Present:  Marsha Richter, Cindy Stokes, Lori Drake, Nancy Collinwood, Shelley Henson, Teri Wood-Slaughter, Drew Weidman, Dane LeBlanc, Victoria Gorrell
Visitors:  President Ann Millner, Jeff Livingston, Candy Busby
Welcome:  Drew Weidman
Approval of Minutes from 10.13.03…Unanimous

 Action Items

ü      Get list of Box Elder representatives (Drew)

ü      Identify who among the legislators we know well enough to make personal contact with them during legislative session (Everyone)

ü      Bring redistricting information to President’s Council for approval (Marsha Richter)

Discussion

Planning Initiatives (President Millner).  Shared planning initiatives with PSAC.  She emphasized that these focus and build on our strengths.  Next steps with this process include empowering task forces to work on these initiatives.  There will be one or more Vice President (s) who champions each of these initiatives.  The campus community will have opportunity to provide additional feedback to task forces regarding these initiatives. These planning initiatives will impact where we invest our resources as a university.  We will need to work together as a university to make these happen.   The four initiatives are: 

1. Brand the institution by communicating the identity, quality and value of the Weber experience to internal and external audiences.
2. Enhance an institutional culture that supports the recruitment, retention, and recognition of excellent faculty and staff through inclusiveness, collaboration and a focus on student success.
3. Improve student preparation, development and retention by focusing on a comprehensive experience during their first year.
4. Foster student engagement opportunities available for all students through collaborative scholarly activities between faculty and students; learning- and service-oriented opportunities with the community; a focus upon life-long inquiry and learning; and support for a community of faculty scholars.

Winter Holiday Issue (Teri Wood-Slaughter:  A request regarding having an additional holiday the 24^th of December was made of President Millner.  She informed us that the President’s council would be meeting on the issue the following week and would make a decision.

Legislative Issues (Jeff Livingston, Legislative Liaison for WSU): Provided a list of legislators from Weber & Davis counties.  Discussed the approach President Millner is taking with the legislators.  She has requested that they build personal relationships with legislators in order to engender support for WSU and Higher Education issues.  There has been a positive response from legislators.  Discussed how there are lots of demands on the state tax revenues and that he is hopeful that some of the priorities listed above will be addressed by the legislature.  PSAC and other professional employees can be of assistance by getting involved as delegates, volunteering in campaigns, and identifying which of the legislators we know personally. He discussed the budget priorities that Higher Education and WSU are requesting of the legislators.  Those are…

1. Faculty/staff compensation (salary & benefits)
2. Additional funding to help waylay the costs of enrollment growth.  Asking them to start a plan to begin funding enrollment growth.
3. Overhead & Maintenance for the Davis Campus

New & Revised HR issues (Vicki Gorrell)  Two new/revised policies were discussed. PSAC made suggestions to help clarify the policies. 

1. The probationary period when an employee is first hired has been extended from 90 days to 6 months.  Along with this extension, there will be new processes for grievances for both probationary employees and hourly employees.
2. Voluntary Shared Leave was the other policy.  Now employees can voluntarily share their sick leave with another employee.  There are two ways to do this.  First, an employee can give their sick leave directly to another employee, as long as the receiving employee has supervisory approval.  The other way is to contribute excess sick leave to a “sick-leave pool” not designated for any particular person.  The sick-leave will be administered by a standing committee appointed by the President. 

Medical Benefits Update (Drew Weidman)

• Discussed the results of the survey
• The survey showed internal validity
• Many professional staff answered the survey.
• Most people are satisfied/very satisfied with the current medical plan
• Most people prefer to share costs via point of service instead of up-front costs.
• There was very little support for adding a second provider network

Motion to close meeting- Unanimous