Meeting Minutes

November 2018 Minutes

Minutes for November 2018 Monthly CAP Meeting
Thursday, November 1, 2018, 1:15 PM | 314A Illini Union

Attendees: Brent West (1), Richard Gegg (1), Amy Hovious (2), Randy Sandone (2), Leslie Vermillion (3), Andrew Reynolds (4), Micah Kenfield (4), Mindy Spencer (5), Ann Jones (5), Lisa Merrifield (6), Carl Baker (6), Chantelle Thompson (7), Betoel Escobar (7), Victoria Huart (8), Becky Ferrell (9), George Gottschalk (9), Nancy Walsh (10), John Scott (11), Jeff Stein (11)

Excused Absences: Maggie Jarvis (3), Brian Brauer (8)

  1. Call to Order
    • Meeting called to order at 1:19 PM
  2. Public Comment
    • Floor opened for public comment – no questions or comments
  3. Review and Approval Previous Month’s Minutes
    • George moves, Chantelle seconds. Approved with no dissent.
  4. Chair’s Remarks
    • Not much to report. There will be election discussion later, which Vice-Chair Ferrell will address.
  5. Announcements
    • Coursera at Illinois is a new program specifically for the Urbana-Champaign Campus Community. All of UIUC’s courses are now available on the platform for free to members of the community.
    • Dance is celebrating its 50th There will be a large display at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and other events surrounding it this month.
    • November 7th and the 8th is the IT Pro Forum, and all APs with a tech interest should attend.
  6. Committee Reports
    • CAPE Awards Committee
      1. There were 40 nominations for CAPE Awards. The committee will meet Tuesday, November 6th to whittle the total number of nominations to 20.
      2. The date for the awards has been set.
    • University Professional Personnel Advisory Committee
      1. UPPAC has not met since the last meeting; however, there is a meeting next Friday.
    • Academic Professional Senators
      1. A detailed report was submitted by one of the AP Senators and distributed to CAP Members.
    • Senate, Campus, and University Committees
      1. USSP
        1. USSP has met since the last meeting.
        2. AP Representation on additional committees is being discussed at the next meeting.
      2. No other SCUC had updates.
    • Procedures and Elections Committee
      1. We will be discussing the District 5 opening later today in closed session.
      2. District 10 and District 3 both have additional openings to be addressed
  • There are two AP Senate Committee Seats open right now – one for Education Policy, and one for Elections and Credentials.
  • Communications Committee
    1. Maggie Jarvis noted electronically before the meeting that there is no major report.
  • Ad Hoc Committee on Harassment
    1. No chair at this time.
    2. Richard Gegg can coordinate and chair until someone else wants to.
  • Grievance Officer
    1. No grievances to report.
    2. If you have not signed a confidentiality agreement yet, please be sure to do so before a closed session to discuss this.
  1. Academic Human Resources Report Senior Associate Chancellor for Human Resources
    • The Academic Professional Development Fund has had 20 requests so far, with 18 approved. No requests have been declined at this point.
    • No updates currently available on the budget.
    • HR is addressing the issues related to Civil Service positions. No new report on this; HR is working on it as much as possible. The good news is there are no new updates or changes.
    • Two more informational sessions have been scheduled.
    • Chair Hovious – have there been trends in the questions coming up at employee briefings that CAP can help spread information about?
      1. Many of the issues coming up are ones already discussed.
      2. The question of vacation time has been coming up frequently, and HR is examining if there can be changes to this policy to improve parity.
  • Sick leave is also a remaining concern.
  1. Remote workers who are out of state have concerns about their ability to continue to work out of state if they are reclassified. This is not an issue, and people will have the opportunity to keep working remotely if they are reclassified.
  2. Seniority keeps coming up, especially for positions that are considered. On the AP side of things, titling is less structured compared to Civil Service.
    1. People are concerned about inequity between the two systems, which is unfortunately something endemic to the nature of the two systems being very different.
    2. There will never be 1 for 1 equally retroactive approach to seniority. However, to go back to retroactively give employees credit for being Civil Service during times they were AP would mean they get the advantages of being an AP (e.g. being shielded from Civil Service layoffs) while still getting credit for Civil Service.
    3. This process is inherently uncomfortable, but there’s no real way to address it other than following the rules.
  3. An unanswered question remains on which issues UIUC can change address on its own, and which ones need to go through the system.
  • Is there a projected attrition rate from the reclassification?
    1. No, because technically we believe no job will be lost as a result of this. Titles may shift but the work will remain the same.
    2. People may choose to leave as a result of this, but it is not an active area of consideration for HR.
  • As HR examines the disparity between AP and CS positions, there is a great effort to highlight professional positions of both categories.
    1. There will be a celebration of professional employees of all stripes.
    2. The campaign, “The Illinois Professional,” will feature videos and other media to spotlight the successes of being an Illinois Professional.
    3. There will also be whiteboard videos explaining the myths about the changes.
  1. Unfinished Business
    • Ad Hoc Committee on Harassment Chair
      1. Richard Gegg will serve in this role in an interim capacity.
    • All Employee Expo Report
      1. Over 1,000 people came through the expo according to HR.
      2. The CAP table remained fully staffed throughout the entire time, and many people asked questions and were connected to information.
  • The only possible suggestion is looking at the display and finding ways to update it further moving forward. This should be revisited.
  1. HR, as always, is a delight to work with.
  • APDF Updates
    1. Addressed during HR updates.
  • PER Employee Briefing Recap/Discussion
    1. Chair Hovious opened the floor in case there were any other things to discuss at this time.
    2. Andy Reynolds – the only useful data point is to say that the only people asking questions are the ones who haven’t gone to a session, and the questions are all things addressed at the sessions.
  • Chantelle Thompson – these sessions are fantastic, but having recordings publicly posted for the people unable to attend would be of use.
  1. One of the skype sessions will be recorded to be posted on the website.
  • Parental Leave
    1. Currently, parental leave is two weeks long. District 7 is asking if this is comparable to other universities in the Big 10 and if it can be changed.
    2. The current parental leave policy is part of the University System benefits, available to employees with no regard to gender.
  • When this was first implemented, there was a benchmarking process and we were doing better than most peers.
  1. Other schools in the Big 10 have begun the process to review how much each school offers.
  2. When we look at examining this further, we need to ask what we’re trying to do completely. If it’s not generous enough, why are we doing that? The question is what issues we are addressing through an expansion of leave as part of a bigger picture. There are a number of areas where people are asking for more benefits, and HR is weighing this issue relative to other areas of growth.
  1. New Business
    • Guest Speaker Suggestions Discussion
      1. Tracey Parrish is current representative to the SURSMAC. He has a report from the latest meeting, and would like to present a report to CAP.
      2. Betoel Escobar has suggested we get a guest speaker for SURS Pension and Benefits. There was an eWeek announcement recently in the October 28th issue, which involved the State University Annuitants Association (SUAA). SUAA encourages people to join before they retire to help them fight for the rights.
  • At the Expo, someone suggested a session on the new Coursera offerings, along with other professional development opportunities like Lynda, BPIM, and Fast3.
  1. If there is anything else that’s relevant for CAP members to know – whether it’s announcements, or things going around in our areas, or other things of relevance – please share.
  1. Closed Session
    • Election for District 5
      1. CAP went into closed session to discuss the self-nomination(s) for District 5.
  1. Adjournment
    • George Gottschalk moved to adjourn; Chantelle Thompson seconds.


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

 

Date Location Notes and Other Events
     
November 1, 2018 314A Illini Union  
December 6, 2018 314A Illini Union  
January 3, 2019 314A Illini Union Chancellor Jones
February 7, 2019 314A Illini Union