WCU Staff Forum Meeting Minutes
December 13 , 2007
UC Cardinal Room
Members Present:Colby Deitz; Debbie Justice; Teresa Killian; Carolyn Paris; Nancy Carden; Tamrick Mull; Roseanna Belt; Lisa Frady; Cale Wilson; Jed Tate; Donna Welch; Akum Jamir; Larry Hammer; Tim Inman; Dianne Lynch; Walter Turner
Members Absent:Pete Lloyd; Dawne Coward (excused); Lisa Surber (excused); Lauren Bishop (excused); Kathleen Franks (excused)
Ex-Officio Members Present:Dianne Lynch
Welcome:Jed welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.
Approval of Agenda:The agenda was approved as submitted.
Approval of Minutes:The minutes for November’s meeting were approved as submitted.
Information Items:The next Executive Committee meeting is scheduled forThursday, January 3, 2008, 2:00-3:00, HFR 453.
The next Staff Forum meeting is scheduled forThursday, January 10, 2008, 8:30-10:30 a.m., Cardinal Room, UC.
Office of Human Resources:Kathy Wong was not available to attend.
University Advisory Council: Debbie Justice reported on the following
Attendance –Attendance at meetings has been poor. The Chancellor may attend a meeting in the future in hopes of encouraging attendance.
Smoking Policy– All comments received to date have been in favor of the policy. Discussion is ongoing as to how far from buildings smoking will be allowed.
Training– Chris Dahlquist is working on a needs assessment for training options. A new registry will hopefully be in place by January.
Salary Adjustment Funds– We will not hear about the availability of these funds until sometime in the spring semester.
Chancellor’s Office:Dianne Lynch reported on the following
Commencement– This is scheduled for Saturday, December 15 th. There are 481 students walking and a student speaker.
Executive Council– Budget priorities are a big concern. In order to meet all budget requirements, we must grow.
Enrollment– Admission letters will be going out soon and early indicators show an increase in SAT scores and overall quality of students.
Staff Forum Committee Reports:
Human Resources
No Report
Resource & Environment
A draft of the tables and benches proposal is under review by Mr. May. The committee is currently working on new ideas.
Public Relations
No report
Scholarship
Looking at adding children and dependents of retirees to the scholarship availability.
Governance
Looking at how to run elections more efficiently and how to get more names for possible members.
New Business:
Governance– Nominations and elections will be in May. Members need to begin asking around to see who is interested. Need to begin looking at advertising the elections and a call for nominations in April.
Smoking Policy–As of January 1 st there will be no smoking allowed in any state buildings or state owned vehicles. The distance from buildings has yet to be decided. Very few comments have been received from smokers regarding the policy. Maps are currently being drawn up to show where various distances would be for buildings. Enforcement of the new policy will also be difficult. The Chancellor does not want to make a decision on the policy himself and would like a lot of input from the campus community. The new policy will likely be stressful on smokers.
Scholarship Committee– Would like to discuss adding retirees to the scholarship availability. Need to decide what the level of importance is for retirees, contract employees, children, nieces and nephews. Preferences need to be defined. The committee will work on the policy and present it at the next meeting.
Town Hall Meeting– Smoking policy was the only topic brought up for a Town Hall meeting. Agenda, location, and date will be determined by the next meeting.
Open Comments:
A lot of infrastructure upgrades will be taking place in IT during the holiday break. There will be periodic outages of email.
Staff may not be available for all of the training through the Office of Human Resources, so please spread the word.
Looking for a new Sequoyah professor and would appreciate staff attending the open sessions to interview the candidates
Meeting adjourned at 9:55 a.m.