IFO Board of Directors REPORT

September 16-17, 2004                                 

Present:  Cathy Summa, Mary Kesler, Becky Omdahl, Ruth Zietlow, Dave Larkin, Carol Milowski, George Seldat, Gerry Toland, Barbara Keating, Gwen Griffin, Sonja Meiers, Steve Bohnenblust, Annette Schoenberger, Judy Kilborn, Theresia Fisher, Wade Swenson, Cindy Phillips, Wayne Alexander, Fred Hill, Nancy Black, Bruce Svingen

Also Present:  Cindy Webber, Debra Japp, Wil Harri, Frank Conroy, Patrice Arseneault, Russ Stanton

Guests:  Christine Roberts (Roberts & More) and John O’Brien (MnSCU)

Called to order 6:30 p.m.

Board Meetings - Calendar and Format:

The 04-05 Calendar of IFO meetings was reviewed.  The Board had a discussion on the format of Board meetings.  There is an issue with follow-through and closure and more focus is needed to get these issues resolved.  We will be having a more thematic approach and identify important items first.

Article:

An article was published in The Chronicle of Higher Education on August 27, 2004 pertaining to the injunction.  The Chancellor had an article in the Star Tribune recently.  If you want a copy, please let us know.

Certification of Board Votes:

The IFO office received a majority of “yes” votes to recommend the contract to our membership.  A motion was made to certify the votes.  Carried

Ratification of Member Votes:

The IFO office received the following results from the universities:

A motion was made to certify the ratification vote of the membership on September 15.  Carried

MnSCU Proposal on Sick Leave:

Wil Harri received an email from Gary Janikowski (MnSCU) requesting that the IFO consider their proposal on sick leave.  MnSCU’s concern is that each different university has a different policy for reporting sick leave hours/days.  We need to let each campus follow its own policy.  This discussion should be happening at a local meet and confer.

Discussion continued…If they’re changing policies then we’d expect this to be a meet and confer item!

Frank Conroy requested that the Faculty Association Presidents give him a copy of all the leave policies and forms in the system.

Chris Roberts – MnSCU Communications/Marketing Action Plan:

Chris Roberts of Roberts and More presented the Board of Directors with her draft #6 of the MnSCU Communications Action Plan.  This was done at the request of the Office of the Chancellor as the Chancellor wanted enhanced visibility.  There was a series of four meetings held that IFO participated in to discuss this Plan.  Chris will be addressing the MnSCU Board again next week for a half-day presentation.  The main objectives and goals are:

1. Secure additional financial resources public and private;
2. Increase appreciation of CC/TC/SUs in our state; and,
3. Shift from silos to a more integrated system.

In her assessment, she found that a lot of language was geared towards the two-year institutions.  Chris stated that she feels that the Minnesota State Universities are different from the U of M and the private colleges in the following ways:

1. We give more choices;
2. Students receive better value; and,
3. There are unlimited possibilities.

Chris’ plan also targets the legislature.  She suggested faculty host “fundraisers” in their homes.  Efforts will also be made to rename institutions.  She predicts her plan will cost 2-3% of the MnSCU budget and will take ten years to carry out.  Roberts stated the funds will be redirected from other departments in MnSCU as well.  After the Board of Trustees takes a closer look we’ll be able to get a better grasp on the funding.

The State University Presidents were involved and have approved of this Plan at the Leadership Council meetings and the Board of Trustees.  Faculty are at the center of Chris Roberts’ thinking.  The IFO asked Roberts if she felt the SU Presidents were given adequate voice as they are greatly outnumbered by the CC/TC presidents.  Chris stated that she felt what they lack in numbers they make up for in persuasiveness.

The IFO was concerned that Roberts’ Plan is blurring in the State Universities individual missions and identities with the CC/TCs – we’re different.  Chris stated she feels this is being done in the right way.  Chris also stated she worked very hard at removing language that was specific to both the State Universities and the CC/TCs – this is a system approach.  Chris stated that the marketing of students needs to happen on the individual campuses.  A Board member stated concern with the lack of emphasis on the State Universities, saying if we aren’t recognized individually, we’ll get lost.

Roberts stated there are no homogenization efforts taking place.  She’s customizing the State Universities as a collection.

A stated concern was the Chancellor’s Plan was not created with the input of faculty and again, MnSCU is dedicating more money to something we didn’t have a say in.  The Plan is selling something that doesn’t exist – and there is not adequate support for the programs being marketed.  We’re all very frustrated with MnSCU – for the last ten years, MnSCU has relentlessly promoted MnSCU.  MnSCU took us from the 80^th percentile to the 40^th percentile in salary.  Before we offer any support we need to see a real effort on MnSCU’s part to show us this isn’t lip service and they do value faculty.  Who wants to get behind a system that does this?

Chris Roberts respectfully listened and commented that we need to find a couple of items that we can work on together.  It would be a good idea to continue our discussion at another Board meeting and have the Chancellor present.

President’s Work Plan:

Nancy Black presented her work plan to the Board.  The plan was shared with the staff and Executive Committee.  Feedback has been received and incorporated.  Please advise Nancy where you see fit.

Election of Vice President and Secretary:

An ad hoc nominating committee had been created (Barbara Keating, Gerry Toland and Fred Hill) for annual Board elections.  The only nominee who came forward was Cindy Phillips.  Theresia Fisher nominated Annette Schoenberger for Vice President.  By a vote of 12 to 7, Cindy Phillips was elected as Vice President.  Dave Larkin was nominated for Secretary and was elected.  Carried

Academic Affairs Report:

Debra Japp reported on the Academic Affairs Committee, the IFO Ad Hoc Committee on Ethics, Taskforce on Graduate Education, Transfer issues, and the Center for Teaching and Learning.

Debra will work with Cindy Webber to create an Academic Affairs Committee website.  The site will contain links to all the committees Debra attends. 

There was a lengthy discussion on Accounting as it relates to transfer.

IFO Taskforce on Equitable Distribution of Benefits to all Faculty (DA #443):

The Executive Committee recommended that the Board move forward with the creation of this taskforce.  The taskforce will consist of one (1) representative from each of these IFO standing committees:  FIC, MIC, and GLBTA.  One Board member will also serve on this committee and in addition, the Board will appoint an additional two (2) members to serve preferably faculty with insurance expertise for a total of six (6) members.  A motion was made to approve.  Carried

Domestic Partner Benefits Taskforce:

At the last Executive Committee meeting in August, the committee recommended the Board dissolve this taskforce with the understanding that the GLBTA study committee created by DA resolution #443 will continue this taskforce’s work.  A motion was made to dissolve the taskforce.  Carried

IFO Building Corporation:

The Executive Committee/IFO Building Corporation minutes were reviewed.

President to President Meeting:

A President to President meeting took place on June 16, 2004.  Should the Executive Committee continue these meetings?  A motion was made to schedule another President to President meeting between now and May.  Carried

Recessed 9:31 pm

Reconvened 8:30 am

New Agenda Item:

A Board member requested to add another agenda item to the Board meeting – to hire a professional negotiator.  In lieu of a similar failed Delegate Assembly motion, it was decided to change the topic to general negotiations.

Statewide Meet and Confer:

MnSCU has added a few additional agenda items besides our own:  Nursing Council and to give an update on policy work.  Nancy met with Linda Baer yesterday to go though our tentative agenda items:

1. Business Practices Alignment Committee
   1.  At our last meet and confer we asked MnSCU to identify which of the 107 goals did not apply to faculty.
   2. Who are the Business Practices Stakeholders?

                                                               i.      MnSCU sent out a letter addressed to the “Business Practice Stakeholders” and was received in our office on August 26, 2004.  By going directly to faculty with this they are avoiding the union.

3. Some of these 107 items should be local meet and confer topics.
4. They asked us for seven (7) committee members (one from each campus) for the BPAC Advisory Committee and we need to choose these members carefully.

                                                               i.      We need to ask the Chancellor for an updated list of committees.

2. Desire2Learn
   1. Basically what we’re learning is that MnSCU is the D2L guinea pig.  This product isn’t even on the market yet.  The only help desk is in Mankato and the hours of operation are from 7 am to 11 pm.  According to Mankato Board members, D2L is working for them on their campus.
3. Transfer Oversight Committee
   1. One issue we are dealing with right now is the “D” grade policy as well as the Accounting discipline.
4. Joint IFO/MnSCU Taskforces (Faculty Salary Competitiveness and Workload Costing)
   1. We need to move quickly on forming these taskforces.  We want this to be substantive committees.  We need to hold our members accountable.
   2. When are these committees meeting and how often?  We will set a date and inform MnSCU.
   3. These two committees need to be at the top of our list.
   4. A motion was made to form these two committees as soon as possible (1 faculty member from each campus plus one Board member or Board designee).  Names are due by the next Board meeting on October 21.  Carried
5. MnSCU’s Marketing/Communications Plan
   1. Draft six was reviewed as presented by Chris Roberts.
   2. We may want to pursue her comment that she intends to blur the State Universities with the CC/TCs.  What do they think they are accomplishing?
   3. We should ask Chris to come back for reports to the Board.
   4. We’re being branded; missions are being blurred.  A motion was made that we need to ensure that the State University missions are prominently incorporated and represented on our local campuses. Carried
   5. How is MnSCU paying for this and what’s the hurry?

                                                               i.      The Board of Trustees said it’s an investment.  President Black told them faculty are an investment. 

6. The State Universities account for more than half of all the students in the MnSCU system!

                                                               i.      We should create a position paper to take back to our local campuses.

7. Would it be fair for us to ask for two plans (2-year and 4-year)?
5. New Teaching Center
   1. There will be a big conference on October 13, 2004 at the Radisson Riverfront Hotel; Governor Pawlenty plans to attend.  The subject is “Teaching at Risk”.  President Black has requested that they invite faculty.
6. MnSCU’s Search for new Associate Vice Chancellor of EOD
   1. MnSCU is reassessing this position to replace Dolores Fridge.  We’d like to know the status of their search.
7. CTL – Faculty Teaching Awards
   1. Apparently this topic came to us from the faculty.  In the meet and confer minutes from our last meeting our position was that they were moving forward without consulting us.  We need to be careful and be consistent in our position.
8. Nursing Council
   1. This agenda item was added by Linda Baer at yesterday’s meeting with her.  You may recall at our last Board meeting in April, MnSCU requested we fill two Nursing Committees (Nursing Education Council 4 reps needed and Nursing Online 3 reps needed) and we told them it would not happen because they wanted to meet during non-duty days.
9. We will add the 224 duty days back to the meet and confer agenda.  Carried  It was recommended that we invite Bill Tschida to join this discussion.

Treasurer’s Report:

Richard Gendreau discussed the IRS audit.  The financials from month ending July and August were reviewed.  A Board member requested to see the month ending June.  A motion was made to approve the financial reports.  Carried

We purchased an all-wheel-drive Ford Escape for the IFO President Black and traded in the Mercury Mountaineer that former IFO President Jim Pehler was driving.

Executive Session:

The Board went into Executive Session with the staff present.  10:15 Carried

A motion was made to report out the following motions:  11:20 Carried

The Board requests the auditors to attend the next Board meeting on October 21/22 to discuss the audit.  Carried

A motion was made to accept the auditor’s report.  Carried

Local Reserve Balances:

The IFO received a recommendation from our auditor, Curtis Forse.  The Board discussed auditing the local faculty association financial accounts and reviewed the letter from Mr. Forse.

A motion was made to take this letter back to local Executive Committees and see what they’d like to do.  Failed

We have three options here:  1. Hire a Professor from the Accounting Department, or 2. Hire the IFO’s independent CPA firm, or 3. Hire a local CPA firm.

This will be added to the agenda for the next Board meeting.

A motion was made that the Executive Committee propose a method for implementation of the auditor’s recommendation.  Carried

Legislative Report:

Russ Stanton gave a legislative report on the 2004 Legislative Session Summary, the Citizen’s League and MnSCU’s legislative request due next week.

Russ also reported on the MnSCU Biennial Operating Budget Request for 2006-2007.

Retirement Update:

Russ Stanton gave a retirement update pertaining to the workshops he has been attending on each campus.  MnSCU is pursing making three retirement changes.  First, MnSCU would like to extend the time new faculty members have to choose between IRAP and TRA from 90 days to five years.  Second, MnSCU would like to have MSRS manage both the new Health Reimbursement Accounts and the “flex spending accounts” which are currently managed by DOER.  Third, MnSCU would like the option of replacing the monthly valued State Board of Investment funds with a set of daily valued funds such as Vanguard.  The GRC will be reviewing this at their next meeting.

Government Relations Update:

Steve Woehrle was present to give a Government Relations Update.  The Committee met on September 8/9.  The GRC began the process of developing recommendations for IFO legislative goals for the 2005 session which were:

1. Support full funding of MnSCU enrollment per the higher education funding formula.
2. Support an across-the-board inflation adjustment for MnSCU based on the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI).  Oppose “reallocation from within” to cover inflation
3. Oppose individual line item requests being proposed by MnSCU and support general increases in funding to the campuses, with the campuses setting their own spending priorities.
4. Support passage of a capital bonding bill to fund at least those projects that passed both the House and Senate last year, but failed in conference committees.  Support the MnSCU bonding project priority list.
5. Oppose further funding cuts to higher education.

A motion was made to amend goal 3 to add “being proposed by MnSCU.”  Carried

The Board moved to support the 5 goals from the Government Relations Committee.  Carried

Russ gave each Board member a legislative binder for their review.  It might be a good idea to put this binder at your Reference Desk of campus libraries.

Equity Report:

Pat Arsenault gave a report.  An anti-racism workshop is tentatively scheduled for January 27 for all Board members and IFO staff.  The limit is 40 people and takes approximately 8 hours.  A motion was made that the anti-racism training day will take place on January 27.  Carried

The MIC Liaison is Gwen Griffin.  The GLBTA Liaison is Cindy Phillips.

Salary equity was discussed.  Pat will be sending letters to faculty targeted to receive an adjustment to their salary as a result of the 02 salary in early to mid-October advising of the number of steps faculty are to receive.  The step adjustments are effective this academic year 2004-2005.  The SRC will conduct an annual review of the FY03 at its meeting on October 1 and November 5, 2004.  The SRC hopes to begin the process for the FY04 annual reviews in early spring 2005, and has the ultimate goal of conducting annual reviews during the spring of the academic year under review.

Grievance Report:

Frank Conroy gave a grievance report.  Frank discussed the concern with recent contract language dealing with the hiring priority of fixed term faculty and his interpretation.  The Board requested that Frank Conroy provide a one-page bulleted guideline for distribution to the Board on this issue.  Frank will create this draft within one week and then get email it to the Board.  If the Board has questions, they will let Frank know.

Frank advised that faculty should check their personnel file regularly.  Administration is required to notify you if they put something in your file but sometimes faculty do not receive the item in the mail or there is a mix-up somewhere.

Membership Report:

Wil Harri gave a membership report.  Please continue encouraging your faculty to join.

Health Coalition Update:

Wil Harri gave an update on the Health Coalition meetings he has been attending.  Dependent insurance premium rates have been approved to increase by $15.00 a month.

Campus Inventory:

Local Faculty Associations will be asked to provide the IFO a list of inventory items for insurance purposes.

Special Guest:  John O’Brien – Desire2Learn:

John started off by saying, “I know we haven’t earned your trust and the first two weeks have not been up to par and I take responsibility for that.  We aren’t where we want to be.”  John then took questions from the Board. 

Q: Is it true that we are in the first year of a three-year roll-out?

A: I’ve never heard that before.

Q: Are we a beta test site?

A: It feels that way, but no.   We depend on the company; during the first week, when problems were occurring, we couldn’t fix their code.  They made 20-40 changes in their code.  Is that the right way to do it?  No.

Q: Months ago during the decision making process do you think this company mislead us?

A: If I thought they misrepresented themselves, we’d pursue a breech of contract.  I do not believe this is the case.  They thought they were scaleable.   The last minute changes they had to make were not major.  We couldn’t have predicted that 175,000 user accounts would have clogged up the system – we hit the ceiling.  WebCT and Blackboard increased their price by 400%!

Q: Have you learned from your mistakes so this doesn’t happen again?

A: I’ve asked CIOs to give us log data.  I’m still worried because testing isn’t the same as having D2L in actual use.

Q: What about extending the hours of the help desk?

A: Right now we need data to support that change.  We are getting 175 hits per second between the hours of 7am and 11pm; in the early morning hours we are getting 10 hits per second.  I haven’t heard a need to extend the help desk hours.

Q: How do we best respond so you are aware of the needs on the campus?

A: A Board motion or you can email me directly any time (john.obrien@so.mnscu.edu)

Executive Session:

The Board went into Executive Session at 2:40 pm and reported out the following motions when they adjourned the Board meeting at 3:55 pm:

That President Black identifies and hires a professional to help determine our security and computing needs.  Carried