Minnesota State meet and confer minutes May 3, 2019

Publish Date
Committees
Minnesota State

 

Minnesota State Statewide Meet and Confer Minutes

Date:

March 3, 2019

Time:

10 AM

Location:

Minnesota State Office - Wells Fargo Building, St. Paul

Attendees:

Devinder Malhotra, Sue Applequist, Anne Maile, Derek Hughes, Jerry Jeffries, Marcia Beukelman, Barb Gosch, Clay Passick, Kay Pedretti, Heidi Vidor, Dave Kamper, Melissa Fahning, Eric Davis, Jeff Wade, Aaron Bousch, Kari Campbell, John Kearns, Betsy Thompson, Melissa Fahning, Derek Hughes

MAPE Statewide Meet & Confer Agenda

May 3rd, 2019



 

Next Meeting:  Oct 11, 2019

Old Business:

  1. Reimagining update: Devinder
  • All the meetings are done (there were 5), and we are now working on final report.
  • Encourage MAPE to send in feedback by May 9th. All the information is on the website.
  • There will be a formal advisory group creating a summary to go the board in June.  
  • It is Devinder’s intent to take the summer to process the information and provide a process and consult with all the stakeholders, what did we learn, and move forward. Devinder doesn’t expect initiatives to come up- just broad themes. The focus isn’t not on identifying creating new things, but rather just new ways to do things.  How can we leverage the “systemness” of the system.  It will not be like charting the future.  The System Office will look at barriers, and how they are related so that they can be removed. Big questions and conversations to have with broader stakeholders in the fall
  • Phase 2 there is no  phase two. Implies there will be an end. This is a continual improvement and will never end. This will be an ongoing thing, and won’t have to repeatedly do this.
  • E.g. everyone is considered about closing the achievement gap. We also know those gaps tend to be very sticky. What do we do over the next 10 years to close those gaps.
  • Jerry said one of the huge concerns he’s heard is labor is one of MN state’s largest expense. Report was very high level, what does this really mean for our members?
  • This is an exploration. This is about how we can facilitate and empower the process to it becomes more pervasive. If good things are happening at one, share that information so we aren't reinventing the wheel. Any details will come after sufficient consultation with the internal stakeholders.
  • Jerry- how will we do with that “coopetition” between the campuses?  Several campus presidents indicate we are doing good stuff and System Office wants them to share; campus are hesitant to give away their secrets.   
  • Devinder said campuses are interconnected and interdependent. I can't think of one institution that acting on its own can find a sustainable path programmatically or financially. Look at Mankato, 1/3 of incoming class is transfers. There is a natural interconnectedness. Our challenge is to figure out what is that interconnectedness. What should we do collectively and what is best for colleges/universities? That doesn't means everything is going to involve every institution and run by the System Office. There are a number of examples where System Office is on the side line and they institutions are working together. If they come up against a barrier, we will work with them to remove the barrier.
  • Who am I an advocate for? My focus and advocacy should be students. If I am advocating for students and I don't have an engage employees, my advocacy of students is hollow. Advocacy for students no matter where they are enrolled. My role is to manage the conflict of the individual institution and the needs of the students.
  • When do we know when we've leveraged our system?: when each and every one of us takes ownership for the education of the student, no matter where they are enrolled, no matter where the learning occurs. Boundaries will become even more porous - in fact they will come down.
  • Reimaging is a collective, crowdsourcing of ideas to secure our future.
  • Jerry - Training of employees mentioned in the report. We hope that priority will be at negotiations.
  • Devinder- the report is high level.  Sure, at the end of the day, engaged and empowered faculty and staff is the best way to ensure a best experience. We recognize as circumstances change, it’s our responsibility to work with our employees to work with them to enable to draw upon new expertise and adjust and their own work spaces.  Going forward, professional development, talent management/acquisition/retention will be more important because we are preparing students for jobs that are not yet invented.  Present is no longer a guide to the future; you can’t depend on present modes of functions. There is going to be unpredictability and uncertainty which is different than former uncertainty.   We can prepare for it, and if we don’t, then we are not fulfilling our leadership obligation.
  • Eric- Our value proposition rests in people. How do we engage people in a meaningful and productive way. I'm certain that will involve preparing for roles that doesn't even exist. The tendency is toward generic descriptions because of the ambiguity in roles.
  1. Legislative/Budget update (standing item)
    1. Macro level update. May 20th.  the goal was to get all bills off the floor by Wednesday.  Higher Ed bill has passed both House and Senate. Monday deadline- all conf committee to hit their targets. Leadership has met to get the targets to the conf committees. House has more urgency had a press conf yesterday. Want to get conf committee’s get started right away without targets.  Conference committee  supposed to be done May 13th.  Senate $47 million dollars, House $159 million dollars.
    2. House - $149 mill into campus support. will also pay for tuition freeze. $10 mil into Next Gen.
    3. Senate- $47 mill. A lot of one time spending. $22 mil into Next Gen. Workforce ask $3 mil. $15 workforce. Capped tuition at 3% and 1%.  if this passes in Minnesota State the hole $169million.
    4. We have been working hard with the campus presidents. Make sure to understand what the cut would mean to campuses. They might have to down the road with conference committee.  Our priority is getting as close to the money that we asked for.
    5. The Gov wouldn’t be able to line item veto the online tuition part of the bill.  



 

  1. Retirement proposed changes (IRAP)
    1. Derek Hughes- omnibus from LCBR - not complete and not sent out. it’s on hold. 2 major items to keep an eye on.
      1. RISK MITIGATION BILL- increase employee contribution to 7 ½ % hired on or after 7/1/18.  Grandfather- escalate from 4.5% to 7.5% over 5 years.
      2. BESI sunset date of June 30, 2019. We've put forward language to remove sunset date.  It passed on vote without one single question. However it’s not included in the omnibus, but it isn’t controversial.  We are hopeful they have an intent to resolve the 10th amendment, roll it to omnibus, and roll it out to committee.
      3. Dave - situation that were hired will have to quickly decide before their contribution rate changes. Derek- yes. Anyone hired after will be 7.5% no matter which IRAP or whatever.
  2. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Update
    1. Derek Hughes. 70 audits in queue:  12 Winona, 43 at System Office and 15 North Hennepin Community College. When anticipate to be done: hard to say, but assuring making diligent progress as they come in.
    2. The state was sued under FLSA. Initiative came from MMB. All mixed classes needed to be reviewed. This should be a continuous process. FLSA is a compliance process that should be a part of the standard operating procedure.
    3. Sue: Statute perhaps headed for a few more amendments. Duties test doesn’t appear to be changing, but salary test could come up.
  1. NextGen ERP Update
    1. John Kearns - John Kearns, Director of Change Management. New position. Job is the person who makes sure how everyone is making the transition from ISRS to whatever the new system is in a year from now.
    2. Request for proposal to be published next month after trustees meeting; includes 4,000 requirements. Requirements have been decided and vendors will respond to how they can deliver. As vendors respond to the requirements, will have better understanding of their ability to our meet requirements .   March of 2020 will decide vendor.
    3. Change Management - what bring to this project.  People side of change. Helping people transition through transparency.  John’s role is to focus on transparent communication to all stakeholders. Helping leadership to lead their teams through the change. it’s not enough to just tell people they have to change.  Process incorporating lessons we’ve learned- what’s worked? Building those lessons into the plan. Process also incorporates what he’s learned in the passed.
    4. Transition Management teams - at SO and a team at every institution that has a president. NEHEAD has one team.  Work closely with the teams on direction and early updates in order to communicate to campses.  If you hear concerns, let John or Melinda Clark know what you’re hearing from people.  They have a running log and a newsletter, called “upNext”. May edition coming shortly.
    5. there is a system office team.  plan to do a fall tour for each plac  They will work through how to get out to the different areas of SO.  
    6. To create teams, interest was solicited and then members selected. Not sure criteria used for the selection of the group.  How many people are on the system office team? - John can take it back to get answers.
    7. If MAPE hears concerns, we can give to John. Best way to do that is to - email NextGen. There is also an Internal stakeholder website. John looks forward to hearing from people.
    8. What is our plan for employees that currently work on ISRS who will not be part of NextGen?  Conversation with Ramon and his team are having.  Jerry said he gets an “i don’t know” from Ramon. Especially on the heels of QA being laid off. Can we add this into the project plan and change management plan?  Who would be delivering the message?  We don’t know yet.  John said he will convey concerns to Ramon; Ramon will interact with us, and provide clarification.
  2. Human Resources Transactional Service Model (HR-TSM) update
    1. In February, we had moved last group of campuses for phase 2 (non faculty). Seems to be going well.  We heard concerns and addressed. it’s gone smoothly.
    2. Service center managers have developed action plan from survey of Jan/Fe themes- critical thinking skills, knowledge to resolve issues, communication skills, consistent and continuous improvement. They developed action plans around those 4 areas.
    3. They were tracking overpayments for a while, and now they are tracking underpayments. They are also doing a root cause analysis to determine why it was happening and how to fix it.
    4. ASF issues - payment issues. Concerns were IFO’s ability to do supervisory functions given new technology.
    5. Phase 3 -to move all payroll process and reconciliation to the hubs. A number have already been transferred over.
  3. Respectful Workplace Training
    1. Tabatha took the training. wasn’t as in depth as hoped. One major question that might be helpful is-what to do to resolve a problem when it comes up.  
    2. How does this apply to faculty?  
    3. Respectful workplace doesn’t apply to faculty? YES IT DOES (Wade) are we communicating that clear to faculty? YES
    4. The TRAINING itself- is left up to individual institutions  to make mandatory or not.   SO - it IS MANDATORY at SO.
    5. Winona should take it. Climate survey. Eric will follow up with it.
    6. The training didn’t include information about what to do about it; a broader communication would be helpful. Eric- acknowledged.

 

Action/Follow-up Items:

John Kearn:

  • to send email and internal website for NextGen information
  • list of transition teams

Eric Davis:

  • Will follow-up with Winona about Respectful Workplace training.

 

 

Solidarity,

Your Statewide Meet and Confer Team:

Jerry Jeffries - Minnesota State University, Mankato - Chair

Nicole Hamilton - South Central College - Vice Chair

Barb Gosch - Minnesota State System Office- Waite Park- Secretary

Clay Passick - Century College

Heidi Vidor - Anoka Ramsey

Kay Pedretti - Winona State University

Marcia Beukelman - Southwest Minnesota State University

Tabatha Reis-Miller - Minnesota State System Office - St. Paul

Lyz Martin - MAPE Business Agent

Dave Kamper - MAPE Business Agent