Official Minutes

Thursday, February 14, 2002

1:00-3:00 pm by videoconference

Fairbanks location: Butrovich Building – Conference Room 212B

Anchorage location: University Lake Building Video Conference Room

Juneau location: Egan Library Video Conference Room

via videoconference with audio to Homer

1. Call to order and roll call

Members Present

Derek Miller, Chair; President, ASUAF

Norm Swazo, President, UAF Faculty Senate

Kerry Digou, President, Statewide Administration Assembly

Katrina Hotch, Vice President, USUAS-Juneau

Kevin Krein, Representative, UAS Faculty Council

Scott McCrea, President, UAF Staff Council

Debbie Narang, Vice President, UAA Assembly

David Woodley, President, UAA Assembly

Members Absent

Jennifer Reinhardt, President, Kachemak Bay Student Association

Mike Dingman, President, USUAA

Robert Sewell, President, UAS Staff Council

Cindy Branley, ex-officio, UAFAA

Joe Joeright, ex-officio, UASAA

Suzette Mashburn, ex-officio, UAAAA

Guests Present

John Mitchell, Vice President, Statewide Administration Assembly

Mark R. Hamilton, President, University of Alaska

Mike Sfraga, Director, UA Program Development

Pat Ivey, Executive Officer, System Governance

Ann Ringstad, State Affairs Director

2. Adopt agenda

MOTION: Moved by Swazo, seconded by Narang passed without objection

"The System Governance Council moves to adopt the agenda for the

February 14, 2002 meeting. This action is effective February 14, 2002."

3. Approve minutes

MOTION: passed as amended Swazo, McCrea

"The System Governance Council moves to approve the minutes of the November

14, 2001 meeting as amended to change the spelling in item 4 of acclimation to acclamation. This action is effective February 14, 2002."

4. Chair's report

Derek Miller reported that the he attended the UA executive management academy earlier this month. Attendees included governance leaders, university executives and industry leaders.

Miller urged the Council to participate with the student leaders to campaign for full funding.

5. President Hamilton

President Hamilton said the UA academy identified that one of the most important area the university upon which the university has to focus is the area of enrollment management and that very aspect of the university is involved in enrollment management.

The university needs to pay attention to our part time students down to the certificate and workforce development level. Demographics demonstrate that by the end of the decade, if the university only focused only on first-time freshmen straight out of high school, the effect would be an increase in enrollment of only 1500 students.

The university has 12,000 students who take one class. If these students were induced to take a second class, the university would have as much revenue in the first semester as revenue received from the 1500 first-time freshmen by the end of the decade. Also, two thirds of the baccalaureate-seeking students are part-time.

It is hard to recruit and retain part-time students. The university might try some things like on line counseling. By taking one course a student is ineligible for Pell grants and student loans. By taking two courses, it is economically advantageous to the student because financial aid may be more readily available.

The university is working to bring on line on the Internet a user-friendly tool for faculty and students so that with a click of the mouse, they can find out:

* how many classes a student needs to take to qualify for Pell grants and

student loans,

* dates and times and location of courses all over the system,

* the kinds of courses the student has taken and lets the student know what else the student needs to take to get a degree (or degrees) , and

* whether or not courses apply to certain degrees.

Regarding the legislative session, President Hamilton reported the outlook is pretty dismal. Some lawmakers feel we have to show brutal cuts and make the public hurt more before the public will force them to spend more.

The legislature has defined the university's FY02 base budget at $195 million. This means we have $14 million we have to find somewhere, and

a lot of people who think the university is all squared away now and doesn't need any more money.

6. Recruiting and retaining non-traditional students

Mike Sfraga, head of statewide program development indicated that

non-traditional students are hard to define. Other key points of his presentation

include the points listed below.

* The demographics tell us that we won't get growth from the 18-22 year

olds within Alaska. Even nationally, that demographic is going to be hard

to recruit from.

* Public institutions are acting like private institutions where public

institutions have taken the private institutional models and adapted to

leverage financial aid. They are up against diminishing markets and push

to get training to get jobs.

* Non-traditional students are older and their behavior is very different.

The UA Scholars Program helps but doesn't solve problem of how to increase the enrollment from among nontraditional students because the Scholars program isn't offered to them. Sfaga is currently looking at enrollment trends at all three MAUs but data retrieval and analysis hasn't been good. This will be retooled over next years.

* Sfraga made site visits at UAF, UAA and UAS and visited with specialists in field who said UAF is heavy on the sciences go get those students. UAA should get more of UAA students but don't abandon 18-22 year olds. UAS is in a nice niche, residential, liberal arts and very well defined looking at about 1,000 students. UAA has a Big Rock team that meets once a week to discuss how they will recruit and retain. At UAF, enrollment management is a new concept and very difficult to define.

* If we don't offer part-time training as well, students will go somewhere else.

* Faculty must be intimately involved in recruiting and retaining students. If a faculty plays a major role in fist time students life in first two weeks of school, that plays a huge role in retaining that student. Sfraga was able to bring up Faculty Web January 17 to help faculty advise students. With this tool, faculty can go to UA ONLINE and view courses, students and transcripts and post grades on line.

Scott McRae said TVC has done a good job with nontraditional students. TVC is doing a comprehensive survey of TVC students this spring to get the demographic. Recruiting nontraditional students is more difficult and found creative ways to do this. Fort Wainwright and Eielson does two days of presentations for exiting military and TVC is there to make presentation on how TVC can help them.

Robert Sewell said the nontraditional students are more in the childbearing and rearing years. If the university wants to have an even a 5 percent increase in enrollment, a key barrier to increased participation is lack of childcare convenient to or on campuses. We need to remove that barrier, bring childcare closer to the campuses and involve early childhood development students. Parents are ready to pay the money but don't want the trouble of trying to find childcare on their own.

Swazo said if we are indeed saying the number one issue is enrollment management, we need to rethink the program initiative process and focus more on student services, retention and recruitment.

Sfraga said the university filled 35 positions in student services. Most are front line positions. There is money in the FY03 budget that enhances student success and there is some money there for enrollment management. Deans of students have to talk to the initiative committees about the how to build the academic and student component together.

The university also needs to take a look at the issue of academic advising in terms of a student services model that is centralized versus academic departments.

John Mitchell praised the university leadership for having a forward-looking vision. Coming from a nonprofit background Mitchell was interested in thinking more in terms of business and how possible is it to attain in the near future. Sfraga said if it weren't attainable, the president wouldn't have put Sfraga on it. The demographics have to change and the university has to retool to increase nontraditional student enrollment.

Sewell said there is still a disconnect between what the university offers and what people need. He believed the associate degree and certificate offerings have been under-promoted. An important enrollment factor for nontraditional students is training for career advancement. What is the relationship between these students and alumni for the purposes of not only career placement but also internships? Probably less than one percent of students do internships for college credit and this needs to be beefed up. Sewell said the university also needs to do more to get nontraditional students connected to the job market and more work needs to be done to enhance university-employer coordination and cooperation so, for example, a student might take six credits and not only get a certificate but also a salary increase for having successfully completed the courses.

7. System governance group reports

7.1. Coalition of Student Leaders

Miller reported the Coalition is working very hard to prepare for the UA Road Show. Beginning Feb 20 with vans full of student leaders will travel to Anchorage, Homer, Palmer and other campuses picking up student representatives and signature cards supporting the university and then drive to Juneau to present them. The UA Road Show press releases are out. ASUAF will kick off the event with a Road Rally in Fairbanks on February 19 with bands and free food.

There is a UA Trade show on March 20 showing what the UA has to offer to provide to students who want to attend UA. Miller intends to participate

7.2 Faculty Alliance

The next Faculty Alliance meeting is next Friday.

7.3 Staff Alliance

Robert Sewell reported that at the UA academy, president had panels talk about where the UA will be in 2009 and how the university will respond to needs. Sewell participated in HR panel. His main points to the panel were:

* There will be continued growth in Classified and APT ranks.

* There is no data on turnover rates among Classified and APT staff and no documented reasons for the turnover rates.

* There is an increased need for education for staff because of

advances in technology. Staff have to know many software packages. The UA needs to provide training, training and more training. There is not a lot of training.

* Staff will have to become increasingly student-centered and that

will also relate to increased demands for productivity and

accountability backed up by data.

* There is an interest among staff to enhance the university's image by being allowed to participate in community service. The Staff Alliance is working on a community service proposal.

* Staff are working below-market rates.

* More needs to be done about workforce planning.

7.4 Alumni associations

Scott McCrea reported that the UAF Alumni Association had a wine tasting couple of weeks ago where donations were accepted.

8. Local governance reports

7.1 UAA

Debbie Narang said the UAA Assembly is changing the academic calendar. Assembly is meeting the same time as this Council meeting and is considering space issues and info technology. The UAA Faculty Senate is instituting new awards. The UAA chancellor is offering 17 awards this year.

7.2 UAF

The UAF Coordinating Committee hasn't met since mid December.

There is a nondiscrimination open forum on Feb 21. UAF Faculty Senate passed a motion to amend the Board of Regents nondiscrimination policy to sexual orientation. This has gone to president to be placed on the March Board of Regents agenda. The Senate is also establishing a procedure for classified research at UAF.

7.3 UAS

Kevin Krein said the Faculty Council is going well. Sewell said the Staff Council addressed salary issues and believes staff are below market. UAS has a classroom addition to the Egan Library under construction and people are excited about how that will expand Juneau campus classroom capacity and change flow of people. The Juneau campus also has a large collaborative project with the National Guard for a recreation/training center. Federal matching funds have already been secured for this project.

7.5 Statewide

The Statewide Administration Assembly is focusing on human resource

issues, specifically the career planning program and staying in tune with the classification project. SAA is also looking at question of whether or not Social Security number should be on payroll advices.

9. Strategic planning and advocacy

Ringstad discussed the UA trade show to be held March 20 in Centennial Hall. Each MAU chancellor had a say about what to put in show. Ringstad asked each MAU to highlight five areas of success focusing on workforce development. Ringstad met with Centennial Hall staff today.

Next Wednesday at 9:30 am the president will be giving his state of the university to a joint session of the House and Senate finance committees.

10. Other items of concern/action items

Pat Ivey advised that the Make Students Count awards deadline is March 4.

11. Agenda items for next meeting May 16, 2002

Suggested agenda items included an update on the staff job classification project, and a legislative update

12. Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 2:35pm