3c9f Southwestern University: Academics: Councils: Academic Affairs

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Staff Affairs Council Minutes

September 23, 2010 - APPROVED

Meeting Attendees

Sean Stumpf Ruben Ruiz David Williamson
Colleen Gibbs Ann Kilpatrick Shorty Schwartz
Tylor Hugley Bob Snyder Patrick Veerkamp
Suzy Pukys Fumiko Futamara Maria Kruger
Elma Benavides Katy Ross Lisa Hopkins
Nancy Schutz   Visitor: John McCann

Meeting Minutes

I. Lisa Hopkins called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m.

II. Minutes of August 26, 2010 were unanimously approved.

III. John McCann visited to make a presentation on the QEP, a requirement of the upcoming SACS Ten-Year Reaffirmation process. Suggestions being accepted at this time on a topic related to student learning at Southwestern. The Academic Affairs Council is the responsible unit for topic selection. For this process only, all members of AAC (including staff members) are being granted voting rights. Additionally, one more staff member is needed on the committee for this process. Lisa Hopkins recommended Kimele Carter and the group agreed with her recommendation. All topics for submission must be in by November 1, 2010. A QEP selection committee will then narrow the pool down to three or four topics. At that point the AAC will split the topics up among the AAC members (forming subgroups). The subgroups will then have until January 3, 2011 to develop mini proposals for those topics. Those proposals will then be sent to all councils for their recommendations. Lisa will forward these proposals to members of the Staff Affairs Council the week following January 3 and if a special meeting of the council is needed, she will call a meeting sometime the week of January 10-17. She will forward the Staff Affairs Council recommendation to AAC. AAC will report by the end of January to the University Council and Faculty for final approval.

IV. Council Reports

  • Faculty Meetings - Have not met yet.
  • Faculty Affairs Meeting - Suzy Pukys missed the recent meeting.
  • University Council - had not met yet.
  • Academic Affairs - Lisa attended. Discussion on QEP.

V. Committee Reports

  • Enrichment Program - Still need a program chair
  • Financial Planning Fair - will be held November 13, from 10-4. A joint effort of the SAF and Fringe Benefits Committee. Need volunteers. Lisa passed out the volunteer sign-up sheet. The event will be up on the SU website by the end of September.
  • Suggestion Box -David Williamson reported that he and Kathi had met and are going to split up the duties.
  • New Staff Orientation - Suggestions were made for changes to the handbook, still pending. Any other changes should be considered at this time.
  • Staff Handbook - no discussion/no activity
  • Council Newsletter - Newsletter will go out tomorrow. Fumiko has to step down. Need volunteer to take over.

VI. New Business.

  • Nancy Schutz brought up the subject of training for staff employees. Elma suggested that perhaps this could fall under Staff Enrichment. Nancy and David will meet to develop a survey of staff members on what their training needs are and report back to the council. At that time work can begin on a proposal to management.
  • Ron Swain would like to make a presentation to staff members about the upcoming SACS Reaffirmation process. It was agreed that Ron will be the guest speaker at the December Food for Thought Luncheon.

Adjournment

Lisa adjourned the meeting at 10:00 a.m.

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