Dickinson State University
Staff Senate Minutes

April 19, 2007, 1:30 p.m. – Klinefelter Conference Room 107

Members Present:  Laurie Beach, Christie Chernich, Alicia Erickson, Kenton Featherstone, James Haaland, Sandy Klein, Timothy Kreidt, Kathy Lang, Mary McDermott, Twila Petersen, Cecilia Taylor, Kim Thiel and Stacy Wilkinson.

Members Absent:  Heather Meek, Kathy Obritsch, Stuart Savelkoul, Shanna Schoch, Anna Smith, Kelly Steffes, and Kim Thiel.

Call to Order:  Meeting was called to order at 1:31 p.m. by President Twila Petersen.

Adoption of Agenda:  Kathy Lang made a motion to adopt the agenda; Laurie Beach seconded; motion carried.

Approval of Minutes:  Kathy Lang moved to accept the minutes; Cecilia Taylor seconded; motion carried.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Standing Committees:

Continuing Education Committee:  Stacy Wilkinson reported.  Joanne Fields had been referred to the Highway Department for the “How to Defend Yourself” class.  The Highway Department feels there could be a liability with one of the Staff getting hurt while attending the workshop.  Their recommendation is to bring another person from their agency for the hands-on demonstration.  Joanne and Stacy are still trying to get something set up.  Stacy also handed out a brochure from Corporate Adventure for our thoughts about bringing in something like this.  Corporate Adventure is a company that works on team building with different corporate agencies. 

Social Committee:  Alicia Erickson reported.  The social committee has advised Staff to be watching their mail boxes for the next Social Committee event.

Hiring Process of Staff Committee:  Cecilia Taylor reported that the committee has met with Gail Ebeltoft and worked through the hiring document making changes to redundant statements.  The committee did not get very far.  Cecilia did state that some of the document has already been implemented.  The committee will meet separately from Gail Ebeltoft and invite Twila Petersen (Staff Senate President) to attend to discuss the policy and what steps to take from here.

Emergency Management Preparedness Committee:  Tim Kriedt reported.  Committee has not met.  Nothing new to report.

Bulletin Boards Committee:  Jim Haaland reported that there is nothing to report.

Staff Handbook Committee:  Kathy Lang reported.  They are still working on the matrix as well as waiting on one office to turn in their information.  The committee possibly will wait until all of the office moves are completed before sending out a draft of the matrix. 

Staff Senate Web Page Committee:  Kim Thiel reported.  The anonymous email link is up and running.  The form has a place for a name, which is optional, body, and then the submit button.  The committee has spoken to University Relations to make the site more visible and easier to find.  

Children at Work Committee:  Christie Chernich and Kathy Lang reported.  The committee has met and discussed the new, more positive wording draft.  Once the discussion was over on the newly reworded draft, the committee decided to vote on which policy should be sent to the President’s office.  It was decided by a 5 to 1 vote that the policy that was worded more straight forward be sent to the President’s office.  (One of the committee members was not in attendance at this meeting)  After the voting took place one committee member did not agree with the decision.  After much discussion and debate, a committee member chose to walk off of the committee.  We are now down to six committee members, since starting with eight.

Smoke-Free Campus Committee:  Tim Kreidt reported.  The committee has not met; nothing new to report.  

Old Business:

1. Staff Retiree Status: Jim Haaland reported.  The committee has not met; they are still working on it.
2. Staff Senate Scholarship:  Kim Thiel reported.  Kim handed out the scholarship information sheet that had been drafted.  He also read the history of DSU’s Staff Senate which was established in 1996.  It was suggested that we change the criteria for number one to read “dependent of a benefited staff member”.  The scholarship would be split between the first and second semester.  Senators talked about the different criteria on the information sheet, answered questions about GPA, and the selection process.  We decided to take off the wording about “plan to graduate”.  The committee will come back to the next meeting with the selection process.

New Business:

1. Campus Senate:  Twila Petersen and Stacy Wilkinson had a meeting with the Campus Senates and Dr. Vickers.  They gave updates on what the committees had been doing since the February Campus Senate meeting.  Dr. Vickers reported that the Legislature was pursuing the 5% & 5% pay increase.  They were also discussing putting a cap on tuition at 5%.  Dr. Vickers did indicate that contracts could be a little late due to the fact we are still waiting on the Legislature to make a decision.  Faculty Senate discussed their open forum.  Student Senate discussed the need for new lap tops in the Student Center.  Student Senate has also renamed the Student Center Conference Room 112 to now be called the “Student Center Board Room”.  Dr. Vickers also indicated that an Ambassador from Mongolia could be coming to the DSU Campus for a visit.
2. Jim Haaland had mentioned the idea of having defibulators on campus in case of emergencies.  There was discussion with nothing more mentioned or suggested.

       
Adjournment:  Kim Thiel moved to adjourn the meeting; Alicia Erickson seconded.  Meeting adjourned at 2:43 p.m.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
The next meeting will be held on Thursday, May17, 2007 at 1:30 p.m. in Klinefelter Conference Room 107.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Christie Chernich ~ Staff Senate Secretary