January Meeting Minutes
January 13, 2016 10:00am – 12:00pm
Defense Critical Language & Culture Program,
Palmer Center
Welcome & Call to Order
President Zellmer-Cuaresma called the meeting to order.
Roll Call
Attendees: Andi Armstrong, David Crowley, Kris Csorosz, Karin Fried, Mark Fritch, Kiley Gage, Grace Gardner,
Rozlyn Haley, Rochelle Krahn, Carlie Magill, Maria Mangold, Denise May, Maggie McCarthy, Shaunagh
McGoldrick, Candy Patrick, Gloria Phillip, Caitlin Sager, Renee Valley, Sarah Wade, Angela Weisenburger,
Kellyn Younggren, Jennifer Zellmer-Cuaresma, Judy Wellert (Administrative Associate)
Excused: Matthew Cragwick, Cindy Ferguson, Edi Stan
Absent: Luke Alford, Jefferson Heath
Quorum Present
Public Comment
None.
UM Minute
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Bystander Intervention training will be held on February 1st and 2nd, Monday & Tuesday, and is
mandatory for all juniors; their fall registration will be held if they do not attend a training. All members
of the UM community are welcome to attend and there will be prizes, informational booths and social
justice games. The training is part of the DOJ agreement with the University.
The Meditation event had a good turnout.
The Athletic Department students had the highest cumulative GPA.
Approval of December Meeting Minutes
 Minutes approved with minor grammatical edits.
Financial Report
 We have started receiving inquiries about moving money to the visibility fund. Senator Krahn has been
asking for donations for our race. Nothing has posted on UMDW yet, but we assume we will see those
within the next month. The Provost has pledged $300 and we hope to see that soon.
 Senator Linder – We are looking good in our general operating fund. We should have some money left at
the end of the year.
 Judy – Note that we have two MUSSA trips this year still, so that will affect our general operating fund.
 The financial statement will be recorded.
Resolutions
No resolutions at this time.
Committee Reports
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President Zellmer-Cuaresma – Remember to file your committee reports. We are not even hitting 10
committee reports in a given month. A ‘bare bones’ report filed is better than nothing. If we do not file
our reports, we are not keeping one another informed.
o Cabinet meeting – We will keep our monthly cabinet meeting between the President’s Cabinet &
XO committee, but the President (or VP in the President’s absence) will now be at the cabinet
meetings weekly. This will need to be put into the Bylaws.
Bylaws – Senator Phillip had a revision to the Bylaws report. The Bylaws committee meeting will be
Thursday, January 21 at 1pm in Lommasson 225. Please send opinions on proposed bylaws changes to
Senator Phillip before that meeting.
o Note - There is a supposed to be a Professional Council on campus that would represent Contract
Professionals. This might influence opinions on the bylaws changes.
Professional Development – Senator Armstrong noted that the PD Committee would be moving forward
with naming conventions for HR trainings in order to make tracking and attaining certificates more
feasible. The idea is to simplify course names and then HR can add a subtitle for clarification. For
example, a communication course could have the subtitle “Teach Me How to Write Effective Emails.”
The next PD meeting is next Tuesday at 12noon in the UC.
o Senator Haley – We are still compiling information from the survey. Hoping to get the Trans 101
talk done in February. Senator Haley plans to meet with Toastmasters tomorrow at 10am in the
UC to see how staff can be involved.
o President Zellmer-Cuaresma – We really want to focus on PD since it was our main goal at the
start of the year. Highly encourage the whole of Staff Senate to be involved in PD efforts.
Survey committee – Senator Gardner provided an update pertinent to professional development. There
were 307 responses to the survey and 219 of those indicated that they felt it was their own responsibility
to know what professional development opportunities exist. 63 people said it should be a dual focus
between the supervisor and self. It sounds like employees know it is their own responsibility to seek out
professional development on campus. The committee is hoping to have the survey summary in the next
few weeks.
CVC - January 9 was a Staff Appreciation Basketball Game and there is another one this week on January
16. Committee is looking at an ice skating event for Valentine’s Day weekend.
Fundraising - Registration for the race is available online. Trying to promote on campus and in the
community. The registration goal is still 250 registrants. Senator Valley has helped get the race on
community calendars
o Senator Mangold - How many senators will be needed to operate the race? If 1/2 help to organize,
the others can sign up to run.
o It will be important to make a clear distinction between who volunteers and who runs. We should
have quite a few student volunteers.
o We should work to get this onto the KPAX community calendar as well as go to Faculty Senate
and ASUM to encourage registrations.
o President Zellmer-Cuaresma will put in a request for student athletes to help at the race.
o Senator Armstrong – You can post things multiple times on the UM community calendar, and we
should also consider tabling the UC.
Guest Speaker
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Mark Saichompoo, Manager, Field Operations and Business Development, started at the Defense Critical
Language & Culture Program at UM in August.
The program is a hidden gem at UM, not a lot of people at the University know about it.
Saichompoo retired from a military Special Forces group.
There were maybe four people working here when it first came here. Now there are 22 classrooms.
Special Forces soldiers are gone 9-10 months out of year, making it very hard to see their families. They
often maintain family via Skype. The use of video teleconference (VTC) to teach classes helps students
stay at home, saves on US travel dollars, and still enables soldiers to engage in credited courses through
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the University. No other universities are doing this with the military.
The program is catching on and other units are reaching out.
There are nine other language training centers (LTC) funded by the Department of Defense (DOD), and
we are the largest LTC, (meaning we have the largest student pool).
The program services all special operations commands - Army, Air Force, National Guard, Marine, but
not a lot of Seals.
The program has brought a lot of notoriety to UM as well as income to the community - $20 million since
it first started.
Each language has a Ph.D. linguistics professor and 3-4 graduate training assistants (GTA). GTA’s are
brought from their native country to complete their degree and teach 20 hours per week.
Soldiers can have three different instructors per day and engage in cultural and regional studies with
briefs on political and geological issues. This is different from past years where there was maybe one
instructor over 3-6 months. The student soldiers appreciate the increased diversity in instruction.
The awarded Associates degree is covered under the DOD tuition assistance program.
Languages taught include Arabic, French with African dialects, Korean, Chinese-Mandarin, Persian and
Pashto.
There are no non-military students because it’s a DOD funded program. Agencies such as the CIA and
other military intelligence participate; they can log in securely for audio, but have no video feeds due to
security at their facilities.
Trying to get ROTC at UM more involved. Offer scholarships through the Project GO program.
GTA’s are part of recruitment of foreign students since they themselves are from outside the US.
All students access the program remotely.
Most deployment preparation classes focus on culture and survival language
Persian is the only language with no GTA. Trying to get a GTA from Iran is difficult right now, but the
program did just get a Ph.D. professor from Iran.
Classes in session currently are from the Fifth Special Forces group out of Kentucky.
New Business
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President Zellmer-Cuaresma - Review of 2015/2016 goals.
o Main goals included professional development, morale and shared governance.
There has not been a consistent shared governance meeting, but there have been several productive ones,
with great shared governance development in the budget process.
o Shared governance on a smaller scale includes ASUM, Faculty and Staff Senate coming together
to share ideas, updates and concerns.
o This XO committee has been able to meet with the President’s Cabinet once per month so they
are hearing our comments and ideas.
o President Zellmer-Cuaresma runs those monthly cabinet meetings, and the cabinet actively seeks
feedback from the XO committee.
o There will now be one representative from each shared governance body at the President’s
Cabinet meetings weekly.
Morale has clearly been very hard the last three months. Morale is low, so where do we go now?
o Senator Krahn – Staff is getting a raise on the 15th.
o Judy – It is concerning that we never hear from the Union about how they can help us.
o Senator Mangold – The President, VP, Judy and Senator Alford are going to Helena on Tuesday
to meet with the Board of Regents and will go to MPEA headquarters to meet with the Executive
Director, Quinton Nyman. Can ask him questions then about how union can help staff during this
period of layoffs.
o UM compensation structure is the percentage that dictates staff pay. Administration is at the top
of this pool, but staff is always at the bottom - why?
o Could be a national trend, but where is the career ladder or upward mobility potential for staff?
o Senator Csorosz - Why is our pay increase so much later after the negotiation time? It was 3, now
6 months. It would also be helpful to have more information on what our dues go to, like a
structure for allocation, as well as knowledge about the salaries of union executives.
Senator Haley - Where is HR in this?
Senator Mangold - UM has to come up with some of the money once the legislature approves pay
increases. HR represents the interests of the administration of UM.
o Senator Weisenburger - People are afraid to vote ‘no’ on getting a raise, but the Union is not
serving us by not telling us the full truth in what a ‘yes’ vote means.
o A vote of ‘no’ just sends you back to the table to renegotiate.
o Senator Sager – Understanding the Union can affect both professional development and morale.
Can we organize a union education opportunity? Would need to include all Unions in such an
event.
o Senator Fried – Pushing dates back on pay increases also makes budget planning harder.
ASUM sent Staff Senate a note thanking staff for putting students first in all budget conversations.
ASUM is also in favor of raising tuition, which will affect staff.
Staff Senate toured the DCLCP building.
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Meeting adjourned at 11:37pm.
Next meeting: February 10, 2016, 10:00am – 12:00pm in UC 330/331