Draft
Minutes
Via
video and audio conference
1. Call to order and roll call
Members present:
Robert Sewell, 2002-2003 Chair; Vice President, UAS Staff Council
Lisa Sporleder, 2003-2004 Chair; President, Statewide Administration Assembly
Lilly Coppell, Vice President, Associated Students of UAF
Janet Dye, President, UAS Faculty Senate
Larry Foster, President, UAA Faculty Senate for Mark Fitch,
Member, UAA Assembly and 2nd Vice President, UAA Faculty Senate
Pete Pinney, President, UAF Faculty Senate
Rory O’Neill, President, UAF Staff Council
Justin Whittington, Member, United Students of UAS-Juneau
Storm Dee, President,
Others present:
Pat Ivey, Executive Officer, System
Governance
Wendy Redman, Vice President for
University Relations
Eva Kopacz, Academic Liaison, Office
of the President
Ann Ringstad, Assistant to the
President
Pat Pitney, Director, Statewide
Budget and Institutional Research
2. Adopt Agenda
MOTION: passed without
objection.
“The System Governance Council moves to
adopt the agenda as amended to consider action items first in order to
accommodate members who have to depart before the meeting is over, and to
eliminate item 6, ‘University Development’ because the associate vice president
was unable to attend due to illness. This action is effective
3. Approve
MOTION: passed without
objection
“The System Governance Council moves to
approve the workshop notes from the
4. Chairs report
Robert Sewell reported he is stepping
down as chair after this meeting but would continue on the Council as a member.
He urged members to read the discussion about the different perceptions of
governance and how it can be more efficient, stating that governance and
administration need to continue the conversation to further clarify the role
and method within which system governance should operate. He continues to
believe that the discussions would be greatly enhanced by hearing from national
experts about how governance works at other institutions, possibly as a
training session but mainly as a consensus building session. He has had discussions within Staff Alliance
and with administration about role of the Staff Alliance chair at Board of
Regents meetings. The Staff Alliance has
no formal place in BOR agendas that the
Sewell also cautioned members that the
university may be approaching another “Decade in the Desert”, i.e., may be
headed for severe fiscal shortages. The Council should be thinking about
advocacy over the next couple of years.
He said he was also worried about the impact of the fiscal shortfall on
the mood of the university.
5. Outcomes based budgeting
Pat Pitney reported that five outcomes
measures have been transmitted from all originating administrative councils to
other administrative councils and to governance groups. October 10 is the deadline for input on these
measures so originating councils can review the input and create the final
documents. The three biggest attention
getters have been High demand jobs, number of research awards, and student
credit hours. There is also a measure
relating to non-general funds and one on student retention. Student retention has not had as much air
time and the non-general fund measure is pretty mechanical.
A more recent version of the high
demand jobs measure is in draft and will be sent out to governance soon.
Regarding the FY05 budget request, the
Board of Regents general consensus is to request a five percent increase. That request leaves out the TRS and PERS
increases and the UA Scholars Program for which separate legislation will be
sought for funding. The five percent increase would be for fixed costs only.
The President’s Cabinet (president, chancellors and statewide
executives) meets the 1st of October to set targets. Monday or Tuesday Pitney will get a draft out
for comments.
Pitney invited the Council to submit
input on the next set of outcomes and metrics and said that if there are
particular faculty or staff outcomes connected or that stem from the strategic
plan in terms of metrics, please forward them to her at pat.pitney@alaska.edu
The top five metrics currently in
development for FY05 are
High demand programs
Non General Fund
Research
Retention rate for freshmen
Student head count
She thought that of those five, the
most likely to be complete enough to be included would be high demand programs,
non-general fund and student head count.
6. Political Outlook
Ann Ringstad reported that the
university is having a new McDowell survey done on the economic impact of the
university on the state of
Ringstad is also developing a list of
the negative one-liners and responses to them.
She plans to send them out over her listserve as a tool everyone can
use. The FY05 state budget request still under development but there are no
final numbers yet for the university.
The Governor, in his campaigning said he would seek five percent per
year for the university, and now the university is beginning to hear rumors
from the Governor’s staff that the Governor may no longer support this campaign
promise. University supporters have between now and the middle of October to
convince the Governor to continue his original position. Otherwise, at flat funding and having to
absorb fixed costs, PERS and TRS increases, and Alaska Scholars Program costs,
the university is facing an actual deficit of up to $24 million dollars this
coming fiscal year.
The university is working on the PERS
and TERS deficit problem with school districts and municipalities and hopes to
come to the legislature with a united position.
Alaska State Representative Mike Hawker
is conducting a series of town meetings and presentations to chambers of
commerce and other entities on how to cut the state government and raise
revenues (state sales, state income taxes, economic development, use of the
permanent fund etc.)
Ringstad said the Permanent Fund was
originally set up as a rainy day account for lean times, and we are now looking
at them. The legislature wants to divide
the money up differently, protecting the Permanent Fund Dividend at a certain
level and use the rest for state government.
Last year, the legislature passed legislation that changed the amount of
revenue that goes to the corpus of the Fund from 50 percent to 25 percent.
Ringstad said she would send out the
schedule of town hall meetings as soon as she gets it.
About communications to faculty and
staff, Ringstad said she needs to figure out a better way to communicate with
faculty, staff and students. Foster said
that UAA faculty don’t look at emails they don’t
recognize, and told Ringstad to send her messages to Anissa Hauser in the UAA
governance office so she can distribute them to UAA. Ringstad was also encouraged to be sparing
about putting URL links in her messages--to limit them to no more than one or
two. At UAS the way to get it out is through
Kevin Myer, the UAS Public Affairs officer, who has a UAS-wide listserve.
Wendy Redman said that to the extent
that Council can talk to their groups to get cards and letters to the governor
now would help to support the five percent increase.
Regarding the audit of the university
that the
The audit is seen as another shield or
excuse to not fund the university. Last year the legislature tried to pit K-12
against the university, but that didn’t work.
Student growth is phenomenal outside
7. Elections
Lisa Sporleder accepted the nomination
and was elected by acclamation.
8. Agenda Items for President’s Retreat –
November 11, 2003,
Retreat discussion items may include
but may not be limited to:
President Hamilton’s views of the
budget
President Hamilton’s view of
governance in general
Chancellor search status
9. System Governance Reports
9.1 Faculty
Pinney reported that the faculty had
done a lot of work on the high demand jobs measure. The Faculty Alliance retreat with President
Hamilton is October 16 in
9.2 Staff
Sporleder reported that Staff Alliance
is looking at staff regulations that should have been there all along, career
ladders, promotions and demotions etc.
The
9.3 Coalition
of Student Leaders
The Coalition of Student Leaders had a
retreat with President Hamilton last week after the Board of Regents meeting in
Palmer. Thom Walker, ASUAF president
was elected Coalition speaker. Kaci
Hamilton, USUAS-Juneau president was elected Chair Pro-Tem.
9.4 Alumni
There was no report from alumni. Dye said she thought the alumni are much more
organized now that there is a statewide development office. No alumni representatives were present and
Sewell felt the Council was missing an opportunity because they were not.
10. Local Governance Reports
10.1 UAA
Larry Foster reported that Cheryl
Wright was elected president of the UAA Assembly, and Mike Dingman, legislative
affairs director for USUAA was elected vice president. Health care benefits, leave cash-in, and
outcomes based budgeting are being taken up by staff governance groups. The UAA Faculty Senate set seven goals. The
10.2 UAF
There were no UAF reports because the
UAF members had to leave early.
10.3 UAS
Justin Whittington reported that the
United Students of UAS-Juneau has started working on the Governor to stick to
his five percent per year promise as a result of the president’s retreat.
Janet Dye reported that the UAS Faculty Senate looked at five new degree proposals this fall and also looked at outcomes based budgeting. Dye is continuing to look for a chair-elect of the senate and hopes to have one by the middle of October.
Sewell reported that Noyes
pavilion has just about been completed. It is an open-air performing arts
pavilion
10.4 Statewide
Sporleder reported that the
Statewide Administration Assembly is trying to tackle advocacy from a different
perspective by becoming voter registrars.
11.
Comments
Eva Kopacz reported that the president working
on cost savings and has appointed a committee.
There will be a total of 12 representatives, three from statewide (Eva
Kopacz, Pete Kelly and Bob Miller) and three each from the MAUs. Once the
charge to this committee has been clarified, then the committee would
meet. The idea would be to have the
charge clarified and committee selected by first of October with white paper
and recommendations by the first of March.
There is also discussion about whether
or not they would continue the position of academic liaison beyond this fiscal
year. If the decision is to hire an
academic vice president, then some of their thinking was that they wouldn’t
need the academic liaison. However, they
still need a faculty member in the office.
There has been growing use of the position since its establishment,
and Eva’s second year in office. The
second year has given her time to establish working relationships and know the
structure and system and she is increasingly being asked for faculty and staff
input.
UAA Provost Jim Chapman is the new
chair of the Systemwide Academic Council (SAC) and is trying to strengthen
SAC. He has also been charged to develop
position description for academic vice president.
12. Adjournment
The meeting
adjourned at