THE ADVISORY COUNCIL ON ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY
MINUTES OF THE
REGULAR MEETING
March 13, 2003
MEMBERS PRESENT: John Mullen (F), William Lindemann (F), Elliott Willman (F), Bobbi Raub (F), Terry Cook (P), Mary Berry (Alternate for Monica Smiggen) (P), Shaun Cooper (P), Maureen Camunez (P), Tim Nesbitt (P), Norma Ledesma (P), Viola McCormick (C), Robert Medina (C), Ida Quinones (C), Cathy Thomas (C), Irene Fierro (C), Paula Ross (Alternate for Christie Padilla) (C), Linda S. Beavers (OLC) and Ida Chavez (OLC).
VISITORS: Janet May (Personnel), Bob Howell (Personnel), Quentin Ford (Pioneers), Phil Hosford (President of Pioneers) and Michael Levine (Insurance Committee).
ALTERNATES PRESENT: Tina Byford (Insurance Committee).
Maureen Camunez called the regular meeting of the Advisory Council on Administrative Policy (ACAP) to order at 3:00 p.m. in room 317 of Corbett Center. Maureen introduced Quentin Ford and Phil Hosford from Pioneers and welcomed them to our meeting.
Maureen requested that a change be made to the January minutes. The change comes in the paragraph “Pioneer Members as Ex-Officio Member to ACAP. The change requested would be that the Ex-Officio member WOULD BE REQUIRED to be a member of Pioneers and not that the Ex-Officio member would not be required to be a member of Pioneers. A motion was made and seconded to make the new Ex-Officio member representing Pioneers on ACAP be a member of Pioneers. Motion passed.
Maureen called for additions or corrections to the minutes of the February ACAP meeting. Tim Nesbitt requested a change in his Budget Committee report. He requested that the word moderate be changed to modify. A motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes with Tim’s change. Motion passed.
INSURANCE COMMITTEE REPORT. Tina Byford, Chair of the Insurance Committee and Janet May gave a presentation on the proposed health insurance plan from Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
The following information is taken from the handout entitled “Report from the Insurance Committee”.
At the Insurance Committee meeting on Tuesday, February 25th, the Insurance Committee passed a motion to support an increase in health insurance premiums and a plan change. In considering whether to pass the motion, they discussed that there are two types of subscribers to the plan: the users of the plan and the nonusers of the plan. The motion passed will be for a 15-20% increase in premium – affecting both parties and plan changes that will pass the rest of the increase in cost on to the users of the plan. The 15-20% increase will be different for each of the different plans. The plan changes are substantial.
Points on the plan:
Note: A report provided by Personnel indicates that 842 members will have to switch plans. Of the 842 members, 82% (689) of the POS enrollees are in the $25,000 and above income bracket. Our concern has always been that we would make a change that would force the lower paid employees at NMSU off the plan. The POS plan is more expensive than the HMO plan so the impact of the switch as to premium payments will be less. There are 153 members from the lower insurance plan defined income brackets that will have to switch plans.
This is obviously a very high review. Employee benefits will be conducting a session to explain all the changes to the community in April.
These changes appear drastic, but the alternative is a 28% increase for everyone. The Insurance Committee does support the changes in the premiums and plan offerings as the fairest solution to rising costs. Personnel will be negotiating with BCBS (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) in the next two weeks. We ask for ACAP’s support of the preliminary plan.
Tina and Janet explained that BCBS is still working with Personnel and that these figures and plan revisions could still be adjusted.
A motion was made and seconded to accept the proposal from the Insurance Committee and BCBS. A great deal of discussion and questions followed. It was the consensus of the Council that they would like to have a plan that had a better range for the copay on prescription drugs. They would like to see the caps on prescriptions moved down to make copayments lower. Since they are still negotiating with BCBS, it was felt that the Insurance Committee and Personnel could bring this into their discussions. The motion was then modified to accept the proposal presented by the Insurance Committee but to request that they look at revising the caps on prescriptions be moved down so as to make copayments lowers. Motion seconded and passed.
FRINGE BENEFITS COMMITTEE: Cathy Thomas reported that the Fringe Benefits Committee had met on February 19th and again on March 5th to review a total of five items referred by President Gogue and/or Employee Benefits. In her handout to Council, she describes each item and the Fringe Benefits Committee’s recommendation to ACAP.
Prior to 2001-2002 academic year, retirees received free tickets for themselves and their spouses for all theatre productions (excluding the Christmas show). Retirees could pick up tickets any time prior to the event.
During the 2001-2002 academic year, retirees received free tickets for themselves and their spouses for all theatre productions (excluding the Christmas show), but had to pick up tickets 30 minutes prior to the production and only if the production was not sold out.
During 2002-2003 academic year, retirees will receive free tickets to two shows of the theatres choosing each theatre season for themselves and their spouses. For all other shows, retirees may purchase thickets for the productions at the student rate.
After reviewing the information and taking into consideration the possible financial implications and the rising number of retirees, the Committee agreed that ideally everyone would like to see all Theatre productions sold out and, at the very least, every seat filled for every performance. It was felt that the policy that would best accomplish this goal while also providing the retirees with a good benefit, would be the policy established for the 2001-2002 academic year. A memo to this effect was sent to Professor Cantrell in Theatre Arts and she responded with a request to make a couple of changes to this policy and gave reasons for the changes. The revision were then emailed to the Committee and all agreed to the revised policy.
Recommendation from Fringe Benefits regarding the NMSU Theatre Policy on Tickets for Retirees: The Fringe Benefits Committee recommends that the following policy be adopted. Retirees receive free tickets for themselves and their spouses for all theatre productions [excluding the Holiday show and Musical (if produced)]. Retirees may only pick up tickets 30 minutes prior to the production on a space available basis with priority being given to paying customers.
The Fringe Benefits Committee also recommends that the Chair of ACAP send a letter to the President requesting that the Administration look into providing some type of funding support for the departments/units on campus that provide some type of retiree benefits and has to absorb the entire cost of these benefits.
Discussion followed. A recommendation was made that retirees could pay the same cost that a student would pay and not have to pick up their ticket 30 minutes ahead of time. The Council decided that they would support the recommendation of the Fringe Benefits Committee and a motion was made and seconded that the recommendation that retirees receive free tickets for themselves and their spouses for all theatre productions [excluding the Holiday show and Musical (if produced)] and that they may only pick up tickets 30 minutes prior to the production on a space available basis with priority being given to paying customers . Motion passed.
Janet May requested the Fringe Benefits Committee to consider a request for Temporary Faculty/Temporary Staff to receive a tuition waiver.
It was the feeling of the Committee that this benefit would not be something that could be offered at just the branch campuses. Also, it could create an accounting nightmare in the cases where a temporary faculty is hired to teach a class for a semester and enrolls for a free class. If the class the instructor is hired to teach is then cancelled, the instructor would then not be a temporary employee and would have to reimburse the tuition. If this benefit were offered, it would have to be offered at all university campuses, not just the branches. Also, it was felt that if a tuition waiver were given to temporary faculty/staff it would erode the benefits provided to full-time faculty/staff.
Recommendation: The Fringe Benefits Committee recommends that no change be made in the Tuition Waiver Benefits.
Discussion followed. A motion was made and seconded to accept the recommendation of the Fringe Benefits Committee. Motion passed.
The Provost requested that the Fringe Benefits Committee review the present policy on Tuition Remission and make a recommendation on changing the number of credit hours from no more than four (4) credit hours to no more than six (6) credit hours. After much discussion, the Committee makes the following recommendation to ACAP.
Recommendation: The Fringe Benefits Committee recommends that the number of credit hours allowed under the Tuition Remission policy be changed from. . . “no more than four (4) credits (supported by regular I&G funding) per semester without charge” to . . . “no more than six (6) credits per semester during the academic year and no more than four (4) credit hours per each summer session (supported by regular I&G funding) without charge.
Discussion followed. A motion was made to accept the Fringe Benefits Committee’s recommendation to expand from four to six the allowed course hours for the free course. Motion passed.
Legal – After review and analysis of the RFP’s received, Janet May provided information for consideration by the Committee and based on services offered vs. benefit costs to the employees, the Committee recommended that the University go with a proposal by Hyatt.
Vision – RFP’s were received from three vendors and after viewing them, total benefits from Superior was by far the best. The Committee was asked to choose between 3 levels of service based on premium costs vs. benefits offered. The Committee recommended the “Gold Preferred Plan” with a $15/$25 co-pay.
Recommendation: The Fringe Benefits Committee recommends that ACAP support both of these items.
Discussion followed. The Council voted to table this suggestion until our next meeting.
Employee Benefits and the Personnel Office looked at several different retiree dental plans and the one they brought the Committee was from Delta Dental. This benefit will only be available to retirees who have the university medical insurance and 20% of eligible retirees must enroll for the plan to take effect. The premiums will be approximately $26.99/month for retiree only and $79.11/month for retiree and dependents. This will be a voluntary benefit with the retiree paying the full premium.
Recommendation: The Fringe Benefits Committee recommends that ACAP support his voluntary benefit for retirees.
Discussion followed. A motion was made and seconded to accept the recommendation of the Fringe Benefits Committee. Motion passed.
FACULTY SENATE: Elliott Willman submitted the following report as a handout. There was no discussion of his report.
The Faculty Senate met on March 6th. In that meeting, Proposition 13-02/03 was passed. The proposal would have the 120 minutes of
class time resulting from the Final Exam period be included in the calculation
of ‘contact hours’. This would shorten
each semester by a little under a week.
A 3-credit course requires 2250 minutes of instruction/contact
time.
CAMPUS PLANNING: Robert Medina submitted the following report as a handout. There was no discussion of his report.
The Campus Planning Committee met on March 5th. Information: Martin Hoffmeister introduced Maureen Camunez. She presented the plans to change the appearance of Genesis Building A. The addition will consist of windows around the building and paid for out of the Genesis Building revenues. The motion to support this project was moved and everyone was in favor.
Mr. Hoffmeister then presented updates on projects.
n The Health and Social Services projected date of completion should be Spring, 2004.
n The DABCC (East Mesa) project will be back on track in May due to a slight delay.
n The Stadium Annex bids are out for the redesign of the 3rd and 4th floor areas. The reason for the bidding was an oversight on the costs.
n The Ag Institute project is going good. The Parking Office is scheduled to move into the Ag Institute the week of April 18th.
n The Golf Club House – there has been delays due to the design. In two weeks from now the bid should go out. The start of the project forecasted for mid May. A completion date was given as then months from the start of the project.
n The Foster Hall nine million dollar project will be done in two phases. The first phase will be the research areas because of the importance of their timely projects to be completed. The second phase will be the actual renovation of the building. The bids will go out March 4. The estimated completion date is set for 2005.
Ben Woods then gave a brief overview on the current Capital Outlay and the 12 million dollars requested for the O’Donnell Hall renovation project. Basically, it will be an uphill battle for the funds to begin the project. The request for the monies will be included in the next General Obligation Bond. He also mentioned that the concept for an Early Childhood Development Center is vague at this time.
The meeting was then adjourned so that the Council could attend the Roberts’ Award Ceremony at 4:00 p.m.
_________________________ _____________________________
Paula Ross, Secretary Maureen Camunez, Chairperson
The Council has approved these minutes.
NOTICE OF NEXT MEETING
THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2003
NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BUILDING
3190 ESPINA
3:00 P. M.