1. Call to order and roll
call
Marie Scholle, Chair Past president and
representative
UAF Staff Council
Rita Bowen, President, UAS Staff Council
John Craven, Chair, Faculty Alliance;
President,
UAF Faculty Senate
M. Hilary Davies, 2nd Vice President,
UAA Faculty
Senate
Connie Kramer, President, Statewide Admin.
Assembly
Lawrence Lee Oldaker, President, UAS Faculty
Council
Barbara Tullis, President, UAA Assembly
Suzette Mashburn, Director, UAA Alumni Association
Pat Ivey, Executive Officer
OTHERS PRESENT:
Wendy Redman, Vice President for University
Relations
Jeannie Phillips, Regents Affairs Officer
ABSENT
Steve Nuss, President, Associated Students
of UAF
Rosie Gilbert, President, USUAS-Juneau
University of Alaska Southeast
Mary Stasenko, Representative, Northwest
Campus
Student Body
Kevin Tritt,President, Union of Students
of UAA
2. Adopt agenda
3, Approve December 10, 1997 minutes
5. Presidential search
In addition, there is a place on the Board of Regents home page for public response as to what qualities they would like to see in a new president. These mail messages go to SYBOR and are automatically forwarded to the Board of Regents. These mail messages are public documents.
Scholle asked Council members to spread the word. Craven said it was not their job and asked that it be put in writing.
Scholle asked Anchorage staff members of the Council to attend the February 5-6 Board meetings to save money.
6. University support: countdown
to Juneau
Redman just got the results of an opinion poll on public attitudes toward the university that the University Foundation commissioned to be conducted. The McDowell Group conducted the study which ranked the university very high. This is consistent with the Governor’s poll which also ranked the university very high. Legislators are also doing their own polling.
Redman said the legislators would be meeting with the Board of Regents at a breakfast Thursday, February 20, 1998 in Juneau to which governance leaders were invited. The UAF alumni are hosting a reception in House Speaker Gail Phillips office.
There are things coming out this year which will help. Part of that is the Medicaid funding which provides $30 million to the state. The Governor has taken all of that for his school initiatives, part of which is $3.5 for the university and the Alaska Scholars Program and his quality schools initiative. The Alaska Scholars Program, a project of the Governor’s, that would provide $2,700 per year to the top 10% of Alaska’s high school graduates to attend the University of Alaska. This program is very positive and should be supported.
Anyone who has additional funding to get to Juneau in addition to the February Board meeting for any reason should contact Wendy Redman to determine when would be a good time to visit with legislators and to set up meetings with them. For instance, there should be some UAA governance leaders there to talk about the UAA library when the capital budget comes up.
Scholle reported that Jake Poole, the UAF Alumni Association director, was trying to work with UAA and UAS alumni to have, on a weekly basis, so there is alumni always going to the legislature and talking with them about the university.
Wendy said her office was deeply enmeshed in learning HTML in order to maintain the legislative home page. She said she is doing a weekly legislative update newsletter on the web which should be helpful. The newsletter will also contain updates on UA legislation.
Scholle complemented Redman on her weekly legislative update.
Redman reiterated the need to have governance leaders in Juneau at times other than Board meetings. Redman was asked if she could provide funding for this. She responded that she probably funds a dozen trips to Juneau each year, mostly for students and alumni.
ACTION: Scholle asked members to send items to Pat Ivey for inclusion in a fact sheet that can be used by everyone when they go to Juneau.
7. RIP Program impacts
The UAF Faculty Senate has been discussing the Retirement Incentive Program impacts and Craven is preparing an update on progress toward replacing faculty who retired under RIP last year where 40 percent of the funds saved were reallocated toward replacing faculty. He expects to get a report on the UAF plan at the chancellor’s retreat on February 10 and 11.
Kramer said when the staff side loses a position, the work gets disbursed to whoever is left. She asked if classes where disbursed among the other faculty. Craven said classes were hard to disburse to other faculty, but adjuncts are being used. Some lecture courses could be combined depending on the size of the classroom.
Davies reported that the UAA Faculty Senate has a RIP committee and agreed that it was a very complicated issue. There is a lot of course shifting going on, but adjuncts will be used to take up the slack, if qualified adjuncts can be found.
Scholle asked members to send their numbers of
faculty and staff lost, and the impact of that so that when faculty and
staff go to Juneau.
8. System Governance reports
Craven reported that the Faculty Alliance has a special meeting tomorrow to discuss the presidential search committee. The Alliance has a regular meeting on January 30. One of the agenda items for that meeting will be reports by the individual faculty governance groups on the review of the student affairs policies, course level definitions. The Alliance is also considering a common grading policy. The Alliance will receive its first report from the faculty development steering committee which met earlier this week in its first formal face-to-face meeting. Craven’s understanding is that it was a very successful meeting. The convenor of that meeting was Barbara Harville, President, UAA Faculty Senate.
Staff Alliance
Scholle reported that at the Staff Alliance
meeting last week, Patty Kastelic advised that the Staff Alliance and local
staff governance groups may not consider leave bank, benefits or anything
related to wages, hours and working conditions until after classified have
voted on the union issue.
9. Local governance reports
Davies reported that the UAA Faculty Senate has a RIP committee and agreed that it was a very complicated issue. There is a lot of course shifting going on, but adjuncts will be used to take up the slack, if qualified adjuncts can be found.
Masburn reported that the UAA Alumni Association has been reorganizing and is in the process of looking at membership and how to increase that. There have been some cuts in the alumni relations budget. Masburn heard a number of times that the UAA Alumni Association doesn’t respond, but no one is talking directly to her, so she isn’t sure where all that is coming from.
Scholle said Dillon was supposed to be in Fairbanks in December to visit with her, but that did not occur. Scholle is still waiting to hear from Dillon. They are supposed to be working on strategies on how to get all the alumni together and working from the same sheet of music. Masburn said she had a meeting with Dillon in a few minutes and would tell him.
Tullis reported that the UAA Assembly will be working with the Council of Deans and Directors, and the Chancellors Cabinet in two major areas: strategic planning and budget planning. The chancellor is hosting a meeting this Friday to talk about strategic planning. This Tuesday, Vice Chancellor Bill Rose is hosting a meeting with the groups to talk about budget planning. Following these meetings, she will forward some of the UAA goals.
Also at the last Assembly meeting, there was an extended discussion about parking. UAA Anchorage parking costs are scheduled to increase. They are also trying to initiate a cooperative effort with the municipality for the bus route to be expanded around the campus.
UAF
See Senate report under item 7.
UAS
Oldaker reported that UAS Faculty Council is having a retreat on February 6 and 7, and is at the close of its first year of operation. UAS has gone from five deans to three deans and assorted directors, to one single dean. In the new configuration, traffic goes from instructional-related issues to the administration and where a great deal of traffic comes from the regents and administration. This configuration works in the face of the pending ratification of the final United Academics contract.
Bowen reported UAS Alumni Association is working on a blood drive that will occur next Wednesday and she is getting the word out to the alumni about writing letters to the editor about the positive things the university is doing.
Bowen reported that the United Students of UAS-Juneau. USUAS-Juneau is doing the planning for its 13th annual legislative affairs conference for student leaders.
Bowen reported that the UAS staff are focusing on Banner training and are being asked to sit in other departments and do additional work because of the shortage of workers.
SW
Kramer said the Statewide Administration Assembly met this morning and was getting set up for Statewide employee awards and the annual employee awards luncheon. SAA talked about the legislative update from the Staff Alliance meeting the week before. SAA did discuss the cost of the health benefits.
10. Other items of concern
11. Comments
11. Adjourn