Meeting Minutes - October 18, 2006s
Senators present: Michael Artiaga, Linda Berlin, Kay Delk, Susan Dooley, Barbara Entwistle, Mayra Eschbach, Dan Gilmartin, Greg Garrison, Roger Bennett (proxy for Mike Griffin), Barbara Hunnicutt, Sue Kellicut, Alan Kraft, Barbara Lott, Ginger Magarine, Lee McCain, Jenny Middleton, Janet Selitto, Jay Spalding, Laurel Stevenson, Pat Tanzi.
Guests present: Christine Broeker, Faculty Institute; Crystal Clift, Security; Chrishawn Speller, English.
The meeting was called to order by Dan Gilmartin at 3:30 p.m.
The minutes from September were approved with corrections.
Guests: Dick Hamann and Les Lusk came to talk about TIM.
The reasons for the implementation of TIM were discussed. These include the addition of two campus sites, with the inability to replicate all services at all sites. Secondly, there is a need for an audit trail (mandated by auditors) for print shop orders. Additionally, cost center chairs wanted access to budget reports on print shop usage.
The main complaint about TIM so far has been department chairs having to approve all these reports. Dick Hamann said that chairs can give proxies to faculty members of their choice for approval, and can even put a dollar limit per job on the proxy. That decision is up to the cost center chair.
A faculty member said that she had not checked the correct number of pages in the document - five instead of six - and the job stopped. There is a need for human input to change that. Dick said that he would talk to Ed Langolf about that process in the print shop - faculty member must be notified.
Les said that there are many misconceptions about TIM. He has e-mailed the cost approvers and met with many one on one. One is the misconception that for educational materials I have to go through one by one and approve things. It's one screen, everything on it, approve all. Takes about 30 seconds. Chairs can have a secretary do it.
A faculty member questioned the timing of TIM's implementation: "Flier received on Wednesday, on Thursday it went into effect, and that was the first time I heard about it. So first thing Friday, I suddenly had new things to learn."
Dick said, "We did send a stream of communication over three months. It was out there. I agree with you about communication, but we tried - we went to the deans, the VPs, the Seminole State news, sent e-mails, printed it, for three months. We talked to faculty, we talked to staff, for a year and a half we've been working on this project. As much work as we tried to get the word out, not everybody got it."
Dan Gilmartin said, "One of the things that I've noticed is that we don't really read the Seminole State news. You have to. It's the only way to know what is going on."
A faculty member said that she had read the Seminole State news and e-mails and was in the process of contacting adjunct instructors regarding TIM. She asked whether the forms that had been used for the print shop were now obsolete. The answer was yes. She also asked for a campus wide orientation including adjuncts for training.
Les said, "If you give us times when it would be convenient, we can do training sessions. We had one at Oviedo last Monday where six people showed up. I conducted the training on this. I tested 25 people from all over the campus over a course of six weeks. Every single one of them, one of the last questions I asked was "how much training" and would you attend it. Out of 25 people, none said training was needed and none said they would come if it were offered, because it was so easy."
It was added that in the last week, 61 orders were printed by the print shop without waiting for approval to ensure that tests would be completed in a timely fashion.
A faculty member said that though the TIM system gives a place for a priority date, it does not give a place for the time needed. Dick said that would be added if it is needed. Les agreed that would be in by the end of the week.
Les said that regarding putting the wrong number of pages on the order, that if you say six pages and it's nine pages, that means four pages they don't get paid unless that gets fixed in the system. If it's 30 copies of nine pages it changes the order enough that it might not get approved. We have made changes in this system every day for the last six months. Today I met with the principals of every section of this system. One of the things Ed Langolf from the print shop dealt with was that people were printing things more expensively than they needed to be cause they were picking options they didn't need or never had before. We had someone printing full color for black and white copies, which drove the price up. Now there is a way for the print shop to change the mistakes you made. As long as the price goes down, they don't need approval. If it goes up, then there is a problem.
Dick and Les asked that feedback continue to be given to them.
President's report
Blue and Gold circle
Dan is co-chair of the Blue and Gold circle, which is replacing 4Runner as a donation vehicle to the Foundation. Dan said, it's a good thing, it helps people, and they really need a lot of faculty participating, even if not at the highest donation level. That makes our numbers look good donors on the outside. Deadline for payroll deduction is the end of the month - October 31.
Travel, mileage reimbursement
Dan said that he was not getting much feedback on this, though he did hear of an instance where a person in arts and sciences didn't think they were going to get paid on a travel reimbursement and did. But it may be by dean that this is an issue. Dan said, "The last time I checked we are all faculty and if one faculty is reimbursed then others should be. So please, if you are traveling between campuses in the same day and feel that you should be reimbursed, apply for it, and if you are denied I want to know."
A faculty member said she is split between campuses and occasionally has to work both in the same day. She said, "The options I know are that you can suck it up now and take it up later with your taxes, and that the tax deduction is better." Another faculty member said you only get it back at whatever the tax rate is - you should not wait for your taxes but rather get reimbursed directly from the college.
A faculty member asked whether this included adjuncts. Dan said that it did not. Also, if it's an overload you are not allowed reimbursement for travel between campuses either, because since adjuncts are not reimbursed, overloads are not reimbursed. So schedule yourself appropriately as far as which class you claim as an overload.
A faculty member mentioned that this does come out of your department's travel budget. Mandatory travel is what you have to do to complete your job; professional development comes next. It's categorized in three levels, but it's spent until it's gone.
Dan said that this may not affect arts and sciences nearly as much as it does other areas.
A faculty member said that he does daily travel all the time for cooperative education. That means that every time he goes out to do travel, he prints out Mapquest summaries of his mileage, submits it and it goes right through. Part of the problem that he has run into, especially going out of town to a conference, is that the travel clerk in the business office goes down your paperwork and then the first mistake that you might make, she sends the form back to you. But not all mistakes are found at once, so it ends up being a cycle of sending it back and forth for return to travel - it can take up to a month to get it processed. Another faculty member suggested hand carrying the travel paperwork, asking the clerk to review it on the spot, thus ensuring that it is without errors before leaving.
The SPD chair said that people should look at travel rules on the Web.
Dan said that he would look for the hyperlink to the travel processes and e-mail it to all Faculty Senate members.
Dan added that if you are here on the Sanford class to teach a class and you then drive out to Oviedo to teach or go to a meeting, it's 17 miles one way - it's in the Business Office chart - that's 17 times 44-1/2 cents. If you go home from there, you just claim the 17 miles. If, on the other hand, you have a class here later in the evening and you come back to Sanford, then you claim the return trip to Sanford Campus also. Over a semester's time that adds up to a significant amount of money for reimbursement.
Faculty compensation group
This group just started meeting again. It met for several hours Friday. Today we met for two hours with Critical Jobs Subcommittee, getting a definition of what Critical Jobs are. Dan said, "I can't tell you any details because everything is still in the air. Administration has said that they are definitely going to keep the deal about the compensation changes we started in action last year, the three year adjustment period. Members of the Compensation Practices committee are Lane Vosbury, Dan Gilmartin, Jeri Rogers, Susan Dooley, Ed Chin, Michael Schau, Irene Paino, Elnora Gilcrist as dean representative, Joe Sarnovsky, Carol Hawkins, Chris Chellburg and Claudia Salvano. An additional person from Career Programs will be appointed by Dan Gilmartin.
Other committees
We need a representative for one of the more important committees on this campus, the calendar committee; we need someone who has made calendars and understands them. If anyone is interested, please contact Dan.
Staff Benefits
Faculty representatives on the Staff Benefits Committee, made a presentation on the group.
One said, "Right now there are three things I have to bring to your attention. (1) Sign-up period ends on November 3. (2) There are distinct differences between A and E programs - Make sure you are familiar with them. (3) With Robinson Bush we will be dealing with our consultant/adviser and making big decisions as to providing healthcare in the future and our various benefits in the future for the College. We are part of the consortium now which gives us bigger bargaining power, but there is legitimate debate as to the best way to proceed. The thing that infuriates me the most is the fact that we are being asked to register for health insurance now before we know whether Florida Hospital is part of the program. It's like signing a contract before you know what the terms are. But we are a small fish in the pond as far as healthcare. I will be the point man on this for Faculty Senate so I will be happy to hear your issues and concerns and bring them to the attention of the committee. Gregg will do so as well, but he is chair and needs to stay focused on that. I came to Seminole State just in time to see some significant pay raises since I've been here. Those pay raises don't mean as much if your premiums skyrocket and healthcare coverage changes."
He said, "I wish I could give you specific answers and details but right now I am trying to take in as much as possible and keep Gregg separate. He has done a wonderful job of aligning us with other people on campus such as employees, security, etc., since we are all in the same boat on these things. We faculty are in more position to speak up on behalf of those people who make significantly less than we do. In the future I hope that we can speak up for adjuncts too. We are trying to keep the umbrella as large as possible."
He asked, "please email me your questions so that I can keep them in writing."
Questions and comments from faculty follow:
With BCBS we get a lot of nice documents, but I want to know who is part of the plan â?¦ they say it is updated regularly, but how often is regularly? Every five years, every month?
A faculty member asked what she needed to do if she liked the plan she had last year. The answer: for one who is not claiming dependents, E is probably what you are talking about. Plan E has about twice as many providers in Seminole County than does Plan A.
It was suggested that the two faculty members meet and develop a list of links that would be helpful to people and forward it to Dan so he can get it to all faculty and all staff. Gregg agreed and added that Florida Hospital may or may not be in the plan next year, so Blue Cross cannot compel Florida Hospital to be part of their network. Hospitals may opt in and out at the end of the contractual obligation at any time. If you have dependents it costs more to be in plan E. Make sure that your doctor plans to stay in the plan for the whole year and that they have privileges where you prefer to be seen.
The HMO currently costs the college more than a PPO, but it does cover more benefit. The fear is that paid benefits will go away, especially with the raises that the administration has committed to.
Between now and January 4 we have to do an RFP for the new insurance plan, even if it is Blue Cross. During that time we will be meeting and you will have input in that. The committee sends it to the executive staff and to the board. This is an exploratory research venture to make sure we are getting the best deal we can.
New Business
SPD
The SPD chair said, regarding out of district travel, make sure you have read the travel manual. The manual is on the Web, either linked through HR or SPD. If it's cheaper for you to fly, they will pay you what it will cost you to fly, even if you drive.
Old Business
None
The meeting was adjourned at 4:51 p.m.