The Senate meeting began with the swearing in of your new 2008-2009 Senate Officers: Jennyfer Owensby, President; Barb Nagel, Ex-Officio; Janel Harder (excused absence to be sworn in at July meeting), Vice President; Carolyn Elliott, President-Elect; John Wolf, Treasurer; Lois Schreiner, Secretary, Melissa Linenberger, At-Large.
Gary Leitnaker reported that Human Resources sent approximately 900 positions (out of 1800) to Topeka for the first round of market adjustments. It is a very good first start.
Jennyfer Owensby, Barb Nagel, Janel Harder, Marlene Walker, Connie Kissee & Sam Reyer attended the Signing Ceremony of House Bill 2916. After the signing, Governor Sebelius shook hands with all the Commission members standing behind her. Someone on the Commission directed Governor Sebelius to where we were standing to shake hands, hand out signing pens and take pictures (posted on our home page, http://www.k-state.edu/class-senate/). To say the least, we were thrilled to be singled out of a large group of people on the Capitol steps for that honor. More than one Commission member commented on wanting to keep K-State Classified Senate/CSSC involved during the implementation process as they iron out the details. We told them we would be glad to help in any way we could.
On a personal note, I would like to take a moment to thank Deputy Secretary Carol Foreman (Dept. of Administration), George Vega (Director Division of Personnel Services-DPS), Ken Otte (DPS), Gavin Young (DPS), Representative Lee Tafanelli, Representative Tom Hawk, Senator Roger Reitz, Representative Pat George, Senator Laura Kelly, Neville Kenning (Hay Group), Senator Vicki Schmidt, Dr. Richard Lariviere (KU Provost), Patricia Henshall (Kansas Judicial Branch), and Secretary Jim Garner (Kansas Department of Labor) for their work on this legislation. These people devoted 1 - 2.5 years of work to give state employees a more fair and market-based pay plan. We have only touched the surface on what needs to be done for full implementation. There is still a lot more work for many of these people to do. This truly has been a monumental, bi-partisan effort. Representative Tom Hawk gave K-State's Classified Senate kudos in his 2008 Legislative Wrap Up (pdf) for our work on the new pay plans . . . GO CATS!!
The Board of Regents approved the Regents Classified Employees Enhanced Leave Proposal on June 12, 2008. You can read the official leave accruals in the revised Board of Regents Policy Manual (pdf) (see manual pg 50, Adobe Reader pg 60). As I indicated in an earlier email, many employees will now earn more vacation leave. However, classified employees lost the ability to move 40 hours of sick leave to vacation leave (beginning June 2009).
The Classified and Support Staff Council (CSSC, formerly KCCS) will meet in Wichita on July 2. A small group of K-State Classified Senators will attend the meeting.
President Reginald Robinson, Board of Regents, requested a list of names from Classified Senate to serve on the K-State President Search Committee. We were honored to be asked to serve on such an important Committee.
Barb Nagel reported on a proposal for the development of a committee to make recommendations on Recognition Ceremony and the Classified Employee of the Year award process. A small group of Senators will be asked to sit on the committee along with a group of employees across campus. The goal will be to retain the departmental process for awarding their Classified Employee of the Year (keeping the option to award up to $300 for each dept.) while creating a more prestigious award for the Recognition Ceremony. Last year, Classified Senate conducted a survey on the Recognition Ceremony. A large percentage of employees wanted to see a more prestigious/selective award process for the Recognition Ceremony with a reading of why each employee was nominated.
Barb Nagel reported the Alternative Service Committee has voted to suspend their activity. They will monitor the implementation of the new pay plans and possibly dissolve the Committee if the pay plans are implemented and funded as they were designed.
I reported that Classified Senate was asked to serve on the new Background Check Committee. This committee has been given the duty to develop a policy for conducting background checks for felonies and misdemeanors on all new hires (excluding student, temporary, vendors/contractors, interns & unpaid volunteers). The Board of Regents mandated this policy to be implemented by September 1, 2008. One of the main goals of this committee is to implement this change without serious impact to the length of time it takes to hire a new employee.
Barb Nagel was appointed by Jennyfer Owensby to continue to serve on the Emergency Messaging Committee. They are currently looking into ways to encourage students, faculty and staff to sign up for this important service.
Classified Senate discussed various parking issues at Lafene and rates for the new parking garage. We believe it would be a good idea to find a way to have a formal voice on the Parking Council to bring these types of issues to their attention for discussion.
Richard Brenner asked to have a formal discussion on adopting a 4-day 10 hour work week at K-State due to rising fuel costs and the large number of employees who commute to work. This item was put on the July agenda.
I apologize for not getting these notes out sooner. However, I was waiting on the formal decision from the Board of Regents on the leave enhancement issue.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding any of these issues or have a new issue you would like to see Classified Senate address, please contact one of your Senators (http://www.k-state.edu/class-senate/senators.html). We are committed to serving the needs of the campus community.
Sidenote: The below email was sent to HR professionals by Alma Deutsch. I thought I would forward the information to all classified employees. Any employee can access HRIS (PeopleSoft) using their eID to look at current/past pay checks; change W-4 withholding information; check personal information, leave balances, total compensation reports, and benefits information. I hope some of you find the information useful.