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Minutes
Staff Council Meeting
March 9, 2004
2:30 p.m. UC Room 215
Unofficial Minutes – Approved on
____________
Chair:
Christina Lopez
Vice-Chair: Robin Cadle
Secretary: Cheryl Robbins
Number of Members Attending: 18
Members in Attendance: From UHV: Mary
Ann Rivera, Sherrie Kroll, Zoeann Byerly, Sharon Long, Cheryl Robbins, Faye
Landry, Wendy Miller, Laura Jud, Vickie Wallis, Robin Cadle, Deana Waida,
Karen Boldt, Rita Mowry, Dixie Burge, Michael Guion, Fern Roessler,
Christina Lopez, Eric Mims; From Cinco Ranch and Sugarland: none
1. The
meeting was called to order at 2:34 p.m.
2. A
motion was made by Sharon Long and seconded by Fern Roessler that the
minutes from the January 13, 2004 be approved as written. The
minutes will be placed on the P: drive prior to the meetings so members can
print and review before attending.
3. Old
Business:
· Policy
C-23 Probationary Period for Regular Staff Employees – President’s
Cabinet decided to agree not to change this policy at this time and to wait
on the SAMS (System Administrative Management) decision on this policy.
Clarification on why this policy was brought to Cabinet was made. “The
policy was originally brought forward to discuss written documentation
requirements for probationary employees, rather that to discuss the issue of
a second probationary period for staff.”
· Strategic
Planning Meetings – Chair, Christina Lopez updated us on her speech that
was presented at the Strategic Planning Meeting held recently. The following
three items were presented for consideration: 1) Diversity among staff –
including diversity acceptance training possibly facilitated by human
resources; 2) System-wide communication on software issues so that each
campus will have information on how software affects that campus; and 3)
Fair pay – the organizational excellence survey scored that the lowest.
Speeches were presented by representatives from each campus and Christina
will put them on the “P” drive for everyone to be able to see what was
presented.
Christina passed on a suggestion that Dr. Josie
Rivera made at the Strategic Planning Meeting, which is to establish an
after school program at UHV campus for elementary, junior & senior high
school students to get tutoring help. Dr. Smith had suggested possibly
collaborating with the UHV LEAD program. The use of surplus computers in a
lab for students that would otherwise not have access to computers was also
mentioned. It was also suggested at this staff council meeting that
possibly student teachers could volunteer to help. Christina will talk to
LEAD, School of Education and Dr. Rivera to get more information.
· Cinco
Ranch & Sugar Land Campus Representatives – Christina Lopez and Robin
Cadle discussed meeting Cinco Ranch and Sugar Land staff to discuss staff
needs that are related to Staff Council. Some of their concerns are that
they need a representative at their respective campus to voice staff
opinions at Staff Council Meetings. Discussion followed: 1) Why do they
want one, since meetings are now via ITV they could attend meetings and
bring up issues they feel need addressed and can always contact Staff
Council Chair to get an item on the agenda, 2) While we are sympathetic that
they have needs and different issues, we encourage staff from Cinco Ranch
and Sugar Land to take part in the meetings and staff council members can
brainstorm and help each other.
· Customer
Service Training – Christina Lopez met with Dr. Smith regarding the
issue of customer service training being mandatory for all staff members,
but not for faculty. While Dr. Smith did not want to give the impression
that this is not an important issue, it was suggested that while not having
customer service training mandatory that perhaps a set of guidelines could
be established and possibly he could meet with the Deans of each school to
have them discuss issues with their faculty members. Discussion followed:
1) Staff Council members do not want it to be taken that all faculty members
are not customer service friendly and in the same sense that even though
staff members have been through training, there are some that are less than
friendly when it comes to customer service. Customer service should include
the way you treat fellow staff and/or faculty members. 2) Possibly make it a
code of conduct issue that would be directed to human resources, but may be
hard to keep it from becoming an issue of “I don’t like” this person sort of
thing. 3) May be better for a staff member to ask to attend meetings with
each of the schools and express feelings that staff members are at times not
treated very customer service friendly by some faculty members. Chair
Christina Lopez will meet with Laura Smith in human resources on these
customer service issues.
· Parking
Lot Project – the project to remove the reserved markings from some of
the parking spaces in front of University Center has been completed.
4. New
Business
· Web
Page – Christina showed us a web page from the main campus and pointed
out several things that they have been doing. The main campus has a lot of
fund raisers for scholarships. There was a suggestion that if a class does
not make, then possibly it could be offered to staff members at a discounted
rate; in the discussion that followed it was stated that this was looked at
before and due to funding issues this was not possible to do at that time.
The main campus does not offer the 3-hour college release time that we have
at this campus. Also, Christina has talked to Dr. Smith about possibly
getting a budget set up for FY05 for Staff Council. Some things this would
be used for is travel and refreshments at meetings. Dr. Smith will meet
with Mr. Beran regarding this request.
Christina will meet with Marci Wallace to find
out what it would require to have a UHV Staff Council web page.
Robin Cadle encouraged everyone to look at the
web pages for each campus. Robin and Christina have been invited to attend
a luncheon in May at the Clear Lake Campus. The campus purchases the main
course and everyone brings a dish to go with it.
· Presidential
Search Committee – Christina Lopez is our representative on the
Presidential Search Committee. The committee hopes to have a new president
in place by August 31st for the next year. Christina will be out
for maternity leave for a short time, but based on the time frame of the
ongoing search committee, she should be able to fulfill her duties on that
committee.
5.
Meeting was adjourned at 3:15 pm. The next meeting will be held
in May. |
