THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE STAFF COUNCIL MEETING OF September 28, 2006

The first regular meeting of the Staff Council for the 2006-2007 academic year was held in the Recreation Center Studio Blue at the 1604 Campus at 8:30 a.m., with Patti Dunn, Chair, presiding.

Call to Order

Members present: Marlon Anderson, Stefanie Barlow, Kim Brandt, Bradley Chandler, Carlita Contreras, Patti Dunn, Maria Espericueta, Janie Garcia, Roy Garza, Sarah Gonzales, Carol Gonzalez, Neva Hughes, Sabina Kapoor, Belinda Munoz, CeCe Ortegon, Cindy Orth, Derrick Ozuna, Rachel Pullen, Shirley Rowe, Dee Russell-Terrell, Susan Sandoval, Nina Sosa, Anne Speights, Melissa Tenberg, Cissy Thorpe, Velma Tristan, Maria Villarreal, Lori Zerr

Members absent: Veronica Cortez (excused), Sharon Cropper, Kim Ellicks-Center (excused), Laurie Gay, Minnie Martinez, Amy Strong

Minutes of the August 10, 2006 Meeting Reviewed & Approved

Elections of Executive Board Members

The following were elected for this year’s vacant executive board positions:

Vice Chair – Marlon Anderson

Secretary/Historian – Derrick Ozuna

Parliamentarian – Bradley Chandler

Elections of Committee Chairs

The following were elected for this year’s vacant committee positions:

Employee Benefits/Compensation – Veronica Cortez

Communications – Sabina Kapoor

Elections/Membership – Dee Russell-Terrell

Fund Raising – Melissa Tenberg

Bylaws – Lori Zerr

Issues – Shirley Rowe

New Business

Why are employees required to respond to reprimands in only five days, as opposed to the 10-day grievance response time required of supervisors? Can this be extended to seven days? This is being referred to the Issues committee.

If an employee is working towards advancing their education, can this ensure an automatic promotion? What promotion plans are there? Human Resources is beginning a job-progression program to address promotions within certain job families. Currently, only the administrative professional job family has a structured job-progression plan wherein an employee, should they meet the educational and/or experiential requirements for a higher job title, could apply for evaluation to be quickly reclassified.

Can there be an investigation to ensure that individual offices have sufficient support staff, thereby lessening workload overages in understaffed offices? Such an assessment is possible if an appropriate request is sent to Human Resources.

There has been a Saturday incident where bus stops were closed off and temporary bus stops were opened elsewhere on campus, though there was no notice of the change to bus riders. What efforts may be made to improve route-change communication? This will be forwarded to the Office of Parking & Transportation.

Since some parking space stripes are difficult to see, can these stripes be repainted in a more regular fashion? Additionally, it has been observed that at times, these stripes are painted during busy school times; can more appropriate timeframes be assigned? This will be forwarded to Parking & Transportation.

Can there be a reevaluation of the requirement of buying a full parking permit for those students or members of staff who will only be using parking in a very minimal way? This will be forwarded to Parking & Transportation.

Why must University members purchase a separate parking permit for each of their cars? This is addressed by a new Parking & Transportation policy allowing for up to three warnings per year before getting ticketed.

Members from the UTSA Insurance Advisory Council will visit us at our November meeting.

Next Meeting

October 26, 2006, in the Recreation Center Studio Blue, at the 1604 Campus.

Meeting Adjourned

Minutes prepared by Derrick Ozuna, Secretary/Historian