Faculty Senate Meeting

Minutes

October 11, 2002

1) The meeting was called to order by Leon Giles at 12:10 p.m.

2) Provosts Report. Bob Coombe had a meeting with the chancellor and had to leave directly, so his comments were moved to the beginning of the meeting.. He had no specific report, but took the opportunity to take several questions from the floor:

Susan Sadler: about faculty salary. Since higher salaries in several departments skew the averages, why not use the median salaries? Answer: Bob assured her the information she was concerned about was being used by those who do the math.

Helga Watt: said she had heard the raise pool was 4 percent and was that firm. Answer: Bob said that is where we are now, but it is not firm at this point.

Provost Coombe then encouraged all senators to read his report and if we have questions, please send him an email. He is happy to talk.

3) Minutes of the September 13 meeting were approved. Each person in the room introduces himself or herself.

4) Visiting Guests Dick Gartrell and Paul Wilson reported on the plan to move from paper to electronic advice notices for University employees using direct deposit for monthly and by-weekly pay checks. Payroll currently prints and distributes direct deposit advice notifications to employees. The proposal is to discontinue printing and distributing such advice notices, Employees would be able to check the status of their payroll direct deposit using myweb. Highlights of the reports from Dick and Paul included the following:

Already posted on the myweb.du.edu website is each employees pay history dating back to January 2000.

The plan includes doing away with paper notification of our pay beginning January 2003.

Questions from the Senators:

Andy Devine: Is this going to happen? Is it already a done deal? Answer: No

Don Stedman: Speaking for his committee, he announced the following motion:

The Faculty Senate is not in favor of the blanket elimination of paper notification of monthly payroll status. The Faculty Senate would not oppose an option system in which individual faculty are annually offered options such as:

1) Retain monthly paper notice

2) Eliminate monthly paper notice but post information on my-web

3) Eliminate monthly paper notice but send summary by e-mail.

Dick Scudder: Do you know the cost? Answer: We will have to research it.

Leon Giles: In this increasingly virtual society we live in, we get very few pieces of personal mail, and this is a piece of paper we dont mind getting. Why do we desire to move to a more impersonal approach? Answer: We have done our research in a survey of other institutions. Some companies do not print checks at all. We are trying to look toward the future and be proactive.

Jim Hagler: How much money will you save? Answer: Well, we have 2000 sheets of paper, a secure envelope, persons time to stuff the envelop, sorting time, two printers for direct deposit and for printing checks, the cost of toner, the soft time of those who must walk to the payroll office and pick up the checks, our follow-up time, and the cost of mailing the checks to those who do not pick up within a week. An estimate of hard cost savings is not presently available. We had hoped this would be seen as a convenience for all employees.

Lisa Conant: spoke against this move and in support of the Senate motion. It was one more thing that seemed burdensome.

Dennis Barrett: expressed his concern about some of the the staffs access to computers on which to check their myweb data.. Answer: We will have computer terminals and staff available to help guide faculty and staff through the process of checking your information on myweb.

Rick Leaman: What about bank mortgages? Will a printout of information from the web be acceptable? Answer: Yes. We will also be able to print additional information when faculty staff need it for financial transactions.

John Kuark: What about for tax purposes? Will we still get a printed piece of paper for that? Answer: Yes, but we are looking to going to secure web environment for this as well.

Sandy Dixon: expressed concern about medical and physical reasons that may limit employee ability to spend more time on the computer.

Leon Giles: What percentage of staff/faculty have direct deposit now? Answer: 63.5% on monthly payroll and 34% on weekly payroll.

Dick Scudder: The electronic data based system system has its place. It has been there for a while and each of us may check our pay history back to January 2000.

DickGartrell said he had heard our voice and will consider the options presented in the motion.

After Dick and Paul left the room, Senators had more concerns:

Andy Devine: Question about the process: why the research before asking us about the possible change.

David Cox: There is a need to do research in order to have the answers.

Arthur Best: Recommended that the annually be dropped from the motion. Don Stedman accepted this as a friendly amendment.

Dick Scudder: Recommended dropping the email option as well because that is not a secure site and could have legal ramifications.

Dennis Barrett: Noted that whether we have paper notification or not, the myweb is a done deal. Our information is already on the web.

Cathy Potter: Spoke for myweb as a good thing to have. She is for the choice of paper or electronic delivery, however.

Jack Sheinbaum: Says the issue is rather does the paper come to us or do we go to the web.

Dean Saitta: expressed concerns that we had placed our issue on the floor in front of our guest and wondered if that was an ambush. Don Stedman assured him it was not, that he had called Dick to let him know about the motion.

Anne Mahoney: suggested this was one more example of a shift in which even more is being put upon the faculty member.

/

5)Visiting Guests Dennis Becker and Steve Stanek were present to answer questions and concerns about the faculty and student functions of Banner. Dennis indicated that he felt that the Senates time would be best used by his addressing specific questions and concerns rather than listening to another presentation on Banner. The following questions were asked:

Lisa Conant: Why cant Banner make a printable list of our class lists? Answer: Dennis said it could and that he would get the instructions up on his website about how to do this.

Laurie Johnson: Can we get the information about students more simply, maybe by just clicking the students name. Answer: This is more complicated and involves complying with requirements concerning student privacy. We may have to stay with getting just the phone number and email at first click.

Ingrid Tague: Can we have access to those we advise and not just those students that we teach? Answer: This is already possible. Department assistants are trained to go into Banner and set this up for each department. There can be multiple advisors.

Tom Paskus: What about multiple teachers of courses? Answer: This can be done, but it might not happen soon. This is not a priority for the Registrar.

Sandy Dixon: Can we solve this problem by creating a new section? Answer: Dennis assured her this would surely send anybody who tried to the lowest circle of hell.

Helga Watt: What about second majors? Answer: Reports can be provided to each department.

Andy Devine: Can students print out their APRs? Answer: Yes, all will be ready come advising week.

Dennis closed his session with a reminder that grades will be posted on myweb from now on (including the current quarter. Professors can still get paper bubble grade sheets for their courses. If faculty use electronic grade reporting, they will have three additional days to post their grades.

6) No new business.

7) The meeting was adjourned promptly at 1:30 p.m.