[In these minutes: Reports, Accountability Discussion, Presidential Search Discussion, Update on the stadium, Student Senate Chair as voting member of SCC, December 5 Student Senate docket, Twin Cities athletic committee appointments, Increase in student members on Finance and Planning and Research Committees]

STUDENT SENATE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE (SSCC) MINUTES

NOVEMBER 14, 2002

[These minutes reflect discussion and debate at a committee of the University of Minnesota Senate or Twin Cities Campus Assembly; none of the comments, conclusions, or actions reported in these minutes represent the views of, nor are they binding on, the Senate or Assembly, the Administration, or the Board of Regents.]

PRESENT: Judy Berning, (chair), Nick Cecconi, Kelsi Holland, Kari Lindeman, Ryan Osero, Eric Steinhoff, Tom Walsh.

REGRETS: Dan O’Connor, Nathan Saete.

ABSENT: John Amble, Scott Ferguson, Yev Garif, Jasen Peterson.

GUESTS: Carol Carrier, Tim Delmont, Jenny Meslow.

1. WRITTEN REPORTS

CROOKSTON
Nate Saete reported:

-CSA will be participating in the 2nd Annual 'Winter Wonderland'. It will be held on the night of Friday, December 6th on Main Street in Crookston, and it is the official kick-off to the Crookston Retailer's holiday shopping season.

-November 11-15 is Advisor Week. UMC students will get the opportunity to vote for the advisor who has made the most impact on their lives.

DULUTH
Nick Cecconi provided the following report:

1. Working on a credit-based food service system. Investigating other schools and their systems.
2. Working on "Out Cold,” the UMD winter carnival.
3. Looking at Teacher Evaluations and how to make them available to students.

GAPSA
Tom Walsh and Yev Garif reported:

1. GAPSA contacted by CAPA
Randy Croce, the chair of the Council of Academic Professionals and Administrators (CAPA), spoke before GAPSA Assembly and invited its members to partner in assuring fair representation of all sections of the University community in the governance process. The second largest employment class exceeding number of faculty, P&A’s are compelled to seek student support in the face of a controversial Senate policy approved on Oct 17, 2002, by FCC. The new policy allows only tenure and tenure-track faculty to vote on issues related to curriculum, amendments to the constitution, and tenure.

2. GAPSA constituency encouraged by UMAA’s Legislative Network
In an effort to make UMN needs a priority for the newly elected legislators, Nichole Bennett, the Grassroots Coordinator for the UMN’s Alumni Association’s Legislative Network, invited volunteers from among GAPSA constituency to call or write to a legislator elected by respective districts and identify themselves as constituents from UMN.

3. GAPSA postpones specific statement on joint stadium but welcomes Gophers
Recognizing the importance of the academic and research role that student athletics plays, GAPSA Assembly endorsed a statement supporting efforts to bring Gophers’ football back to campus. In order to create a specific language in these efforts regarding partnership between the University and the Vikings, GAPSA Assembly sanctioned the creation of its own working group that will convene shortly after the Memorandum of Understanding, outlining the relationship between the University and the Vikings, is released on November 28, 2002. Until then, statements further than the one adopted may be premature.

4. Student Service Fees Process
In the 2002-2003 budget proposal coordinated by at-large director Patrick Pederson, GAPSA will mirror last year’s request and introduce a new item called “Legislative Program” which is intended for GAPSA to partner with MSA to develop joint legislative initiatives.

5. GAPSA grants promote understanding
The latest two projects that GAPSA approved grants for are (1) educational event about Ethiopian history with a movie “The 1960 Coup D’etat” followed by questions for the director of the film and (2) Ramadan Dinners, primarily for Muslim students, but open to everyone.

MSA
Kari Lindeman and John Amble reported:

News:
1.The new President was named Robert H. Bruininks. We are excited about this and welcome him to his new position.
2. Next forum is today Tuesday, November 12.
3. MSA is looking for several office positions to help with office duties.

Open Positions:
1. Fees committee members--these committees decide how to allocate student services fees.
2. The Student Dispute Resolutions Board is looking for a member.

Works in progress:
1. Dispersing Diversity Education Funds- for special events
2. Currently reworking our constitution and bylaws
3. The Academic Affairs committee is looking into the GPT in CLA

FINANCE AND PLANNING
Dan O’Connor, student representative to Finance and Planning Committee, submitted this report:

The Committee discussed three major issues at our meeting on Tuesday, November 5, 2002:

1. Implementation of a new financial system to replace CUFS

The CUFS system is the University’s major financial system. It is quite old and has been pieced together over approximately the past 10 years to meet the different needs of the University. CUFS needs to be replaced because it is old, based on antiquated technology (mainframe, COBAL, and proprietary software), lacks reliable support, and has a high cost of operation. Functionality and usability will be important criteria in the selection of a new replacement system. The cost of a new system has been included in the biennial budget request, but if the University is required to make a 10% cut in the base funding request, as the State Legislature has suggested, the replacement will not be possible during the next two years.

2. Discussion of the University’s Athletic program

Joel Maturi, Director of Men’s and Women’s Athletics, gave a presentation on the present situation of the athletic department. He informed us that he would be working to decrease the department’s annual deficit by reducing expenses, streamlining operations, and increasing revenues. Specifically on the expense side, he guaranteed us that he would stay within budget, but also told us that he could not make any promises as to revenue. The two Thursday night football games, for example, may cause revenue to be abnormally low this year. He also addressed the issue of the $10 million subsidy the U of M gives to athletics each year. Athletics will continue to receive the subsidy for the next two to three years, per the Board of Regents, but he will work to decrease dependence on University funds by increasing football revenues and fundraising activities.

3. University land acquisitions

Mr. Pfutzenreuter and Ms. Weinberg discussed the current plans for new and current University land acquisition plans. The focus is solely on East Bank with acquisitions north of 5^th street SE near Bierman Sports Complex and north of University Ave SE near the Minnesota Daily. Proposed use of this land is recreational fields, tennis courts, charter buses, and parking. In the future this area will likely be an intersection point of the light rail transit system. Another issue was the proposed stadium site that would probably be located on the Gopher, Hawkeye, Badger, and Wolverine parking lots.

EDUCATIONAL POLICY
Scott Ferguson reported that SCEP agreed that each fall semester will have 70 class days and each spring semester will have 74 days to avoid late finals fall semester when Labor Day is late in September. SCEP will also be reviewing several past issues since the switch to semesters, including hours per credit, the length of the class period, class availability, and graduation rates. The APAS report and four-year graduation plan are now available on the web. BA and BS degree requirements will also be examined in terms of the number of requirements and flexibility.

STUDENT COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES
The Student Committee on Committees has been meeting since the end of August 2002 on a monthly basis, with bimonthly meetings with the Faculty Committee on Committees. The committee has been spending a considerable amount of time dealing with committee appointments, and other tasks that arise internally or externally. This report is designed to briefly inform you as to what we are currently working on, and what we have accomplished thus far for the current academic year.

The main initiative that the committee has been pursuing is the appointments to Senate committees. As in past years, this has been done by an online application process, followed by a review by the committee. The same process is still being used. Attached are documents that will help you understand the current involvement of students on senate committees. As you will see when looking at the current committee breakdowns, there is still a considerable amount of space available for those interested in serving on a committee. The coordinate campuses are represented on a few select committees, but not necessarily to the extent desired. However, overall participation in Senate committees is lower then expected.

The committee has looked at ways of increasing participation and interest in the Senate through means of advertising, and plans to implement them on the Twin Cities campus in the coming year. When thinking about coordinate campuses, we are dependent on their particular associations to advertise and advocate for the Senate.

At our most recent meeting, we discussed the distribution of faculty and student ratios on Senate and Assembly Committees. Upon completion of reviewing the current membership requirements, it was determined that most committees had an adequate number of student seats available, with the exception of the Finance and Planning and Research committees. We recommend the following student positions be increased: Finance and Planning from 4 to 5, and Research from 3 to 5. The main reason for looking at the faculty and student ratios is it is hard to have diversity on these two committees with so few student positions.

Another project that is being worked on is the Equity, Access, and Diversity (EAD) review. This committee is scheduled to have a review completed to see if the committee is accomplishing the goals that were set for it upon creation two years ago. The Faculty and Students will be working cooperatively on completing this review which will take place in the upcoming months.

This is just a brief overview of some of the tasks that this committee been working on, and I look forward to talking with you more in-depth about these issues, or other projects that we have been pursuing.

2. ORAL REPORTS

STUDENT SENATE CHAIR
Ryan Osero said that the SSCC Task Force has started its work. Reid LeBeau is the chair. The other members were presented at the last SSCC meeting. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the stadium is still being discussed. A statement on the MOU will be discussed at the Student Senate meeting in December. Other items include concerns with the presidential search process and watching the state budget situation.

SSCC/STUDENT SENATE VICE CHAIR
Eric Steinhoff reported that there are still many open committee positions, and he will be advertising the list at the next MCSA meeting. He is also collecting information on work study issues and would appreciate any information that members have be emailed to him

3. ACCOUNTABILITY DISCUSSION

Carol Carrier, Vice President for Human Resources, said that a mission for the University this year is to focus on accountability in terms of enhancing service and productivity. For the students, services for students that are not college-based are being included in the accountability focus and has been titled the Great Service Initiative. The three other areas of the accountability focus are the impact and effectiveness of non-collegiate units, building a better internal University economy, and building a financial model to assess new innovations.

Currently, there are many units that deliver services to the University, but there is no way to access the units in terms of accountability. The task force was established to systematically determine the impact and results of service units. It will also look at processes that are already in place in one unit but could be used in other units as well. The outcome is to make real results on campus, with differences that people can see. The timeline for this task force is 12-18 months and President Bruininks is very supportive of these efforts.

In terms of the Great Service Initiative, former President Yudof met with students and heard many concerns on how to handle some service areas, how to treat students with respect, and how to provide quick service. This task force has brought together key players from each of the large service units on campus, as noted on the handout. This task force will look to identify problems and find solutions that can be implemented, as well as identifying the best and worst types of service on campus. Student input will be appreciated and solicited throughout the entire process.

Tim Delmont, from Human Resources, said that the hope of the Great Service Initiative is to have all the principle players at the table together, hearing what the others do, so that units learn to communicate with each other, as this is a feature that is currently lacking. Besides improving service accountability, a goal is for units to build relationships and sustain communication after the task force work has finished. He and Wayne Sigler, the Director of Admissions, are the co-chairs for the committee.

Committee members have been asked to commit their service until the successful completion of the work. Members will also be asked to share values and perspectives on great service, share best practices from their unit, and communicate the University’s mission throughout their ranks. All members will hear what is not working in units and what changes have been made to improve service. Once the information is gathered from the units and best and worst lists have been made, the information will be available on the web.

Support services for unit managers will also be looked at. Training will be provided on techniques for great service to promote attitudinal changes, with on-site help if needed. The complexity of staff and part-time students will also be examined. At the end of the process, measures will be developed to assess whether these enhancements have improved service.

Jenny Meslow, Director of the Center for Health Interdisciplinary Programs (CHIP), said that she was recruited to this committee because of her work with students. She has been at the University for over 20 years, serving as the CHIP Director for the last 15 years. She will be looking at the ways that colleges interact, what happens on and off campus, and the small ways that people pay attention to customers.

To get this information, she has been and will be having meetings with small groups of students to hear their positive and negative stories about experiences on campus. She is trying to meet with a wide cross-section of students, but even after a few talks common themes are starting to emerge. She is hoping to find answers to the following: There is a wealth of opportunity at the University, but can it be easily found by students? What standards count, courtesy, timely, accurate? What units are star performers on campus? She said that she would be willing to meet with any committee member individually or as a group, including students from the coordinate campuses.

Judy Berning said that this was an area that the University needs to focus on and asked that the results from the students’ meetings be shared with the committee once the results have been finalized.

Carol Carrier said that updates could be provided Spring Semester and Fall Semester 2003.

4. PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH DISCUSSION

Judy Berning said that this discussion was not about who was selected, since students are satisfied that Robert Bruininks was selected, but to discuss any complaints with the search process itself.

Ryan Osero said that he received a copy of an email from John Dolen, a Duluth senator, that was sent to the Regents. In the email, Senator Dolen said that the University of Minnesota-Duluth was shut out of the selection process since there were no Duluth faculty or students who served on the selection committee.

The reply that he received stated that all the campus student body presidents were invited to meet with Robert Bruininks before his appointment was conferred by the Regents.

Nate Saete said that he had not had a chance to discuss this item yet with CSA. He does know that CSA was contacted for input on the finalist, but did not have any contact with the selection process prior to this announcement.

Eric Steinhoff said that the process ended so suddenly that MCSA did not have time to react or contact the faculty member on the selection committee.

Kevin Vogeltanz, MCSA president, said that he participated via teleconference in the student body president meeting, but Bruininks was not introduced as a candidate but the as president.

Judy Berning said that SSCC needs to decide if it should do nothing about the process or send a letter to the Regents citing its concerns. Members felt that a letter should be drafted since they will not be students the next time a search is held and the student voice would be lost. Members also stated that people from within the University should take precedent on the committee versus business leaders.

5. UPDATE ON THE STADIUM

Judy Berning said that at the Regents meeting last Thursday it was announced that the MOU will be available on November 27. The University Senate is planning a stadium survey for everyone involved in governance. The questions are based on the FCC statement. An email will be sent to announce the survey.

6. STUDENT SENATE CHAIR AS VOTING MEMBER OF SCC

Judy Berning introduced the language to make the Student Senate Chair a voting member of SCC. Additionally, she noted that the bylaw language includes a term limit for graduate and professional students that did not conform to the term limits for other student members. She proposed striking this language. With no objection, a vote was taken and the amended language was approved with one abstention from the Student Senate Chair.

7. DECEMBER 5 STUDENT SENATE DOCKET

Ryan Osero said that he would circulate a finalized version next week for approval by email.

Q: Has SSCC received any answers to the questions about the stadium?

A: No answers will be provided before the MOU is released.

Q: What happened with the HESO budget request?

A: It was approved, but with an amendment that all funding be put into the work study account.

8. OTHER BUSINESS

Judy Berning addressed a proposal from the Student Committee on Committees to increase the number of student positions on the Finance and Planning and Research Committees. The rationale for this increase is to increase the student voice in response to the P&A increase last year and because of the large number of applicants for so few positions on these committees. With no objection, the proposal was approved.

Judy Berning then said that the committee is in charge of appointing student members to the Advisory Committee on Athletics. The FCC has proposed having the Faculty Committee on Committees handle these appointments. Does SSCC want to ask the Student Committee on Committees (SConC) to also handle student appointments? Members agreed to have SConC handle these appointments as well.

A member then asked if a discussion could be held at the next SSCC meeting regarding reimbursement for senators travel to Senate meetings. Judy Berning said that she would add this item to the agenda.

With no further business, Judy Berning thanked all members for attending and adjourned the meeting.

Becky Hippert
University Senate