CU:

Notes from September 25, 2003 Assistants Meeting

Susan Phillips spent some time going over information that is available on the A&S web site at: http://www.colorado.edu/ArtsSciences/.

Most of the information that staff will be using is located under Faculty and Staff - Administration.

Dean's office directory: Includes a listing of everyone in the Dean's office and their main job duties.

Faculty Position Openings: Advertisements for instructors and tenure-track faculty, automatically placed once the ad has been approved.

Classified Staff Information: Forms and letter processing paths, Official Function Form, staff reorganization information, staff assistant meeting schedule and notes from meetings, State of the Staff report.

Procedures Related to Hiring and Processing Faculty Transactions: Includes information on:

  1. Procedures for Hiring Faculty: General information on the process, plus letters of offer templates.
  2. Leaves Related to Current Faculty: Leave Without Pay, and the College's sick leave policy.
  3. Post Tenure Review: Procedures document.
  4. Reappointment/Promotion/Tenure Documents: All the information needed for tenure track comprehensive, promotion and/or tenure reviews.
  5. Sabbatical Information: A link to the Faculty Affairs web site and a short overview of the process.

II. Cynthia Husek spoke on Propriety of Expenditures (a policy she did not make). Specifics are available on the Accounting and Budget Services web site at: http://www.cusys.edu/policies/Fiscal/propexpend.htm.

In essence, money spent, no matter what account type, must support the mission of the college. In general, expenditures on activities involving students is acceptable. Other expenditures must meet 7 tests:

  1. In the best interest of the University
  2. Comply with existing laws
  3. No personal benefit
  4. Approved in the budget
  5. Necessary to University business
  6. Reasonable
  7. Receives an appropriate level of approval

The Budget Office summarizes these rules by asking you, once you believe you meet all the requirements : Does it meet the Rocky Mountain News test? In other words, would you be able to defend your expenses in a public forum? Exceptions to the rules may be made "at the next level." For departments, that level is the College. Send your appeals to Cynthia.

There was some discussion of the Official Function Form (OFF). "Blanket" OFFs, written to cover a particular type of expense for an extended period such as a recruitment season or for faculty seminars, may be written. The policy statement is available on the web at: https://www.cusys.edu/psc/forms/.

Cynthia is working with other offices to revise the definition of "reasonable proof of purchase." The PSC has implemented more stringent requirements whereby a department may need to submit a cancelled check or a credit card statement to demonstrated that the bill was actually paid.

The Faculty Computer Program allows faculty to purchase a new computer with University funds every four years. If a faculty member's purchase year is skipped, that person must wait another 4 years to become eligible again. Some faculty do not wish to make purchases. In these instances, it would be wise to suggest they purchase anyway.

The Hellems Financial Service Center is moving along much more slowly than anyone anticipated. The biggest problem has been finding permanent, qualified staffing for the accounting technician positions. People internal to the University were not interested in the positions, so excellent temporary people with accounting backgrounds were hired. We are in the process of bringing them into the CU staff system. Departmental staff continue to meet and will be refining the current procedures to help streamline the process. In the interest of bringing up future clusters more smoothly, the start-up of the Ketchum cluster has been delayed from this fall until March 1, 2004. The cluster to follow Ketchum most likely will see a start-up date of June 1, 2004. Change is nearly always fraught with unexpected problems and delays. Despite the problems associated with this project, support remains strong for the new organizational structure.

Notes by Susan Phillips