PAC - March 4 2003

PRESIDENT’S ADVISORY COUNCIL

March 4, 2003

DRAFT

Present: Alvarez, Bauer, Blackwell, Davenport, Haynes, Peace, Reed, Rivera, Ross, Saxon, Simons, Welder, Phillips, Smith, Beran, Ben-Ur, Smith, Rhoads, Rice, Hogan,

Absent: Alcorn, Brockman, Elder, Flournoy, Goodson, Hanna, Hernandez, Kvintra, McCrohan, McGuill, Moya, Murphy, O’Connor, Reddell, Smith, Soto, Stafford, Walker, Warzecha.

A. Approval of minutes of December 3 meeting. The minutes of the December 3, 2002 meeting were approved as written.

B. The Nominating Committee was named: E. Alvarez, Chair, L. Ross, H. Stafford, and R. Flournoy. They were asked to make nominees aware of the different responsibilities attributed to position of a President’s Advisory Council member. Nominations should be submitted to J. Rivera by May 1, 2003.

A. The PAC Directory was passed around for members to check the accuracy of information listed for each.

B. Tracy Rhoads, Executive Associate to the President, was introduced at the December meeting. Dixie Burge has joined the President’s Office as Administrative Assistant. Dixie comes to the President’s Office from Information Technology where she has worked for the past five years. Dixie will be the primary contact for the President’s Advisory Council.

C. Legislative Update: Due to the state budget deficit, the legislature has asked each institution of higher education to reduce their budgets by 7% this fiscal year. Since the Spring semester is well underway, UHV is trying to achieve this without reduction in staff/faculty not with any disruptions in services to students. Since our university buildings are very new, some of the monies can be saved through reductions in maintenance costs. Other funds will be secured by moving all student work-study costs from state funds to local funds where possible. Each state agency has additionally been asked to reduce FY04 budget by 12.5%, which, if enrollment growth is not taken into account, would result in a reduction for UHV of greater than 25%.

D. Budget Hearings: The UHV Budget Hearings are set for March 17-18. All departments have been asked to be very frugal in requesting new funds.

E. Developments: Dr. Haynes will keep the PAC apprised of any new developments concerning the budget.

F. Girl’s Academy Reunion: The first Girl’s Academy Reunion was held on February 24. It was very interesting to visit with the girls who took part in the first Girl’s Academy three years ago and listen to their comments concerning how it changed their attitudes about the possibilities of attending college.

G. Reminder: The June 3 meeting has been changed to May 27 to accommodate Dr. Haynes’ personal vacation to China.

III. SACS Report: Dr. Cindy Schnebly gave an update on the completed Southern Association of Colleges and Schools self study. The study was completed in December. Copies were sent to the visiting team this week. The entire survey is also available in CD form, which is included inside the bound copy. Members who would like to read the report may find it listed on UHV’s website at www.uhv.edu under SACS and Self Study. The team will be on campus March 31 through April 3. There will be a reception and dinner for the SACS team on March 31 at 6:30 PM in the Multipurpose Room of University Center. After the team completes their work, UHV will receive a verbal report on Thursday, April 3, and a written report six months later.

IV. El Campo Model: Randy Clapp, Northside Education Center, gave a presentation about the newly remodeled building called the Northside Education Center. The Northside Education Center is a community effort to use an existing building, remodeled, and providing educational classes to area residents. The NEC’s goal is to educate people that will more than likely stay in the El Campo community, thereby improving the educational base of the community. Currently the NEC is a MITC (multi-institutional teaching center) housing a library, a Senior Citizen Center, a Boys and Girls Club, and a section for co-enrolled high school students (El Campo High School/Wharton County Junior College) as well as the classes offered by UHV. The NEC’s next marketing campaign will involve convincing current, non-college educated residents that they need a college education and convincing area businesses to utilize the resources found at the NEC. The center aims to offer workforce development courses to area businesses.

A. Dynamic Dialogues- Richard Phillips introduced Dr. Margaret Rice, Director of LEAD program, and Dr. Cindy Hogan, Coordinator of Community and Professional Development for Regional Outreach. Dr. Rice gave a brief explanation of the Dynamic Dialogues events that were inspired by the Talk of the Town event last year. A brochure was included in the packets provided for PAC members.

B. FOU Update: Ashley Walyuchow, Development Coordinator, gave a brief update on the funds collected thus far for the Friends of the University campaign. The goal was $130,000 this year. So far, $142,008 has been pledged and $122, 932 has been collected. There were 26 more employees enrolled in the FOU campaign for payroll deduction this year, 100% of the President’s Cabinet and 19 PAC members.

C. Legislative Update: Joe Dahlstrom, Director of Libraries, gave a brief update on legislative information. The biggest concern was the 7% budget shortfall and projected shortfall for the next two years. The UH System Governmental Relations Office has requested UHV comment on twenty-two bills that have been introduced in this legislative session. The TexShare program, which provides the Library with over fifty online databases, is funded entirely with TIF funds. The Texas Infrastructure Fund (TIF) resources are frozen for 2003 until the legislature resolves the current state deficit. Due to this, there will possibly be a fewer databases available to the Library next year. The TIF program is a ten-year program that began in 1995. In a couple of years those funds will no longer be available unless the program is reauthorized. At that point, the library may need to seek other sources of funding to support the TexShare program.

D. President’s External Evaluation: Laura Smith, Director of Human Resources, gave an update of the results of the president’s evaluation. The evaluation forms were sent out to the President’s Advisory Council and eight additional community leaders with a due date of February 28. Given that evaluations are still being received daily, the report is up-to-date as of March 3. The report provided in the PAC members’ packets is a summary of the returned external evaluations.

V. Reminders: Dr. Haynes’ reminded PAC members to take note of the dates listed. She highlighted, specifically, the Ice Cream Social on May 22 and the next PAC meeting on May 27 (a change from June 3).

VI. The Nominating committee was asked to carefully consider possible nominees. Dr. Haynes asked that the committee inform the nominees of the importance of attendance at quarterly meetings and in serving as a member of the President’s Advisory Council to provide input to UHV.