WCU Staff Forum Meeting Minutes
April 13, 2006
Hinds University Center – Cardinal Room
Members Present: Mike Stewart, Dawne Coward, Sue Grider, Elizabeth Frazier, Bill Studenc,
Jed Tate, Nancy Carden, Katie Spear, Julie Walters-Steele, Michele Sutton
Members Absent: Alicia Estes (excused), Homer Harris (excused), Terry Riouff (excused), Cory
Causby (excused), Ronnie Amster, Marvin Bumgarner, William Frady, Jeff Gunter
Ex-Officio Members Present: Dianne Lynch
Welcome: In Terry Riouff’s absence, Vice-Chair Mike Stewart welcomed members to today’s
meeting.
Approval of Agenda: Today’s agenda was approved as given.
Approval of Minutes: The minutes from March were approved as given.
Information Items:
The next Executive Committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 4, 2006, 2:00 p.m.,
HFR 540.
The next Staff Forum meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 11, 2006, 8:30-10:30 a.m.,
Cardinal Room, UC.
Office of Human Resources: Kathy Wong
No report.
Chancellor’s Office: Dianne Lynch
Dianne reminded the group about upcoming spring commencement. In addition, she stated that
Erskine Bowles was inaugurated as UNC System President this week. Finally, she said that the
Board of Governors passed the budget as submitted.
Campus Committee Reports: Calendar - No report. UAC – Cory couldn’t attend today’s
meeting, but he provided Dawne with some information from the March 14 th UAC meeting, and
she shared highlights of this information as follows:
1) The Office of Human Resources is working with the Coulter Faculty Center and IT Services to
come up with a 1-Stop for training and development for employees. This process, however, is still
in the early stages.
2) Newt Smith gave a technology update which included information about a consultant who was
on campus redesigning our website. Rollout for a new website is anticipated for October.
3) Debbie Justice reported that $1.7 million have been secured to help with major improvements
to storage areas and significant updates to the email server. Options are being explored for
outsourcing student email.
Staff Forum Committee Reports:
Human Resources
In William’s absence, Sue reported that the first part of career banding is finally taking place for
both Technology and Police.
Resource & Environment
Jeff was not present at today’s meeting, but since a suggestion for “free temporaryparking for
new employees” has previously come forward from this committee, MikeStewart reported to the
group that in order for the matter to be included on the Board of Trustees’ agenda for June, the
Staff Forum must put together a proposal. Mike willcontact Terry about this.
Public Relations
This committee has not met since March, but they have been working with Terry on a guest
column (letter to the editor) concerning “the value of staff”.
Scholarship
Elizabeth said the yard sale was successful and we made close to $200. The few leftover items
were donated to R.E.A.C.H. of Jackson County.
Governance
Julie distributed a list of nominees for this year’s Staff Forum election, and she said that ballots
will go out next week.
Issues Status Report: No report.
Old Business: The only “old business” item was Staff Forum elections, and this was discussed in
the Governance report above.
New Business:
Mike talked briefly about setting up the parameters for our scholarship fund. He mentioned using
the “Deborah Bardo” scholarship as a guide for establishing those parameters.
Open Comments:
Julie reminded the group that next Saturday is the Tuckaseigee River clean-up, and she said that
all help is greatly appreciated.
Katie said that a couple of her coworkers had given her some suggestions for improving
employee morale. One of these is possibly extending the amount of leave allowed when there is a
death in someone’s family, especially for those who have families far away. Following the
meeting, Dawne checked with the Office of Human Resources and learned that this is technically
an Office of State Personnel (OSP) matter, and there is really nothing that we as a Staff Forum
can do to get the leave time extended. In addition, Dawne also learned that there is currently no
“bereavement” or “funeral” policy in existence; rather, OSP has said that employees may use up
to three days of sick leave, if they so choose, during these times. After those three days, the
employee may opt to use his/her vacation leave to extend his/her time out of the office, but this
would need to be approved by the employee’s supervisor just like any other leave requests.
The second suggestion Katie received was the possibility of free or discounted admission to
university athletic events. Mike will contact Meredith LeCroy over in Athletics about this matter.
Mike said that the campus will soon undergo an Efficiency Study, and an informational campuswide Efficiency Forum has been scheduled for April 20, 2006 at the UC Theatre.
Elizabeth asked if there might be a way the Staff Forum can assist new employees with learning
their way around campus. She will work on a checklist of the specific areas of assistance that new
employees might find useful, and she will bring the checklist to a future Staff Forum meeting for
our review.