Minutes ofSeptember2, 2011 meeting

Members Present: Castro, Jara, Magone, Maroney, Metzler, Nyman, Wright

Members Absent: Robertson

1)Introductions – new members Jose Jara, Chris Metzler, Barbara Magone and Dixie Maroney were introduced. Sheri requested individual photos of the new members so they can be added to the website. If you have a photo you would like to use for this purpose, please send it to Sheri.

2)Set meeting schedule for Fall semester – we will meet on the 2nd Thursday of the month from 11 am to noon. Dates for the semester are: Oct 13, Nov 10 and Dec 8th. Once room reservations are made, appointments in Outlook will be sent out.

3)EEOAC and PADE – Sheri provided an overview of the newly forming Presidents Advisory Committee on Diversity & Equity (PADE). It has not yet convened its first meeting, but hopefully once that has occurred we will have a clearer idea about what types of issues will be handled by which advisory committee. For example, sponsoring events on campus (like the student panel discussion) may be handled by PADE in the future instead of by EEOAC.

4)EEO plan – copies of the EEO plan were distributed to new committee members for their review. One of the primary projects for the committee this year will be to conduct an employee survey so that employees can identify ethnicity based on the new and expanded categories used by the federal government. Also included will be an opportunity for employees to update their disability status.

5)Title 5 regulations changes – Sheri provided an overview of the new regulations which have been approved by the Board of Governors but that are still waiting for a decision by the Department of Finance (as to whether any new mandated costs are involved). There is no estimate of a time frame for this decision to be made. If the changes do go through, there will be some revisions that need to be made to our EEO plan.

6)Program review and funding request – last year a program review request was submitted to request permanent funding for the committee but, because there were no funds available for any requests, nothing was received. Therefore we have no budget for this year. We will need to submit something this Fall in hopes of obtaining funding for next fiscal year. The timeline for submitting program review this year will be brief and so if it doesn’t coincide with our meeting schedule, we will have to discuss it by email. A copy of last year’s request will be distributed for the committee’s review in advance.

Next meeting – October 13, 2011 from 11 am to noon (OC1054)