MINUTES

UAF GOVERNANCE COORDINATING COMMITTEE #54

Wednesday, November 7, 2002

Chancellor’s Conference Room, 330 Signers’ Hall

I Derek Miller called the meeting to order at 2:05

1. Roll Call

O'Neill, R.

MEMBERS ABSENT:

Bird, R.

Pinney, P.

OTHERS PRESENT:

Layral, S.

Lind, M.

Salganek, M.

Williams, L.

B. The agenda was adopted as distributed via e-mail with the addition of Item V. E., Discussion of All Campus Day.

C. Minutes from meeting #52 and #53 were approved as distributed via e-mail.

II COMMITTEE REPORTS

A. Health Issues -

The Committee has not met this year and no report is available.

Roy Bird was not present. No report was available. The committee has been working on the search for a new Athletic Director.

III GOVERNANCE REPORTS

A. ASUAF – D. Miller

Derek Miller indicated that ASUAF has been really busy. ASUAF recently approved on-line elections for the December 3 & 4 student body elections.

Brodie Anderson spoke about the student body elections and their push for candidates and voter turnout.

There has been a big push for student clubs--this will help with the student apathy by getting students involved in their respective clubs.

Derek Miller reported on the full funding effort. It is a four to five part plan. They are using ideas from the feedback from Representatives and Senators from last year to improve their campaign to make it successful. He hopes to have the plan out soon. There will be no road show this year. There will be a delegation going to Juneau.

B. Faculty Senate – G. Chukwu

Godwin Chukwu indicated that the Senate met on October 28th. A motion passed to recognize an outstanding Senator of the year. This will go forward with no cash award. Also passed was a resolution to support the 10% tuition increase. There is a concern raised by the Senators from the rural campuses. They have drafted a memo to the President. They are in support of the tuition increase but would like to see more support for tuition assistance for rural students. Godwin will be conducting the next Senate meeting on December 9th from Nome. He will also go to Bethel in April and Pete Pinney will go to Dillingham in February.

Godwin met with the Chancellor to propose a committee for the evaluation review of Provost Reichardt. That process is now underway. In the past two years two administrators have been reviewed. A staff member will also be appointed to the committee.

There is a proposal for a new Vice Provost for Graduate and Instructional Affairs. It has drawn some criticism and Godwin will be meeting with the Provost to define what the position will actually be doing. The current Dean of the Graduate School will be retiring on June 30th. The Provost wants to hire someone that will pick up that position and also oversee Instructional Affairs.

C. Staff Council - L. Ledlow

Larry Ledlow and Rory O'Neill reported on the concerns of staff on the cost of health care. There is an expected increase for 2004 as well. One of the recommendations is to release quarter reports on health care utilization. There are a number of committees discussing the health care issue. Janet Jacobs has used the committee as a means of communicating the problem. She sees the committee as a focus group that will help guide the executives in long-term strategies in health care. Mike Humphrey is spearheading continued discussion on health care.

Larry Ledlow spoke about the Reduction In Force (RIF) plan. Staff Council had a good presentation from Dean McMillian who provided an overview of the Plan. The other part of the equation is how management chooses to implement the plan. The sponsor, NASA, has yet to issue a request for proposal to continue the contract. The contract ends in March. Rory O'Neill stated that this reminds staff working on soft money or grants that if they are not retained at the end of their term, there is nothing in policies or regulations about notification of non-retention.

Larry Ledlow attended an anti-discrimination advisory training workshop. This is an effort by HR and EEO to train advisors to accept and evaluate complaints from employees. It provides a peer to peer interface to provide initial evaluation. They hope to ultimately have 100 advisors throughout UAF. Godwin Chukwu indicated that department chairs need to be trained.

Another positive item coming out of HR was a draft of the new Employee Recognition Plan. This offers a new way for managers and supervisors to recognize staff. There are two parts--a formal or informal recognition. This will be a good morale booster.

Rory O'Neill asked about UAF policies and where they are held. Chancellor Lind indicated that his office would be collecting all UAF policies and they will be located in his office.

Larry Ledlow indicated that Staff Council has not yet formulated a position on the tuition increase. They will meet on November 13th and he expects some discussion at that time.

IV GUESTS

A. Marshall Lind, Chancellor

Chancellor Lind talked about the issue of diversity and what kinds of things the university might do to address the issue. UAF has identified as one of the goals in the strategic plan 2005 goal #5 is to serve as a model to demonstrate how gender, racial, and cultural diversity strengthen a university and society. There are a number of indicators for this goal. We are tracking the progress made toward this goal. Institutional Research has the data that speaks to the different indicators. The indicators were a first shot on what we can do. They include bringing the ratio of male and female new faculty hires closer to 50/50 by 2005. We are requiring each UAF unit to post recruitment and retention reports on the unit's website. We are looking at increasing the proportion of faculty hired from underrepresented minority populations. We have supported the various institutional climate forums. We have talked about different events and activities around the campus that put an emphasis on diversity. LaJuana Williams has shared ideas for events that will continue to focus creating that awareness. The workshop on anti-discrimination is a part of an overall plan to bring about sensitivity and show a commitment on the part of the institution to be sensitive to these issues. We are hoping for more suggestion and are looking for ways to identify more indicators. Now we have data to begin to see the trends. We can see what is happening with our minority student population. We need to have more goals and to make sure they are realistic.

B. LaJuana Williams, Director, OMA

LaJuana Williams spoke with the Chancellor about her concerns about the budget to finance events. She would like to host a major event at the beginning of each semester. Some of the things that are being done include a series of brown bag luncheons which are focused on particular cultures during each month. For example, during the month where Japanese Culture Day occurs we have a brown bag luncheon in the office. It offers information that students can't get walking in the hallways and in the classrooms. Carry over events from last year include socials. OMA takes part in several events on campus that are sponsored by other offices such as the Resource Fair, the International Friendship Day, and the National Disability Awareness brown bag luncheon. In November there is National Japan Culture Day and World Harvest Day. Another thing that the office does is the religious round table to address student concern of issues arising from the September 11 incident. A NAACP representative was on campus with the idea of starting a campus NAACP student chapter. To avoid conflict with the community chapter of the NAACP, they are looking for 25 students on campus under the age of 25 to start a chapter.

Kevin Locke, a Native American hoop dancer was on campus this year. This is one of the types of cultural events she would like to see her more. LaJuana Williams spoke with Joy Morrison about having the diversity team reestablished. In 1996-97 that group looked at having a series of course that would be known as diversity courses that would lead to a minor in multicultural studies. That discussion is on going.

Institutional climate was first established with the idea of having people come together to talk about whatever issues they were concerned about. What she has found is that people are willing to talk unofficially and to do everything except document what they are saying so that you can have numbers to look at to establish a baseline. We need student, classroom, and organizational involvement into smaller focus groups.

Derek Miller asked about collaboration with the student organizations. LaJuana Williams indicated that she has talked with a number of the clubs. There is a new Indian club that has come by the office. Brodie Anderson indicated that he had sent them over to the see her. There is also the Native Alaskan Business Leaders, the new Muslim student association, the new Indian club (Namaste India), and the Alaskan/ Japanese club. These are the four major clubs that are involved in club council.

C. Maya Salganek, Chair, Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity and Tolerance.

Maya Salganek is chair of the Staff Council Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity and Tolerance. They are looking at the issues of diversity and tolerance from a staff perspective. There is a double role to play. One is to advocate for staff in terms of issues of discrimination and the other is to prevent becoming discriminatory in our selves. The committee has identified a number of issues especially with the help of the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Campus Climate Forums. Maya is looking at it from a policy viewpoint--what are our policies and how are they being implemented and are they effective? She gave some examples of the issues they have looked into.

Larry Ledlow indicated that the scope of issues crosses over to the other groups and feel that the work of the Committee should be extended to faculty and student interest. He thinks that GCC should formulate a joint committee. Brodie Anderson spoke about his experience as student ombudsman. Godwin Chukwu proposed a motion to add a committee on Diversity and Tolerance under the Governance Coordinating Committee. He recommended the membership include at least two members from each group. There was agreement by all present to establish such a committee. To formally add the committee to the procedures requires approval by all governance bodies. An ad hoc committee can be established until the permanent committee is approved. The motion to establish an ad hoc committee on diversity and tolerance was approved. Larry Ledlow will draft the charge of the committee.

V. NEW BUSINESS

A. Discuss Staff Council's pending statement regarding student's proposed tuition increase.

Staff Council has not had a discussion on the proposed tuition increase. Larry Ledlow indicted that in general there will be pretty broad support. They understand the President's rationale and also understand the concerns from students that it will have some impact. From a staff point of view if there is some relation to more stable job opportunities for staff, then they will support it. He would like to incorporate the student's concerns in any motion they pass.

B. Tuition talk update - Derek Miller

Derek Miller indicated that the student government at UAA and UAF had a special meeting to talk about the tuition increase. UAA, UAF, and the Coalition of Student Leaders have all passed a resolution opposing the 10 % increase. They do support a 3-6% inflationary increase. The tuition increase will be discussed at the November Board of Regents' meeting. While Derek personally supports the increase he recognizes that it does affect the non-traditional, part-time and rural students.

Larry Ledlow indicated that there needs to be some kind of consideration to any disproportionate impact there might be on the rural students. Derek Miller indicated that the President made some valid point at an open forum yesterday. The availability of scholarships has really increased dramatically under President Hamilton.

Rory O'Neill indicated that he and Larry met with Chancellor Lind that morning and discussed the tuition increase. Currently, the stance that this tuition increase as a component in causing drop outs (attrition) based on past experience is not a factor. They don't see that it would drive current students out of an education. Brodie Anderson indicated that the President would ask the Board to give the rural campus directors the ability to waive some of the tuition increase costs.

Larry Ledlow said that the Staff Council draft would state that they support the notion of a tuition increase with reasonable ideas of what is the value of an education. With those increases we need to accommodate those students who are adversely impacted. And we need to make sure it does not impact retention.

C. ASUAF Summit (Handout)

Derek Miller distributed a flyer on the upcoming ASUAF Leadership Summit. The committee that will oversee the summit met this week. The tentative date is Saturday, March 9th. Different student organizations are involved including Residence Life, ROTC, the fraternity and sorority, KSUA radio, the Sun-Star, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and Student Services. The idea is to get student groups working together to provide a vision for future student organizations and leaders. It will be student oriented and driven. Derek would like to see this develop into an annual event.

D. Master list of committees and boards on campus (relevant to all governance groups)

Derek Miller stated that ASUAF has formed an Ad Hoc Student Representation Committee. They have met with Don Foley to get as much information as possible on the different boards and committees on campus. They will compile a master list of all committee and post it on their website. They hope this will assist in getting students involved in the various committees and boards.

E. All Campus Day

Godwin Chukwu sent a memo to Derek Miller asking for him to define the activities and events that are held on this day and to address the need for this day. Derek indicated that he will meet with Don Foley, Sarah Comstock, Jeff Stepp and Lydia Anderson. It is not anyone's intention to see this go away. The students do not want to see All Campus Day not exist anymore. One of the things that need to happen on this campus is to make it more fun at UAF; have more after hour activities. All Campus Day is in line with the idea of maintaining tradition on campus. If this were abolished it would be one less tradition at UAF. That is a concern of student activities.

VI COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS

No additional comments or questions.

VII The next meeting will be scheduled during the second week of December.

VIII The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.