Officers of Administration
at the University of Oregon

Minutes of Council Meetings

Demystifying OA Myths:

Meeting Tuesday, April 4, 2000
1-2p, Fir Room, EMU Welcome: Mark Turner, Chair of Officers Administration Association Council

Introduction of OAA Council

OAs who assist with special roles:

Also: acknowledgement of Linda King (Director of Human Resources) and Lorraine Davis (Vice Provost for Academic Affairs).

Our agenda: four short informational segments:

  1. Mark Turner: Overview of governing authority, information about OAA
  2. Ceci: What the council has been doing this year
  3. Mark Zunich: Documentation of policies and procedures that affect OAs
  4. Rachele: Faculty Advisory Committee survey
The rest of the time was dedicated to questions and comments. Fred and John moderated. Shirien took notes for posting on the web site.

  1. Overview of governance of OAs, Information about OAA: Mark Turner

    The big picture:
    The UO is part of the seven-campus Oregon University System, governed by the Oregon State Board of Higher Education. Under the laws of the state, the university president is also president of the faculty, and the executive and governing officer of the university. Subject to the supervision of the board, the president of the university has authority to control and give general directions to the practical affairs of the school. (Oregon Revised Statutes)

    Telephone directory organizational chart (pages 4 and 5) show the lines that report to the president of the UO:

    • University Assembly
    • *University Senate
    • *Faculty Advisory Committee
    • Provost and Vice Presidents
    • *Faculty and Administrative Committees
    OAs are everywhere within this organization.

    See Faculty Handbook. Section 1 is titled "University Governance, Organization and Administration".

    The University Senate

    from the Faculty Handbook:

    The University Senate The University Senate consists of forty-eight senate seats distributed among officers of instruction, librarians, officers of administration, and students as follows: thirty-seven officers of instruction, two librarians, three officers of administration, five students, and the president of the senate. Senate representatives are elected by their constituent bodies. The thirty-seven senators who are officers of instruction represent specific academic constituencies, according to a formula based on the approximate proportion of tenure-related full-time equivalent (FTE) appointments in the constituent units relative to the total University of Oregon tenure-related FTE. The five student senators represent academic majors and are chosen by the nine ASUO academic student senators in a method designed by the latter. They serve as student senators for the academic year.

    Faculty senators, including officers of instruction, officers of administration, and librarians, are elected to serve staggered two-year terms, according to election procedures specified in the University Senate charter, enabling legislation and bylaws. The university faculty define the voting membership in its governing bodies and have developed procedures for election to the University Senate that are described below.

    The University Senate is the main legislative body of the university. During the academic year, the University Senate elects a president, a vice president, and other officers it deems necessary. Officers are elected for one-year terms. The senate president chairs the senate meetings. Senate meetings are open to the public to the extent that space permits.

    The Handbook explains eligibility and voting criteria:

    Officers of administration holding appointments at .50 FTE or greater are eligible to be nominated for, serve as, and vote for officer of administration senators.

    Current OA Senators:

    • Carla Gary (Director, OMA)
    • Laura Blake Jones (term ending)
    • Fred Tepfer

    The Faculty Advisory Council

    Again, from the Faculty Handbook:

    The Faculty Advisory Council The faculty elects the ten-member Faculty Advisory Council (commonly referred to as the F.A.C.) which, in regular meetings with the president, provides faculty opinion and counsel on the wide range of university affairs. In its relations with the president and with the faculty, the Faculty Advisory Council may act either on request or on its own initiative. Faculty Advisory Council members serve staggered two-year terms. The election of new members takes place during spring term. There are four members from the College of Arts and Sciences, four from the professional schools and colleges, and two from among officers of administration. In addition, the University Senate president is seated on the Faculty Advisory Council with full privileges.

    Faculty members interested in having an issue raised directly with the president may ask any advisory council member to bring up the matter. However, in order to keep discussion open and wide-ranging, the advisory council's meetings are private and its agenda is confidential.

    Currently OA members on the FAC:

    • Hilary Gerdes (term ending) (Interim Director, Acad. Advising & Student Services)
    • Elaine Jones (Assistant Dean, Education)

    University Standing Committees

    From the Faculty Handbook:

    University Standing Committees Every year more than 400 faculty members participate in university governance through their service on university standing committees. The Faculty Personnel Committee, the Graduate Council, the Promotion-Tenure-Retention Appeal Committee, the Faculty Grievance Appeal Committee, the Faculty Advisory Council, Intercollegiate Athletics, and the Undergraduate Council are bodies elected by the faculty. The other faculty committees are composed of volunteers recruited by the faculty's Committee on Committees, approved by the senate, and appointed by the president.

    The Handbook contains a list of faculty committees and Administrative Committees.

    One of the administrative committees is the Officers of Administration Association Council. That's the six of us, elected in October this last year.

    These are three significant ways that the interests of OAs are represented in the organization of the UO.

    The Faculty Handbook, Chapter 8, The Special Conditions of Service of Administrative Faculty has some information pertinent to OAs.

    The Officers of Administration Association

    The association has its roots in the old Management Service Advisory Council, but it has changed significantly in recent years with the inclusion of all OAs. The name OAA dates back to spring 1998.

    On November 1, 1996, management service employees were "transitioned" to officers of administration.

    OAA now has 724 members. The largest groups are in Athletics (90+), Housing, Computing Center, EMU. If you wanted to subdivide, there are 3 subgroupings: Executive OAs-administrators at the highest level, who set overall institution policy and direct major programs. Managerial OAs-Those who have responsibility for managing or supervising people, resources, and programs. This includes old OAs as well as former management service employees. Professional OAs-Positions that have primarily professional or specialty responsibilities, including coaches, counselors, physicians.

    Effective this fall (fall 1999), the association's by-laws were changed to automatically include all OAs as members of the association. As you've heard it described, this is a very diverse group. The association's by-laws call for 3 types of departments to be represented on the council: Academic departments (including research areas and the library) Administrative areas (typically Oregon Hall and Johnson Hall) Auxiliary units (EMU, Athletics, Printing Services, Health Center, University Housing)

    The association's mission is simple: to bring together the university's diverse group of administrative faculty, by promoting and facilitating communication information sharing and collegiality among its members.

    OAAC reports to Dan Williams. We have had great good fortune in our communications with Dan, Linda King, and Lorraine Davis. They've been very receptive to our input.

    Some OAs have not been shy and have already contacted council plus survey input.

    We know that salaries are currently a very important issue for OAs.

    In large part, this is because we know that instructional faculty salaries are getting attention. The Senate Budget Committee (a committee of the University Senate) has developed a plan to increase compensation for instructional faculty.

    • Their goal is to bring average instructional faculty compensation to 95% of parity to the university's comparator institutions.
    • Their plan is the result of discussion and consultation with campus groups and the university's administration.

    In following these discussions, it is my impression that all parties hope to improve the salaries of all unclassified employees (including Officers of Administration and Officers of Research).

    The "A" in OA stands for "administration", making each one of us a partner in the university's administration. I want to encourage all OAs to participate in the university's administration at a broad level. When we work together, we do our best work. This year the University Senate's work on salaries has been an excellent model for us.

  2. Council this year (Ceci)

    The council has been in a year of transition. Since we recently changed our bylaws and practices to include all OAs, we've been working on the quesion of how to facilitate communication among the variety of OAs on campus.

    • OAA Council members have attended Dan Williams' staff meetings and represented issues of concern to OAs.
    • We have two OA senators on the OAAC.
    • The FAC asked OAAC to participate in the upcoming survey: one of our members (Rachele) is helping to develop the survey which will be distributed to OAs and ORs (Officers of Research).
    • Survey OAs regarding their wants for OAA meetings: schedule times, topics, etc.
    • Based on the concerns raised by that survey, the OAA Council contacted Linda King and Lorraine Davis, and this meeting is in part a response to those concerns.
    • We've created a discussion list for those who want to talk about issues of concern to OAs. This listserv is archived so that you don't have to be a member to read what's being discussed.
    • We hope that OAs on campus who have similar concerns will create spin-off groups to share solutions to problems.
    • We assist in providing names of OAs for the recognition award, and we award a $100 gift certificate to attend a training or workshop of their choice that is work-related.

    OAAC is very committed to facilitating communication. We're not meant to be a representative group for OAs: we facilitate. We have a great connection with upper administration, so we encourage you to let us know what your concerns are.

  3. Documentation (Mark Zunich)

    I'm here to talk about policies that govern OAs. Yes, there are. Look at the Information of Interest to OAs page on our website. It lists the faculty handbook, links to Human Resources, etc. Linda King, Director of Human Resources, will talk a little about ongoing documentation of policies.

    Linda King:

    The result of the 1995/6 the merger of Management Service and OAs was a list of recommendations. These recommendations have been approved and some have been implmenented, but some have yet to be. We're starting to work on them again, and we'll end up with policies and documentation covering:

    • appointments (non-tenure related, fixed term)
    • position descriptions
    • evaluations and performance appraisals
    • assiginment of rank
    • promotion to higher positions (not ranked promotion)
    • compensation
    • timely notice
    • professional development
    • Non regular appointment governance (Linda, my handwriting is so bad I can't read what that last one was. Was I close?)
    When these are done we'll let you know.

  4. Faculty Advisory Council survey (Rachele)

    As many of you know, a survey recently was sent to teaching faculty. Some OAs asked the Council if we'd been left behind. Right then the FAC asked us to provide representation on a task force that was being formed to create a survey for OAs and ORs (Officers of Research). This was a six person committee: two OAs from the FAC, an OA senator, an OAA council member, a librarian, and an Officer of Research.

    Elaine Jones and Hilary Gerdes and I are on this committee.

    Hilary/Elaine: (co-chairs of the group): Survey is to identify issues more pertinent to OAs. The OI survey had questions only pertienent to those who teach. Time-frame: we hope it's done before the end of this term. It's tough to put together due to the diversity of OAs and ORs on campus. Trying to address issues of workload, morale, compensation, etc. The Senate Budget Committee is working on this along with the FAC.

Questions/Comments (Fred/John)

Answers were provided by Lorraine Davis, Linda King, and various OAAC members. Some questions were answered by more than one person.

  1. Q: Will the survey be phone or web based or paper based?

    A: Don't know.

  2. Q: Regarding the organization structure: how many general classes of employees do we have at the university? Where do we fall, and who represents us?

    A: Several: Three main ones: Classified, faculty, and GTFs. Within the faculty there are three categories: Officers of Administration (OA), Officers of Instruction (OI) and Officers of Research (OR).

    "Unclassified" means anybody who's not Classified. Faculty are unclassified, so are GTFs and student assistants.

    The term "academic" has several meanings. Some use it to mean those people who report to the VP for Academic Affairs. Others mean those faculty who are Officers of Instruction.

    OAs are faculty.

  3. Q: If we're faculty, when we read about faculty salaries increasing at the UO, does it apply to us?

    A: It really depends on what the writer meant by "faculty". Currently, the Senate Budget Committee's work relates to OIs.

    When the State legislature talks about faculty and faculty salaries some are talking about all faculty. Others think about only the enture track faculty. Reporters have a whole different meaning sometimes. There are times when we've differentiated between salary dollars. You need to get clarification when somebody refers to "faculty".

  4. Q: Ok, so there are three groups of OAs: Executive OAs, Managerial OAs, and Professional OAs. What kind am I, and do I care?

    A: Not really. We made these divisions because we had to break down the large group of OAs as an employee category when we report numbers to (I didn't catch to where we're reporting these numbers). We also created these three categories during the "merger" time when we thought we might try to tailor services (listservers, training, etc.) to the specific needs of different categories of OAs, since they are such a diverse group. We don't much use these categories any more.

  5. Q: If we hear in the news that UO faculty will get a COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) Increase, is that us? How will we know?

    A: Read News and Views. Ask your supervisor. Call Human Resources. Sometimes the state legislature decides for a COLA, then it goes to OUS, then to the UO, and then we decide how to allocate the money. The actual decisions may not be made until shortly before the month the money is supposed to appear in paychecks.

  6. Q: How's the survey going to be used?

    A: Results will be given to the FAC and Senate Budget Committee. They'll look at salaries, workload, morale, etc. Goal: it's reasonable to have a comparison with other OAs in other sites, but it's hard to find comparitors since as a group, we're so diverse.

  7. Q: Have there been any comparitors in the past for OAs?

    A: Yes, but that's a hard one since there are so many different kinds of OAs on this campus. There is a variety of comparitor data for tenure track faculty. Sometimes we look at recruitment competitors (are we recruiting on a national level for your job? State? Local?). For OAs, the CUPA (College and University Personnel Association) has some comparitors. Some studies exist: we're part of a Tennessee study group, and one from Kansas. All the members of the study send in data (without names and identifiers) and the study group reports back on the data for everybody. We have a couple of these surveys in Human Resources: call Chris Brown (6-2964).

  8. Q: I have a one year contract. I've heard that there are OAs with more than one year contracts, and I've heard that contracts are printed on various colors of paper.

    A: Contract lengths are limited by:

    • how long is allowable (I don't have an example of what this means...s)
    • Management style of your VP: some don't give more than a year no matter what
    • funding (grant is only for one year, can't have a longer contract since money will run out)
    OARs say that the initial OA hire must never be longer than one year. Don't know that that is always followed.

    Colors of contracts:

    • Pink: grant-funded
    • Goldenrod: regular OA contract: can be two years
    • Tan: OA 1 year max. (short, fixed term)
    • Blue: short-term instructional (from one term to no longer than one year)
    • Yellow: tenure-track
    • Green: senior instructor
    • White: first used for Managment Service... often OAs still have white ones.

  9. Q: Faculty salary increases: what's the timeline, procedure... what can we expect for a solid proposal like the OIs have?

    A: During the last legislative session a 2+2 was approved: 2% Feb 1, 2000, and 2% Feb 1, 2001. This was part of the budget roll-ups. However, we have to do more than that salary-wise to keep strong faculty here. That's what produced the White Paper.

    Anything beyond the 2+2 has to be self-funded. Because of the way the new budget model works, it's pretty much contingent on what the student enrollment will be. The increases for the OIs will come in part from a recalculation of the budget: a shift back to instruction from administrative units.

    For OAs: 2% in February, and if there's more, it, too, will be self generated. Hope to have a plan in place by early fall for OAs.

  10. Q: If it's self-funded, can a dept. decide not to give raises to its OAs?

    A: Probably not.

  11. Q: What about auxilliary organizations such as the Health Center? Is there an obligation for OAs in that category to get the 2+2?

    A: Not legal obligation, but the UO philosophy is to try to keep all OAs the same. Can't think of any aux. group that hasn't treated their employees the same.

  12. Q: Does the potential for OA salary increases depend on fall enrollment?

    A: Not totally: department can choose where to take the self-funded part from. It doesn't have to be just enrollment: we can cut something, if we choose to.

  13. Q: Who looks out for OAs? Not all OAs are treated the same across campus, so who looks out for them? Some depts not giving the salary increases to their OAs.

    A: Historically whenever there's a 0% increase for any OA, there has to be an explanation (to Human Resources) as to why. Call Linda King if you feel you're disadvantaged as an OA.

    A: Also, the OAA Council is hooked into a variety of places on campus on your behalf. Contact them.

If you have other questions or comments, please send them to the Council
.

Thank you for coming.