Minutes of the Pleasantville/Briarcliff Administrative Staff Council Meeting

Wednesday, February 4, 2004

Butcher Suite, Campus Center, Pleasantville

The meeting was called to order at 8:45am by Karen Geldart co-chair.  Introductions were made.  December meeting minutes were approved.

Announcements:

Ø      Phyllis Bradbury: Grad Center switching to new phone system on 2/6.

Ø      Karen DeSantis: focus groups aimed at helping with Library’s effort to revise web page scheduled for 2/11 and 2/19: e-mail Karen to sign up.

Ø      Karen Geldart: Heather Novak was selected for task force on Master Plan chaired by Barbara Pennipede. Community Meeting is scheduled for 2/18.

Ø      Alba Shane: Training & Development calendar is now only available online.

Committee Reports:

Service Committee – Fran O’Gara reported that CLOUT Toy Drive went well; Daffodil Days scheduled for March; United Way Auction scheduled for 3/5.

Dyson Dean’s Search – Heather Novak reported that the 1^st candidate is on the PLV campus today. Heather reiterated that the Committee is seeking as much opinion and feedback as possible because it is very important.

Commission on Diversity-Alicia Elias-McNally reported that they have already met 4 times and are finalizing the Mission Statement.  Currently working on a survey and budget that will be presented to the President around mid-February.

Commission on 1% Reduction of Administrative Costs-Karen DeSantis reported that the 1^st meeting is scheduled for 2/5; 7 people are on the commission including faculty, students and staff. She thanked everyone that submitted suggestions.

Guest Speaker: Mr. Jamie O’Hara, University Director of Enrollment, accompanied by Joanna Broda, Director of Westchester Admissions and Scott Campbell, Director of International Admissions.

Distributed report that is given to both the Board of Trustees and Faculty Councils outlining enrollment statistics.

Ø      Most universities currently trying to put in place something to address disparity between ration of men to women: approx. 7 females for every 10 applications received

Ø      Division is proud of their numbers regarding diversity of student population

Ø      Enrollment Trend so far this year: applications on the rise by 5-8%

Ø      Provost conducting study for Retention purposes on reasons students are choosing to leave; there is really “no smoking gun” or 1 main reason

Ø      International admissions planning to recruit in 11 countries this year

Ø      SAT scores jumped an average of 30 points for new students; by 2008 want mean of 1135 in line with Strategic Agenda mandate to increase the academic profile

Speaker: Yvonne Ramirez, Vice-President of Human Resources

Conducted PowerPoint presentation to respond to the many questions she is getting about the unionization efforts and process.

Ø      When someone signs a union card, serves dual purpose: requests membership & allows union to be exclusive bargaining rep **University will never know who signed a card, but it may be reviewed by the NLRB

**If election does come up, everyone can vote, even if they did not sign a card

**Union needs signed cards from 30% of eligible voters to file petition

Ø      NLRB makes final decision on who is eligible: supervisors & managers are excluded; University considers full-time faculty ineligible; NLRB will probably direct an election for adjuncts during Spring Break

Ø      If election is successful and there is an agency agreement, uninterested employees do not have to pay dues, but they will have to pay fees since still covered/bound by terms of the contract

**Raffle Winner: Fran O’Gara