September Cabinet Minutes

Cabinet Notes
September 12, 2011

Cabinet Members:
President Mike Richards
John Bearce, Director of Institutional Research
K.C. Brekken, Director, Communication & Events
Thomas Brown, Senior Advisor to the President
Patty Charlton, Senior Vice President for Finance & Facilities
Chemene Crawford, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs    
Darren Divine, Vice President, Academic Affairs
Richard Hinckley, General Counsel
Shellie Keller, Chair, Administrative Faculty Assembly
Rob Telles, President, Classified Council
Jacque Matthews, Executive Director, Foundation
Joan McGee, Chief Campus Administrator, Charleston Campus  
Charles Milne, Faculty Senate Chair-Elect
Dan Morris, Executive Director, Business Operations  
Aimee Riley, President, Student Government
Josh Ruter, Interim Campus Manager, Henderson Campus
Tracy Sherman, Faculty Senate Chair                          
Mugunth Vaithylingam, Chief Information Officer  
Guest: Anita Del Corio, Manager, Human Resources 

The meeting was called to order by Dr. Richards at 9 a.m. 

The notes of the August cabinet meeting were approved. 

New cabinet member, Josh Ruter, Interim Campus Manager at Henderson introduced himself. Shellie Keller, AFA Chair, introduced herself to the newer members. 

Dr. Richards reviewed some upcoming dates on the calendar, and added the CSN Holiday Party on December 8 at the Texas Station. 

Jacque Matthews reviewed the 4-page insert from the Las Vegas Review Journal published on September 7. She has received wonderful feedback from the community via phone calls, emails and handwritten notes. Two individuals, in response to the publication, contacted Jacque and want to set up scholarships. The next printing will come out in November and will feature a Municipal Court Judge and an Osteopathic Medical Director who are both former students of CSN. Jacque encouraged cabinet members to send information to her about successful members of the community who are former students of CSN. The Foundation is always looking for success stories to remind the community what a superb institution CSN is.

The Foundation’s audit is complete and went very well. The comprehensive campaign is progressing, and the Trustees continue to organize and meet with key groups at the college to determine needs and direction. So far they have identified over $250M in need to begin. Mary Thomas is coordinating the employee giving campaign; Jacque is meeting with the Health Sciences folks to identify vendors, professional associations and advisory boards to work with as well. 

Patty Charlton distributed a summary of Bart Patterson’s report to the Board of Regents on Efficiency and Effectiveness. The recommendations he presented to streamline processes involved the areas of Payroll, Human Resources and Purchasing. In addition, he presented some general recommendations. The full report can be viewed at the following link:

http://system.nevada.edu/tasks/sites/Nshe/assets/File/BoardOfRegents/Agendas/11/sept/main/BOR-13.pdf 

Joan McGee is developing a process for annual progress updates to key objectives in CSN’s Strategic Plan. By the end of August of each year, representatives from each division will meet with Joan to summarize and update the progress made on the objectives. By early October, she will present an overview to the cabinet. The annual report will assist in the evaluation of measurable progress to the Plan, which is integral to CSN’s accreditation. 

John Bearce gave an update of the Institutional Research Department and told the group about a new person on the team, Scott Camero. Scott comes from Nevada State College and has both institutional research and iNtegrate experience. The iNtegrate project continues with the transitioning of new data into the PeopleSoft system. John said it did not go as well as everyone hoped, but it is working. The consultants are very responsive, over 35 thousand students were successfully enrolled and the team will continue to work through the challenges of the new system. Another new part-time person with iNtegrate experience, Andrew Moore, will be working to develop an online training environment with mock data needed for faculty and staff training. CAPE will facilitate the training.

Requests for queries are a little tricky because the new system has different functionality than the old system. Institutional Research plans to develop a list of standardized reports for the most commonly requested data. 

Thomas Brown told the group about Human Resources’ new web page. Dr. Richards commented on the great strides being made in the department toward improving customer service. Thomas said the improvements came about from implementing the recommendations of the consultant that visited HR last year and earlier this year, and the improvements will be ongoing. He is currently scheduling meetings with each VP, Dean and Department Head to determine how HR can better assist each with their goals. Anita DelCorio gave an online tour of the site for the cabinet members, highlighting some new features and the more intuitive layout of the page. http://www.csn.edu/pages/382.asp

Other changes, activities and accomplishments in HR include:

  • Automation of the I-9 process for online, paperless system
  • Streamlined hiring procedures (pending approval)
  • Policy on non-competitive selection (pending review and approval)
  • Evaluation of the feasibility of an online application system upgrade
  • Formed a committee to review and evaluate an automated leave management system
  • Working with NSHE iNtegrate team on the conversion of HRMS to PeopleSoft
  • Gathering health benefit comments for Board of Regents
  • Three HR employees were nominated for Employee of the Year
  • Instituted online registration for fall convocation with record numbers for almost every session offered
  • Working with OTS to update CAPE classrooms

Thomas also reported on Affirmative Action. A webpage was created for the Affirmative Action Office to readily disseminate information regarding AAO/EEO and the appropriate contact information. Two sexual harassment prevention trainings were developed that have garnered many compliments and positive comments from attendees. Thomas also continues to attend each initial search committee meeting to share CSN’s AAO/EEO goals and contact information. 

Chemene Crawford reported a busy start to the fall semester, in an effort to get the bugs worked out of the new systems in place. She said that some of the issues were brought to light through students on CSN’s FaceBook page, and she thanked K.C. Brekken for keeping current with the postings. The main focus for Student Affairs this year is to implement, evaluate and improve processes over the entire division. She anticipates the need for much training to create uniformity and consistency across the whole division and will be seeking feedback toward that end. 

Richard Hinckley informed everyone of the Nevada law that will be enforced beginning October 1 prohibiting cell phone usage (other than hands-free) and texting while driving. It is important that employees observe the law, especially during their work day, because any citations issued for not complying with the new statute will be the employee’s responsibility. 

Rob Telles said Classified Council is working to revamp their webpage and include relevant links and updates. The Classified Employee of the month is included as well. On September 22, Classified Council will be holding a bake sale on the Henderson campus, with Cheyenne and Charleston following on the 28th and 29th, respectively. The money raised will be used to benefit Angel Tree. Rob told the group that the Catastrophic Leave bank is very low, and asked cabinet members to remind their departments to donate leave if they can. 

Dr. Richards reported that the Board of Regents has suspended the tuition policy and is putting together a group to examine the issues. EDICT’s report recommendations were accepted and include specific obligations to review supplier inclusion. The System is formally asking PEBP to look for an alternative to the high deductible health insurance plan currently in place. They are being asked to work with other employee groups to improve benefits and find a “middle ground” as a choice for employee health care. 

Patty Charlton said the formula funding study group will meet in the next couple of weeks. 

Darren Divine reminded everyone that the Board of Regents meeting in March 2012 will meet here at CSN’s Charleston Campus. 

Dr. Richards reported that enrollment as of Friday, September 9, was down about 8%. 

Meeting adjourned at 10:10 a.m. 

Next meeting scheduled October 10, 2011.

 

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