CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEE PERSONNEL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

August 4, 2005 (President's Listserv announcement):
The campus community is invited to attend the next H and PE Remodel meeting scheduled for August 16th from 9:00am to 12:00pm in Ballroom B in the SUB. Your attendance is welcome.

The agenda will include updates on the following topics: - Materials and finishes - Exterior appearance - Concurrence on office configurations/layout, etc. - Identification of the changes in the wall near the multi purpose rooms - Resolution to the several outstanding issues such as duct socks, lighting, etc.

April 20, 2005 (President's Listserv announcement):
The H and PE Remodel committee will be meeting on April 28, 2005 in the Facilities Planning Quonset from 12:00pm to 3:00pm to continue discussion and review of the project. Please feel free to attend.

If you're interested in viewing the architectural project plans on line, please go to www.dowling-arch.com and click on the "MSU Rec Center" link in the bottom right-hand corner. These will be kept current as the project progresses.

April 7, 2005 - announcement via the President's listserv:
The campus community is invited to attend the next H and PE Remodel meeting scheduled for April 14th from 1:00 to 3:00 in the Facility Services Planning Quonset (across the street from the pay-parking lot). Among the agenda items are discussion and finalization of the interior floor plan and continued discussion of the exterior elevation.

March 17, 2005 - announcement via the President's listserv:
The H and PE Building Committee would like to invite the University Community to an H and PE Design Workshop on March 22nd from 1:15 to 5:00 in SUB 276.

March 9, 2005 - from CEPAC Minutes, March 9:
Fitness Center Renovations - review of information/communications. Bob O'Driscoll reported receiving a letter from President Gamble (2/9/05) apologizing for the inadequacy of opportunity for staff input into the Fitness Center project and providing for this to now take place. Sheron McIlhattan represented the classified staff at various subsequent meetings with the Design Committee and reported the details of her findings. Concerns communicated to Sheron focused mainly on changing rooms, showers, locker space, and the proposed use of a cool water swimming pool for the Young at Heart program. CEPAC agreed that our constituents' concerns have been met by the design now being offered. The only exception being the pool, but accommodations appear to be being researched here too. CEPAC has no clear understanding of how the $197,000 associated price tag will be funded, beyond the $100,000 already committed by the Administration. Further, we have no information regarding future employee user fees. CEPAC members stressed they could not support any additional financial burden, associated with this project, being placed upon the student body. Bob will attend University Governance Council this afternoon to give feedback, and to hear faculty and professional opinions. CEPAC's response to the President will be delivered tomorrow. It was agreed that the speedy solution of this problem indicates how well shared governance is working at MSU-Bozeman.

February 28, 2005 - President's listserv announcement:
On March 10th the meeting is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. in Ballroom C. This meeting is to finalize the interior design portion of the remodel. Everyone is invited to attend.

February 15, 2005 - Bob O'Driscoll, CEPAC Chair states:
In response to a memo from President Gamble last week to CEPAC, Faculty Council, and Professional Council, the H and PE design team will be holding a special session this Wednesday, Feb 16th from 2:30 – 5:00 PM SUB(Room number to be announced) to get additional input from concerned faculty and staff regarding the design of locker room facilities.

The purpose of this meeting will be to explain the current design, take input from potential faulty/staff users, and to explore possible enhancements or alternatives to the current design as may be necessary to adequately serve the full spectrum of users.

To assure that the views of classified staff are focused, Sheron McIlhattam, CEPAC member, has agreed to convey classified concerns to the Design team. Any of you are welcome to express your concerns to the Design team at the meeting, but it is also recommended that you get those concerns to Sheron so those issues can be compiled and presented by Sheron. Sheron’s email address is: sheronm@montana.edu.

Alternatives developed as a result of this meeting, will be subject to review and comment. It is then planned for Faculty Council, Professional Council, and CEPAC to make a formal recommendation to President Gamble on March 10th, with a final decision from the President to follow soon after.

Here is your chance, if you have concerns, to get them on the table, and hopefully have them reflected in the final design of the new facility. Because of the short time frame involved, it is requested that those of you who have contact with classified employees who do not have email, pass this information on to them to assure their inputs into the process.

January 19, 2005 - H and PE Open Door Design Report By Sheron McIlhattan
I attended the faculty/ staff portion of the design phase of the new H&PE Complex on Wednesday January 19th at 11:00 AM.

The object of these meetings is for the Architects to gather input from all concerned regarding design features on the new facility.

First it was noted that our use of Romney Gym is over. The decision has been made to renovate that building into classrooms and office space. Several objected to the fact the decision has apparently been made without input from the campus community.

The meeting focused mainly on the fact that faculty and staff want locker and shower facilities separate from students. The main concern is security. Committee members stressed this whole project is still in the planning stage and they are simply gathering input. They are asking how many lockers are needed and how big should they be. Several faculty members were very outspoken about the need for a separate locker area for faculty and staff and the need for a large locker space: large enough for long coats, dresses, basketballs and large boots.

It is the faculty and staff who rent lockers, usually not the students. Students often come to the facility from the dorm already in their gym clothes and go home to shower. They generally are comfortable with smaller cubbyholes for their belongings. We were reminded several times the students have agreed to certain minimal standards for lockers and were probably not willing to entertain the idea of an elaborate locker facility. Currently 892 lockers are rented to faculty and staff with approximately 800 more to students. The money faculty and staff pay for lockers goes to the students for maintenance of the building.

Next was the topic of showers. The architects tell us the idea of "gang showers" is obsolete. Now we will have individual shower stalls with a small outer room that has a curtain where one can dry off and dress in privacy. They were not sure how many of these individual shower stalls there would be. One person brought up the idea that if a person takes 20 minutes to dress, no one else would be able to use the shower. Since we have limited time on a lunch hour, waiting in line to shower is a problem.

The loss of the water aerobics pool was discussed. The architects said they are studying the matter. They are looking into a way to bring the temperature of part of the pool up. This will require considerable mechanical design changes if it is financially feasible.

Another alternative the committee is pursuing is a share program with Eagle Mount. Eagle Mount is building a new pool in their facility and there is a possibility of working out a deal with them for us to use it.

I suggest if any CEPAC member has input for the design of the Fitness Center to contact Ken Ostermiller, the classified representative on this committee keno@facilities.montana.edu. Or for suggestions regarding Romney (locker rooms etc) please email Craig Roloff, VP Administration croloff@montana.edu.

January 14, 2005 - Ken Ostermiller, Design Committee rep, informed CEPAC of a public general information meeting about the Fitness Center project on Tuesday, January 18 at 1.30 pm in Ballroom B. Information about the complete series of meetings happening next week will be available at that time.

Romney Gym was constructed in 1922. Both the locker/shower facilities and the pool have served well beyond their expected life-cycle, and are now rapidly becoming a very large deferred maintenance liability for the University.

The locker/shower facilities are heavily dependent upon rapidly deteriorating building infrastructure systems, which represent a significant near-term deferred maintenance liability. Plumbing systems (both supply and waste) that support the Romney locker rooms are very old, rapidly deteriorating, and in danger of failure - which represents a near-term deferred maintenance liability of at least $250,000.

The pool facility is an even larger liability. In late 2003 a specialist in pool installation and maintenance inspected the Romney Pool and advised the University that it should expect to spend about $450,000 to repair the pool, replace the deteriorated systems and bring the pool up to current code - excluding the costs of additional heating/ventilation work necessary to avoid continued future deterioration of replacement elements (due to an excessively moist environment). In addition, there is a reasonable likelihood that major mechanical components of the main pool systems will fail in the near future - and none of these are commercially available any longer.

Last Spring the Students voted to move ahead with a major renovation/expansion of the H and PE/Student Fitness Center. One element of this project includes an expansion to provide all necessary locker facilities, for all users.

MSU regularly faces the challenge of a constrained fiscal environment, and is continually confronted with the demand for more space to accommodate growing/evolving academic/research programs. Given this, the renovation/expansion of the Fitness Center offers MSU the opportunity to consolidate its locker/shower facilities and services into one location - which will result in less service costs. In addition, the decommissioning of the Romney Lockers and Pool will allow the University eliminate duplicative (and expensive) facilities, and avoid upwards of $1 million of near-term deferred maintenance costs. Finally, the decommissioning of these facilities will provide the opportunity for MSU, through its Space Management Committee, to begin exploring alternative uses of these spaces in Romney Gym.

During the next two or three years many of us will also continue to aggressively pursue alternative methods for continuing the popular Young At Heart fitness programs that are currently conducted in the Romney Pool.

Last Spring, all of this information was reviewed by both the Facilities Services Advisory Committee as well as the Space Management Committee. Both committees recommended that this course of action be approved. Upon a subsequent review by the President's Executive Committee, the President concurred with these recommendations. Subsequent to that, a presentation was made to Faculty Council, and a request was made for the nomination of someone who could represent employees, and specifically Romney Gym "users", on the Fitness Center Design Team.

Design work is just beginning on the Fitness Center renovation/expansion project. It is scheduled to be bid in January of 2006, with its construction scheduled for completion in December 2007. At that time, the Romney facilities will be decommissioned (unless they have suffered a major systems failure before that time).