Minutes of the Meeting of the Deans Council
August 29, 2006 – 9 a.m.
Warner Conference Room
PRESENT: Finnie Murray, Lois Flagstad, Bruce Forster, Frank Harrold, William Jurma, Ed Scantling, Kenya Taylor and Janet Wilke
GUESTS: Cathleen Abels, Executive Director of United Way
Cathleen Abels, Executive Director of the Kearney United Way: Cathleen Abels, Executive Director of the Kearney United Way, distributed handouts, showed a video and explained that the support of the United Way has helped the lives of over 19,000 people in our six county region.
Diversity Funding Plans: Finnie stated that he has a conference call with Sonya Smith, Ed Wimes and has also asked Cheryl Bressington to join him, regarding questions he has for the new diversity funds proposal. Frank and Ed discussed the draft proposal they had prepared.
Programs of Excellence: Finnie discussed the summary regarding the new Programs of Excellence initiatives. A portion of POE funds will be committed to four broad areas that include Public Health; Life Sciences; Agriculture; and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education (STEM) in the public schools and the university.
Pay as you go Summer Session & Tuition Flexibility for circumstances like Dual Enrollment: Frank distributed an email from Stan Dart regarding some suggestions for recruitment and retention. Finnie discussed the shortfall in the summer school budget and also the possible moving of Admissions to Academic Affairs. Ed on behalf of Deans Council would like to put forth the idea that summer school is not an add-on, that it is an integral part of our institution and coupled with budget cuts and increases in faculty salaries...when UNK’s budget is being formulated summer school needs to be considered as part of the budget, especially for rising faculty salaries. Also 6 year graduation rate should be included and degree sequencing maybe something we could look into.
Dual Enrollment for High School Students: Kenya reported that Dusty Newton and Peter Longo were going to put together a proposal sometime before January.
Pandemic Flu Updates: Frank reported that the Academic Affairs on Teaching Continuity had met for the first time last week and Finnie had given them their charge. Discussion was also had on a bird in Michigan has the bird flu.
Student Life Updates: Lois reported that over the last to weekends there had been approximately 17 minors cited for possession of alcohol. She also reported that Student Life had noticed that several international students were having trouble with English.
Other items: Discussion was held on the request of funds by Dusty Newton on Juan Guzman’s behalf for funds from the Deans for the Multicultural Scholars and Leaders Day and the Cultural Unity Conference. It was decided to give one amount to be used towards both events as needed. The amounts were as follows: $750/College Dean and $500/GS&R and Library Deans.
Discussion was held on the minutes of the August 22, 2006, Deans Council Meeting. The minutes were approved with all present in favor.
There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned. The next meeting of the Deans will be on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. in the Warner Conference Room.