Staff Senate Meeting
D. P. Culp, Forum Room
February 13, 2012
1:00pm
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STAFF SENATE MEETING
MINUTES
February 13, 2012
Note to Senators: Please share the senate agenda, minutes, and any other enclosures with your colleagues prior to the scheduled meeting. Senate meetings
are open to all staff. Agendas, minutes, and attendance rosters are available on the Staff Senate website at
http://www.etsu.edu/stsenate/default.asp
PRESENT:
James Batchelder, Lisa Belcher, Lisa Bell, Brian Bennett, Gary Bishop, Carolyn Bond, Lisa Booher, Queen
Brown, Christy Buckles, Harvey Byerley, Cindy Canter, Kathy Carder, Barbara Chamberlain, Phyllis Cooper,
Linda Greenwell, Carshonda Harris, Kathy Hawks, Thomas Hill, Karen Holden, Ned Irwin, Leigh Lewis,
Candy Massey, Diana McClay, Donna Miller, Stephanie Nave, Margaret Pate, Chuck Patton, Sue Russell,
Kathy Smith, Debbie Starnes, Andre Stevens, Karen Sullivan, Dawn Marie Tipton, Carla Warner, and Josh
Whitlock.
EXCUSED:
David Collins, Janet Keener, Paul Lavoie, Mary Maupin, Joe Miller, and Ray Webb
I.
Call to Order
President James Batchelder called the meeting to order at 2:35 pm.
II.
Welcome Special Guest
Dr. Brian Noland, President of ETSU, was welcomed as the guest speaker. He started out by thanking the staff for what they do
for students and how they have made him and his family members feel welcome at ETSU. He explained that his priorities are to
listen to students, faculty and staff during the spring semester. Four areas of concern that have been brought to his attention are
football, smoking, kids being hit by cars, and baseball. Football will be looked at as a holistic view of the entire athletics
department and examining the institution from a capital, student, and athletics perspective. He feels like there needs to be an
improvement in public safety. Nine students have been hit by cars since October, which is unacceptable. He believes portions
of the campus need to be closed, but how to do that will be a difficult process. A hard emphasis will be made on salaries. The
governor’s budget provides for a 2.5% salary increase for all employees. This is a good start, but efforts need to be made to find
revenues to generate salary equities for faculty and staff. The President invited everyone to Shellbridge on the Saturday before
Easter, from 2 – 4pm, for an East egg hunt. This will be an opportunity for faculty and staff to get together. Another area of
concern is the lack of marketing of ETSU in the community. In response to a question about things at ETSU he was surprised
by, he stated that he was surprised by the depth of the President’s Pride group, POLO, QUEST, President’s Classroom, energy
conservation and the university’s performance contracting. ETSU is known as the most efficiently run campuses in the TBR
system. The university does things very well, but they don’t get enough credit for what they do. A performing arts center will
probably go into planning mode next years, and construction will begin the year after that. He closed his speech by telling the
senate that he looks forward to working with everyone through the years to come.
III.
Approval of Minutes
The minutes from January 9, 2012 were approved as distributed and will be posted on the Staff Senate website.
IV.
President’s Report – President James Batchelder
The raises approved by the governor are being funded at 55%, which means the university is responsible for funding 45%. In
addition, if the university decides to do any type of equity, then the university will have to find the funds for it. The university is
looking at raising salaries 3% in addition to the 2.5% approved by the governor.
V.
Treasurer’s Report – Senator Carolyn Bond
In the Staff Senate account, the balance is $4, 646.84. In the CBC account, there is $4,874.65 and there is $303.79 in the
Holiday Drive account. This will be a good start for the Holiday Drive next year.
VI.
Report on Standing Committees
A. Committee on Committees: No report.
Submitted by Staff Senate Secretary: Senator Leigh Lewis
Staff Senate Meeting
D. P. Culp, Forum Room
February 13, 2012
1:00pm
Page 2 of 3
B. Committee of Elections: Crystal Nelson resigned for the Staff Senate. To replace her, the College of Arts and Sciences
has appointed Dawn Marie Tipton. Crystal’s resignation has also left a vacancy for the Treasurer of the Staff Senate.
Senator Carolyn Bond has stated that she would like to run for the position. There were no other nominations. A motion to
accept Carolyn was entered and seconded. All were in favor of Senator Bond as Treasurer. Senator Bond’s approval as
treasurer has left a vacancy for Member-at-Large. There were two nominees for this position: Candy Massey and Karen
Sullivan. A motion and second to accept these nominations was given. A paper ballot was distributed for voting. When the
votes were counted, the election ended in a tie. In the event of a tie, the senator with the most years of service to the
university will be the winner. Karen Sullivan has the most years of service and will therefore become the new Member-atLarge.
C. Communications and Website Committee: Senator Buckles was able to obtain jump drives for all of the committees, so
that documents can be saved and passed on to the next chair of each committee. The jump drives can be kept at a central
location in the Staff Senate office. The office is in room 226A of the Campus Center Building.
D. Community Benevolence Committee (CBC): The committee met last month to finalize guidelines for the committee.
Until the CBC funds are more stable, the committee will only be taking care of catastrophic events (fire, acts of God, etc.).
E. Liaison Committee: No report.
F. Staff Awards Committee: A meeting will be scheduled the week after next. Senator Lewis will send out an email with
dates and times to see when the best time to meet would be.
G. Staff Concerns Committee: No report.
H. Staff Development and Evaluation Committee: Committee met with Rich Ashley (EDC Director) on January 18. Rich
had been talking with SkillSoft Rep. Mike Allen and had obtained pricing based upon a one year commitment ($5,000 to
$7,000 range). Rich had also talked with three schools currently using SkillSoft to obtain their feedback of the product, all
appeared to be favorable. The schools were Vanderbilt, UT and Valencia College (FL). During our meeting we reviewed
some of the courses available and discussed some of the requests that have been made to the EDC. Currently, Rich is
narrowing down a reasonable list of courses and we are scheduling another meeting with the rep. in the next few weeks.
Also, exploring other avenues that he has been made aware of. After the next meeting, the committee should be ready to
make the recommendation to the Executive Committee and Staff Senate.
I.
Visibility Committee: The committee has been meeting with the CBC committee regarding the food pantry. We are going
to be a food pantry connected to the Second Harvest Food Bank. We are not going to be a food bank. A food pantry is a
place that provides groceries, or ingredients, to those in need who then take these items away to prepare themselves. A
food bank is a depository that collects and stores food items that they then distribute to soup kitchens, food pantries,
shelters, day care centers, after school programs, senior programs, and other certified service agencies that serve food. SGA
is going to be involved. The pantry will be available for students and staff. The retirees association would also like to
participate in the food pantry. The committee is developing a flyer to with updated information about the Staff Senate.
VII. Report on Project Committees
A. Blood Drive Committee: The committee is looking at dates to hold the blood drive. The Red Cross will be used this year.
The committee will alternate between the Red Cross and Marsh every other year. The committee is also looking at what
type of incentives they can offer to encourage people to give blood.
B. Staff Picnic Committee: Senator Phyllis Cooper is now the chair of this committee. She will be scheduling a meeting soon
and wants committee members to email her what dates and times they are able to meet.
VIII. Old Business
Senator Lewis reminded everyone of the absence Staff Senate absence policy and how to request excused absences. For more
information on absences, Senators can look in the Staff Senate Constitution, Article III, Section E.
IX.
New Business
Submitted by Staff Senate Secretary: Senator Leigh Lewis
Staff Senate Meeting
D. P. Culp, Forum Room
February 13, 2012
1:00pm
Page 3 of 3
A. Green Idea: People are getting multiple hard copies of items like ETSU Today. In order to cut back on the amount of
waste these types of publications cause, it was brought to the Staff Senate’s attention that perhaps a resolution could be put
through to cut back on the number of copies made and offer the publication online. A resolution does not need to be put
through today, but senators need to think about this in preparation for a discussion and possible vote for a resolution at the
next meeting.
B. Cookbooks: There are still 6 reserved copies of the original group of cookbooks. Senator Bond is trying to contact the
individuals that the cookbooks are reserved for to see if they have already picked their copies up or no longer want the
copies that are reserved for them. Senator Bond wants everyone to know that once she has contacted everyone, senators
may receive an email that additional cookbooks are available for purchase.
C. Parking Fees: There is currently a bill in the legislation that requests no parking fees for employees. The bill was put out
by the ETSU chapter and they have a sponsor in the House and a sponsor in the Senate. Dr. Noland will be receiving a visit
about this bill from their representative and government relations person to gage his opinion on the issue. Since parking
money is used to pay for paving, security, parking attendants, etc., the funds to support these areas will need to come from
somewhere else if parking fees are no longer charged. One idea is to create a graduated scale based on salary.
X.
Open Floor for New Agenda Items/Concerns
There were no new agenda items or concerns.
XI.
Announcements
There were no new announcements.
XII. Adjournment
There being no other business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:03pm.
Submitted by Staff Senate Secretary: Senator Leigh Lewis