Members present: Kirill Murphy, Bob Orr, Carolyn Parris, Tori Ellison, John Ritchie, Bill Haggard, Jane Hall, Roger Turk, Will Peebles, Andy DeGrove, Kathy Wright, Casey Hurley, Fred Hinson, Dave Whitaker, Jeanine Knowles, JJ Rowe, Mary Jean Herzog, John Bardo, Mary Lou Argueta and Dianne Lynch.
Members Absent: Lisa Bloom, Linda Sutton, Robert Blankenship and Joe Cowan
Guests present: Bob Caruso and Keith Hill
The meeting was called to order at 3:40 PM. In the minutes update, Dave reported that minutes for all meetings thus far would be available by the beginning of the week. Jane will post those since the new website has come online. Jane Hall reported for the Communications Committee.
The newsletter will go out at the beginning of next semester. The web site will be totally functional by the end of next week. The new address is www.wcu.edu/uac. The student website will be linked next semester when it is completed. Pictures will fade to reveal quotes from the UAC members. Sizing and other difficulties will be addressed as the development continues. All links are functional at this time, and the Submissions form will become clickable and will submit those issues to the Secretary. The website will also serve as a portal to other governance bodies Calendars so that uniformity of communications will be available. Other plans for the spring will be to set up the liaison groups to visit other governance groups.
The Leadership Committee has met several times and decided to explore the needs on campus in a thorough fashion before bringing action items to the Council. Casey spoke at the last meeting and spoke briefly to address these thoughts. Casey's remarks touched on the fact that the UAC is a great place to air ideas. Casey spoke to the available possibilities of leadership development ideas on campus. “We have a golden opportunity to foster new paradigms.” The climate is still ripe for additional exploration of leadership development. The goal of this committee is still nebulous. Certainly building community and creating connections on the campus is part of what leadership is. Leadership is an evolution that provides a more complete picture of what effective leadership is. Do we take a top down or bottom up approach? We don't live in an ideal world. Empowerment may not be as inclusive as it is theoretically. How can we as a Council promote opportunities of empowerment? The administrative functioning of the University will always be in place, but we shed light on the functioning of that unit. Under consideration: Where do we ask the question? Is the Leadership retreat a place to gather information or do educating? How can Student Affairs help other divisions move ahead? Where are strategic places in the University to have this training? The opportunity of governance now is not a ‘freebie'; but instead our investments are greater and the returns are as well. Understanding the meaning of community is critical when seeing the potential of the Council. (angst) Community can only exist when responsibility exists with all the members contained therein. What values do we really believe in and are ready to make commitments to? What are the appropriate responses to issues that meet resistance? Self-direction is the end result of all this discussion. Dianne concluded the committee's report by saying that discussions have been very productive and direction the committee will take is still uncertain. Timing is perfect for this conversation to begin and will continue with all voices; e.g. bond money, construction, growth, frustration…
After a question was raised concerning whether the Leadership committee found any leadership activities on campus that they were not aware of, Dianne reported that among others, Human Resources spend money to buy slots in Leadership training programs; different from Training Tuesdays. Each UNC system school has slots in this program – module based – WCU has 50-60 spots; dealing with leadership development over a 2 year period. In conjunction with the Communications Committee, this information should be disseminated to the community as soon as possible. It was also mentioned that aside from training for line staff and faculty, that specific training for Department heads could be useful. Other comments included the fact that needs may not be met because of scheduling conflicts and perhaps varying opportunity times would boost attendance. Faculty can sometimes be taken advantage of by Department heads. Even the best structures will be circumvented if not all members are committed to the community. DeGrove – Subtle bad attitudes are not rewarded. Herzog – What are the procedures to deal with problems? Faculty can't file grievances…or can they? Wright – Students can file them as well. Rowe – What kind? Wright – grade appeals, discrimination in class, issues relating to grading. Lynch – On the other hand, some students may not choose to pursue those items. Bardo – SACS is in the process of totally changing accreditation items. Moving from 460 must statements to 60, and there is no instruction on how to achieve the goal. Intuitions can make the decision to make goal…everything in the University must be evaluated. Program Review will become mandatory by SACS in 2004.
Dr Bob Caruso, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, along with UAC members Kirill Murphy, MaryLou Argueta, and UAC Secretary Dave Whitaker gave the Council an update on 24-hour visitation meeting with the Trustees earlier in the day. Presentation on visitation was made today concerning all the materials this council has seen. Instead of action, the Board took action to approve moving forward in producing a pilot program for a vote at the March meeting. First time issue met with the Board…students developed process. One of the remarkable things, 5 students had differences of opinion; but airing differences didn't reduce strength. Some members were impressed with statements in the Carolinian and those 5 students had responsible answers; all but 1 made a “yes, but we have to work at it.” Chancellor Bardo mentioned that long-range outcomes include having some residence halls that have certain sets of rules and moving toward community governance.
After all other issues had been addressed, Bill asked for issues to be brought forward that had not been mentioned to this point. While there are number of avenues by which those things come forward, one of them is for members to raise them at a Council meeting. Items of interest to Council members included exploring ways we can build on Parker Palmer events, staff access to computer terminals, and developing procedures for accountability for grievances and an approach by which those issues can be addressed. In addition, several members raised the idea of an ombudsman and advanced the notion that development of that position may help take care of some problems before they become a real hassle. It was mentioned that TFUG member Nancy Kolenbrander did extensive discussion about Ombudsmen during the TFUG age. Also, all issues that come forward can be placed on the website for dissemination and discussion.
It was also decided to have the newly appointed Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance Chuck Wooten to come in and verse him on things. Computer access is one of the things we can now talk about. Chancellor Bardo informed the Council that Mr. Wooten rose to the top of the nationwide search. Chuck will be Acting VC from his appointment date of January 1 until the Board of Governors meets on January 12.
Announcements included an update of the governance photo exhibit on display at Board of Governors offices in Chapel Hill. An Executive Committee was scheduled for Friday at 11 AM in the Rogers Room of the University Center.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:06 PM. The next general council meeting will be on January 11, 2001 in the Catamount Room of the University Center at 3:30 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
David A. Whitaker
Council Secretary |
