CST External Advisory Board Meeting

Friday, May 18, 2012

  1. Board members in attendance
  2. Jeff Wright, David Bover, Rick Kaiser, Matt Dunn, JC Hickman, Bob Brim, John Francis, David Kennerud, Peter Hallson, Jim Osness, Nona Larson, Truc Thon, Dwight Walters, Reid Kuhn, George Kriz, Margo Hammond, Dave Spanel, Jason Clark, and Kathy Cartwright.
  3. Welcome and outline of the day: Rick Kaiser
  4. Jeff – Dean’s message (Welcome and introductions)
  5. Dean’s Report
  6. Status/observations after first year at Western
  7. Greatest excitement
  8. Quality of work and opportunities for students
  9. Greatest comfort
  10. Dean’s office staff
  11. Greatest disappointment
  12. Greatly underestimated level of how under-resourced WWU is
  13. Greatest accomplishment
  14. Securing of full time appointment for new Associate Dean, David Bover
  15. Greatest surprise
  16. Daily surprises at WWU – Why is that the way it is? Bombshells daily
  17. Perspectives – the front burner
  18. Board is renamed “External Advisory Board”
  19. David Bover – new Associate Dean of CST and current acting chair of Computer Science
  20. WWU finally hiring faculty
  21. Starting and engineering school at Western
  22. YOYO = “You’re on your own”
  23. MancaVallum – Director of Development for the Sciences, WWU Foundation
  24. Her background
  25. 6 years on Foundation
  26. CST/Huxley/Environment/Shannon Point
  27. Foundation update
  28. New Foundation member coming to CST
  29. Introduction of The “Matrix”
  30. Atool/foundation to strengthen the vision for CST
  31. Department focused goals
  32. Gifts and how they work within the matrix
  33. Annual gifts
  34. Major gifts
  35. Estate gifts
  36. Arlan Norman Fund for Excellence
  37. Started with $2,000 gift by Rick and Ann Kaiser
  38. Discretionary funding
  39. Broad support of college programs
  40. Includes currently existing programs
  41. Wizards at Western
  42. Science & the univerCity
  43. Other recent fundraising developments in the college:
  44. Dwight Walters has been leading a successful to help effort to fund the Ross Ellis Field camp endowment, and through his generous support we were able to secure $80,000 in matching gifts from the original donor to the fund. Those gifts, combined with the original gift from the estate of Kathy Digges and subsequent gifts from her husband, Robert Digges have brought the total of the field camp endowment fund up to nearly $210,000.
  45. David Kennerud, and his wife Darla, have pledged a gift of $50,000 to establish the Visiting Scholars Program endowment for the Math department. David and Darla plan to make a very generous initial payment on that pledge this year, to get the fund up and rolling.
  46. Project introductions
  47. Board members adjourned to the Planetarium located in the library
  48. Brad Johnson, chair of Physics Department
  49. Project introduction: Projector need
  50. 2004 projector, old technology, many new shows cannot be shown on the older system.
  51. Steve Emory, Chemistry faculty, Director of AMSEC program
  52. Project introduction: “CST Spotlight” videos
  53. 2 different focus projects
  54. Landslide video – Geology
  55. Solar power – AMSEC
  56. Who is the audience? What is the story we want to tell?
  57. Lunch discussion and presentations
  58. Joseph Hunter, Senior Director of Development & Leadership Gifts, WWU Foundation
  59. $50 million campaign goal
  60. The college is important in meeting this goal
  61. Francis Halle, Director of Space Administration & Management
  62. Was asked to write a proposal for building for sciences & Huxley
  63. High use facility
  64. Robust infrastructure & flexible structure
  65. New structures must be integrated with existing buildings
  66. Student presentations
  67. Brian Svoboda – Physics
  68. Joe Goshorn-Maroney – Geology (with Doug Clark, Geology faculty)
  69. Chip Jackson & Travis Peters – Math (with Tjalling Ypma, Math faculty & dept. chair)
  70. Project introductions continued
  71. Sabatical Shangri-La
  72. How can we create an environment for a one year sabbatical of a top-notch faculty member?
  73. Providing a resource to these people
  74. Free rent/housing
  75. Perks: free golf/ski/hiking/kayaking
  76. What can we give them as incentives to spend their sabbatical year at WWU?
  77. Corporate Alliance Program
  78. Building student experiences by letting them work on real-world challenges
  79. Companies can influence curriculum
  80. Partnership with industry
  81. 8 pilot projects in Fall 2013
  82. Opening for engineering school
  83. Collaboratory
  84. Engineering retention 25-50% of students get through to end of engineering program
  85. This allows students in high school to see what engineering is about
  86. High school students can take the same class that college students are taking
  87. Infrastructure must be interactive
  88. Build a prototype and connect w/ K-12 and community colleges w/computer science group
  89. Breakout session time in groups
  90. Outcomes of Breakout Sessions
  91. Describe what the project is – articulate it.
  92. What’s the strategy for moving forward?
  93. Schedule & benchmarks
  94. Breakout Session Review
  95. Planetarium – John Francis
  96. Projector is bad/old, upgrade or hold? $375,000 cost for new projector
  97. Funding? A lot of non-astronomy, class programs, other sciences used like an IMAX, good for source of income. Expand audience to other grades.
  98. Videos – Bob Brim
  99. Original video turned out to be more than promotion – extra materials can be used (grant requests)
  100. Enough funds & team to produce 4-5 films. Logistics & ideas are a challenge. Enough footage to do several other AMSEC films.
  101. Do these films work?
  102. Thru summer finish 3 films & distribute the finished films (YouTube, email, etc.)
  103. Use for fundraising.
  104. How sustainable? $10,000 per 6 minute video
  105. Corporate Alliance Program (CAP) – Reid Kuhn
  106. Students will work one year on a company project. Provide students with a real-life experience.
  107. Goals of corporations will be different from one to the next.
  108. Computer science companies will be the first to participate (4+)
  109. Projects in place by end of August 2012
  110. Collaboratory – Matthew Dunn
  111. Unbudgeted
  112. First have to describe what we want – define clear objective
  113. Identify someone ready to participate (i.e. Edmonds School District)
  114. Web-based collaborator- video conference challenges
  115. Sabbatical Shangri-La – Rick Kaiser
  116. Description: Create a pilot program that demonstrates the value of hosting a distinguished scholar @ CST (someone who will enhance the quality & scholarship of CST) by gifts in kind to attract and support them during their stay.
  117. Housing
  118. Community benefits
  119. Strategy for moving forward:
  120. Identify incentives & learn how to get them at very low cost.
  121. Answer questions about tax and legal issues.
  122. Timeline
  123. Find free/inexpensive housing by Fall
  124. Identify potential candidates to come here by December
  125. Identify tax & legal liabilities
  126. Inquire if local businesses for incentives can help by Fall
  127. If no housing found by fall-Nov., don’t pursue.
  128. Hold informal meetings monthly.
  129. Business/Wrap up – Rick Kaiser
  130. Handout: EAB Bylaws for review and comments. Need feedback for revision and direction
  131. Thanks to CST Dean’s office for support and success of the day
  132. Proposed gift to recognize and honor the retirement of Pinky Nelson
  133. Potential next meeting dates: Oct. 5, 2012, Oct. 26, 2012 or Nov. 2, 2012
  134. Minutes of the Fall 2013 meeting were approved without changes.
  135. Thanks to all board member for their service and time.