PSS -

Minutes Archive

Professional Staff Senate
Regular Meeting – January 10, 2003

Senators Present: Ruth Smith, Phyllis Spethman, Lin Brummels, Mitch DeBoer, Stan Gardner, Rollie Bulock

Senators Absent: Cheri Polenske, Jeff Carstens

Guests: Dr. Sheila Stearns

Visitors: Kathy Mohlfeld, Frank Teach

The meeting was called to order at 9:35 a.m. by Lin; a quorum was present.

Minutes of the last general meeting were approved as written.

Treasurer reported there were no receipts or expenses this past month.

Committee reports:

Mentoring (Brummels) - no report
Social (Spethman) – no report
Recognition (DeBoer) - no report
Continuing Education (Gardner) – It was noted that 12 people attended the presentation on personnel issues. Some ideas for future workshops have been presented and are being considered. The next workshop will be on technology/computer software; the committee is looking for someone to be the presenter. Any suggestions should be forwarded to Stan.
Membership (Polenske) – no report
Hospitality (Bulock) – Welcome baby gifts were sent to Cheri Polenske and Karla Pick on the birth of their respective daughters. There is $29.00 in the hospitality account. Only about 1/3 of the professional staff has contributed to this fund. The committee will look at ways to get the word out and to get money collected.
Policy (Carstens) - no report
Communication (Smith) – There are (as of meeting time) 35 responses to the on-line survey; results will be tabulated through Friday, Jan 17, and then results will be sent out via email. Ruth expressed kudos to Jeremy Nelson with Network Services for doing a great job of setting up the survey.

Other Agenda Items:

Dr. Stearns made a brief presentation regarding campus issues, followed by a question and answer conversation. Highlights include:

The fall semester was challenging because of all of the important issues that needed to be addressed, but there will be more challenges to come. Please continue to share ideas and suggestions, signed or unsigned. If signed, there is an opportunity to do some follow up and/or clarification.
The Budget Advisory Committee is dormant not disbanded. There may be additional people added, and current members will certainly have the option to decline to continue.
The annual planning retreat will take place on Jan 23-24 in Schuyler. The focus will be to develop a one to three year plan of projects. The list of participants will include a cross-representation of the campus and will include one or two people from the professional staff.
Please remain optimistic about WSC because there is much to be positive about. Student applications are up 13% over this same time period last year.
Conversation/interaction with state legislators is on-going. It is expected that Nebraska revenues (just like most states) will be down and that all state agencies will be affected.
We need to continue to promote our non-resident scholarship program.
The endowed scholarships through the Foundation have been affected by the "bear" market, but Foundation personnel have been working hard to increase the amount of unrestricted gifts so that all scholarships can be covered.
A suggestion was made about providing benches in strategic locations around campus. Students would like to have more places to sit outside.

Other business:

Several general ideas were discussed including: doing some fundraising to help provide things like benches; having more input into the budget process; and ways to keep the Senate involved in campus issues. Lin will submit a request to Dr. Stearns that the Budget Advisory Committee has balanced representation from across the campus.

The next regular meeting will be February 7th at 9:30 a.m.

Meeting adjourned at 10:55 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Phyllis Spethman, Secretary

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