Faculty Senate Committee Meeting (Rick Atterberry) – brief meeting with an overview of items to be discussed at the next meeting (mascot issues, etc.).
- Procedures and Elections (Rebecca Ferrell)
- Special Election – Replacement for District 3 representative, Todd Spinner, who has left CAP. Leslie Vermillion was voted as the new representative for District 3.
- Faculty Senate Committee – two seats open, district 2 and 6 need representatives. Now in the self-nomination period (running through November 8th) and election will run from November 15-21st.
- Communications (Mindy Spencer) – Official public affairs word art for CAP.
- Grievance (Tanisha King-Taylor) – No report.
- Ad Hoc Committee on Senate Representation (Jeff Stein)
- Internal committee has been meeting to discuss how to get districts 4,7,10 included in representation into the senate. Strict wording in senate bylaws that excludes these districts. Chair of committee is strongly in favor of moving forward with addressing this. There are also units that are not in any district (CI COM, etc.). The committee drafted a proposal, which outlines current capacity and then a proposed district layout, with a section addressing the missing districts and the shifting of specific units. CAP to review the document and comment at next meeting. Next step would be a proposal to the senate to recommend the changes to the constitution. Jeff would like to involve the chair of SEC for review also – could be as early as the December meeting (2 weeks to write and submit the document). The proposal will also go to USSP for review.
- AHR Report (Elyne Cole):
- Professional Development Fund update – no new news as discussions continue to address the funding status and future status.
- Continuing to discuss exemption issue within the civil service system and pursuing a better definition on what an exemption means. Elyne believes there still needs to be much discussion towards a resolution, which is because this is a large group of employees – includes all employees not faculty, civil service, or students. There is much disagreement on what an exempted position means or should be defined as. There is no deadline currently.
- Question about the SURS buyout and timeframe.
- Conversation occurring about the projection of the change in interest rate on the money purchased. In 2014, employees close to retiring were encouraged to look to see if there would be a benefit to retiring due to the change and how this would be an impact. This is what Elyne believes to be occurring, but a buyout is a different story. The actuarial table is changing.
- Question about GEO negotiations – unfortunately cannot discuss at CAP. Elyne to provide additional information and can contact her office as well.
- Question about the SURS buyout and timeframe.
- Unfinished Business – None.
- New Business – Discussion about the idea of sharing best practices amongst APs across campus and how CAP can facilitate and provide for this, which includes CAP sponsored brown-bag lunches, in response to questions from units. Coordinated perhaps once a month with very open questions – goal is to get APs together to network and learn best practices.
- Closed Session (called if required) –
- Adjourned – 3:45 p.m.