Meeting Minutes: October 10, 2012
Location: John M. Clayton Hall, Room 213
SSAC Members Present
Marge Hadden (District 1)
Kathy Murphy (District 2)
Laura Gleason (District 4)
Derrick Allen (District 5)
Ladonna Miller (District 8)
Kimberly Doucette (District 9)
Cathy Corsi (District 10)
Theresa Henderson (District 11)
Carol Brower (District 12)
Members Excused
Staci Truitt (District 3), Susan Zarebicki (District 6), Linda Nimtz (District 7), Theresa Henderson (District 11), Lisa Collins (District 13)
Others Present
Tom LaPenta (Asst. Vice President, Labor Relations), Dave McNamara (Assistant Director, Planning and Construction), Officer Mike Baez (Community Resource Unit, Public Safety)
Welcome/Opening Remarks
Tom introduced Dave McNamara, Assistant Director, Planning and Construction who will discuss the many campus construction projects, and welcomed everyone to the October meeting.
Minutes
August 15, 2012 minutes were approved with one correction, Ladonna Miller was excused from that meeting.
Facilities Presentation by Dave McNamara
Dave presented a presentation on forthcoming projects in construction or planned (anything completed over the summer is not included):
Facilities Presentation Questions
Marge: It was once said that if one owns both sides of the street it can be closed. Regarding a previously-discussed Academy Street closure, is the UD still interested in closing Academy Street and turning it into a green?
Dave: That project is on hold, nothing new is being said about that project.
Kim: What does it mean when you talk about a State bond?
Dave: Every year we get a certain amount of State funding, and usually it is picked to do a building project or infrastructure project to put the money towards.
Derrick: Do you have any information on the new transportation center at the train station?
Dave: There is a grant for seeding, it doesn’t involve us but I hear it is underway. Some level of construction activity is underway for planning and construction.
Marge: When you say you are not involved, do you mean not in any way?
Dave: The University Architect used to inspect and manage, but Star Campus is not being managed by us at all. We (facilities) have no direct involvement, but the budget office is involved for monies management.
Tom: When Rodney comes down, what do you see going in there?
Dave: It’s hard to say, we don’t own the whole block which is problematic.
Community Resource Unit Presentation on the Hero Campaign
Tom introduced Officer Mike Baez from the Police Community Resource Unit, Public Safety. Mike explained their new initiative, the Hero Campaign. The department as a whole, one of their main issues is alcohol consumption and students drinking and driving. If you look at DUIs from the last couple of years, it’s astounding. We get money to combat it, but we know we can’t arrest the problem. They decided to go with this nonprofit program called the Hero Campaign: if a student decides to participate, they become a Hero to their peers and the community. Sign up opportunities are offered at the athletic games, and some type of incentive is awarded. The Hero offers to drive as a designated driver, and if they identify themselves at local watering holes who participate in the program (Deer Park, Grottos, etc.) they get to drink soft drinks for free. This year we teamed up with Healthy Hands and Wellness in their 5K races…because of our teamwork, this year we had over 300 participants. Since Hero has been adopted as the program for other external groups, we are hoping to get a billboard and promote a student as the Hero of the Year. “I’m doing something positive, not just going out on the weekend and binge drinking” would be the message. This campaign puts a positive spin on handling the drunken driver situation. Another new initiative is in the works, Mike will come back to explain it when it’s finalized. The UD Police Department is trying to work with the students and community in a positive way to solve this problem.
Hero Campaign Questions
Marge: Have you thought about going to places and having a sticker for them to stick on the door that says something like, “We’re fans of the Hero program.”
Mike: Yes, we do that already. It’s quite similar to what is being done downstate at the shore.
Parking Meeting
Cathy Corsi discussed the most recent Parking Committee meeting, where Rich went over the problem of construction workers parking in the Perkins parking garage. He stated they can’t do anything about it, but four projects are going to be ending and only one will be beginning, so we may lose some of them out of the garage—but not all.
They want to let people know there is parking available behind Pearson Hall—a lot of parking now that the lot is open. Also, there is Gold Permit parking across from the General Services Building.
Lot #19 on the corner of North College might become a restricted lot at some point. Apparently, it’s hard to get parking there with a Gold Permit. If it becomes restricted they will only sell enough permits for the lot, no more.
Tom stated that Rich will be invited to the next meeting.
Parking Meeting Questions
It was asked if the parking validation tickets can be color coded to make the process easier and the times more distinguishable. Cathy stated she would bring it up at the next Parking meeting.
Marge asked if the University will ever restrict the cars of freshmen from coming to campus? Cathy stated that students pay a lot of money—much more than we do, so it’s doubtful that will happen.
Old Business
House Keys for Employees Program was discussed again, and Tom asked for clarification from the group. He stated there are three programs going on for employees—one is a City of Newark/UD program, where if you buy a house on a certain block in a certain area, they’ll give you $5,000 towards the settlement. Everyone is eligible. Very few people look into it, and it may no longer be publicized.
The other programs Tom spoke about included the old Mortgage Program, originated for faculty because when you hire them they’re almost never from Delaware, they’re from out of State. When the faculty moved over to professional jobs, they became available for Exempt employees. It has never been available for Nonexempt employees, and the reason for that was become the people are local.
The third program, the Tuition Exchange Program was originally a faculty-only program. Sometime in the late 1980s Jim Flynn asked to have it expanded to staff. We were given five spots for years. Then, Jim moved on to faculty and Tom asked Hollowell to expand it to 10 spots and Hollowell expanded it.
There is also a rental program. The rental house program is first come first served to any employee and it’s for two years in one home. This came from the old program from about 50 years ago which used to be for new faculty, rental houses on Academy Street.
New Business
Tom asked if anyone was available to serve on the Parking Appeals Committee. Marge said if no one else was interested, she is willing to serve. Tom stated that he would notify Parking.
With the University’s new effort to do away with the terms “Staff” and “Professional,” selecting a new name for SSAC was discussed. After later emails (based on an email from Carol Brower with the proposed new title), it was decided that the new name of SSAC will be “Nonexempt Staff Advisory Council.”
Constituent Concerns
Derrick Allen presented a concern regarding the steps at the new Bookstore—they appear to be a tripping hazard in more than one incident. Tom forwarded the issue to Facilities, who remedied the problem by applying white strips/stripes to the steps, which seem to have helped the problem.
Derrick also brought up a parking concern: someone at Brown Lab noticed that as the flow of people/contractors has increased, the handicap spaces are being used by non-handicapped individuals such as outside contractors and University Service Vehicles. Tom advised that they call Parking when this occurs--they will send people out to ticket or tow.
John M. Clayton Hall Tour
Meeting adjourned at 4:45 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Marge Hadden
Reviewed by:
Cathy Corsi
