Human Resources

Attended:  S. Thorp; J. Welsh; L. Payne; J. Nichols; L. McIlyar; B. Carr; B. Rusch; L. Mackenzie-Crane

Absent:

Scribe:         Jim Ables, Office of Human Resources

Date:             April 21, 2005

Subj:             HR Advisory Group Meeting Minutes - April, 2005

Cc:                  Seth Patton; Bill Acklin

New Items

1.HRAG Elections - Jim reported that three representatives will be finishing terms this year:  Jenny Welsh (Academic Support/Computing/Library), Laurie Mackenzie-Crane (Administrative Support/Doane), and Clare Green (Academic Offices/Slayter). A memo will be sent to all support staff asking for volunteers and nominations to fill these openings.  The group hopes to have the replacements identified in time for them to be invited to the May meeting.  Anyone wishing to be considered for these openings should contact either the outgoing representative or Belinda Carr, vice-chair, at carrb@denison.edu (Laurie Mackenzie-Crane is eligible for reelection since she was completing a previous representative's term; the replacement for Clare Green will be for one year to complete her term).

2.Emeriti Health Solutions Information Meetings - Jim announced that there are seven information meetings scheduled for April 19 and 20 regarding the new Emeriti Health program.  All employees are strongly encouraged to attend one of these information sessions.  A representative from Fidelity Investments will present at the meeting.  You will learn much more about how the program will work and what you have to do as a participant.

3.Tuition Program at Denison- The issue of the tuition program at Denison for dependents was raised for discussion.  Essentially, the question was raised because a staff member's child was not admitted to Denison for the 2005-06 academic year and would have been given an opportunity as a probationary admit under the old  guidelines. The staff member who brought this issue to the group believes the benefit should be restored to its old guidelines so faculty and staff dependents have an opportunity to succeed at Denison as a probationary admit.

We discussed this benefit change.  Effective with the 2004-05 academic year, the special student on probationary status was removed from the personnel policy handbook.  However, the current guidelines include the following statement "...must meet normal university admission standards. While this is the case, dependent children will be given full and careful consideration...".The Admissions department will stretch the normal admissions criteria to accept as many dependents as is feasible.  The main reasons that led to this change were: 1) students accepted as probationary struggled at Denison with significantly more not continuing compared to the regular class; and 2) due to the competitive nature of Denison's incoming classes over the last ten years, it became increasingly difficult to admit a student who clearly did not have the proper preparation into the class while leaving out many students that were clearly better prepared for college.  For those students of faculty and staff not accepted, Admissions representatives as well as the registrar would be glad to meet with them to advise them on how they could prepare at another institution and try to transfer to Denison the following year.  Lastly, the decision to change the policy was not made lightly.  The following people were involved in the initial discussions:  Bill Acklin, Jim Ables, Nancy Hoover, Larry Murdock, Seth Patton, Janet Schultz, and Perry Robinson.  The recommendation to change the policy was discussed at HRAG, the Personnel Committee, and ultimately was approved by senior staff.

Lastly, the issue of the cash assistance program of $1,500 per year for a dependent attending an accredited four-year college was discussed.  With the change in the tuition policy at Denison for dependents, the question was asked whether or not this program could be increased to assist students attending college elsewhere.  Jim indicated that he thought the intent was to leave this benefit at $1,500 per year.  However, he will inquire about the future design strategy for this benefit.

Updates

1.HR Communication Meetings