Minutes from
Unclassified Senate Meeting
Thursday, May 10, 2007

Attendance: Jason O'Connor, John Augusto, Angie Claussen, Paul Farran, Jeannette Johnson, Mark Nesbitt-Daly, Rick Whitmore

The meeting was called to order by President Jason O'Connor.

•  The minutes of the March 2007 meeting were approved as amended.

•  Standing Reports:

1. President: Jason O'Connor

•  University Senate Representatives for next year will be Jason O'Connor and Jeannette Johnson as voting members and Danny Kaiser as an ex officio member. University Senate will select their new president in June.

•  Marianne Berry is the new Faculty Senate president.

•  The repeat policy passed University Senate. This will now go to the Provost this fall.

•  The athletics committee will have a representative from Unclassified Staff. We will get to appoint someone from Unclassified Senate to attend. This is new for them to have an Unclassified Senate representative and they will add a University Support Staff representative.

•  Jason is currently on the committee that is conducting the Ombuds search.

2. Treasurer: No report as Angie Loving was unable to attend.

3. University Support Staff: No report as Maxine Younes was unable to attend.

4. Student Senate: Hannah Love is the new president of Student Senate. We will likely have a new student representative next year.

5. Human Resources: No report as Ola Faucher was unable to attend.

6. Committee Reports:

• Governance and Representation: no report
• Public Relations: no report
• Professional Development John Augusto reported:
  • The fire training event was fun. They received their award and since most of them are unclassified staff, they recognized Unclassified Senate.
    
  • The Wheat State Tour was a success. Everyone is asking when the next one will be so we will likely do another tour and still have lots of interest. There are many things to consider in planning the next one such as 1) should we do two a year instead of one? 2) should we ask participants to pre-pay? 3) should we confirm our numbers for less? Etc.
    
  • Staff development – the new staff fellows program was announced today. Should we have someone from University Senate on the advisory committee? Currently the committee consists of: Kathleen Ames-Oliver, Professional and Organizational Effectiveness Manager, Human Resources and Equal Opportunity ; Emily Eichler, Administrative Associate Senior, Office of the Provost; Ola Faucher, Director, Human Resources and Equal Opportunity; Linda Luckey, Assistant to the Senior Vice Provost, Office of the Provost; Erin Spiridigliozzi, Assistant Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Jenny Mehmedovic, Coordinator of IT Policy & Planning, Information Services . Perhaps Jason should send an email encouraging Unclassified Staff to apply.
    
  • The committee is meeting next week to talk about the fall schedule so send any ideas that you have to John. One suggestion has been to have a Wheat State mini-tour over fall break and maybe make it two days. The Provost will for sure be one of the fall events.

7.  Elections (ad-hoc): Rick Whitmore reported:

1. We had elections and elected some people. All of the new people are updated on the web.
2. All of the by-laws that were voted on during elections passed.
3. There were 250 people that voted in the election.
4. What happens to the senate seat of a person that moves up into the President ranks? When we elect a President – elect this would open up a seat. It was decided that the president could appoint someone to that seat.

8.  Unfinished Business:

By-laws changes go into effect with the new year.

9.  New Business:

•  Committee chair elections – we need to come up with a smooth process for this for next month. Perhaps we could come up with a paper ballot and take nominations before hand so we have a place to start and then we could add to the nominations that day. There was discussion about if we should have the same people continue in their positions or let some new people have a chance. Jason will send an email asking for nominations, this will first go to the executive committee for us to give him feedback. Our ballot should also include the list of representation on other committees across campus that we will need to fill.

•  Jason would like the committee chairs to send him some clear charges for their committees. He would like a written report from each committee on what their charges were, what they did and what is left to be done for next year.

•  Would it be possible to encumber our remaining budget to use for the bus tour next year? When Angie Loving asks for the money to be rolled over she could state this as part of our rationale.

•  Is there a way to use some of our money to purchase a small token for those outgoing senators? Maybe a certificate or thank you for your years of service. Human Resources or University Relations may have a template. Next year's public relations committee could check on this and then execute.

10.  Announcements:

•  Next meeting is June 14 th at the School of Business in 507 Summerfield. Lunch will be provided from the Union .

Having no further business, Paul Farran moved to adjourn and Mark Nesbitt-Daly seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at 1:10 p.m.