MSU-BOZEMAN PROFESSIONAL COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
December 19, 2001
PRESENT: Leslie Schmidt, Clyde Carroll, Jim Manning.
ABSENT: Jim Mitchell, Becky Ward, Carina Beck.
The meeting was called to order by Chair Elect Leslie Schmidt at 2:00
PM. The minutes of the November 14, 2001, Professional Council
meeting were approved as distributed.
Definition of professionals - Kathy Attebury, Interim Director,
University Budget Office.
- A handout comparing Professional FTE for FY98 - FY02 at MSU and
UM was distributed. Contract professionals (on Board of Regents
contracts) are included. There is also a category "classified
professional" which includes union-exempt classified employees.
- The number of contract professionals at MSU is significantly
higher than at UM. MSU receives significantly more money in
restricted funds (research grants) than UM, and this is where
many of MSU's professionals are employed.
- A comparison of "classified professional" employees at MSU and
UM would be interesting. Would UM have more employees in this
category?
- During related discussion, it was agreed that to determine
Professional Council membership, all employees in the category
61124, except those specifically excluded by the constitution
will be represented by Professional Council. (Excluded by the
constitution are employees on appointments less than .25FTE,
executives responsible for the direction and management of the
institution as a whole or of academic colleges and departments.
Assistant and associate deans and assistants to a dean are
included in Professional Council representation.)
- A listserv which will be easier to maintain than the current
Professional Council e-mail list will soon be ready for use,
hopefully early in spring semester.
Report from the Chair Elect - Leslie Schmidt.
- Leslie attended University Governance Council on December 12.
- Nominations for the Strategic Planning Committee are to be
submitted to the Provost by several constituencies,
including Faculty Council and Professional Council.
- The 10-month AY faculty pay plan was discussed. During
this discussion, the issue of receiving paychecks on the
11th of each month was again raised.
- Vice Provost for Student Affairs Yarnell and Interim
Athletic Director Lewis reported on efforts currently taking
place to deal with the continuing deficit in Athletics.
Nominations for the Strategic Planning Committee.
- Four individuals have been nominated for the Strategic Planning
Committee. It is requested that two names be forwarded to the
Provost as nominees. After discussion, it was agreed the names
of Mary Noll and Gretchen Rupp will be forwarded to the Provost
as professional employee nominees. One individual will be
appointed to the SPC.
- The Chair Elect will forward the names to the Provost and
contact the individuals nominated.
Proposed University System Computer Use Policy - Executive Director
and CIO Mark Sheehan.
- It was decided during summer 2001 that the state of Montana
needed policies to cover use of computers by state employees.
They were prepared by the Department of Administration and
approved. However, the state policies don't necessarily apply to
the university system, where 90% of the users are students and
where there is a need for guaranteed confidentiality, privacy and
academic freedom.
- Mark Sheehan and Ray Ford (UM) drafted policies for the Montana
University System. It is not known if the state will accept
these policies for the MUS, but because of issues particularly
affecting universities, it is hoped they will be.
- Initial drafts of the policies were distributed at the November
Board of Regents meeting. By December 28, comments must be made
about the policies to be included in the Submission Item draft on
the January BOR agenda. There will again be opportunity to
comment before the policies are included as an Action Item at the
March BOR meeting.
- People are encouraged to look at the policies and send comments
regarding them to Mark. When the draft policies are accessed on
the web (http://www.montana.edu/itpolicy/) a form for making
comments is found at the end of each policy. The equivalent
state policy is also listed with each draft university system
policy.
- Two policies to particularly note is Policy 002, which makes
the university system responsible for instructing each employee
(and student) about the policies and responsible for knowing the
employees and students understand them; and Policy 003, which
requires the display of a banner screen on every computer stating
the user is aware of and consents to the state policies.
- Because of the passage of SB 131, the Montana Information
Technology Act, the state now feels more responsible for
implementing policies and for providing oversight in information
technology issues within the university system.
Process of mediation for professionals.
- There is agreement that there needs to be opportunity for
mediation somewhere between the grassroots level and the
grievance process. There currently is no satisfactory process
for settling legitimate concerns informally.
- After discussion, it was agreed Leslie will contact Ron Larsen,
Chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee, to talk with him about
the proposal for an ombudsman which will be presented to Faculty
Council Spring Semester. Faculty have expressed interest in
having professionals participate in an ombudsman process, if it
can be established.
- It was pointed out that an ombudsman does not have the final
say on the outcome of a conflict, but the person can facilitate a
solution.
- If an ombudsman process is approved by Faculty Council and
Professional Council, a proposal will have to be submitted to
UPBAC before becoming part of a mediation process.
As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:15 PM.