Service Professional
Advisory Council
SPAC Minutes
January 21, 2016
8:30am – 10:00am
International Pavilion (Bldg. 50A), 104&106
Present: Dylan Rust, Mary-Kate Wolter, Mark Young, Shari Miller, Justin Hagin, Trevor Luttinen, Suzanne Siler, Kathleen Carpenter,
Marylynn Quartaroli, Pat Johnson, Kinsey Cook, Cori Cusker, Leslie Lloyd, Daniel Palm, Diane Verkest, Stephanie Ma, Ty Stall, Alisa
Badenhorst, Aaron Wiede, Roxy Jacobson, Linda Braswell, Sarah Lipsey, Diana Sundermeyer, Debbie Yeh, Steven Hernandez, Cassie
Petit…and may more
By Collaborate: Alicia Krzyczkowski, Elizabeth Wilkinson, Kaila Hoshor, and many more
8:30am
Call to Order & Introductions
Called to order by Dylan Rust.
8:35 – 9:10am
Dylan Rust, Chair
Dr. Rita Cheng, President
State of NAU
 State of the University will be held 2/17 @ 3pm HCCC - Campus update and networking
 Graduated 2500+ students last year
 Center for Access & Inclusion – Priscilla Mills and David Camacho in conversation on how to take service to next
level for multi-cultural access- more education and front end conversations. David Camacho is returning to
faculty role and we are opening a national level search for a Diversity Officer.
 ABOR –2025 goals for 4 areas:
o 1) Educate and retain more students – demand for skilled workers as Arizona grows, we have less % of
educated adults than other states
o 2) Drive student education success and learning – make curriculum relevant, students who want to stay
here can- academically and financially. 74.4% retention rate from freshman to sophomore- goal is 80%.
Graduation rate in low 50s- goal is 60%.
o 3) Advancing educational attainment within AZ- connection with families and preparing students for
college. Prop 123 important first step. https://azcharters.org/prop123/
o 4) Discovering new knowledge in impacting AZ – transferring knowledge from one generation to the
next, from faculty/staff to students and discovering new advancements
 Aligning what we do on campus- new retention specialist, coming on campus in February to look at our
practices.
 Investing in analytics – implementation of SalesForce- new system to track interactions with students and Civitas
– to provide us with more data. Data will drive our actions moving forward to better customize our services.
 Visioning process – over 2000 people provided feedback- both internal and external. Themes – personalized
attention, emerging research presence- looking to grow and make more robust.
 ITS transition took place at end of last year. Position campus to move forward and allocating resources. Next
step is cross training, standardization and looking at flow.
 Navajo nation basketball game – 1st time a division 1 school played on a reservation. Ice Jacks play ASU hockey
team tomorrow night – reached out to Alumni to attend and help connect them to campus.
 Working with local community on traffic, housing, and the impact of NAU on Flagstaff. Conversations have been
positive. New housing unit on Runke Drive will break ground in February- 700 more students will be living on
campus. City-wide, 2000 units are in some stage of being built.
Service Professional
Advisory Council
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Open house next Friday of the Student Academic Success center – 1st floor, one stop shop, 2nd floor Lumberjack
mathematics center, 3rd and 4th floors- SBS, Honors, Health Sciences.
New Aquatic and Tennis complex will open next month- grand opening mid-February.
Repair work this summer inside buildings and address the ped way to keep it safe and looking good.
Research- working closely with VP of research to see how we can better support research- combined pre and
post award offices. Assessing what we are doing well and what we can do better.
Phoenix bio campus- new masters in athletic training. 2012 – 20 students now 180 students anticipate about
400 students on that campus in the coming years
Flagstaff- people will be shifting around to provide space for computer science, informatics programs that are
growing. Need space for student projects. Enrollment in certain areas in CEFNS has quadrupled. Informatics is
a new school within CEFNS, approved by the board recently.
Highest enrollment ever this year- 29,031 5% increase overall 16% increase in online and personalized learning.
Winter enrollment also grew.
The success rate of NAU is 83.3% - students at NAU who have been here and transferred or were part time to
full time.
Governor Ducey put budget out on Friday – willing to have a conversation about re-investment. $8 million was
given back to the 3 universities.
Research has $32 million funding, goal is $40 million, looking to hire researchers who have the background and
experience that will bring in high levels of research funding.
Extended Campuses – Yuma and Prescott wants to see more of a ground presence from NAU. Personalized
Learning has 700 students, 3 programs now and 3 more programs to come. We need to advance the ideas of
technology and online for our traditional students here on mountain campus. Provide flexibility and options.
Transfers from community colleges to campus we need to address the ease of transferring to NAU.
9:10am – 9:40am
NAU Clery Report
**see attached slides**
Kirk Fitch
 Clery Act is a reporting requirement for all Universities (those who accept title 4 funding) to report all crime on
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campus. Covers weapons, alcohol, and violence violations. http://nau.edu/Police/_Forms/Safety-and-SecurityReports/NAU_2015_Clery/
Made available for review for all students, faculty and staff.
Developing a Clery Committee. Looking to start the committee next month- Kirk will be working with
department heads to identify who from each area will be on the committee.
9:40-9:50am
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HR Update
Diane Verkest
Streamlining ePOST and ROI both automated forms
Managing ACA compliance
Performance Appraisal process update
Assessing workforce planning- addressing job growth for both Service Professionals and Classified Staff
Training- Emerging Leaders, Retirement Planning Sessions
Assisting in ITS centralization
2 internal audits- leave policy and CERT program. Making change to vacation policy for 12-month faculty.
Enhance recruitment and application process
New background check vendor
Involved in tobacco free campus initiative
SPAC Committees:
 Supervisory Training (Brown Bag Lunches): There are 4 sessions available this Spring, register in LOUIE:
http://nau.edu/Human-Resources/Employee-Resources/Register-for-Training/ search course number SPAC
Service Professional
Advisory Council
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Publicity (Newsletter/Website): No report
SPAC Ambassadors: No report
Service Projects: Adopt a family presents were dropped off, adopt a trail clean up this spring
Annual Meeting/Mixer: As discussed at the retreat, the tasting may not be possible, looking at something in HRM- possibly
the café or fireplace room?
Leadership Award: No report- starts in March.
University Committees:
President’s Cabinet- no report
Strategic Planning Council- no report
Academic Standards Committee-Current policy requires a reading week for 16-week classes and ANY classes that end at the same
time as the regular 16-week semester. So shorter classes that end during current end-of-term (like 5-week classes and some DD
classes need to offer finals during end-of-term week). Proposal clarifies that these shorter classes CAN meet during reading week
with new material allowed to be presented. Further discussion and vetting for vote is scheduled for Jan 22 nd meeting. Proposed
revisions still do not address the problem of the 2nd 8-week sessions ending during final exam week. Registrar’s office is working on
a resolution to this issue.
Employee Development Day- no report
Classified Staff Advisory Council – no report
Commission on Ethnic Diversity- Campus Climate Survey: our 2016 updated version will be going out to students this Sunday
(January 17th) and will be open for responses through January 31st. We hope folks can assist us in spreading the word about this
initiative as we learn about students’ experiences and perceptions during their time at NAU. Bias Protocol & Team: the new
webpage www.nau.edu/bias-response-protocol/ has gone live and I’d encourage folks to check it out, advocate to have it linked on
appropriate resource pages, and share it with others. There is useful information on the pages, as well as a reporting tool that can be
filled out either anonymously, or with contact information. The Bias Education & Support Team is being formed also and will be
beginning its work shortly.
Commission on the Status of Women- discussions on tenure and non-tenure track positions, how to negotiate contracts. Helping
with the Advance grant- for women in the STEM areas.
Faculty Senate- re-writing bylaws on the definition of ‘faculty’- discussion on whether part time faculty should be allowed full
participation or executive functions. Looking at a new process for the Exemplary Performer Program.
Commission on Disability Access and Design: discussion on the new Equity & Access and Disability Resources new structure. Many
new buildings are designed for universal access- looking into ways to showcase these new designs.
Parking & Shuttle Services-no report
Portal Steering Committee- no report
LGBTQIA Commission- discussions around the campus climate survey and putting forward best practices to university leadership
going forward. Bringing in a speaker from Oregon State University in February to discuss efforts made there.
Good of the order: n/a
Meeting concluded: 10:10 am
Next Meeting- Thursday, February 18th Aquatic and Tennis Complex