STAFF SENATE MEETING MINUTES January 18, 2012

President Kristie Galy presided over the January 18, 2012, Staff Senate meeting held at Peabody Hall, Room 225, on the LSU Campus at 10:30 a.m.   

ATTENDANCE
Senators            

Executive/Administrator/ Manager
P   Torres, Donna  (’12)
P   Exner, Patti (’13) Service/Maintenance
P   Chaney, Carolyn (’13)
A   Dixon, Evelyn (’13)
Pr   Matkovic, Igor (’14)  

Professional/Non-Faculty
P   Carruth, Holly (’12)
A   Chiasson, Denise (’12)
P   Fields, Tim (’12)
P   Frazier, James (’12)
P   Livingston, Lynn (’12)
P   Thibodeaux, Seth (’12)
P   Verma, Lisa (’12)
P   Galy, Kristie (’13)
P   Guillory, Michael (’13)
P   Landry, Carolyn (’13)
P   Thomas, Joseph (’13)
P   Winchell, Blake (’13)
P   David, Emmett (’14)
P   Gothreaux, Chad (’14)
P   Millican, Tammy (’14)
P   Moreau, Scott (’14)
P   Perkins, Julie (’14) 

Skilled Crafts
P   Heil, Mark (’12)
P   Adedeji, Funmilayo (’13)

Technical/Paraprofessional
P   Pierce, Renee (’13)
P   Sirman, Karen (’13)
P   Love, Donna (’14)

Clerical/Secretarial
A   Brown, Ruby (’12)
A   Cooley, Judith (’13)
Pr   Magee, Betty (’13)
P   Collins, Judy (’14)  

A - Indicates Absent
P - Indicates Present
Pr - Indicates Proxy

Sign-in Guests:
Chancellor Michael Martin
Angie Ogle, Accounting Services
Donna Dewailly, Accounting Services
Karen Jenkins, Accounting Services
Ava Cyrus, Accounting Services
Jessica Schexnayder, Staff Senate Fee Support Recipient

CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by President Galy at 10:30 a.m.

ATTENDANCE
There was a quorum with two proxies noted.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Senator Frazier led the Pledge of Allegiance.

President Galy introduced guests: Chancellor Michael Martin; Angie Ogle with Accounting Services; Donna Dewailly with Accounting Services; Karen Jenkins with Accounting Services; Ava Cyrus with Accounting Services; and Jessica Schexnayder, a Staff Senate Fee Support Scholarship Recipient.

CHANCELLOR’S SERVICE SPOTLIGHT AWARD
President Galy presented the third Chancellor’s Service Spotlight Award to Angie Ogle who is an Accounting Supervisor with Accounting Services.

“Angie began her career at LSU in 1998, as a receptionist for the Office of Accounting Services. In 1999, she became aware of a promotional opportunity in the payroll division and contacted the director and was hired. She has been an asset to payroll ever since. Angie then evaluated the requirements for additional promotions and began taking the necessary accounting classes to achieve her current status as an Accounting Supervisor 2.  Angie is continuing to take classes as she pursues a degree in General Studies.

Angie is a past recipient of the LSU Foundation Outstanding Staff Award, as well as a previous member of the Staff Senate. She is married to Bob Ogle, who recently retired from LSU University Stores. Angie and Bob enjoy camping and spending time with their three grandchildren.

Galy announced that her nominator wrote, “I would like to recommend Angie Ogle, the Accountant for Student Payroll, for the Chancellor Service Spotlight Award. Angie has been the “go to” employee in Student Payroll since her promotion to the position in 1999. Student Payroll is the busiest section in payroll where a student employee typically stays less than 4 years. LSU appoints and separates 7000+ student workers every year. In addition, many are paid on Chancellor’s Student Aid and Federal Work Study funds, so once they earn their allotment, a change in source of funds must be processed. Every two weeks a student payroll is run and Angie makes sure that all departments have submitted time sheets so that no student worker goes unpaid. Angie runs a report to see which departments have not submitted time for their students calls them to let them know of the “looming” student payroll deadline.  This is not a job requirement, but Angie would rather take the proactive steps before payroll is run instead of having disappointed students on pay day. During the months of August and September when most new student workers are hired, Angie proactively pursues the appointment forms and required documentation for the hundreds of students for whom time is submitted, but no appointment forms.

“The following is a copy of an email message that was received during National Payroll Week expressing gratitude for Angie’s services. ‘I believe that if you asked any department on campus their opinion of working with Angie it would be much the same! I feel that Angie Ogle’s service to LSU and LSU student employees exceeds the definition of World Class Customer Service."

“It is not just this week that I feel Angie Ogle is an exceptional employee, she has always been extremely helpful to me in a very knowledgeable and timely manner. Since the day I started with LSU in 2004, Angie has been someone I knew I could call on to help understand the processing of payroll forms to make sure employees would be paid on time. It does not matter how busy she is, she always takes the time to be of assistance.  I feel like she has always gone above and beyond for me as well as helping the students.”

Chancellor Martin was present and congratulated Angie as the winner. The Chancellor would like to take Angie along with her supervisors who were also present to lunch at the Faculty Club.

Chancellor Service Spotlight Award – Tiger TV
President Galy presented the segment of the Chancellor’s Service Spotlight Award that Tiger TV did a few months ago when Senator Igor Matkovic received the award.

President Galy announced that Katrice Albert was scheduled to attend today to discuss some initiatives that the University Council of Women is working on but was unable to attend at the last minute. Galy has extended the invitation to attend the February meeting.  

SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS PRESENTATION
President Galy presented a certificate to Jessica Schexnayder, a recipient of the 2011-2012 Staff Senate Fee Support Scholarship which recognizes a staff employee who is pursuing a degree to help with some of the fees associated with taking classes. Jessica is majoring in Anthropology. After graduation, she plans to further her education by attending Graduate School. Jessica is an Administrative Coordinator for the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program.

President Galy announced that there are three other recipients who were unable to attend today due to their class schedule.

Galy announced that Katherine Cronin received her certificate at the Staff Senate Office. Her major is Kinesiology with a concentration in Human Movement Science. After graduation, Katherine plans on attending Physician’s Assistant School. Katherine’s father, Matthew Cronin, works with Facility Services.

Galy announced that Jacob Jesch received his certificate at the Staff Senate Office. His major is Anthropology with a minor in Geology. After graduation, Jacob plans to continue his studies and attend Graduate School. Jacob’s mother, Carola Kaiser, works for the Center for Computation and Technology.

Galy announced that Felicia Venable will receive her certificate at the Staff Senate Office. She is pursuing a double major in Biology and Psychology. After graduation, Felicia plans on applying to Medical School. Felicia’s father, Vance Venable, works in User Support and Student Information Technology.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES – December 21, 2011, Staff Senate Meeting  

Page 2, Paragraph 11, line 3 reads: remains to be committed should read: remains committed
Page 3, Paragraph 1, line 16 reads: months reasonable successful should read: months reasonably successful
Page 3, Paragraph 2, line 4 reads: is not reoccuring should read: his not recurring
Page 3, Paragraph 3, line 1 reads: heard what there should read: heard what their
Page 4, Paragraph 7, line 2 reads: presented on its initiatives should read: presented its initiatives

Point of Clarification:
Page 3, Paragraph 1, line 1 reads: $1.8 million dollars should read: $8.1 million dollars

A motion to accept the minutes as amended was made by Senator Landry. The motion, seconded by Senator Carruth, carried.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT
President Galy reported that on January 6, the Executive Committee met. The committee voted on the Chancellors Service Spotlight Award nominee. Galy will send out a broadcast email soon reminding staff that they are able to nominate someone for this award through a Senator with the criteria mentioned. Since we just awarded, the committee will hold nominations until the May Executive Committee Meeting for discussion. Galy encouraged that if you work with someone who you feel is a great candidate for this award, please forward your nomination to the Staff Senate Office. 

The Executive Committee also discussed attendance at the Staff Senate meetings.  As a reminder, Senators have two proxies and two absences allowed per year. After two absences, a seat can be declared vacant.  Galy will send out an email to each Senator with their attendance tallies after today’s meeting.

The Executive Committee also discussed developing a Marketing Ad Hoc Committee to take care of social media, newsletter, brochures, etc. which is currently handled through the Communication Committee.  President-Elect Gothreaux mentioned that this idea stemmed from a discussion through the Long Range Review and Planning Committee on how to market the Staff Senate across campus since there seems to be little participation from staff during the general elections. Gothreaux mentioned it may be beneficial to run some advertisement in the Reveille in hopes of possible student participation as well. Senator Exner suggested possibly sending out a monthly message to staff of what Staff Senate is currently doing to help staff become aware. President-Elect Gothreaux suggested engaging a student from Mass Communications to help us identify a marketing strategy that could be put in place for the next senate year. Senator Renee Pierce suggested contacting Lance Porter who is charge of the Digital Media Initiative. He is working with several departments on campus regarding social media.   

Galy announced that the Executive Committee also discussed combining the Professional and the Classified Committees as subcommittees under the Benefits and Policies Committee since much of the efforts affect all staff on campus. The Budget and Finance and Governmental Relations Committees have been meeting jointly to combine efforts which have been working out well. Senator Collins will discuss with the Classified Committee.

Galy announced that the Executive Committee also discussed future guest speakers. Several athletic coaches were mentioned. Senator David mentioned Facility Services could do a presentation on the current Capital Outlay projects. Galy encouraged Senators who would like to suggest someone on campus to speak at a general meeting to submit to her or Melonie through the Staff Senate Office.  

Galy announced that Melonie Holden delivered the President’s Plaque to Rachel Henry with the Chancellor’s Office so that they could showcase in the Chancellor’s Office.

Galy reported that on January 17, she attended the University Council of Women.  “In our subcommittees, we are in the process of writing a white paper for the university administration to consider on child care and staff mentoring.”

STANDING COMMITTEES
Budget & Finance/Governmental Relations
Senator Torres announced that the Budget & Finance/Governmental Relations Joint Committee met on January 10, 2012. Jason Droddy attended and gave the group an update on the budget cuts, the formula issues going on with the Board of Regents, and the upcoming legislative session. “There was a miscalculation of the formula and LSU was shorted some funding. Droddy mentioned that there aren’t any major legislative issues at this point. Droddy gave an update on the plan for the LA GRAD ACT regarding investments. The Pilot Procurement Program is waiting on approval from the Board of Supervisors before LSU can implement on September 1, 2012.” Senator Pierce mentioned if we will be allowed to rollover funds from last year. Senator Torres responded, “LSU is cautious because we don’t want to carry over funds and have the budget cut even further. We need to spend the appropriated funds and save our restricted money because those funds can be carried over.” Senator David mentioned the funding formula for inventory and in that inventory, how well have we done on capturing research space. Senator Torres added, “The Board of Regents used total course hours in the equation not factoring out courses that don’t meet in classrooms. We have dissertation hours and Continuing Education, Distance Learning, so our course hours were overstated which made us look really good but gave us a poor grade for use on research space. The problem is the way we report space to the Board of Regents which we can only use the top level PCS code opposed to capturing the detail we need for all the square footage used. We need to be able to accurately capture all inventory space.” Senator Torres will submit a report for distribution.  

Long Range Review & Planning
Senator Livingston reported that the Long Range Review & Planning met on January 5, 2012. One of the committee’s initiatives is to develop a Staff Senate Manual which would help put guidelines in place for the future since many of us have terms that expire. Many of our activities are very detail oriented and we need to have a process in place for future Senators. Livingston has submitted a template to use which will capture the same format of information needed for each event. There is a list of processes that may not have been established that need to be. Senator Livingston will contact the Senators who have written procedures in the past year or two to convert to this new template which will help for future events. 

OLD BUSINESS
Benefit of the Month
Senator Torres announced that the Benefit of the Month is “Get Fit” for faculty and staff. This is a program designed by University Recreation just for faculty and staff. The fee is $45 and registration is open now and membership to University Recreation is not required. There are two sessions, one will run from January 31, 2012 - March 6, 2012, and the second session will run from March 13, 2012 - April 19, 2012. The classes will be held on Tuesday and Thursday from 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Learning objectives are to connect with faculty and staff by working together to accomplish a common fitness goal, improve muscular strength and endurance, improve over-all health by combining cardio and strength training, and strength and form and technique for exercises targeting each muscle group. Senator Torres encouraged Senators to announce in their departments. She will forward the link to Senators.   

NEW BUSINESS
Marketing Ad Hoc Committee
President Galy opened the floor for volunteers for the Marketing Ad Hoc Committee. Senator Carruth, Gothreaux, Thibodeaux, Fields, and Sirman have volunteered to serve on this committee. This committee should not have to meet monthly but will need to begin the process of a marketing strategy.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Staff Senator Birthdays
President Galy announced that Senator Tammy Millican celebrated her birthday on January 5 and Senator Julie Perkins celebrated her birthday on January 7. “Happy Birthday”

GUEST SPEAKER – Interim Dean Laura Lindsey, College of Education

Staff Senate President Galy thanked Dean Laura Lindsey for coming to speak to the Staff Senate regarding realignment at LSU. Dean Lindsey thanked the Staff Senate for the invite to speak today.

“You’ve probably heard and read about some of the background of the new college, but it’s something that’s been contemplated for some time. This came up under Bill Jenkins in the early nineties; it was discussed with Van Hogle in the late nineties, again under Astrid Merget, and the concept was there, that there’s an opportunity for all these units to come together and have a common vision in terms of service and help and analysis of human issues, whether they’re physical in the case of human ecology and kinesiology, whether they’re social in social work, whether you’re looking at workforce development, or educational like the College of Education. So, the idea was there to bring those units together and have some synergy that would help them work together. One of the ones that’s a part of this is the School of Library & Information of Sciences, and there were questions about the fit.  Of course, the School of Library & Information Sciences has several areas that it’s connected to; it could be Computer Science in the information category, it could be Mass Communication, then it could be K-12 schools, public libraries, and so on. I began meeting with the heads of all these units and the Provost back in August, and we have had more than 60 meetings since then, across all these units – some of them are me meeting with the faculty or director, some of them are me meeting with the heads of the various units, and some of them are me meeting with the Provosts. There’s been a huge amount of dialogue accompanying this whole concept of where we are.

One of the first things we addressed between unit heads and the faculty and staff was: What’s the mission of this organization? And so, we came together with the idea and discussed this in the open, and there was a huge discussion of how that would be framed, and that was the College of Human Sciences and Education. I brought with me this organizational chart, but it’s one of the very simple, literally flat, organizations. You’ll have your traditional Associate Deans and Assistant Deans working with students in the various units across campus, but we’ll have six schools. One of the current schools is the University Laboratory School – that will be one of the schools in the new college. The second one will be the School of Education, which is currently Educational Theory, Policy, and Practice. I think School of Education will resonate a lot more people. That’s where all of our elementary 1 through 5, our Holmes Program, our graduate programs of education will be in that School of Education. School of Kinesiology – Kinesiology is currently a department, but it will become a school, and it has about 8, I think it’s more than that, full-time equivalent faculty members; it’s on that cusp of moving from a department to a larger unit. It has human science as well as education programs, so it’s really getting into research and working with the Pennington Center.  There is lots of science and preparation for students going on into medical schools and Allied Health Professionals. In fact, Kinesiology is as successful as or more successful than any other place on campus in getting students into those schools, and they’re very competitive nationally. Their students go into medical schools, their performance well compares to students of other medical schools. Part of the story for that is the anatomy course that we offer. And there’s a wonderful story that’s connected to that program. With the vet school, we have this physical side of human health and human service. School of Human Resource Education Workforce Development – there’s just a natural combination there, because our faculty had been serving on their committees; their faculty had been serving on our committees, and so there was a lot of synergy and knowledge about each other already – lots of collaborative things going on. And when you’re dealing with Adult Education and Leadership, and here we’re dealing with K-12 Education Leadership and of course Higher Ed Leadership, you can see that there’s a lot of overlap and opportunities over that particular graduate research courses areas and leadership that they have common courses. Those dialogues have been going on and are continually going on to identify more areas so that we can capitalize on that relationship. And did I mention School of Library & Information Sciences?  A small school; it only has about 10 full-time faculty, but very active, very busy, very well-led and already looking to us for buying opportunities to erect it. Library of Information Sciences has no support there, and the first that happened in this dialogue sometime back in August or September, they said, “Can we work with your sponsored programs to help us with a grant?” So, we linked them up with Kristy and they started helping them through their resources to both find information and help write the grants through all the approvals that grants have to go through. And that was a new opportunity for them. School of Library & Information Science, also, has no development staff. And so, one of the first things we talked about was how our development staff could help that school in meeting its goals. That was very exciting for them. Third thing that happened was, some of our faculty in K-12 started talking to their librarian and they started working on a project they had with a charter school. The Library & Information Science could come in and help them figure how do we organize those books for that school? So, a wonderful collaborative project that would not have happened had this dialogue not taken place. So, we’re seeing lots of synergies. University Laboratory School is working with us even in the college more in terms of sponsors. Last year, through our Dean’s circle, we raised enough money, not much but not for us, $500 that they were able to take from the total and put towards a leadership program for principals. One of our faculties worked with the state and with the National Association of Secondary Principals and University Laboratory School helped sponsor, through matching funds, a Principal Leadership Program. We attracted 33 principals last June, and they offered again as a following program in November because the principals bonded and networks were affected, and there are so few places to do this, they wanted to come back for more. And, the state has picked this up and we’ve done the second three-day program bringing National Association of Secondary Principal trainers of transformative leadership to work with those new 44 principles. So, already we’ve had close to 75 principals go through leadership training because of the synergies between the Graduate College of Leadership and University Laboratory School. So, we’re seeing lots of dialogue that’s coming to the table to bring these groups together. We have a lot to do. Some of the things we have to do are: some of these units like SHREWD are coming from another college with different requirements. For example, in terms of graduate faculty status, their policy may be different than the policy we follow here in the College of Education. They have no admission requirements for students into their programs. In other words, a new student coming to the university can go directly into their undergraduate focus. In our college – kinesiology and education – they have to have a 2.5 because the state requires it if you’re getting a certification in education, or a 2.2 in some programs. So, we’ve got to dialogue through what’s going to be the basic standard for admission to the new college. Renee Casper, Associate Dean in College of Education for graduate programs and services, is working with the other college to look at the graduate faculty status to make sure we have a policy that is common for all concerning colleges. So have lots of issues like that we’re working through. Now, the least of which is a common website, and policies and procedures. So all those committees are operating; they all have chairs, the Policy and Procedure Committee has met. So, let me give you two more items and I’ll take questions. One is the Degrees Offered by the new college. There are a total of 7 undergraduate degrees and 18 graduate degrees offered by this new college. That’s a lot. We will have the largest graduate enrollment of any college at the university by far. The next largest is about 700 in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and we will have over 1,000 graduate students in the new college. So, that’s one of the areas we will really grow. The new college is also going to receive new undergraduate programs. In Child & Family Studies, there’s both graduate and undergraduate in Human Ecology. And Child & Family Studies faculty, therefore, are now coming into the new college. Three of those faculty will go into Social Work, and that’s Early Childhood & Family Studies, which makes a wonderful blend in Social Work. And they will bring the Bachelor’s Degree; Social Work has never had an undergraduate degree before, so they gain by getting that Bachelor’s Degree, which gives them the opportunity to come forward and have a concentration in it in addition to Child & Family Studies and Early Childhood, with two concentrations already existing. They can add Social Work. So, this is a big opportunity for Social Work to add that undergraduate degree and they gain three faculty. And, PK-3 has been split. College of Education has offered the PK-3 degree; we have three PK-3 faculty in our department at ETPP, and two faculty grew up over there at Agriculture under Human Ecology. So, you had this cross-college collaboration going on now for the last decade. Well that PK-3 faculty is now joining the School of Education so that the entire PK-3 faculty is in one college. They're very excited about that. We’ll also bring the preschool under the School of Education. So, all these dealing with PK-3 through Leadership will be in one School of Education. So, that’s a big quality of change; those faculty are very excited. We are meeting with all of them to make sure that transition is smooth and everything works out for them. You can imagine the issues, like space. We have to find space for these folks, so we’re moving some things around over here. One of the positives here is that we have folks on our College of Ed staff who is an outstanding person in IT, and he has been providing support for these new schools even before we were formed July 1. In fact, the Social Work server went down over Christmas Break. They came back over Christmas Break in a panic, as you can imagine because their server went down, and the staff stayed night and day to get it back up. They were extremely grateful for that. So already, we’re seeing a lot of people coming to the table and working together, which is wonderful news. Alright, so those are the degrees. I have one more thing to pass out to you. This is a snapshot of the new college. And basically this tells you the number of faculty, operating budgets, graduate and undergraduate enrollments, and number of employees in each of these units, and they’ll all come together in the new college. So, this is a snapshot of the new college. This is 2010. It is the most recent data we had available to us. We separated the Lab School at the bottom, because they’re so different with how they calculate faculty. So let me stop here and ask if you have any questions.”

Q: “In previous meetings with UPC and hearing your presentation, which I learn something every time I hear the presentation, but my understanding is that you’ve had an overall positive response from all fronts. I didn’t feel it from outside of the college; it just felt like everybody thought there were too many benefits outweighing anything that could possibly stop you from doing it?”

A: “I see, from taking this slowly, although when you look at the difference between August and December 9, a number of issues came to the table, and of course the budget situation is one of them. But, the Crisis Committee said we’re going to have to do something here to collaborate together, with all of the threats and budgetary issues involved. So, I think, people realize we need to be looking at how we can work together in a positive way. I think the leadership for these particular schools all deserved kudos for coming together, and we had some really tough discussions; and there was a lot of give and take. For example, when writing the mission statement, we came out, going back to the document written in the Merget, we started with the line that was there, condensed that into a simple, two-sentence mission statement, and we then sent that out to each the faculties for discussion and feedback. It got wordsmithed, it got stretched, it got compressed, and it was ETPP that came back with a very clean statement, and we said that’s it. That’s it. So, there was a lot of back and forth here for opportunities for people with input. The heads of those units did a beautiful job handling that dialogue. So, kudos to all of them. You would think that Kinesiology and ETPP, since they’re in the same college, would agree on everything. That’s not true. You know, Kinesiology has felt like the step sister to ETPP for a very long time, and this is the chance to really clear the air at that table. They stepped forward in ways to guide discussion. Everybody came together and deserves a lot of credit for stepping forward and doing this in a positive manner and working with heir faculties and their staff in a very positive manner. So, I think it was the collaborative nature and the leadership of the folks that made a difference.”

“Other questions…Well, I appreciate all that you do, and I know you’ll be hearing about this. We have a lot going on across campus. You can imagine all of the details that have to be in place before we’re formal July 1. We already have a launching platform through the University Relations that will announce the new college coming open. The Board of Regents has to vote on this, I think January 28, and so we’re not final until we’re final. But we were delighted with the Board of Supervisors’ Response, and they had told us to move ahead because the Board of Regents does not want to get in the way of moving this forward, but it won’t be official till then at which point we’ll launch a landing pad for the new college. But, we have a team from the University Relations working with us, the new website is very, very complex; our current website is very complex for the College of Ed and then we’ll bringing in three other websites, two of which need to be totally redesigned. So, there’s a huge challenge out there from that perspective. You’ve heard policies and procedures across these units, there’s two different colleges involved, from SHREWD to Child & Family Studies. So, everything from tenure to graduate faculty status has to be put on the table, and where are we going with this. And, we’re lucky that the two PK-3 faculty coming over have already gone up for promotion of tenure in the College of Ed, so they’re not going to get caught in a new web, so that was good for them because they could go through with what they started. So, you can see all these are things that are very important issues to be worked out in the next months, and we’re on top of it. Everything from development to public relations, to polices, to graduation – students will be able to choose which graduation, like they did in the Ag Department up to a certain point, so registration, scholarships, financial aid; everything has to be reinvented in terms of names, policies, and who might be affected. So, thank you for what you do, and I hope you get involved with the new college.”

Dean Laura Lindsey thanked the Staff Senate for being able to speak today.

MOTION TO ADJOURN – With there being no more business, Past-President Verma moved to adjourn.  The motion, seconded by Senator Carruth, carried.  The meeting adjourned before noon.

Blake Winchell, Secretary

BW/mh