Staff Senate Minutes
University of Nebraska at Kearney
May 15th, 2007 - 10:30 a.m. in the Nebraska Union - Sandhills
Present: Administrative: Bressington, Osmanski
Managerial/Professional: Schaffnitt
Service: Geiger, Heinowski
Office: Beerbohm, Wardyn, Meier
Ex-Officio: Lakey
Absent: Kauders, Benitz, Morehouse, Gilbertson
Recognition of Employee of the Month
Michelle Cate-Office Associate-Industrial Technology
Recognition of Department of the Month
Athletics – NCAA Championships Planning Committee
Guest Speaker – Amber Lewis
UNK Student Body President and Student Regent
Amber Lewis introduced herself to the Senate and stated that she was a secondary History/English major at UNK. She talked about her cabinet for the coming year and said that Morgan Kenney, her chief of staff, would be attending our monthly Senate meetings. Amber said that she has some areas on campus that she will focus on this year. First, she has been working with Facilities on a program that she calls “Campus Cares” which is similar to the “Adopt a Highway” program. Amber said that the campus will be divided into twelve zones. Campus organizations will “adopt” a zone and maintain it for the year. Funding is available to organizations for maintenance of their zone though it will be limited. The second area she will be focusing on is the Student Lounge. Amber would like to make improvements in the lounge that would provide more activities for the students. She also informed the Senate that she hopes to host a female leadership banquet in Kearney sometime during the spring semester. Amber also said that she would like to pursue the Loper Discount Club.
- Call to Order- Schaffnitt
- Open Floor– Staff members are welcome to have open discussion with Senate
- Adoption of Agenda – Beerbohm, Bressington
- Approval of Minutes(with corrections)– from April 17th meeting – Bressington, Osmanski
- Financial Report – John Lakey – John will check with Audrey regarding the negative balance in the Senate State account. Approved – Bressington, Heinowski
- Correspondence – None
- Unfinished Business
- Reminders
UNK Day (formerly “July 1 Celebration”)
a. Set for June 29th at 7:00 – 8:30 a.m.
B. Staff Senate End-of-Year Report – Brandon is currently working on this report.
- Committee Reports
A. Election Committee – No Report
B. Employee Recognition Committee – Beerbohm
The Employee Recognition Committee met yesterday (May 14). Last year’s “UNK Day” was paid by a donation. Jan asked the Senate how much money the ERC Committee can spend for this year’s “UNK Day”. She also asked for suggestions regarding what type of food should be served at the breakfast. After some discussion among Senate members it was decided to serve a continental breakfast. A motion was made by Bressington and seconded by Geiger to spend $200 on this year’s “UNK Day” breakfast with the money coming from the Senate auxiliary account.
C. Performance Management Committee – No Report
D. Procedures Committee – No Report
E. Professional Development Committee – Cheryl Bressington
Leadership UNK was well received. They are meeting to go over the 25 applications this afternoon (May 15). The Poker Walk is reorganizing for
this summer.
F. Mentoring Committee – No Report
G. Office/Service Dependent Scholarship Committee – No Report
H. Information Technology Advisory Committee – No Report
I. Strategic Planning Committee – No Report
- New Business
A. 2006 – 2007 Goals – Discussion was held among Senate members on what our goals should be for this year. It was agreed that our first goal should be the Senate budget and then it should be fundraising. Various ideas were suggested for fundraising projects. Some of them included selling banners to athletic parents, t-shirts (with an updated logo), and selling flags during the summer orientation. Bressington made the suggestion that a temporary committee is set up for the purpose of fundraising and they could work with Audrey regarding the budget. She also said that this committee should meet with Barbara Johnson about the Pepsi funds before the new guidelines are put out this fall. More discussion on fundraising will be held at the June meeting.
1. By-Laws Update – Jami said that the Executive Committee met and discussed the Staff Senate by-laws. During the coming year, the Senate will need to revise the by-laws so they read in general terms – by doing this it will prevent having to through the process of updating the by-laws again.
2. Addition of department affiliation to list of committee members – Jami said that on the committee members list, the name of the department that members are affiliated with will be added by their names.
B. Report on Executive Committee meeting with Chancellor on May 10 –
The Executive Committee (Brandon, Fauneil, and Jami) met with the Chancellor on Thursday, May 10. Jami discussed the highlights of their meeting which included construction of the new residence halls, the new 2007-2008 fiscal year budget, Bruner Hall of Science construction, and more surface parking for the campus. She also said that the Chancellor would like the Senate to continue to recognize staff and build moral. He would like to encourage staff to get involved with the strategic plans for the campus. They could do that by being involved on a committee or listen to the podcasts from the Strategic Planning Committee meetings. Discussion was held among Senate members regarding various ways to recognize staff and build moral.
C. Staff Involvement on China Exchange Program - Roger Davis e-mailed Brandon and suggested that qualified staff, in addition to faculty, should be able to participate in the China Exchange Program.
- Staff Senate Roundtable – Staff members update the Senate on events happening in their offices/departments
Wilma Heinowski – Painting parking lots; permits for Res Life lots go on sale
on Monday; new parking permits will have Bell Tower on them
Cheryl Bressington – Doing sexual harassment training sessions for some departments on campus
Mike Geiger – Res Life is getting dorms ready for summer camps; doing clean-up and maintenance
Teresa Osmanski – Baseball has done very well
Fauneil Meier– New NCN students are here; summer ELI classes start on
May 29
Laura Wardyn/Jan Beerbohm – Auditors are in office; collecting for summer tuition
John Lakey – Looking over employee performance evaluations; payroll is doing summer salaries
Jami Schaffnitt – Summer advising is going on; trying to get out information about activities to students; rearranging the format of Blue & Gold
- Announcements
A. Staff Senate is always seeking nominations for Employee and Department of the Month! All nomination forms are available on-line on the Staff Senate webpage
B. Anyone in the UNK community is encouraged to attend Staff Senate meetings
C. Next Meeting – June 19th @ 10:30 a.m. in the Sisler Room of the Memorial Student Affairs Building.
- Adjourn – meeting was adjourned at 11:47 a.m. – Osmanski, Heinowski