Tennessee Technological University
Staff Advisory Committee to the President
January 18, 2001

Members Present: Chairperson Debbie Peek, Rusty Boles, Kevin Burchett, Mark Reagen, Donna Russell, Brenda Smith, and David Smith. Others present: Debbie Combs and Susan Pogue.

Remarks by Debbie Combs:

Memorials: Dr. Edward Greenamyre, Emeritus Faculty in Sociology and Philosophy, and Dr. Roy Lasiter, Emeritus Faculty in Economics, both passed on around the holidays.

Retirements: Ms. Lucille Ramsey, Agriculture and Human Ecology, retired at the end of November. Dr. Jack Gordon, Civil and Environmental Engineering, retired at the end of December and served as marshal at the December commencement ceremonies. Ms. Marlene Stump, Admissions, will retire at the end of January.

FYI: Several changes arte being implemented regarding Luncheon Forums. Beginning January 22, the forums will be held in the OVC Room of the University Center. The cafeteria will provide a number of items to choose from with the cost being $4 or a meal ticket punch. Various campus groups will be invited to join us at the selected forums. At the January 29 forum, we are extending a special invitation to approximately 100-second semester freshmen. We want to obtain their opinions on what we can do differently to better assist incoming freshman students. If you cannot join us for lunch, please feel free to attend the forum at no cost. We will be pleased to have you join us.

Regarding November 9 Memo:

Dr. Bell has met with different individuals to discuss the several requests of the memo. Although we cannot meet all your requests, we can increase your benefit package by making a couple of additions and changes to the current package.

A.) Free Parking Permits: A survey of parking permits charged by other TBR universities showed that TTU charges the second lowest fee. Compared to the other fees, the $20 charged to TTU employees is very reasonable, but Dr. Bell feels that the fee charged to C & S employees can be reduced to $10 per year.

B.) Free Employee Membership to the Fitness Center: The fitness center receives no state dollars to meet its budgetary needs. It is wholly dependent upon student activity fees and membership fees. As an auxiliary enterprise, the Fitness Center must be self-sustaining and it cannot offset the cost of free memberships. Please keep in mind that payroll deduction for membership is available to permanent employees at the cost of only $14 per month. Dependents can be added for an additional $9 per month. The additional $9 covers all dependents, making the monthly cost for an entire family only $23.

C.) Free Employee Admittance to Sporting Events: Dr. Bell, EAC members, Dr. Larimore, and other Athletics staff have spent a considerable amount of time looking into this request. However, Athletics depends on these dollars collected from the sales of tickets to sporting events. The estimated cost of free employee admission to sporting events is approximately $35,000. Dr. Bell and EAC feel that such a large chunk of money would be better spent on salaries and other areas. Another suggestion might be the implementation of a payroll deduction to spread-out the cost of a season pass over a period of several months.

Remarks by Sue Pogue:

D.) Reduced meal costs in the cafeteria are not feasible because as an auxiliary enterprise, food services must be self-sustaining and would not be able to off-set the cost of reduced prices.

E.) The Tennessee Board of Regents has system wide policies regarding on leave days and holidays. Changes to these policies require the approval of the State Division of Finance and Administration. Therefore, Tennessee Tech lacks the authority to allow employee’s to take off birthdays with no charge to annual leave.

F.) In regard to food service salaries and meal maintenance, food service employees receive two meals a day plus unlimited snacks for $3.90 per day (.52 cents per hour times 7.5 hours). The value of the meal maintenance is determined using standards outlined in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. With the meal maintenance, the compensation received by food service employees is equal to the pay received for jobs with similar skill, effort, and responsibility. TTU is the only TBR school to operate its own food service: therefore the meal maintenance is a TTU policy. Further exploration will be made in order to determine the feasibility of allowing food service employees to have a choice concerning the meal maintenance issue.

G.) Tennessee Tech uses computer software for payroll and personnel that is mandated by the TBR. Because employees in similar job groups must be paid on the same frequency, it is not possible for individuals to choose their pay frequency. Allowing the option of bi-monthly pay would increase the number of check reconciliations, use of computer time, and departmental workloads, all resulting in increased cost. Dr. Bell wishes to continue exploration on this issue.

H.) Two important factors affect the timing of overtime pay. First, the University does not hold any pay in arrears and pays on a current basis. Thus the check received at the end of the month is for the regular work done in the month. Second, per federal Fair Labor Standards Act regulations, annual and sick leave usage must be considered when calculating overtime pay. Overtime cannot be computed until all time transactions have been reported. These reports are due in Personnel/Payroll by the 10th of the following month and are manually processed by the personnel/payroll staff. Most areas are utilizing the ability to accumulate comp time during the fiscal year rather than paying over time each month. Faculty and administrators who receive extra pay are also paid during the month after the work is completed. There are new technologies available that would improve our processing time, but they are currently too expensive given our budget situation.

Other Issues:

Upon retirement, sick leave is carried over into retirement, but each college is responsible for determining what will happen to any additional leave.

For a retired employee to return on a part time basis, the employee must be retired and completely off of payroll for sixty days. After those sixty days, the employee may work only 750 hours per year without affecting retirement.

The meeting was adjourned.

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