February Meeting Minutes
February 10th, 2016
Location: UC 330/331
Welcome & Call to Order
President Zellmer-Cuaresma called the meeting to order at 10:04am.
Roll Call
Attendees: Luke Alford, Andi Armstrong, Matthew Cragwick, David Crowley, Cindy Ferguson, Karin Fried,
Mark Fritch, Kiley Gage, Grace Gardner, Rozlyn Haley, Jefferson Heath, Rochelle Krahn, Carlie Magill, Maria
Mangold, Denise May, Maggie McCarthy, Shaunagh McGoldrick, Candy Patrick, Gloria Phillip, Caitlin Sager,
Edi Stan, Renee Valley, Sarah Wade, Angela Weisenburger, Kellyn Younggren, Jennifer Zellmer-Cuaresma, Judy
Wellert (Administrative Associate)
Absent: Kiley Gage
Excused: Kris Csorosz
Quorum Present
Public Comment
 ASUM President, Cody Meixner – ASUM is trying to get a team together for the Diploma Dash. Please
pass on other events to ASUM as well, as they are happy to help Staff Senate advertise. Update on ASUM
childcare changes  New mandates from federal and state government require changes in the operation
of public and private child centers. ASUM might have to cut 20 spots from classrooms next year, or
childcare might be eliminated. Changes are across the board for training as well as class sizes, (including
new limits on the numbers of kids in each classroom respective to number of staff). ASUM must consider
the loss of revenue with smaller class sizes. ASUM has also considered dividing classrooms to make this
work without cutting kids. ASUM is currently working to find ways to make the current budget work for
100 kids, faculty and staff. ASUM encourages feedback on this issue from staff and is going to speak
with Faculty Senate tomorrow.
o Senator Haley – We discussed this issue at the Women’s Leadership Initiative roundtable. It is
important to keep the UM campus friendly for women/mothers.
UM Minute
 Senator Crowley – Comment on staff impact on students. His wife called for an appeal to Financial Aid
and received rude treatment. His wife then called Senator Mangold and said Mangold deserved kudos or
some award because she made receiving a waiver for English so easy.
 Senator Krahn – Talked about Robert’s Rules of Order at the Women’s Leadership roundtable. Thank you
to Senator McCarthy for encouraging Staff Senate to adopt Robert’s Rules. Thank you to Senator Sager
for helping to organize the roundtable discussion.
 Senator Haley – SARC put on a huge Bystander Intervention Training early this month reaching around
1,000 students, and feedback has been mostly positive. Kudos to SARC staff!
 President Zellmer-Cuaresma – There are concerns about supporting staff who have been cut from the
UM. Staff Senate should be available to provide appropriate support, but it is the individual staff
member's responsibility to let us know if they have been laid off. This is their business and should remain
private unless they choose to discuss.
o Senator Haley – There are many different types of stress because of cuts from those who are
leaving and those getting more responsibilities. Can we come up with ideas for strategies to
help?
Approval of December Meeting Minutes
 Minutes approved with addition of meeting start time.
Financial Report
 Senator Krahn - Curious about code consistency in the report. Senator McCarthy did not pull the code,
but can do this if it is ever needed. Financials will be filed.
Resolutions
No resolutions at this time.
Committee Reports
1) University Committees
a) International Committee met Monday and approved a MOU with Tohoku University in Japan. This is
one of the top universities in Japan and top 30 in world. Will provide a great opportunity for our students,
international programming, pharmacy and pre-med. The committee will also be reviewing agreements
with all universities this year.
b) Library committee has not met since December.
c) Search Committee for Director for the Office of Provost - Three candidates have come to campus.
The committee is meeting tomorrow to compile data from recommendations and will make their own
recommendations to the Provost.
2) Staff Senate Committees
a) Bylaws Committee – Changes to Bylaws
 Vote on the definition of “staff”
o Article II – Staff Definition - Staff is defined as all permanent staff members whose FTE is .5 or
greater and who are not contract administrators, contract professionals, individuals on Letters of
Appointment, or faculty; hereinafter referred to as Staff. If a current Staff Senator accepts a
temporary position with the University of Montana, that Senator may continue to serve on Staff
Senate until the end of the Senator’s term or until the Senator leaves University of Montana
employment.
 Senator Crowley moves to approve, seconded by Senator Phillip.
 Senator Mangold – Point of clarification – Should ‘temporary’ position language abide by the above
definition, or is this a given?
 Senator Crowley – Maybe we leave the language in the bylaws as is and make exceptions to the rule as
needed.
 Senator McCarthy – Should we consider dual eligibility for serving on Faculty Staff? Should we make a
specific distinction?
 Senator Mangold– We want to err on the side of inclusivity. Staff Senate is always looking to fill spots. In
the absence of information about eligibility for Faculty Senate, we cannot really make the distinction.
 Judy – Likes having a specific policy, as this has happened multiple times, and we want to avoid
personality issues coming into play on the ‘case by case’ basis.
 Senator Gardner- Point of Clarification – Robert’s Rules says a senator only has a maximum of two
comments after making a motion in discussion.
 Motion carries. Bylaws will be changed to include new definition of staff.
 Proposed changes to officer descriptions  This issue was brought forward due to the Presidents of
ASUM, Faculty and Staff Senates now being in the President’s Cabinet weekly meetings.
o In Section 7 – Duties of Officers - Under the President (Chair) shall: Delete “and University
Budget Committee” Change “Meet monthly with the University President to provide updates
regarding Staff Senate activities and concerns;” to “Meet monthly with the University President,
the President’s cabinet, and the Staff Senate Executive Committee to provide updates regarding
Staff Senate activities and concerns;” Add “Serve as a member of the President’s Cabinet.”
 Senator Gardner moves to approve, seconded by Senator Mangold.
 Senator Phillip - This should be adopted because it is already happening in practice.
 The motion carries.
 Next bylaw change - Article 14 – “Special Appointments,” regarding the University Budget Committee
representative.
o Add, in Article XIV – Special Appointments -- “A UNION REPRESENTATIVE will be
appointed by the Staff Senate to serve on the University Budget Committee. The Union
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Representative will report the activities of the University Budget Committee to the leadership of
the unions following each meeting of that Committee.”
Senator McCarthy moved to approve, seconded by Senator Crowley.
Judy – Quentin Nyman got in touch with the unions and received permission for Staff Senate to appoint
one representative. The administration is not willing to have a representative from every union, but the
unions approve the one representative.
Senator Haley - How does this affect non-union staffers?
President Zellmer-Cuaresma -There are conversations happening about a council for non-union staff.
Senator Haley - Can this appointed representative have communication with non-union?
As staff, you should already receive pertinent information. It is a difficult position being non-union, but
budget meetings are open to the public. This new representative would be a voting member of the
committee.
Senator McCarthy – This idea for the appointment came about because faculty had it written in their
bargaining agreement that there is a union representative on the Budget Committee. We are trying to level
the playing field.
Article 14, special appointments motion carries. Senator Phillip will update all of the bylaws.
Senator Sager - Can we create a resolution in support of the creation of a group for non-union staff?
Senator Mangold – We have lengthy answers to the questions that senators posed for the MPEA meeting.
We are considering how best to disseminate those answers. It is probably best practice to distribute this
information through the union.
President Zellmer-Cuaresma – A request to all Staff Senators  We need to get the message about staff
out to campus. These stories need to come from us. Please get this information to Senator Weisenburger
to write up full stories. This is more than Kudos, but stories about staff doing excellent things on campus.
There were only two staff featured in the previous 12 months.
Guest Speakers
Mario Schulzke – Assistant V.P. for Marketing  UM Customer Service efforts
 Schulzke has seen many sides of the UM - started as a custodian, then an RA, now a VP.
 Heard a lot about customer service over the years and think most people provide good customer service at
UM.
 We do not have many resources, so how do we make an impact fast?
 We have come up with values and aim to deal with IT issues. This involves testing out a Livechat feature
in the Registrar’s Office. It is a proactive business strategy to alleviate someone coming to someone’s
desk already agitated. This test will be able to tell us what the issues actually are, since most evidence of
‘issues’ is anecdotal, at best, right now.
 Regarding values – The group wanted to come up with something effective and not make our front line
staff seem judged. We need to learn how to assess customer service, as there is no central point to
customer service assessment on campus.
 Looking at a campus-wide customer service survey and hoping for an immediate feedback loop.
 Senator Haley – How do you define customer? “Customers” include students and staff, and how they can
provide better care to each other.
 Senator McGoldrick - Morale is huge problem right now. We are actively letting good employees go and
giving others more responsibility than they can handle. Is this the right time to be telling staff they need to
improve their customer service skills? How do we address morale while talking about customer service?
 Staff is also a customer, so it should be included in the values to care for staff.
 Senator Crowley – We should add to professional development ‘assertiveness training’
 Senator Weisenburger – There was a conference last year about customer service. In the Alumni Office,
we try not to pass a person onto someone else. Every person is my customer. Have the ‘I can help’
attitude.
 Values include ‘I can help,’ choose positivity, seek to understand and do the right thing.
 Schulzke will send the list of customer service values to Staff Senate for feedback.
Sharon O’Hare – Associate VP for Enrollment and Student Success & Karissa Drye –Associate Director for New
Student Programs  Recruitment Efforts at UM
 Shared recruitment efforts on campus and how we can help.
 UM is the only university in the state that visits every high school every year. UM also visits almost 300
high schools outside of Montana.
 Staff has a real impact on recruitment – At a UM day, a dining staff talked to a prospective student about
recycling and why the university was getting rid of trays. That student came to UM.
 Basic recruiting starts typically with sophomores in high school. The University buys the names of
students and their test scores. These students do not know that we know who they are.
 Recruitment map stages include - acquisition, inquiry, applying, accepted, yield (period between
acceptance and enrollment), and enrolled.
 Nearly all of our revenue is from tuition.
 Scholarships are big way to recruit but, unfortunately, have been reduced.
 Other recruitment methods include outreach tours, social media, UM marketing posts to Instagram
 Marketing and enrollment work hand in hand.
 Everyone has a personal Admissions Recruiter from whom they receive personal communications
 Motto is “Admissions Office of Real People”
 Yield is a very important time in which the student needs to interact with folks other than Admissions.
 UM buys about 151,000 names per year – this means 280,000 mailings, 1.6 million emails
 MSU bought more names and has more applications, so they can afford a higher yield drop.
 Senator Sager – Do you tell students what type of communication their parents will receive?
o If it is unsafe for the school to communicate with parents, students typically just will not give a
parent email address for contact.
 UM has chosen quality over quantity. We are not buying as much but we have personal contact. There are
five traveling recruiters with the Admissions Office.
 Senator Stan – Is there still a time lag between application and acceptance?
o This has improved from 6 months ago.
o President Zellmer-Cuaresma – Have there been changes in when financial aid/scholarship info
goes out? Most other schools tell students before UM.
o This information is typically sent mid-March. Scholarships start heading out in late October.
New Business
 Senator Haley brought Toastmasters information. Looking for four people willing to help start this group.
Senators Haley and Stan are already interested and can serve as interim officers.
 Senator Krahn – There are only 18 people running the Diploma Dash right now. Staff Senate, as a whole,
needs to market this run. Senator Krahn needs help advertising and will walk away if we only have 18
people running. Collectively we are more powerful, so help is requested.
 President Zellmer-Cuaresma – Keep in mind, we are more than a month away.
 Senator Armstrong – We need University Relations to do more.
 Senator McCarthy – We can put on caps and gowns and hand out flyers
 Senator Weisenburger can write a story about the race to advertise.
Meeting adjourned at 11:37pm.
NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, March 9th.