Staff Senate Minutes
University of Nebraska at Kearney
December 18th, 2007
10:30 a.m. in the Sandhills Room
of the Nebraskan Student Union
These are the unofficial minutes of the December 18th, 2007 Staff Senate Meeting. The minutes will be approved at the January 15th, 2008 meeting.
Staff Senate Minutes
University of Nebraska at Kearney
December 18th, 2007 - 10:30 a.m. in the
Nebraskan Student Union – Sandhills Room
Present: Administrative: Kauders, Bressington, McQueen
Managerial/Professional: Benitz, Morehouse, Schaffnitt
Service: Geiger, Heinowski
Office: Meier, Beerbohm, Wardyn
Ex-Officio: Lakey
Absent: Gilbertson
Recognition of November Employee of the Month
Fauneil Meier
Office Associate, International Education
Recognition of Department of the Month
Transition to Teaching Program, College of Education
Guest Speaker – Scot Fransk
UNK Intramural Coordinator
Scot shared his background with Senate members and talked about the state and direction of where he sees recreation and intramurals on campus. He said that there are two aspects of being Intramurals Coordinator - facilities and intramurals. Scot told the Senate that everyday he strives to see that students have to way to manage their stress by having fun. He also said that he wants to provide healthy lifestyle opportunities for our campus community. Other aspects he strives for everyday include: having a well-trained staff and prepare staff for post-college life; to create a “buzz” on campus about intramurals; risk management; and determine a better way to improve equipment and facilities. Scot told the Senate about some of the intramural activities that are popular with the students and he talked about the activities that staff members are involved with such as the fitness walking program, racquet sports, and the turkey trot. He said that although the Intramural website is being re-done, he encouraged staff to consult the website very soon to find the hours the fitness area is open or any intramural activities that may interest them.
I. Call to Order – Benitz
II. Open Floor – Staff members are welcome to have open discussion with Senate
III. Adoption of Agenda – Bressington, Kauders
IV. Approval of Minutes - Heinowski, Morehouse
V. Financial Report – Kauders presented the financial report to Senate members. Beerbohm, Schnaffnit
VI. Correspondence – None
VII. Unfinished Business
VIII. Committee Reports
A. Election Committee – No Report
B. Employee Recognition Committee – No Report
C. Performance Management Committee – No Report
D. Procedures Committee – No Report
E. Professional Development Committee – Bressington – Cheryl highlighted some upcoming events for the campus community. The dates include: March 26 – “Tums a Prescription for Burnout”; October 28 – presentation by Tim Peterson or Lee Elliott; June is the application deadline for Leadership UNK; August 7 – is the Poker Walk. Also, Cheryl was able to obtain funding to have a sought-after national speaker, Dr. Steve Robbins, come to UNK and do several 2-hour sessions on “Unintentional Intolerance”. The diversity training sessions are scheduled for April 22 with the times to be announced.
F. Mentoring Office/Service Dependent Scholarship Committee – No Report
G. Information Technology Advisory Committee – No Report
H. Strategic Planning Committee – Benitz – Benitz said that the Strategic Planning Committee met regarding Phase II on November 12. He said that UNK’s 6-year graduation and persistence rates are very high especially in terms of our region mandated peer group. Brandon stated that university’s goal is to get a 90+ percentage retention rate going into students’ second year. He said that the Phase II process is in its’ high point now and the sub-groups are meeting with their committees and going along with the strategic plan developed in Phase I. Bressington said that that the implementation plans for Phase II must be finalized by February 1, 2008.
I. Fundraising Committee (ad hoc) – No Report
IX. New Business
A. New Allocation for Staff Senate Account – Brandon circulated to members a detailed breakdown of expenses incurred by Staff Senate over the past year.
Brandon said that he recently visited with Vice Chancellor Barbara Johnson about Staff Senate funding and expenses. As a result, the Vice Chancellor has permanently allocated an additional $1000 to our state account for this fiscal year. Audrey handed out a draft of the Staff Senate budget she prepared for the 2007-2008 fiscal year to Senate members. This draft includes all of the activities that Staff Senate sponsors during the year. In February, Staff Senate will revisit this proposed budget and make any changes necessary. Staff Senate also passed a resolution saying: “Staff Senate would like to recognize Joni Weed for expenses that she has paid for personally associated with the Employee Recognition Committee.” Kauders, McQueen
B. Staff Recognition Ceremony – will be held on Thursday, January 3, in the Ponderosa Room of the Student Union. The ceremony will be from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m.
C. Technology Advisory Committee Nominee – Laura Wardyn will serve as the staff representative on the Technology Advisory Committee. Kauders, Schaffnitt
X. Staff Senate Roundtable – Staff members update the Senate on events happening in their offices/departments
Fauneil Meier – Receiving arrival information from new international students.
Mike Geiger – Students are preparing to move out and they are letting us know what work they would like us to do.
Mark Morehouse –When the opportunity arises and you see someone from the Grounds crew – please give them a pat on the back or a thank you for the job they are doing. We are shortly going to be getting ready for the Elite 8 Tournament and over break we will be doing some floor care work.
Wilma Heinowski – Effective December 31, Lot 7 is closing because of the Bruner Hall construction.
Audrey Kauders – At MONA on Thursday night, we are having our 3rd Third Thursday program on December 20 with Tom Henning playing the piano, his wife will be doing some storytelling, there will be a sing-a-long as well as some other events. Something else that is going to be very neat after the first of the year (January-April), we are going to have an artist doing a show at MONA that is an installation piece and also a performance artist. The artist will be doing something around her art everyday for those 3 months.
Jan Beerbohm – Laura pretty much covered everything in our office – we are really working on shredding a lot of social security numbers.
Brandon Benitz – National Honor Society will be hosting a conference for 150 – 250 high school juniors on Wednesday, January 16. The Rural Economic Development and the Nebraska Business Development Center will be hosting an Entrepreneurial Boot Camp for 30 high school juniors/seniors during the second week of June. The Blue and Gold Welcome Week will be going through some significant changes. Regular events will remain largely unchanged – there will be some changes on the academic side. Last year with all of the judicial violations we handled on campus – 61% was for alcohol or drugs. There were 307 judicial violations of students living on campus – 67 violations for non-students. There are 250 judicial violations so far this year.
Cheryl Bressington – Spring semester will be busy – in addition to bringing in the diversity speaker, I am currently organizing another training session on students with behavioral concerns. Also, working on a NCAA project with the students for the Chancellor and I will be developing a certification process for search committees that will be new this fall.
Laura Wardyn – Getting ready for spring semester and searching out social security numbers everywhere – making sure they are secure or appropriately shredded.
Lee McQueen – Between now and the start of second semester the fence is going up around Bruner Hall. Demolition will begin on Mary Morse in late January or early February. Bids will be taken for the Central Plant project on January 9 – expect that work to start in early March. The Central Plant project is expected to be done in June/July 2009 and the Bruner Hall in August 2009. Residential halls are on schedule. There will be a three-day power outage on campus on May 10-12.
Jamie Schaffnitt – We are just working on some student events such as Jim Wand, the hypnotist, on January 31 and the Peking acrobats in February at the Health and Sports. Family Day will be September 20 and Homecoming is October 6-11. The students have voted for a homecoming theme – it will be “UNK Homecoming 2008: Through the Decades”.
John Lakey – Expanding on what Lee said with regard to the power outage, we know we will have some employees that will be working – we are exploring some options of having some professional training/guest speakers that day -probably off campus. 76% of benefit eligible employees enrolled in their benefits through ESS. Employees should have received their confirmation statements – I encourage you to look at it, you will have until Friday, December 21 at 5:00 p.m. to make changes.
X. 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 – January 15th @ 10:30 a.m. in the Sandhills Room of the Nebraskan Student Union.
XI. Adjourn – meeting was adjourned at 12:09 p.m. – Kauders, Morehouse