Meeting of the
University of Alaska
System
Governance Council
Thursday, March 2, 2000
Beginning at 1:00pm
via audioconference
Draft
Minutes
1. Call to order and roll call
The meeting was called to order at 1:07 pm by Stacey
Banks.
Members Present
G. Stacy
Banks II, Chair, System Governance Council and President, Associated Students
of UAF
Rudy
Candler, Representative, UAF Staff Council
Larry
Duffy, President-elect, UAF Faculty Senate
Sheri
Gray, President, UAS Staff Council
Megan
Hall, President, Union of Students of UAA
Barbara
Tullis, Vice President, UAA Assembly
Leafy
McBride, President, Statewide Administration Assembly
Ex-officio Members Present
Rich
Sewell, President, UAA Alumni Association
Cindy
Bramley, Executive Director, UAF Alumni Association
Members Absent
Don
Cecil, Chair, Faculty Alliance and Chair, UAS Faculty Council
M.
Hilary Davies, President, UAA Assembly
Kean
Nuttall, President, United Students of UAS-Juneau
Sarah
Schlesman, President, United Students of UAS-Sitka
Ex-officio Members Absent
Lynne
Johnson, Coordinator, UAS Alumni Association
Guests Present
Ann
Ringstad, Government Relations Director
David
Rohwer, Vice President of the Statewide Administration Assembly
Brian
Brubaker, UA System Governance
2. Adopt agenda
Since the January 27, 2000, minutes had not been
distributed, it was suggested that item 3, adopt the January minutes, be
dropped until a subsequent meeting.
MOTION: Moved by Larry Duffy, seconded by Sheri
Gray, passed without objection
"The University of Alaska System Governance Council
hereby adopts the agenda for the March 2, 2000, meeting as modified. This action is effective March 2,
2000."
3. Chair's comments
G. Stacey Banks said that it’s been an insane month and
he’s been busy.
4. Legislative update - Ann Ringstad
http://www.alaska.edu/swlegis/
Ann Ringstad confirmed that it has been a wild couple of
weeks. Students and alumni were well
received in Juneau in late February 2000.
There were meetings with over 45 legislators and a conference with 10
lawmakers and the lt. governor. The
event was worth the effort. The
university's name is out there and the legislator trading cards got some good
press. They are $50 per set. The profits will go towards sending more
students to Juneau. Students met with
the governor and thanked him for supporting the $16.9 budget increment request.
Students from the UAF investment fund did a seminar for
legislators after being featured on CNN.
After the seminar, they talked about the university and what it has meant
for them. Legislators need to hear more
positive stories about the university like these. The investment club students made very heartfelt statements.
The House Finance Committee is having a statewide
teleconference on Saturday. There is
one day for the public to give public testimony on the state budget. The information is up on the website. This is our chance to get out and really
support the university.
The Public Opinion Message (POM) form is on the
government relations website and is available from the Legislative Information
Offices. Use them primarily to
communicate with your own legislator.
Personal written letters are always the best means of communication.
Is it true that legislators prefer to read personal
messages rather than the POMs? Ann
Ringstad confirmed this. She said that
ypically when legislators see POMs, it is the result of a massive, organized
campaign to get them down to Juneau.
The UA College of Fellows is going to Juneau in March
right after Spring Break.
The February advocacy newsletter has a list of toll-free
phone numbers for legislators. The
Staff Alliance will be in Juneau for an on-site meeting on April 11-13.
In the house, the university has flat funding plus an
allocation in addition to their flat funding.
Most agencies are taking a big cut.
There is a $15 million cut in K-12 education, mostly due to formula
changes. The requested $16.9 million
increment for the university may show up in whole or in part in a different
funding bill other than the main budget.
It was observed that if legislators can get people
fighting with each other, then they can sit back and make the decisions. Is Alaska’s budget a zero sum game? When students said to legislators that they
would like the $16.9 million increment funded, legislators would ask students
where to find the money. The advice was
to stay away from those kind of arguments; to stay upbeat in your conversations
with lawmakers. The feeling is that the
legislature wants to leave on a good note this year. One way to do that is to fund the university $16.9 million
increment. Emphasize that this is OUR
university.
The President Hamilton's speech to the combined finance
committees is available on the internet and copies are available on VHS,
courtesy of Gavel to Gavel.
Have the rest of the citizens of the state heard
President Hamilton’s message? President
Hamilton has met with the oil alliance, rotary groups and others. Ann Ringstad said that she is trying to get
a database together of Alaskans to communicate with regarding university
advocacy.
Is there a way to get our message to more people, to make
our message known on a more broad-base basis?
The February 3 “state of the university” speech was the best means of
sending the message out so far. Gavel
to Gavel is not broadcasted; it is only available on cable. Bob Miller of the Office of Public Affairs
is working on some advertisements.
Right now, President Hamilton’s communications have been
mostly with the business community.
It’s hard to reach everybody. If
you are an information junkie, you can tune in to public affairs shows on radio
and tv. Perhaps President Hamilton
could be invited on one of these.
The President is doing an economic summit in a few weeks,
which will help reach more people. Who
will be involved in that summit? Ann
Ringstad is not sure right now and doesn’t yet know the dates for it.
5. UA support activities - campus and
systemwide
On Wednesday, March 1, ASUAF had a “day of action.” There was a booth in the Wood Campus Center with
telephones, POMs, toll free numbers, and a voter database provided by Ann
Ringstad. There was some good media
coverage. Stacey Banks said that he was
very happy with the number of people that stopped by, probably over 50 people.
6. System Governance Reports
6.1 Coalition of Student Leaders
http://gov.alaska.edu/net/events/fifteen/
Megan Hall said that the coalition listserve has been
very active. Last week in Juneau was
very successful and has created a lot of buzz on the UAA Campus. Things are very exciting.
One initiative that the Coalition is working on is the
legislator trading cards. Pat Race,
ASUAF’s computer wizard, printed up five sets of them so far. They went over extremely well, and there was
an article in the Anchorage Daily News about them. No legislator was given their own trading card; they were forced
to go and trade for it. John Davies'
office and the UA office in Juneau have become the trading card distribution
centers. The profits will be used to
get students down to Juneau.
There is a card for the governor, lt. governor, and
President Hamilton. It is rumored that
when you put them together, they spell "$16.9 million" in the
background.
The Coalition is doing an “Adopt-A-Legislator” program,
where you adopt a legislator and write them periodically. You get a sheet of information and
instructions on how to “care and feed” your adopted legislator.
The Coalition is coordinating a “UA is good business” ad
which lists businesses that hire and are run by UA alumni. The idea is to get quotes from these
business that say why they like and support the University of Alaska.
ASUAF has printed up blue and white posters that say “I
support the University of Alaska.” They took them to the Fairbanks Chamber of
Commerce and all were taken. There is
an ongoing postcard campaign.
The Coalition opposed the tuition increase that the
administration asked for AY2002.
Tuition increases were postponed until the April board meeting. Students will be looking at course fees and
other fees at the university.
Pat Pitney indicated to the System Governance staff that
her office is conducting a survey of fees that effect students, faculty, and
staff. She hopes to have it completed
by late April or early May.
The administration proposed increasing AY2002 tuition by
HEPI, the Higher Education Price Index.
The Coalition’s main concern in opposing the proposal was to make sure
that higher education at the University of Alaska remains affordable. Looking at the status of various fees is one
way of doing this.
6.2 Faculty Alliance
Larry Duffy said that the Faculty Alliance also met in
Juneau, right before the Board of Regents meeting. Larry Duffy announced that he will be the Faculty Alliance Chair
for FY2001. He said that their meeting
was the most productive of the year, and a lot was accomplished. Several regulations were addressed and made
more “student-friendly.”
A motion was adopted that more money should be put into
Pat Ivey’s budget for more face-to-face meetings of governance groups,
especially for the Coalition and other groups like that. Another motion was adopted that suggests
there should be funds to reimburse departments which have employees spending
considerable amounts of time in governance business. Such reimbursements are usually done at the MAU level and there
is no statewide pool of money to reimburse supervisors for lost staff time at
the statewide level.
6.3 Staff Alliance
David Rohwer mentioned that the Staff Alliance is going
to Juneau on April 11-13. The Staff
Alliance met with Janet Jacobs about the McDowell Employee Attitude
Survey. There may be some increased
staff training initiatives forthcoming.
There was some discussion on Job Evaluation Form (JEF) policies and
regulations. Mike Humphrey was heard
from with regards to employee health benefits.
The key issue here is the network provider steerage.
Leafy McBride said that the Staff Alliance has been
discussing employee fees – that and UA budget advocacy are some of the big
issues right now.
Sheri Gray mentioned that the deadline for the Make
Students Count Award was extended to Friday, March 3, 2000.
The UAF Staff Council is sponsoring a advocacy walk. It will go to different buildings and show
what the campus has to offer to the community.
The UAF Engineering Building had a wonderful community
open-house last weekend, which involved a lot of community children. David Rohwer said that his oldest son, who
is a UAF engineering student, mentioned that his club is looking at building a
race car. They are talking with
corporate sponsors to secure funding.
6.4 Alumni associations
Cindy Branley said that it was a great trip to
Juneau. She was very proud to be part
of the whole thing. The UAF Alumni
Association is continuing to work with ASUAF on their advocacy work. Richard Sewell echoed what Cindy Branley
said. It was emotionally exhausting to
work with these legislators. Still it
was inspiring to work with the students, who were fired up, focused, and worked
with a light heart and hilarious comments.
He is proud to work with this group.
One idea discussed in Juneau was to take to our advocacy
to the next level by forming a University of Alaska coalition. While the governance groups have most of the
players, it would make sense to involve others in some sort of coalition. We could bring business leaders, various
chamber of commerce representatives, and others to the table. Legislators are very sensitive to the issue
of votes – raw political votes. How
could we think in terms of a University of Alaska coalition or political action
committee?
Tomorrow night is the UAF v. UAA Governor’s Cup hockey
match. The UAA Alumni Association is
hosting a tailgate party. Admission is
free. Cindy Branley said that the UAF
Alumni Association is sponsoring an event at the Sheraton after the game on
Friday night. It was observed that
President Hamilton is a pretty smart guy, given that he is out of town so that
he didn’t have to decide which party to attend.
How many of the legislators are UA alumni? Ann Ringstad said that she has a list with
the answer.
It was observed that there are two reasons for the
existence of alumni: money, politics
and the third reason: buying beer for the students.
Ann Ringstad said thank you to the alumni for their recent
efforts in Juneau.
7. Local governance reports
7.1 UAA
Megan Hall said that the Union of Students sponsored a
visit to campus by the Lt. Governor regarding the youth voting campaign. There was a press conference followed by a
student roundtable discussion. UAA
Faculty and Staff worked with the students on this. The voting effort is a statewide campaign. USUAA has started their adopt-a-legislator
and postcard campaigns. The deadline
for postcards to be returned is March 15.
There is a library promotion event being planned as well. USUAA has a goal to get 10 to 15 students to
be present at the testimony to the house finance committee on Saturday. They are working on the accreditation report
also. The Anchorage mayorial election
is April 4, and the UAA Faculty Association and USUAA is hosting a candidate
fair on March 21. The details are being
worked out. In the fall of 1998, they
only had tables of information and no Q&A forum for candidates.
Will there be any effort to get postcards signed at the
hockey game? Cindy Branley, Stacey
Banks and Richard Sewell volunteered to help with that and do it at the
tailgate party. Signing a postcard
could become the prerequisite for a beer.
7.2 UAF
Larry Duffy said that he doesn’t agree with Megan Hall’s
opinion that accreditation is fun. A
lot of effort is going towards accreditation at UAF now. There can be a lot of problems when you have
misinformation associated with the accreditation process. Right now the focus is on the mission
statement, goals, vision, and strategic plans.
Larry Duffy said that parking will be discussed at the UAF Staff Council
meeting on Friday, March 4, 2000. There
will be a report and recommendations.
Stacey Banks said that ASUAF will be getting postcards
signed at the hockey game. ASUAF is
also working on accreditation. They are
dealing with the $0.10 per page printing fee in the computer labs.
Larry Duffy said that when you have a flat budget and
costs increase, you can either cut programs or figure out new ways of how to
fund programs. The burden of costs has
been shifted to students, because the choice has been either shift the cost
burden or do away with the opportunity.
Stacey Banks and two ASUAF senators are going to
Washington DC for the USAA Legislative Conference over spring break. ASUAF is hosting a GROW (Grass Roots
Organizing Weekend) at the end of March on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Two trainers from USAA are coming up from
the lower 48 to teach ASUAF students how to do activism and organize.
Do students have any concerns about when commencement
dates are set? The Board of Regent
discussed the issue; which is that three campuses have their commencement at
the same time, on the Sunday after final exams (Mother’s Day). Because of this, the regents have to choose
between commencements and decide which to attend.
7.3 UAS
Sheri Gray said they haven’t had a UAS Staff Council
meeting yet. They are working on the
Make Students Count Awards.
7.4 SW
Leafy McBride said that SAA has been working on the
employee awards luncheon for early April.
Longevity and outstanding employee awards are given. Fees are an issue. A second canned food drive is being run because February and
March are hard months for the local food bank.
8.
Other items of concern
Larry Duffy said that distance delivery came up in
accreditation discussions. There are a
lot of academic and administrative identities that exist. There are proposals out that would allow
students to take courses electronically around the state. We have liberal policies when it comes to
transferring. We have a mobile student
population and its becoming increasing so with electronic delivery of
courses. It is possible to loose core
education requirements because of electronic delivery in some cases. Some people see standardizing core
requirements across the system as a trend toward becoming one university
again. This is a time for staff and
students to be proactive in giving input on this issue.
For example, in order to graduate from UAF, you have to
take a certain minimum number of credits at UAF. This limits the number of credits that you can transfer in from
other institutions and from other UA campuses.
At the graduate level, it is more restrictive – accreditation standards
require at least half of graduate credits to be from the degree granting
institution. Another issue to consider
is should a student's grades transfer along with credit for courses taken.
9.
Comments
Leafy McBride said that the students are doing a good job
and she is impressed. Stacey Banks said
that he does’t have much of a social life.
Go Nanooks!
10.
Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 2:55 pm.