The last Board of Regents meeting of the semester was also the slowest, but many small things were accomplished Wednesday.

Union workers from Illinois State University in Normal were at the meeting to see the revision of an earlier contract that affected them.

In March, ISU hired Servicemaster—a private janitorial firm which reorganized the work of the building service workers based on square footage.

In September, more than 50 union workers attended the board meeting to protest the $32,000 per-month contract because the workers claimed the new work assignments were making maintenance impossible.

The newly revised contract with Servicemaster will be effective Jan. 1 if it is approved by the board today. Both sides are pleased with the agreement, which is likely to pass.

On site, Servicemaster personnel will be reduced from three to one, said James Alexander, ISU vice president of business affairs.

Two of the Servicemaster workers will leave by Dec. 31. The other Servicemaster worker will remain until Dec. 31, 1991.

Alexander also said the union workers and ISU administration agreed on support for different staffing levels.

The total cost of the contract will be modified, he said. The reduction will be about 54 percent or $180,000 per year, he said.

The proposal is in draft form and was discussed with union leadership, Alexander said.

“Everyone agrees this (the revised contract) is the best direction for the university to take,” he said.

“All we wanted to do was bring automation training to the physical plant,” said ISU President Thomas Wallace. “We wanted to bring training to the supervisors in the physical plant. Our objective was not to restaff.”

Steve Borberly, representing the Local 1110 union, said “we are pleased and satisfied with the (revised) contract.”

The union will “strive to continue the relationship that has been developed in the past few months,” he said.

Alexander said the modification of the contract “was well within the confines of the existing contract.”

The revision of the contract must be approved by the board, said William Monat, Joint University Advisory Committee chairman.

In other business, the board heard reports on the Minority and Female Business Enterprise Act. The act “requires at least 10 percent of the total dollar amount of state contracts as defined by the MAFBEA Council shall be a goal for contracts awarded to minority and female_owned businesses,” said Cheryl Peck, assistant to Chancellor Roderick Groves.

NIU achieved 32.6 percent of its 1990 goal. ISU and Sangamon State University in Springfield achieved about 70 percent of their goals.

“We’re so far behind,” said NIU Student Regent James Mertes.

The Board of Regents governs NIU, ISU and SSU.