December 12, 2011
Cabinet Members:
President Mike Richards
John Bearce, Director of Institutional Research
K.C. Brekken, Director, Communication & Events
Constance Brooks, Director, Government Affairs & Diversity Initiatives – absent
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 – absent
Jacque Matthews, Executive Director, Foundation – absent
Joan McGee, Chief Campus Administrator, Charleston Campus
Charles Milne, Faculty Senate Chair-Elect
Dan Morris, Executive Director, Business Operations – absent
Aimee Riley, President, Student Government
Josh Ruter, Interim Campus Manager, Henderson Campus
Tracy Sherman, Faculty Senate Chair
Mugunth Vaithylingam, Chief Information Officer – absent
The meeting was called to order by Dr. Richards at 9 a.m.
The notes of the November cabinet meeting were approved with minor changes.
Dr. Richards went over some upcoming events on the calendar and told the group about a Board of Regents Town Hall meeting to take place at CSN on February 23. Details will be shared as they are made known. The Board of Regents will hold a special meeting on January 20 about the 8% tuition increase. A draft plan will be presented at the meeting.
Joan McGee presented the 1st annual Strategic Plan Progress Report that details the development of the objectives for 2010-2011. The report is very comprehensive. The next step will be for Hyla Winters and Joan to meet and discuss ways to implement the feedback received from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. They recommend a revision of the current plan to focus on fewer objectives, with more measurable and specific outcomes.
John Bearce gave an update on iNtegrate. It is working as it is supposed to; priority registration is complete and early registration is underway. So far over 25,000 students are registered for spring 2012. Grade rosters have been made available to faculty for fall posting. John said to avoid crashing the Peoplesoft system, as was the case for fall registration, a regulator of sorts will display a message when the system is operating at maximum capacity instructing students to try again later. The message will most likely generate complaints, but is the only option at this point to avoid system shutdown.
Thomas Brown reported on all the activity in Human Resources, Affirmative Action, Sexual Harassment training and on the Cheyenne campus. CSN is doing well overall in Affirmative Action goals, and in 6 of 7 IPEDS categories we are on target. Thomas said, however, that the goals are ongoing and CSN will continue in its efforts to improve.
In Human Resources, there are 27 active recruitments underway to fill about 54 vacancies, many of which are in the facilities areas. Initial work has also begun on a potential college-wide attendance policy. A draft has been developed and shared with Patty Charlton. HR will soon begin sending reminders of mandatory classes, work performance standards and evaluations to supervisors of classified employees. Also the recruitment for a Vice President for Student Affairs closed on November 22. HR is awaiting information from the consultants facilitating the recruitment.
Human Resources is currently processing 63 Family Medical Leave Act active cases and 5 catastrophic leave cases. The department continues the payroll/benefit sessions for newly-hired employees and helping employees with health insurance and retirement questions. Also, HR continues to work with OTS on the BSDPro upload to HRMS for part-time contracts and PAFs. Email notifications went to employees who have yet to complete sexual harassment training and notification to supervisors of classified employees about taking their required supervisor trainings. HR staff have begun using the automated system for I-9 completion and trainings on the system are scheduled for department assistants and staff who complete the forms as well. Regarding the I-9 audit of human resources, all concerns expressed by the auditors that are due to be resolved by December 31 will have been cleared by then. The next steps will be to revisit the I-9 forms and ensure compliance in all areas. Also being tested currently is the iLeave web-based leave tracking software system. The system will allow leave information (balance updates, request status, accrual information, etc.) to be readily available for employees on and off campus. HR is working toward a January/February implementation date.
CSN’s Affirmative Action plan continues to be a focus of the Human Resources department along with other general recommendations from the HR consultant. The goal is to complete all recommendations by the end of the fiscal year and as of today, about 75% of them have been implemented. The Affirmative Action plan will be completed and submitted to Administration in January. New Diversity training will be presented in Spring.
Thomas also reported on the many improvements to the Cheyenne Campus and told everyone how sincerely he appreciates the efforts of Sherri Payne and the Facilities department on all of the projects. The improvements include:
- A furniture master plan being developed by the Facilities department to inventory all of the furniture currently on hand and details on its condition. A replacement schedule will be put into place to rotate out the pieces that are in the worst shape first.
- Remodeling of the Main Building at Cheyenne is continuing. The corridors on the 2nd floor are almost complete, and the 1st floor is about half done. Carpet replacement and paint is also ongoing. The project will take several years to complete.
- The directories are almost finished – the vendor will soon add the electrical work and waterproof the cabinet. Once done, the new maps will be added.
- An ADA survey of the campus is taking place to ensure accessibility compliance.
- Asphalt by the Culinary receiving area will be replaced, along with a new gas line needed there.
Thomas also updated everyone on CAPE training. CAPE is currently working on customized training for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing department, along with teambuilding and conflict resolution. They are developing customized Excel training and customer service training for Human Resources employees, preparing training materials for new workshops including Windows 7 and MS Office 2010, developing the Spring training calendar, and continuing to conduct MyCSN training while providing staff with assistance as requested. The customized customer service training is being offered by CAPE and delivered for all CSN departments upon request. To date, the specialized training has been conducted for:
- CSN Police Department
- Tutorial Services
- Student Affairs
- Human Resources
Chemene Crawford highlighted the current events in Student Services. The MyCSN call center is being developed and will provide support to students, faculty and staff for system navigation. The interview process is currently taking place for potential personnel who will operate the call center. The Center will tentatively be in place for the Spring semester.
The NSHE directive, Don’t Wait Graduate, will use leftover grant funds to contact students with a number of credits earned in the last 5 years, and encourage them to re-enroll. Of the 8600 letters sent, 5300 are CSN students. CSN’s Project Graduate initiative fits well with NSHE’s plan, in that CSN students with 45 credits or more and a declared degree goal will also be contacted and encouraged to re-enroll. The letters will go out soon with instructions for the students to go to counseling/advising to put together an academic plan to achieve a degree. There are 5,196 students currently enrolled at CSN who will receive these letters. This number of students is in addition to the 5300 that NSHE will contact.
Dr. Crawford also reported on the Executive Leadership Institute (ELI), a year-long program developed by the AACC. CSN has just begun the program for faculty and staff, and AACC mentioned CSN favorably in their publication. On December 9, the ELI meeting was on the Charleston campus and featured Ned Doffoney, Chancellor of North Orange County Community College District, as keynote speaker. The meeting was a great success. CSN also hosted the WRCBAA conference in October, which Dr. Crawford helped facilitate. It also was a great success and very well-received by both attendees and presenters.
Richard Hinckley told the group that CSN hired a new attorney to serve as one of the general counsels for the College, Diane Welch. Diane was a legal secretary at CSN several years ago before completing her law degree. She returns to us with a certain amount of familiarity, which will make her transition easier. She and Richard will alternate attending the cabinet meetings.
Dr. Richards ended the meeting with other news from around the College. Mugunth Vaithylingam and his wife Aby welcomed a baby girl last week. Jacque Matthews is recovering well from surgery and will return to work the second week of January. The Holiday Party was a success and seemed to be enjoyed by all attendees. Also, Chancellor Klaich and CSN Student Body President, Aimee Riley, will be on Jon Ralston’s “Face to Face” to discuss student fees and other issues facing CSN.
Patty Charlton also told the group about a celebration in the works that K.C. Brekken and the Internal Recognition Committee are working on. The celebration will take place at the end of the academic year and will be the venue for employee service awards and other recognition. The tentative date for the event – as yet to be named – is May 18, 2012, the Friday before graduation. A contest will be announced soon among the employee groups for naming the event.
Meeting adjourned at 9:50 a.m.
Next meeting scheduled January 9, 2012.
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