The third meeting of the Student Senate for 2005-06 was convened in Studio C, Rarig Center, Minneapolis campus, on Thursday, February 9, 2006, at 11:36 a.m. Coordinate campuses were linked by ITV. Checking or signing the roll as present were 30 voting student members. Chair Josh Breyfogle presided.

MOTION:

To approve the Student Senate minutes, which are available on the Web at the following URL. A simple majority is required for approval.

http://www1.umn.edu/usenate/ssen/051201stu.html

DISCUSSION:

The motion was tabled until the March meeting.

Brad Hoff, Project Coordinator for Facilities Management (FM), said that he asked to speak to this group to make students aware of a transformation process within FM and to eliminate any surprises later. Most people do not spend much time thinking about the job of FM, which is to provide a clean, comfortable, and safe campus through several different units within FM. There are roughly 1000 employees to handle this work. He then distributed the following information.

Transformation Project
December 2005 – June 2006

Services FM Provides

Transformation Project
“The University of Minnesota will be known as much for its service and business innovation as for its high quality research, education, and outreach.”
President Robert Bruininks
Inaugural Address, 2002

What Is It?

Why are we doing this?

How can you help?

President Bruininks has made a charge to become a top three research institution and was explicit that service providers follow and transform themselves into world-class service providers. FM will be taking six month to identify customer needs and become more customer-focused, driven in part by the new budget model. The goal is to surpass customer expectations, recognize FM employee contributions, and become the provider of choice.

Under the new budget model, colleges and departments will be billed for FM services. This process will start July 1, which is the timeline driving this process. In January four action teams were created with members from FM and customers. These groups are holding weekly meetings, conducting research, and develop best practices. Business cases will be built by May with an implementation plan and prioritized list of changes. Since some initiatives will take three to five years, a few quick changes will be implemented first to show a commitment to the process for both customers and employees.

He said that nine open houses were conducted last week in high traffic areas on campus. To keep customers informed, meeting minutes will also be posted on the web and a comment form is available to receive feedback from everyone at the University.

Q: Why is the budget model being changed?

A: FM was not responsible for changes to the budget model, but has had to develop a strategy under the proposal. The philosophical base for the decision is that FM services are a free good which means that departments might not watch use of these services closely. The University hopes that these changes will lead to good long-term decisions. However, a baseline of services will be maintained, although this list is yet to be finalized.

Q: Will FM have to enter into competitive bidding processes against organizations that do not used unionized labor?

A: For the first year, there will not be an opportunity to go outside FM for services. This issue did raise concern for FM staff, since staff are invested in the University and are stewards of the campus. FM hopes that if departments are delighted with services, they will not choose to bid-out services once the first year expires.

Q: Has FM been asked to reduce staff?

A: This was the first question asked by staff, and the answer is no. This is not a disguised attempt to reduce head count, but it is looking at how services are delivered and if that can be done more efficiently.

Q: What percentage of the organization is organized labor?

A: It is a fairly high percentage.

Q: What actions can be taken against unions to address accountability?

A: The University has a strong relationship with its unions and most unionized employees show up for work and do a good job. However, there are always a few poor examples that people can point to and these need to be addressed. Supervisors need to document all instances of poor performance which is reviewed through a process. FM might need to review its processes to make them more streamlined and objective.

Q: Since most of the process involves customer input on service quality, and since students are highly apathetic, what will be done to secure broad student input?

A: The process is not prescriptive, so the action teams can add focus groups, surveys, or stakeholder interviews. Another series of open houses is also planned.

Q: How will the new fee structure affect student fees?

A: There is no correlation between the new departmental fee structure and increased student fees.

Q: Will these changes affect the coordinate campuses as well?

A: It will affect the Twin Cities.

Q: What does FM foresee as quick wins to do at the start of the implementation process?

A: There is an FM system for work orders which operates at less than peak performance because there is no standardized data entry into the system.

Q: How much is FM restructuring costing and how will these costs be recouped?

A: He is not sure about the total cost of the transformation. As for recouping these costs, FM now provides a series of services, but FM does not know if these are the correct services. Historically, it seems to be accurate, but it has not been tested. FM needs to develop a list of basic stewardship services that will continue to be provided, and then work with colleges and departments to see what additional services they require.

Q: How can FM be sure that the University values the stewardship that it provides to campus?

A: FM has had representation at budget model meetings, however, it was not FM that made the final decision at to how the proposal would be implemented.

Josh Breyfogle, Student Senate/Student Senate Consultative Committee (SSCC) Chair, said that SSCC members have picked projects to work on for this semester and he hopes that student senators will do the same. He said that students need to follow the legislature and their budget recommendation for the University. All students should be encouraged to write letters to the legislators and the Governor. Help is provided on the Legislative Network website.

Crookston – DeAnn Roers said that CSA will be having its spring retreat. Chancellor Casey will be inaugurated March 3. Campus is also working on a smoking policy to ban smoking within 25 feet of building entrances. CSA is involved with piloting the new laptops which all students will receive next year. Crookston’s higher education accreditation will start February 13.

Duluth – Timothy Tangen noted that UMDSA is working on gaining insurance for the Duluth taxi program, which should be the last hurdle before the program starts. They are also working with local colleges on community relations.

Morris – Nathan Hilfiker stated MCSA is hosting a student leader get-together on campus to share ideas. There was a town hall meeting recently to discuss free speech and postering on campus. The State of the University Address will be given from Morris and he invited senators to attend. Morris will be adding varsity men’s soccer next year. Lastly, MCSA held an election yesterday and Adam Yust was elected the new senator.

GAPSA – Tony Kouba said that GAPSA received a report on civic engagement and is hosting a housing roundtable for graduate and professional students.

MSA – Will Kusch said that MSA lobbied the Minneapolis City Council regarding an unruly party ordinance and several provisions were changed before it was approved. DEF grants are being changed.

Student senators provided the following list of potential agenda items for spring semester:

Joshua Breyfogle said that the distribution of seats for next year’s Student Senate due to college mergers was distributed for the information. A proposal was also made to eliminate separate Duluth Medicine and Pharmacy representatives since Duluth is just a second site location, along with the Twin Cities, for one Medical School and one College of Pharmacy. Communication among programs and with the Twin Cities was an issue raised by SSCC.

A senator noted that Duluth Medicine and Pharmacy representation has been added to GAPSA, with each colleges vote alternating each year between the Twin Cities and Duluth.

Joshua Breyfogle noted that this would alleviate the concerns expressed by SSCC.

Will Kusch, SSCC member, said that he is looking at the issue of voter turnout at each campus. Only 5-15 percent of students voted in the last Twin Cities election, and this figure is similar for Duluth. Morris and Crookston noted that their percentages are also similar.

He would like to coordinate efforts between campuses and gather ideas to increase visibility and turnout, since it is now easy for students to ignore current efforts. If anyone has ideas, please email him.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:21 p.m.