IUB Professional Council
Business Meeting Minutes
Kelley School of Business, Room 3055
December 17, 2008
Council Members in Attendance: Rob Aspy, Margaret Baechtold, Jonathan Bolte, Jennifer Chaffin, Mark Goodner, Christina Kuzmych, Dan Ondrik, Suzanne Ryan (Ex-officio, UHRS), Patrick Smith, Tracy Smith, Kelly Thacker, Greg Travis, Ed Vasquez (Ex-officio, CWA).
Proxies: Margaret Baechtold for Liz Peck, Jennifer Chaffin for Beverly Vicker.
Members Not in Attendance: Tracy Bee, Jim Brown, Eric Love, Michele Neary, Claudia Polley, Paula Phillips, Dee Verostko.
Guests: Steve Chaplin, Office of communications; Karen Hanson, Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President; Joe Lovrinic, Vice President Public Affairs and Government Relations; Valerie Pena, Vice President Public Affairs and Government Relations.
Meeting Minutes
A motion to approve the November, 2008 minutes as written was made, seconded and passed.
BPC Funding Proposal
The five-year budget freeze for the BPC ends this year, so the Executive Committee has put together a proposal for funding for 2009-10. All BPC members were emailed a copy of the proposal prior to today’s meeting. The proposal consists of three parts: a funding request summary, a financial summary, and an appendix (contains information on the professional development grant program). After BPC members had an opportunity to review the proposal, the following changes will be made: reference to the 2,400+ professional staff employees will be changed to 2,600+ professional staff employees, and community service projects and retreats will be added to BPC events. The Executive Committee will review the proposal with Dan Rives prior to submitting it to Provost Hanson and Vice President Clapacs.
Community Service Project
The Outreach and Advocacy Committee has presented several options for consideration, as discussed at the November business meeting. They will narrow the list down to a couple of choices and make a presentation to the BPC at the January meeting.
Orientation for New Professional Staff
A suggestion was made to add an invitation to the next business meeting in the welcome letter that is sent out by the BPC office. Teresa will take care of this. The Executive Committee will send out a directive to the unit representatives to set a standard for communicating with new professional staff within the units.
BPC Forum Topics
The Outreach and Advocacy Committee will have a couple of proposals to choose from in January. One suggestion made was a transportation “fair” with tables set up by different exhibitors from around the community (bike shops, etc.). Another suggestion made was a forum on benefits.
UHRS Data for BPC Website
The BPC has reached an agreement with UHRS to set up a data search option on the BPC website. This search will use the same data already used in the election system. Details on this will be made available in the near future.
Executive Committee – Dan Ondrik
The Executive Committee did not meet this month. However, both the BPC funding proposal and the agenda for this month’s meeting were discussed via email.
Communications and Marketing Committee – Jonathan Bolte
- The website feature “In the Next Cube” has been updated.
- A new poll question – “Do you actively manage your retirement contributions?” is ready to be placed on the BPC website.
- The next newsletter should go out by the end of the year. It will include a follow-up article based on the responses from the last poll question on performance management.
Outreach and Advocacy Committee – Jennifer Chaffin
The committee is not scheduled to meet again until January. On December 4, a “Know your campus” event was held at the Library archives. Good feedback was received from those in attendance. We have had a professional staff employee volunteer to host an event at the IU Art Museum, and discussion is ongoing about hosting an event at one of the athletics facilities.
Professional Interests Committee – Mark Goodner
December marked the first round of grant proposals submitted under the new guidelines. The following individuals will receive professional development grants:
- Juliet Hardesty, UITS/Digital Library Program – to attend CHI 2009 in Boston, Massachusetts.
- Kyle Haskins, WFIU/WTIU – to attend South by South West Interactive 2009 in Austin, Texas.
- Kelly Gallett Richardson, Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design – to present at the 2009 Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Search and Screen/Review Committees
Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs – Kelly Thacker
A list of names chosen by the committee has been provided to the Provost for final selection.
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education – Mark Goodner
The final four candidates for Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (VPUE) were vetted in three interviews each on Wednesday, December 3, Friday December 5, Monday, December 8, and Tuesday December 9. The first interview of each day was with the Deans of the schools, the second interview was with the Deans and Directors of the other units reporting to the Provost, and the third interview was with campus constituencies (BPC, CWA, IUSA, GSPA, etc.) and BFC Committees.
Each attendee at the interviews was asked to send comments on the candidates to the Office of the Provost by the end of the day on Wednesday, December 10.
The next step (assuming no surprises) is the final decision of the Provost.
Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students – Margaret Baechtold
This search is just getting underway.
Special Guest – Karen Hanson, Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President
At 4:00 we were joined by Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Karen Hanson. In her opening remarks, Provost Hanson addressed the following:
- The search for Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs and the search for Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education are both in the final stages.
- The search for Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students is underway. This search and the search for Dean of the Libraries will be using the same national search firm.
The following questions were submitted to Provost Hanson:
q. Please give us an update on the restructuring that has been going on within the Office of the Provost – what is the vision? What issues are being addressed? How will the professional staff be affected? How can we help your office?
r. It is necessary for the Vice Provosts to work together. Administration must work together closely to support the academic mission of the university. There needs to be more collaboration between units. We need to work hard to retain students and to support those students who transfer in from other institutions. We also need to take an assessment of undergraduate education.
q. What do you see as some of the most critical issues facing the campus over the next year and how will your office engage those issues?
r. Of course the economy is critical right now. I would like to see more work in environmental science and diversity. We need to seek more private and family foundation funding to support the arts and humanities. We also need to seek out science funding.
q. We see that the restructuring of the Office of the Provost will have Vice Provosts to address faculty issues, student issues, undergraduate issues – do you think the time has come for some type of an appointment within your office to be made that would address professional staff issues at the campus level? Or perhaps all staff (although the unions might disagree)? Professional staff have many similar concerns to faculty and students as well as many unique concerns – promotion, merit, salary, grievance, career path, performance evaluation, etc., - yet there is no appointment charged with coordinating and advocating these issues at a campus-wide level (even though the professional staff has become or will soon become the largest employee constituency). Although the BPC is doing important work in this area, it is a voluntary group and not very large. Do you see the professional staff as underrepresented at the campus level? Do you see such an appointment as desirable – why or why not? What do you see as the pros and cons of such an appointment?
r. The current re-organization is more mission specific than constituency specific. The Vice Provost for Academic Affairs does work on HR issues for faculty, much as UHRS works on staff issues, university wide. Involvement among staff happens in mission-specific ways, i.e. search and screen committees.
q. From your point of view, how is the campus master plan coming along, and what are some of the positive and negative revelations/outcomes?
r. The master planners are working toward making a presentation to the Board of Trustees in February. The campus is under-resourced in dining facilities across campus.
q. Professional staff are represented (or not) in a variety of ways across all of IU campuses – so access to timely information on policy and procedure changes, understanding of benefits, dialogue between staff, etc., is uneven at best. What do you think about the formation of a University Professional Council to advocate at a system-wide level and increase/ensure information flow and dialogue? What do you see as the pros and cons of such an entity?
r. It is a good idea. Increased communication between the campuses would be good.
Provost Hanson asked if there were any issues the Council would like to see addressed. Dan Ondrik mentioned the following three:
- Performance management – Not all professional staff employees are receiving annual performance evaluations. In addition, training for conducting performance management seems to be lacking. Provost Hanson agreed that this is an area of concern. She indicated a willingness to raise this issue with those individuals in charge of her reporting units.
- Professional staff advocate – HR is not really an advocate for professional staff on the Bloomington campus. There is nobody for professional staff to go to at the campus level.
- Career path – Because of the new structure within the university, professional staff employees are more likely to make “lateral” changes.
- Blurring of the lines – Many professional staff employees are also students and faculty. There is very little institutional recognition of this. The faculty and staff sides need to work together to look at best practices.
Rob Aspy and Margaret Baechtold will be presenters at a program entitled “Military Life to Campus Life ‘Boots to Books’” on February 12, from noon to 1:30 pm in the IMU Dogwood Room. The program is open to all.
The January business meeting will be held January 21 at the IMU Maple Room. At 4:00 p.m. Ed Marshall, Vice President, Office of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs, will be our guest.
Meeting was adjourned at 5:05 p.m.
Meeting minutes respectfully submitted by Teresa Spiegel.
