Meeting Minutes
May 1, 2003
12:00-1:45pm
Athletics Alumni Gym George Ireland Room 1st floor Lake Shore campus
Attendance:
Linda Englund, Center for Ethics / Social Justice
Jody Greenspan, Law School
Tatjana Kazan, Mathematics and Statistics
Tom Kelly, Human Resources - University
Jane Neufeld, Student Affairs
Carolyn O'Connell, Athletics - Chair
Donna Sobie, SSOM
Absent:
Rick Bacchi - Human Resources - LUMC Arup Varma, Associate Professor - School of Business
Introductions
Carolyn O'Connell introduced April 3 minutes for approval; approval granted. Members expressed condolences for Rick Bacchi and his family for their loss.
Agenda Items:
I. Tuition Benefit Policy Proposal
Discussion of the tuition benefit policy proposal continued from April 3 meeting.
As requested, Tom Kelly presented a handout showing the use of tuition benefits by employees not including SSOM or retirees in the 2002-2003 academic year. The handout includes number of requests, percent of requests per employee category, percent of employee category making requests and estimated costs of the benefit. Additional information was presented on number of tuition benefit requests for Lakeside Campus staff or faculty with less than one year of service, dependents where employee has less than three years of service and dependent where employee has less than five years of service. For example, in the fall semester, 2002, 10 employees with less than one year of service requested the benefit, these 10 constituted 7.9% of total requests and 0.7% of total number of employees with less than one year of service and an approximate value of $19,200. Concurrently there were 14 requests for dependent tuition benefits by employees who served less than three years which was about 19% of all such dependent requests that semester and about 1% of all currently eligible employees with an approximate value of $122,000.
Tom Kelly discussed this benefit in terms of value not costs and explained that other universities are moving to require longer service from employees before being eligible to participate in tuition benefits.
Members of the committee discussed case studies or examples from their colleagues demonstrating the importance of the benefit for Loyola employees and their dependents. Another example cited the benefit of the presence of a retired adjunct faculty on campus who offers his services to students between classes.
Some supported a staff member's written suggestion that tuition benefits be part of individually negotiated compensation package offered or not to new employees, however Tom Kelly pointed out that administrative efficiency is important and the benefit should not be discretionary and determined on a case by case basis among employees.
Conversation about tuition benefits for retirees and what constitutes a "retired employee" followed. Tom Kelly explained the current definition of "retiree" as someone who is a full time employee who is 60 or more years of age and has 10 or more years of continuous full time service at the time she/he separates from employment (at least full time). A short discussion followed about whether this or another service requirement made more sense for the tuition benefit. The committee was very concerned about the incongruence of affording the benefit to a retiree after 10 years of employment, offering benefits for dependent children of deceased employees and not offering benefits for long service employees whose jobs may have been eliminated in recent years.
Comparative Data:
A group discussion followed about a number of the key elements of the tuition benefit as highlighted in the comparative study of similar schools - passed out at earlier meeting. Most schools have a waiting period for both employee and dependent coverage. Three years of service is required at Saint Louis University, University of Chicago, Creighton University and others. It was noted that Northwestern University benefit plan is difficult to compare because of multiple layers of benefits depending on hire date. Though the report documented only 10 universities they do provide a representative comparison of tuition benefits policies at similar schools.
Draft Recommendations:
Pending input from faculty and staff across the university the committee attempted to develop some consensus recommendations for the various key elements of the proposed change in policy.
Effective Date:
The committee's recommendation is that the effective date for change in policy be moved back to some more reasonable date such as January 1, 2004. Employee Waiting Period: There was general consensus that some waiting period should apply - and that a 6 month period that coincides with staff's introductory or probationary period makes more sense than one year. Dependent Waiting Period: There was unanimous consensus that the waiting period should be the same for spouse-dependent and child-dependent. Again most of the committee could see the value in a waiting period but three years seemed too long and too much of a change and most of the committee could agree on a 2 year waiting period The committee would recommend that retirees defined currently as 60 or more years of age and 10 or more years of service would remain eligible for benefit and not be excluded.
Next steps:
The policy would be presented to staff and faculty as a proposal from Human Resources to the Staff Affairs and Faculty Affairs UPC committees. Policy proposal and Staff UPC meeting minutes would be posted on the Shared Governance website, and an e-mail address would be created for employees to respond to the proposal.
All Staff Affairs UPC members will be proxied into e-mail box and should read and monitor all comments and criticism from employees and will revisit tuition benefits at the next meeting after digesting employee feedback.
Tom Kelly explained the importance of providing as much rationale as possible to Shared Governance for all Staff UPC proposals and decisions. Future proposals and decisions will have to be substantiated with supporting rationale.
Meeting adjourned 1:45pm.
Next Meeting:
Thursday June 5th 11:30-1:30pm School of Medicine Dean's Conference Room 420 LUMC