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October 2001 Town Meeting Minutes:
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Welcome / Announcements - Janice Bradley opened the meeting and introduced Don Hale for the “Have You Met” section. Have you Met - Vice President for Public Affairs, Don Hale Don has been at UT for 2 months, coming from Pittsburgh, where he held a similar job at Carnegie-Mellon, a small private research facility. Now he needs to take the skills he acquired there and figure out how to translate them to a large public research facility. Since he's so new, the Town Meeting has indicated that it's all right for him to say, "I don't know." So far, though, UT is an exciting place to be because something happens every day. Don's priorities that he has shared with Leadership Council in light of his mandate from President Faulkner:
Q&A: Q: How will he approach improvement in communication on campus? The process, like UT-All, can be frustrating. What have you already thought about? A: "I don't know." One of the things that needs to be looked at on the web is to get important ideas and initiatives on the front door. Information is currently buried too deeply to be effective. The web isn't the only answer, but it's an important starting point. He wants to create more opportunities to put information in front of people every day. We need an aggressive way to share information. UT is huge and that is one of the biggest changes from Carnegie-Mellon. He felt in touch with all aspects of the institution, whereas that's just not realistic at UT. Q: Will the Office of Public Affairs help small departments advertise? A: "I don't know." Yes. He wants to forge some kind of connection between all aspects of campus. He wants to deploy PR into colleges and departments. A school's reputation is built by colleges and departments and his office will pay attention to that. Q: Will his office help small programs and offices gain greater visibility? A: Yes. His office will consult with departments on campus. Send an e-mail or call his office to get them involved. As departments think about a campaign, his office can help with strategy. Q: UT's Counseling and Mental Health Center often gets requests from the media for information. Does his office want to be apprised of this? A: He is aware that the press approaches UT from various angles and he doesn't want to inhibit that, but it would be helpful when his office is informed. e.g., if his office calls the Austin American-Statesman, it's better if they know that the Statesman has already called a department. It's sort of a matter of looking like they know what they're doing. Please call for help, consulting, advice, etc. He encouraged offices to think about interaction with the media. If a department is uncertain of how to respond, they don't have to. They can defer a comment and then call Don's office for help or advice and then get back to the media. Q: Clipping services? Internal, professional? How does a department or program get its news into circulation? A: Tough question. Students clip local news articles for his office, and a state-wide clipping service combs newspapers from around the state. Criteria for getting clipped haven't been set. In the future, though, he wants to try to disseminate clips more widely. Interested departments should contact his office about any upcoming events that have been placed in any outlets and he'll alert those making the clippings. Don emphasized that he's still learning the job and he needs the input from staff about issues that are important on campus with relation to PR. Q: What will be the scope of the new web site? A: There is a comprehensive committee at work. His goal by March is a dynamic front door and ways to get people the information they need. He's not looking for an overall unity. They do want to engage visitors at the highest level to get them excited about visiting the page regularly but also to provide them with navigation that gets them where they need to go quickly. He also wants to provide opportunities for new ideas on the front door. If the main site is constantly changing, then more departments at UT can participate. They would like to be able to brand a given site, without changing what people have already designed.
There is a new process for transactions concerning equipment purchases. See the handout or their web site for these kinds of transactions on 26 accounts. The capitalization threshold means that transactions over $5,000 must be coded differently. This is a higher threshold than the previous $1000. The handout includes a "decision tree" that will help departments figure out what they need to do depending on the type and amount of the purchase, and which account. Cell phones are no longer a "control item," though guns and computers still are. Call 1-3723 to reach him or e-mail him at ffriedrich@mail.utexas.edu. This information is available on the Inventory web site at www.utexas.edu/business/accounting/in/capitalized.html. Q: Are 89 sub accounts being created automatically? A: Yes. And money is being moved into them. Q: Are there guidelines for separating computers from monitors? A: Typically, when people buy a whole work station, it gets inventoried under one tag. If departments are buying separate units, then a monitor won't have to be coded. Q: On the continuation of grants, Office of Sponsored Projects has said original rules remain for those accounts established before some date. How will this work with the new sub account? A: For continuation awards (26 accounts), existing prior to September 1, 2001, expenditures over $5,000 will use the codes in the far right column of the above-mentioned web site. Expenditures between $1,000 and $4,999.99 will use the codes in the second column from the right. Q: Are the codes in the system? A: Yes. Q: On the handout, top half items are controlled and bottom half the items are not controlled? A: Yes, that's correct.
Departments can use both UPS and Airborne. There’s a new web page with lots of information and Floyd encouraged everyone to visit it. There are now FAQs on home page for new people or for those who want a review in light of recent legislation. UT is no longer obligated to use state contracts unless they are the “best value” for the department. Cost, delivery time, life cycle costs, availability, training costs, reputation of vendor, etc. all figure into the decision. State, institutional, local funds are all at the same dollar thresholds. Other changes include established orders for making purchases without bids. Additions include a discount agreement with Dell and Apple, for example. High Ed is a HUB vendor, but departments can buy directly from Apple. Sun Micro Systems also has a UT agreement and there’s a brand new one with Compaq; all of these companies can be bought from without bids. They are trying to make it easy to do business. They’re working with a local company for audio/visual equipment. Q: Audio/visual, how much discount? [I missed this whole thing] (Depends on item, 10-30% discounts.) A: [ Missed the question and the answer] Q: Will that meet a best value justification? A: For UT, yes. Department will still need to keep records for audit purposes. Q: Is there a standardized form for (BEST VALUE) justification? A: No (STANDARD FORM OR ) letter. Between the $5-25K range put in the notes the reason for awarding a contract, something that’s reasonable. MUST BE BASED ON THE EVALUATION CRITERIA THAT WAS PRESENTED TO THE BIDDERS. There’s nothing standardized because each purchase is unique. They just need something in the notes TO ESTABLISH HOW YOU MADE YOU DECISION AND EVALUATION.. Q: A department can choose a different vendor than one with a state contract? A: Yes, as long as there are notes that make sense RELATING TO HOW BEST VALUE WAS DETERMINED. Q: Has the procard limit been raised to reflect the change from $1K to 5K? A: “I don’t know” (a la Don Hale). Even with a change in procard limit, computers probably won’t be allowed on a procard. There is an interest in raising the limit, but it’s under consideration by the powers that be. Q: Sole brand? A: Yes, this can be in the notes. UNDER REASON FOR AWARD, MUST RELATE TO WHY THIS SOLE BRAND IS THE BEST VALUE TO THE UNIVERSITY, I.E. COMPATIBILITY ISSUE, BETTER WARRANTEE, POOR SERVICE RECORDS FROM OTHER COMPETITORS, ETC.
Compliance Training is underway and is mostly complete for the various Vice-presidential portfolios. Over 3200 employees have taken some form of the training so far, and over 5200 Employee Compliance Guides have been distributed. There is a proposed schedule for the academic units to come into the training program included in the handouts— the on line/alternate version training is for staff only. Faculty will participate in a different format. The idea is for units to come into the program in relatively equal number of employees each month so as not to flood the system. First Lon Heuer wants to meet with each Dean and administrative staff, as well as representative faculty, to discuss the training for both staff and faculty, and the differences between the two training systems. Linda encouraged people to nudge their deans to make sure that such meetings are set up fairly soon. If necessary, contact Lon Heuer to set up meetings so training can be offered. The web based material works best with PCs, but can work with a specially configured MACs. Or units can use the “alternate version” on line, especially designed for use on MACs. It’s the same thing, except there are no talking heads. Learning styles differ and staff can learn the way that’s best for them, including notebooks, which are good for satellite offices or places without computers, e.g. MacDonald Observatory. It’s simply the “alternate version” in print. There is an Employee Compliance Guide with the acknowledgement statement that is to be put into the employee file in the department, not in the Office of Institutional Compliance. There is also classroom training through TEX class. It’s the online version with someone present to explain things. They want 3600 people in academic units trained in this year. The guide in Spanish will be out in the next couple of weeks. Let her office know how many you need for your unit. Currently a programmer is working to be able to create reports for offices to use. They want that fully operational in a couple of months, hopefully by the end of the year. Q: Is there something being sent to departments? Specifically Physical Plant? A: Physical Plant administrators wanted to wait for the Spanish language version so that training is available to everyone all at the same time. Physical Plant is one of the VP Portfolios that wanted to wait. Q: What did you mean by “overloading the system?” A: There are approximately 3600 benefits eligible employees in academic units. If everyone logged on all at once, the system couldn’t handle the traffic. They have a proposed schedule, but will work with individual colleges to meet their needs. Q: We should wait to hear from deans and
department heads? Q: Why only benefits eligible employees? A: The best place to start is with full-time employees because there are the most of them, and so they have the greatest number of opportunities for error. It’s a management issue.
Small business initiatives—They have created a top 100 HUB vendors list, which is available in the handout. The list indicates vendors who have established a reputation for providing goods and services to UT Austin in a timely manner and will help departments in finding appropriate HUB vendors for their purchases. At the beginning of the fiscal year the HUB Office reviews previous FY numbers. Last year’s HUB numbers are unofficial still, but it appears that UT Austin has dropped 2% in the utilization of HUBs. Arthur asked that each department renew their commitment to HUB vendors. If necessary his office will help departments locate a HUB vendor. He also announced a name change: HUB and Small and Disadvantaged Business Office. The latter part is a federal stipulation that applies to departments with federal contracts (not grants). Their office will also help departments locate HUB vendors for small and disadvantaged business. UT has been audited and found needing improvement in this area, so they are anxious to help. Q: Has there been any progress towards being able to identify those vendors who qualify? A: Some, but not enough. They may purchase a system from a private company to help with this. They do manual search for right now, but they want to change this. It’s in the works and they will update the VE screen.
Renee reminded people of changes to mileage allowance. These changes are now in the system. Coming down the pike are the OVM payroll documents that will be changed to reflect the “signer + 1” requirement. By end of the year, the change will be mandated. Departments will be monitored and those needing a profile change will be notified. The paycheck profile, formerly known as the P0-8, is out there on line. A handout is available that explains the process. The amount of paper to process quickly becomes overwhelming for her office. Employees using the on-line version can check and make certain that all the information is correct. She encouraged department heads to familiarize themselves with the site. Then they can help new employees use the on-line version and they can stop handing out the paper version. Employees must have a high assurance EID set up to do this. The best way to get to the site is to go to Staff Central and use the links there. Her office has two computers in the lobby for use. Please inform her about any problems or process issues. They want to address these as far as possible. Q: On the P0-8 for student assistants there are no blanks for physical address, building and room number. Check stubs wander about the campus. Can anything be done about this? A: Her office will look at that and get it changed. Q: Do departments now have the opportunity to file time sheets electronically? A: Yes. But this is an Human Resource area, not Payroll. Departments need to contact HR for authorization. Q: How is P0-8 titled on line? Q: Work study students. [Didn’t quite understand the question.] A: Using the e form shouldn’t be an issue. Students typically have a high assurance EID Students need to understand that they can’t get paid until they have one. Renee emphasized that the web is more secure than paper. Her office will be more aggressive about notifying employees whose appointments are not complete.
Contacts:
Q: UPS billing— We have problems with billing and it’s not just UT as a unit. Are accounting people at UPS aware that each department must pay on different accounts? A: There will be problems with UT’s being so large. There is a representative for the state of Texas with UPS. Hopefully, this will help with future concerns. Janice closed the meeting with a reminder to contact her with suggestions for speakers and topics (j.bradley@mail.utexas.edu)
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19 February 1999 |