Maryland's Public System of Higher Education

The Chair, Roy Ross, called the meeting to order at 10:14 a.m.

Janet Magruder welcomed everyone to the UMBC campus. Tim Ford explained that Dr. Freeman Hrabrowski, President of UMBC, would be unable to attend due to giving testimony in Annapolis.

Roy Ross welcomed everyone and our guests introduced themselves. Roy welcomed back Sandy Ratke after a lengthy illness. Roy also commented that he found it interesting that the employees on campus call Dr. Hrabrowski by his first name - a strong testament to the employee / management relationship at the UMBC institution.

III. Approval of Minutes

The minutes from the January 30, 2001 Council Meeting were accepted with the noted corrections.

Roy Ross started his report with the Chancellors Council meeting of February 5^th. He reported that there was nothing of importance to the Council.

The Board of Regents meeting was held February 9th at University College and there was a lengthy discussion among the Regents about collective bargaining. The Regents took a vote on whether to support collective bargaining. Roy reported that the vote was 8 for, 4 abstaining, and 5 not present. Roy asked whether an impact study had been conducted with peer institutions and Regent Chapman stated that it had not. It was mentioned that amendments will be proposed so that the vote will be an institution by institution vote.

At this point Craig Weidemann, Provost for Professional Development & Training at UMBC arrived to welcome the Council. Mr. Weidemann spoke about the excitement being generated around their campus because of the $30 million in construction that is being conducted. This year they have the brightest, largest freshman class ever. The institutions' grants should top $70 million this year. He went on to mention that the Staff make important contributions - they may be the things you don't readily see, but they are important nonetheless.

Roy Ross then proceeded to update us on the collective bargaining issue. There will be a joint hearing with the Finance and Budget & Taxation committees on March 1, 2001. This is not a normal occurrence. The message we're receiving is that collective bargaining is an expensive proposition and because of this Budget & Taxation will be raising different kinds of questions.

Also interesting is the Tuition Waiver bill, House Bill 336. The issues with this bill are the fiscal note (institutions feel it's too high), available class space, and age criteria for dependents. Members of the Council also stated that we had no notice of this bill at all and are concerned that the communication avenues are not functioning properly. Donald Tynes just happened to be in Annapolis the day this bill was heard and Dr. T.J. Bryan from Academic Affairs testified for the System. It was requested that CUSS be added to the reflector group for legislative issues. Craig Newman passed out copies of the bill for the Council's use and was asking for the Council's endorsement for the bill. Discussion about this was:

Craig Newman: We could take a general vote in favor of supporting tuition remission.

Starrla Levine: Is concerned that non-system schools (i.e., Morgan and St. Mary's) would receive tuition remission without any of the responsibilities.

Richard Rose: Morgan and St. Mary's could get more from this legislation than we would. He thinks the Communications Committee should do some research so that we don't get taken by surprise.

Tim Ford: We should make a decision one way or the other quickly. We should make a statement about the fact that we were not included in the discussions.

Richard Rose: Suggested that he will set up an automated system that will inform the Council about bills we should be concerned with.

Rosario van Daalen: Explained that the Legislative office is understaffed: Frank Komenda is in his last session with the System as he'll be retiring at the end of the year, Janet Bacon is brand new, and there is one Administrative Assistant for their office.

Fran Younger: It would be great if this legislation went through. UMCES at Solomons employees would be able to attend at St. Mary's, which is much closer than any USM institution.

Roy Ross: Would like the Communication Committee to present the Council with any amendments to the legislation.

It was decided that when the amendments are known, they would be sent to the Council and we will then take an e-mail vote as to the position we will take.

Donald Tynes let us know that the Optional Retirement Program was heard. Both Donald and Rosario van Daalen testified. There were no questions from the legislators. Morgan, St. Mary's and Baltimore City Community College are all in support of the legislation.

There are three new Regents. Patricia Florestano the former Secretary of the Higher Education Commission, Jim Rosapepe, a former Representative from Prince George's County, and Bruce Marcus.

The Contingent Policy (Policy VII-1.40) was approved by the Board of Regents February 9, 2001. It includes Jury Duty leave. The policy is very prescriptive regarding the conversion of Contingent II employees after two years. The period of completion for these conversions is February 9, 2001 until February 9, 2004 - a period of three years. Two years of continuous service must be completed before conversion is mandatory. If service is continuous, service credit will be given. This is not included for purposes of retirement, just seniority and leave.

The Domestic Partners issue was raised again at the Chancellor's Council by the Diversity Network, made up of EEO representatives from all the institutions. The question of whether to revisit this issue was raised. This was a large issue the last time it was looked at. At the first level, an institutional level, we are looking at library and wellness center privileges. At the second level, a systemwide level, we are looking at tuition remission for example. Third level is the heath benefit issue, which is raised at the State.

Returning to House Bill 336, Richard Rose was able to print out the bill. It was read to the Council (a 15 line bill). It was decided that we still need to see the amendments in order to make an informed decision. Richard called Janet Bacon and she told him no amendments have been filed yet. She will check and get back to us. Delegate Turner has been putting pressure on the System to put something in writing. Janet went on to say that Morgan State has not testified and that St. Mary's was less than enthusiastic.

Roy Ross, before breaking for lunch, asked everyone to join him in wishing Rosario van Daalen a very happy birthday.

Communications

They will continue to monitor Legislative issues that involve the USM.

Benefits

They are looking into enhancements to the Building Excellence through Staff Training program (B.E.S.T), possibly professional development by providing tuition remission for non-credit classes taken on campus.

Compensation

They still need the report on merit pay from Donald Tynes. They hope to have it soon.

Community Development

The Board of Regents' Staff Awards are due to Roy Ross by March 1, 2001. We have a number of institutions that haven't done anything with regard to submitting the nominees yet. The CUSS Representatives need to be proactive with their institutions. The sub-committees are being put together. We are also looking into guidelines for rating the packages so that they will be looked at objectively.

Discussion involved whether or not to give an extension with so many schools having no submissions. It was decided since the information packets had been mailed to the Presidents before Thanksgiving that we should stick to the March 1 deadline. The Council granted Roy executive decision on whether or not to include late arriving packets.

There was no old business.

There was no new business that wasn't already covered.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:35 p.m. The next CUSS meeting will be held at UMUC on March 27, 2001.