Statewide Meet and Confer UNOFFICIAL NOTES

February 20, 2004

IFO Present:  Bruce Svingen, Rich Gendreau, Chris Brown, Cindy Phillips, Steve Bohnenblust, Theresia Fisher, Becky Omdahl, George Seldat, Debra Japp, Patrice Arseneault, Jim Pehler, Russ Stanton, Cindy Webber

MnSCU Present:  Richard Davenport, Gary Janikowski, Jim Jorstad, Linda Baer, Chancellor McCormick, Laura King, Dolores Fridge, Deena Allen, John Shabatura, Renee Hoogoboom, Leslie Mercer, Steve Frantz, John Asmussen

Called to order 8:40

Business Practice Alignment Committee

IFO: The memo your office send out on January 26 announcing this committee listed us as one of the recipients.  We never received this memo.

Chancellor:  I am not in the business of making one size fit all.  I just want to make things more efficient.  I am concerned that you didn’t get this.

IFO:  Who serves on this committee?  What is this committee?

Chancellor:  President Davenport and three other presidents from two-year colleges.

IFO:  I was astonished at the areas that this group delves into.  #63 seems to axe out tri-college.  To our campuses this is important.  It seems that you are just doing this because your computers cannot handle multiple start dates.  In #75 you state we have significant philosophical differences but this whole document contradicts that.  It seems technology is fueling this.

Chancellor:  I think you’ll find I’m very student centered.  I want the computer center to be student centered.  I want to explore our options.  How do we work together as a system?

Baer:  This committee is not making academic policy.  They only make recommendations.

IFO:  This will shake the way we do things = efficiency promotes mediocrity.    Your document makes us the McDonalds of education.  What is broken that we have to fix?  What are the indicators that there is a problem?

Chancellor:  This isn’t a done deal.  This is just a discussion piece.

Pehler:  My irritation keeps going up.  I get something that’s been sent out to all faculty yet I haven’t gotten anything.  Are you (Baer) the person we need to talk to about this?  Who is in control of this group?

IFO:  What was the problem?  It looks like you put a lot of work into this!

Davenport:  I’m on the committee.  The initial push had to do with students’ academic progress.  We want to stay in compliance with the federal government.  I was instructed to get that sorted out.  The intention was to study the issues and put out the information slowly to get responses.

King:  What can we do to make things easier for students?

IFO:  But was there a problem?

King:  I don’t know.

Pehler:  I understand your concern to be able to more effectively handle students.

IFO:  You seem to be forcing campuses into a one-size-fits-all.  #63 talks about calendar issues; it would seem to have little or no seamless impact.

Baer:  In order to make things more seamless for students we need to align our business practices.  Part of this was handled through a partner study.

Chancellor:  Nothing is scheduled for the Board of Trustees.  There are no surprises coming.

IFO:  The context is upsetting when looking at this chart on business practice variations and implicates so many academic issues.  Seamlessness is a concern but when it becomes the driving force than honoring the unique qualities of an institution then it is not honoring students.  Efficiency is less important than quality.

Davenport:  Regarding the calendars, there was a sense of this is not going to work.  We’re concerned about institutional autonomy.  We probably aren’t going to get a start date for all.  We fully expect this will be rejected.  Don’t have the jaundice view that this committee is not going to accept input.

Pehler:  Your January 26 memo only lists 6 objectives but there are 107.

Baer:  We wanted it to be manageable.  It is fair to say that we have now consulted with you?

(No direct answer was given by the IFO team.)

Pehler:  Non-academic areas do affect academics.

Chancellor:  I think we’ve got other bargaining units and students upset.  I apologize for you not getting this first before it was distributed overall.  I wasn’t trying to catch you off guard.

IFO/Brown:  Happy students need happy faculty.  At the IT Roundtable we were blindsided with this Gardner Group.  Now this list is coming from a report (from the Gardner Group) we (IT Roundtable) thought was flawed.

Baer:  I will find out why the IT Roundtable dissolved.

IFO:  You need to add four more columns to your chart for feedback from:  IT, students, faculty, and administration.

Board Policy 2.9 Financial Aid Satisfactory Progress:

MnSCU:  This is going to the Board of Trustees.  All of the changes to this policy are a result of the IA study.  We have paid nearly 1 million in fees and fines to the US Department of Education. Of our 32 institutions, 6 have money problems and 20 have technical problems.

IFO:  What institutions?

MnSCU:  Metropolitan State University, Minnesota State University, Mankato and another to be named state university; the others were cc/tc.

We incorporated some of your changes.

IFO:  The way you requested our feedback was handled correctly.

MnSCU:  If you have any more changes, please respond ASAP as the Board will be reviewing this in March.

IFO:  Is there a list of what is federally mandated?

MnSCU:  No, you only find out after you’ve made a mistake.  I can get a copy to you of the US Department of Education regulations.  The U of M also has problems at 2 of 4 institutions.  The fines are coming out of the institution’s budget.

Timely Grievances:

MnSCU:  We’ve scheduled 2 grievances and we’re waiting dates for 3 more.  We’re hoping to cut back on the back log.

IFO:  Grievances related to retention or non-renewal, where are they at?

Contract Negotiations:

IFO:  We urge you to get this contract settled.  (A statement was made to urge the Chancellor to get the ball rolling faster.)

Chancellor:  I could have made the same speech.

Teacher’s Education Center:

IFO:  We’d like to expand to the “4 Bold Ideas”.  We want to hear the background on where this is at.  At our campus we just dealt with accreditation and funding.  We’re concerned about initiatives not appropriately funded.  Nursing stands out on its own.

MnSCU:  We were hoping for additional funding for nursing.  We don’t want to loose online business.  The “4 Bold Ideas” shouldn’t have surprised you – it’s the way that we proposed carrying them out that was bold.  Teacher education is more sustainable.  We have many partners and we need to focus on not relying on the state by using the power of our universities to be a stronger resource for the state (i.e. grants, foundations, federal initiatives).  If Minnesota is to become what it wants to be then we need to invest in education.

(Teacher Center handout was given from MnSCU.)

IFO:  We have problems with staffing.  We need to look at offering terminal degrees to our staff.  You need to tell the U of M to back off.

MnSCU:  They will work with us on anything but that.

IFO:  The bill says “applied” right now.  Who confirms the degree?

MnSCU: The institution.

Biennial Budget Committee:

IFO:  Faculty were consulted at the beginning of the budgeting process, now you’re proposing they be involved at the end at a statewide meet and confer.

(MnSCU handed out a blue flow chart.)

Chancellor:  I’m assuming this is a plan we’re all involved in.

IFO:  This chart looks like the Chancellor isn’t directly involved.  There are 500-700 people involved in the creation of this budget.

MnSCU:  We’re trying to get a meeting set up right now.  We want a solid proposal to be able to show you in a meet and confer format.

IFO:  We think we need to keep the base and increase the base on inflation.  We need to preserve and protect before we put forward a new allocation.

Chancellor:  Pat Kellion is putting this report card to the legislators – Center for Higher Education Policy report.  We should give you a copy of this report.  You might say we want to do those things Minnesota needs instead of focusing on wanting the old money back.  We’re trying to put a five foot table cloth on a seven foot table.  Maybe we’ve never been fully funded.

Polytechnic Education Committee:

IFO:  We think this is a four year degree program and we think the four year faculty need to be fully represented.  We want each university being represented on this committee – either by administrators or faculty.

MnSCU:  The three administrators being represented are from Metropolitan, Mankato and Bemidji.  Maybe Polytechnic Education Committee isn’t the right name of the committee.

Sexual Violence Policy & Affirmative Action Plan:

(MnSCU distributed the policy.)

MnSCU:  All state universities have this AA policy in place.  In AA training we tell them how to use the policy.  Updated policies are due in January and July.  DOER didn’t have their goals set out for us, hence the delay.  Some of Patrice Arseneault’s comments were incorporated into the sexual violence policy.

IFO:  What about addressing how people are treated innocent until proven guilty.

MnSCU:  In this process we do not assume guilt.  Every fall we do a training.  The policy applies to all of the campuses not just the students.

224 Duty Days:

MnSCU:  When the memo came out, we thought a better way to do it was to give a lump sum for the grant.  In some cases we can go to the FA for an MOA.

IFO:  The memo still implies that going over 224 duty days should not be done.  We want a permission to extend duty days rather than just changing the rate of pay.  Why can’t this just be handled on the individual campuses?  It doesn’t make sense to increase the pay rate – it sounds like duty days are at the president’s discretion and alters the contract.  Why not extend it?

MnSCU:  The problem is the additional compensation doesn’t relate to days but maybe just the grand.  You’re using the exception. 168 days is a normal 9 month with the addition of 1/3 to reflect the other 4/3 of 168 which is 224.  A normal work year is five days per week = 261 days minus 11 holidays = 250 and add on 1 day per pay period for sick leave and you get 224 duty days.

IFO:  What about breaks?

MnSCU:  We’ll give you a rough draft before this gets sent out.  This is not a policy.

IFO:  The institutions gain from having the faculty salary run though their institutions – they take out 28% for institutional support.  I know faculty who have gone to outside agencies to pay them directly – this is affecting their high-five.  If this institution is so adamant that we cannot have additional duty days, there will be more and more going outside for funding.  Sometimes faculty work 6-7 days a week.

NCHEMS/IPEDS:

MnSCU:  This information is not available because we do not have it.

IFO:  Faculty are asking for this data.

MnSCU:  Our primary customer has been the Department of Finance who used this for the allocation model.  Now we are using a report without peers.  We respond to legislative requests as a priority.  It’s time consuming and expensive to get this information.

IFO:  Faculty want a data-driven report to evaluate funding levels.

MnSCU:  NCHEMS doesn’t do this for free.  We did this before, now we’re replacing it. 

Chancellor:  Is the new report you’re using any use to them?

MnSCU:  I don’t know.  It will be out in the next couple of months.

IFO:  We’d like to see who we’re being compared to.  Why did you change?

MnSCU:  The peer data was instable.  It was volatile and after a while the number of peers became very small.  The data showed that we we’re either way ahead or behind.  Now we want to run a regression analysis to increase the stability of the information for the allocation model.

If you want this report, then we need to talk more about this.

IFO:  We’ve had this report every year.

MnSCU:  Many institutions said there was too much volatility.

Leadership Council and Board of Trustees:

IFO:  Why isn’t there faculty on the Board of Trustees?

MnSCU:  There is a lack of alignment within the Board of Trustees, the Office of the Chancellor and the state university presidents.  I see the state university presidents as direct reports.  I’m entitled to meet with my direct report at least once a month.  I have a hard enough time dealing with 42 people.  I’m not going to add 7 to my board right now.  Cal State has a faculty member.  Former faculty members can apply.  I work for the Board of Trustees, I don’t manage them.  There’s a conflict of interest if I have a role in who is on the Board.  The governor appoints.  Ivan Dusek has been a wonderful member.

Davenport:  It has been difficulty.  The universities and colleges have special interests – we squeeze every minute out so we maximize the time – we are always dealing with universities or community colleges.

MnSCU:  I heard we have presidents in the system bull-dozing over other state universities.  I heard from the legislature that we are our own worst enemy.  I don’t sit in your staff meetings.  The Board does go into executive session with the state university presidents in the room.

IFO:  We had hoped to rotate the seven state university presidents.

MnSCU:  We could rethink that.  If that’s important then we can revisit that.

IFO:  Each university has a different perspective.

MnSCU:  If you’d like us to take this issue back to the state university presidents we can.

Davenport:  We did put out a request to ask for volunteers but we worded it softer “we invite you”.

IFO:  We can urge our state university presidents at our local meet and confers.

Pawlenty’s League:

IFO:  We want a voice in this.

MnSCU:  We’re out of the loop too.

IFO:  We need to be at a grass roots level.  We heard that the private colleges are involved.

MnSCU:  I called Sean Kershaw, the executive director of the league, to see how he got this assignment.  We’re looking for co-chairs and funding.  15 will be named by the governor basically with emphasis on balance so there is not a metro area focus.  The director is well aware of the metro focus criticism.  Recommendations will come by fall.

IFO:  I suggest that the IFO President, the Chancellor and Dee Long sit down together.

MnSCU:  This is going through Linda Baer.  Bradshaw is on the Citizen’s Commission.

IFO:  Dee Long is slanted towards the University of Minnesota.  I’ll get this meeting set up.

(A draft of the revised system strategic plan was distributed by MnSCU.)

Salary Equity Committee:

IFO:  We learned that we do have agreement and now we’re looking for a MOA.

MnSCU:  I’ve got a list of faculty to send you.

Social Security Numbers:

IFO:  Some campuses are still using social security numbers or portions of them on their forms.

MnSCU:  I need to talk to DOER – Preferred One has been using this.

IFO:  There are other instances too besides insurance cards.  At Mankato they are used on forms.  Even the tech help desk asks for the number.

MnSCU:  If you hear of any specifics let Gary Janikowski know.

IFO:  We may need a reminder sent out.

Meet and Confer format:

IFO:  Currently we have three dates set out for next fall but no dates for 05.

MnSCU:  We can move forward with 05 dates but understand if I get called out of the meetings.  You can set dates up with the understanding that I might not be there.

Pension Questionnaire:

MnSCU:  Nothing is moving forward with this.

26.5 Paystubs:

IFO:  We think faculty need to know that their 26^th paycheck of the year will have the addition of .5 more pay.

MnSCU:  Some campuses do this differently – this is a campus communication issue.  What if we send a note to you?  It sounds like the issue is at St. Cloud and Mankato

IFO:  If we’re getting paid on a 365 day cycle, eventually it’s going to catch up.

Cooperative Buying:

IFO:  We would like to know if MnSCU would consider cooperative buying of plagiarism protection software and other library databases.  This shouldn’t be the responsibility of the individual faculty member.

MnSCU:  John O’Brien is working on this.  We’ll do some research and get back to you.

IFO:  We can save money if we share.

Adjourned 11:40