21 April 2010

Staff Advisory Council
Meeting Minutes for 21 April 2010

Attendance:

Betsy Durning, Cathy Pescatore, Tami Gura, Janet McSwiggan, and John Dukes

Ex Officio Members:

Melanie Young, Shar LaMar

Follow-up to All Staff Meeting

  • In response to the question about opportunities for shredding personal documents following the identity theft presentation, SAC notes that State representative Bryan Lentz hosted a free shredding event in April. Staff members interested in future shredding opportunities are encouraged to check Representative Lentz's website for dates and times. The link for his web site is: http://www.pahouse.com/Lentz/
  • Staff members are also encouraged to post information about other similar opportunities in the Faculty Staff Digest.

SAC Nominations

  • The following staff members have been selected to serve as SAC representatives beginning next year: Lisa Maginnis will represent Tarble Circle, Linda Hunt will represent Scott Circle, Kelly Fitzpatrick will represent Whittier Circle and Cassy Burnett will represent Lang Circle. New representatives for Magill Circle and South Circle are yet to be determined.
  • The possibility of adding a "SAC" Corner to the Gathering to highlight areas of innovation was mentioned.

Parking

  • Parking issues came up again due to the winter snows. SAC expressed frustration with parking enforcement, particularly when student vehicles are involved.
  • If employees encounter a parking problem at a loading dock or handicap space, they are to call Public Safety immediately and wait at that spot for resolution.

Memorial Day/Labor Day

SAC formed a subcommittee in September to examine the issues and possibilities around additional holidays for Memorial and Labor Day. After gathering and examining data over the course of the academic year, the subcommittee submitted a recommendation to the President's staff that the college add a second floating holiday to the staff holiday calendar.

The President's Staff gave careful review to the proposal made to add an additional floating holiday to the College's holiday schedule. They expressed an appreciation of the desire staff have to be able to take Memorial Day or Labor Day off without taking a vacation day, but felt that this was not the right time to add more benefits. We have eliminated a number of vacant positions and restructured our health care benefit in order to address the issues caused by the recession and drop in our endowment, and we still have a gap of over one million dollars to solve. They encourage departments to be creative in their operational scheduling so that as many employees who want to can take one or both of these days off to be with their families.

Handbook Changes

  • Melanie Young presented the handbook changes that will be made.

Being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:30 am

Respectfully submitted,
Beth Baksi
Whittier Circle Representative