Officers of Administration
at the University of Oregon

Partnership with Oregon: Three main aims:

• Greater flexibility to increase non-state revenues (Gives us more flexibility to gather revenue from places other than the state.)
• The ability to operate more efficiently (Example: if somebody donated $10,000,000 for us to build a building with, it would take us 6-8 months to get permission from state agencies to accept it!)
• The ability to increase entrepreneurial activity and transfer of technology.

See the page above for more information.

Conclusion: He thanked us again for our hard work and dedication to the UO, then suggested that the VPs in attendance tell us about what they do.

Questions and answers were entertained from the audience; we talked a bit about recruitment of minorities (faculty, staff and students), and about the benefits for faculty and staff family members to take courses at the reduced rate. UO has a net gain of family members as students in the OUS system! More folks from other OUS schools come here than UO family members going to the other OUS schools.

President Frohnmayer then invited the VPs to provide a brief description of their jobs. John Moseley, Lorraine Davis, Richard Linton, Dan Williams, and Allan Price all chatted with us about their enjoyment of their jobs, what they do, and then thanked us for our participation in making the UO the great place that it is.

What have we done this year?

• Worked with HR on development of the OA evaluation process
• Further web site resources, cross-links with Human Resources site
  http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~oa/ o Support for and participation in the OA Project with Human Resources o Three part welcoming program for new OAs:
  • Letter from OA Council
  • OA-specific oriention program
  • Mentoring program
• Brown bags:
  • Jargon & acronyms (posted on web site)
  • Linda King: OA Project update and feedback
• Election change: Now in spring parallel to faculty election, using same methods and deadlines.

What we would like to do (already on our radar screen)

• Finish implementing some of the above that are just getting off of the ground
• Helping OAs become more professional
• Raise visibility
• Support Linda on the OA project

We next broke into four groups and discussed the following questions:

1. If you had to pick one or two major issues for the OA council to focus on, what woud they be?
   • Know about status of 1-year contracts (update info)
   • Lack of criteria for equity compensation
   • Lack of input from end users/integration between core officers and end users in decision-making process (ex. Purchasing software, training)
   • Professional Training (conferences, peer networking)
   • Who are the other OA's?
   • Classified - OA transition
   • Connections to related teaching faculty
   • Professional Development
     Ask HR what resources are available
     • Create an institutional expectation that training/PD will be made available to OA's who want it
     • Create a pool of money for PD grants for departments that don't have other funds available for that purpose.
   • The OA Orientation
     • Create a feedback loop by asking recent hires what information or other things they had difficulty finding. Add that to the next orientation. Several OA's who had been here longer than a year expressed interest in attending the orientation. Invite them to the next one? Hold a special one? Expand on the glossary we started by creating a database or available resources (equipment, services, people, etc.) Possibly add to or integrate with OHMAC (http://ohmac.uoregon.edu/).
   • Sabbatical and other paid leaves for OA's
   • Salary/COLA equity (within the UO and broader)
   • OA performance evaluations - getting your supervisor to do them
   • Position descriptions for your job
   • Changing maximum cap for vacation accruals
   • Accruing more vacation time based on seniority
   • Grievance procedures
   • Merit increase procedures

2. How would you like to receive information from the Council? (In what form, how often?)
   • E-mail as needed -- once per month is fine.

3. What brown bag toipcs would be of interest to you? What days of the week and times of the day are best for brown bags?
   • Equity: models from other campuses
   • Benefits: rumor control (email, bb)
   • Rumor mill
   • Minority Recruitment
   • Meet with Senate Reps.
   • Academic mission vs. admission/business mission
   • Contract negotiation - rumor control
   • PERS
   • Salary Issues
   • New OA brown bag welcome/networking
   • PERS update
   • PEBB update
   • SEIU negotiation update
   • Some sessions just for managers
   • Listing of events and funding opportunities for professional development
   • Info of services available to existing OA's - we tell new people - let's make sure that current people are informed
   • Timing - Best if not on lunch hours; vary days and times; some need to be longer than one hour depending on topic.
   • Lunch hours are O.K. - Tue, Wed, Thurs best>consider academic schedule (not at beginning or end of term)
   • Timing - later in week, variation in time and day

4. If you could be boss of the UO for a day and make anything happen, what would it be? (Doesn't have to be realistic.)
   • More classrooms
   • Multi-level parking structure
   • Curb service to office
   • Shuttle service from Autzen Stadium
   • Invite families (significant other, children) to lunch on campus
   • More money from athletics to academics
   • Athletics rents Autzen Stadium from UO
   • Free workshops for community (to Oregon) offered by faculty
   • Take the day off
   • Initiate flex-time
   • 12 hr. x 3 day shifts
   • Let supervisors supervise, discipline/reprimand and terminate employees
   • Pay increases for all
   • Pay increase of less than 5% should be COLA's
   • Get a performance appraisal
   • Free parking everywhere
   • Central Power Station improvements -efficiency via equipment output
   • Create "owner's manual" for campus buildings, much like the one that is planned for Lillis. Answer questions re: job security of OAs vs. classified employees

5. Comments
   • "My dept provides no professional training (no $) where there are many opportunities."
   • "My dept. does not evaluate OA's, I haven't even had an eval. in 13 years, another as long as 20 years."
   • "No raises. No promotions. I'm at 65% local rate. I don't see campus wide parity within my own profession and I don't see the council helping."

6. Topics for Discussion: PERS
   • Compensation and a contract, OR?
   • Status of PERS
   • Options: courts, legislature, quit?
   • Employees near retirement
   • Outside advisors, resources to assist OA's decision-making

The meeting ended.