January 2018 Minutes

Council of Academic Professionals

Thursday, January 4, 2018, 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), Leslie Vermillion (3), Andrew Reynolds (4), Judy Van Cleeff (4), Rick Atterberry (5), Mindy Spencer (5), Carle Baker (6), Elizabeth Wahle (6), Betoel Escobar (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: Tanisha King-Tayler (7)

 

  1. Call to Order – Chair Jeff Stein called the meeting order at 1:16 p.m.

 

  1. Public Comment – none.

 

  1. Review and Approval Previous Month’s Minutes – Approved as amended by consensus.

 

  1. Chair’s Remarks (Jeff Stein) – AP Senate Representation proposal – will call this to question for approval in the unfinished business section of the meeting. Jeff will keep Wendy Harris updated, as she is our AP representative on this committee.  First senate meeting will occur early February.
    1. Jeff will work on coordinating our upcoming schedule – Provost visit and also visitor from ODEA to speak on sexual harassment issues.

 

  1. Announcements
    1. Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day overview from a law enforcement perspective, please email Brian if interested.
    2. IEMS (Illini Emergency Medical Services) student group is offering CPR Training (drive by), please also email Brian if interested in this opportunity as well. There is no charge for the drive by CPR, but there is a one hour course for $10 per person.
      1. CAP decided to have a drive by CPR training at 12:45 p.m. just before the next CAP meeting in February.

 

  1. Committee Reports:
    1. CAPE Awards Committee (Kristina Miller)
      1. Nominators have until 1/9 to submit 3 letters of support for the semifinalists.
    2. University Professional Personnel Advisory Committee (UPPAC; Jeff Stein)
      1. Addressed the Professional Development Leadership Program to which there are no new updates – currently in proposal phase. Jeff will work with Elyne offline to see if anything is needed from CAP to assist with this process.
    3. Academic Professional Senators
      1. Rick Atterberry – another short meeting, house cleaning on some of the statutes and progress will pick up as the semester begins.
    4. Senate, Campus, and University Committees
      1. Webmasters Committee (Chantelle Thompson) – webcon registration opened this month.
    5. Procedures and Elections (Rebecca Ferrell)
      1. Vacancy in District 9, which will be voted on at next month’s CAP meeting.
      2. General Election Cycle – this process will begin in mid-February and review of the process at next month’s meetings.
    6. Communications Committee (Mindy Spencer)
      1. Need to appoint a new chair – nomination for Amy to serve as chair, CAP voted and Amy was elected as the new chair of the committee.
    7. Grievance (Tanisha King-Taylor) – No report (via email)
    8. Ad Hoc Committee on Senate Representation (Jeff Stein)
      1. Votes on expansion of Senate Committee representation in unfinished business.
      2. Redistricting (Amy) – encompassed new units that had not yet been assigned and also moving forward the proposed changes to current districts. Need to define a formal process as how to move forward in getting the proposal submitted and executed.
        1. Recommendation that a formal communication be sent to APs to be both transparent and proactive about any changes that occurred with the redistricting – will work on a communications plan, including updates on the website and a message out to all APs (e-week, direct communication to all APs, etc.)
        2. A discussion also occurred on record keeping for CAP – box accounts need to be organized and permissions set appropriately. SharePoint was also mentioned to be utilized for this purpose.  Rebecca, Rich, and Jenny have been asked to organize access and come up with a hierarchy of permissions.
      3. Ad Hoc Committee on Gender-based Harassment (Mindy Spencer)
        1. Doodle poll to be sent to the group that had volunteered to be on the committee. Elyne has a meeting with ODEA and will enquire on representation for this committee.
        2. Comment that CAM policy was not clear on wording/verbiage relating to sexual harassment or what the official terminology/definition is that is being referred to. CAP will review and decide if we should take action to suggest revisions.

 

  1. AHR Report (Elyne Cole):
    1. Budget – still status quo (nothing new to report), departments are working on plans across campus
    2. Civil Serve exemption issues are still occurring, conversations are continuing, and the next meeting is scheduled for next Friday with HR directors across the state. The university is not on board with a rule change, and the state wants to have more control on what is defined as an exempt position and what is not.  The process for this needs to be better defined.  Our university reps on the merit board are strong, which is a positive for us.  Merit Board members: Jill Smart (university trustee member), Stuart King (also university trustee member), and James Montgomery.
      1. It was asked if there was any support or assistance that CAP could provide in this process, and unfortunately there is not a good answer for this. The positive is that our merit board members are knowledgeable and informed.
    3. Follow-up to the Chancellor’s last presentation – CAP discussed coming up with a list of brainstormed HR areas of improvement, and the Chancellor seemed very much on board with this notion and was interested in an update. Elyne requested the formation of a committee to address this (best practices related to HR).
    4. Academic Professional Development Fund – still under discussion (the issue of the sourcing of the funds). Discussion on centralizing funds vs. distribution through block grant funding.  Elyne will ask, “Why not now” and report back to CAP at next meeting.

 

  1. Unfinished Business
    1. Proposed language to revise the constitution to add 3 AP senate seats
      1. Deb – suggested making more generic updates (as units are likely to grow in the future, units as defined by CAP), request to remove “prairie” and add an “s” to “institute” (to generalize to research institutes). CAP voted to approve these changes.
      2. Motion to adopt the proposal as amended – motion carried out by CAP by vote.
    2. Redistricting Plan
      1. The new Siebel Design Center – need to add this unit, as individuals are being hired (this needs to be addressed as to whether this should be added now or revisited in the future once the center becomes more defined).
      2. Motion to approve the plan – motion carried out by CAP by vote.

 

  1. New Business – Discussion on visits to our CAP meeting schedule – ODEA (Feb), president (March), chancellor (April), OVCIA (May), election of new officers (June), provost (July)

 

  1. Closed Session (called if required) –

 

  1. Adjourned – 3:15 p.m.