MINUTES OF CSU STAFF COUNCIL MEETING
Thursday, February 5, 2009
I. ATTENDANCE
Members Present: Lacey Allmond, Patti Brooks, Marlena Burgess, Kat Canella, Shelby Freeman, Birgit Gatlin, Jessie
Hudson, Angela Johnson, Laurie Jones, Nicole Lee, Debby Mayo, Christine Murphey, Mack Ragan, Libby Smith, Liza
Smith, Rita Snell. Visitors: Tabitha Kinnerson, Joy Davis, Patsy Redmond, Larry Pallotta, Dana McGlon
Excused Absences: Jackie Carter, Patty Chappel, Brynn Dillon, Rebecca Hunter, Crystal Jones, Bernard McCrary,
Stephanie Press
II. CALL TO ORDER
Lacey Allmond called the meeting to order at 10:05 AM. The minutes from the January meeting were accepted as
submitted.
III. FINANCIAL REPORT
Book Scholarship - $1,414.10
Foundation - $453.53
IV. COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. WELCOME COMMITTEE
Laurie reported that there will be a campus tour the first week in March.
B. STAFF DEVELOPMENT AND SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE
No report.
C. ELECTIONS COMMITTEE
No report.
D. FACULTY/STAFF APPRECIATION COMMITTEE
No report.
E. FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE
Debby reported on the Jail-n-Bail fundraiser. The date has been changed to Thurs., 2 April 2009 from 10am – 2pm.
There will be a $5 application fee to have someone arrested. The Columbus Police Department will assist with the
arrests and Debby is trying to get an actual judge to take part as well. It was agreed that any donated amount would
allow the person to get out of jail. Students and faculty who may be in class will be informed that they may be
arrested on that day. The application form will include a space where people can indicate the times that they are not in
class. A large communication push will be done shortly. She will e-mail the application form to Christine for it to be
posted to the Staff Council web page.
Debby also announced that the Craft Fair will be held on Sat., 9 May 2009 in the CSU parking garage.
F. STAFF SERVICE AWARD COMMITTEE
Laurie reported that nominations are coming in for the 4 th quarter of 2008. The Cougar Pride parking sign has been
stolen. They are working on getting a new one.
G. ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE
Kat Cannella attended the meeting on Meni’s behalf and had no report. Meni will not be able to continue on Staff
Council at present so Kat will be filling in for him.
V.
OLD BUSINESS
A. BARGAIN BLOG
No report.
B. TONER CARTRIDGES
Shelby stated that she will contact John Lester in Public Relations in connection with publicizing this matter campuswide. She will report on this at the next meeting.
C. BUDGET ADVISORY UPDATE
Lacey reported that she attended the budget Advisory Committee meeting on 4 February 2009. She was informed that
staff would be able to keep the raises they received for FY 2009. Budget decreases for FY 2009 will still occur.
There is a $4 million permanent budget reduction that may increase over the FY to 11.1%. This budget reduction will
be reached through:
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Re-directing salaries – reduction in faculty and staff vacant positions
Receiving $300,000 from Capital Campaign funds through the Space Science Center
Reduction in costs of the healthcare plan
Tuition carry forward
Funds from the interest income account used for operating expenses which we haven’t been able to use
Canceling College of Business contract with IBM since it is not being used
This just leaves a $500,000 shortfall.
It was reported that salary increases will probably not occur for FY 2010 unless enrollment figures were to increase,
since those figures would increase State appropriations. It was asked whether or not there would be a tuition increase
if the state funding were to increase. Lacey stated that, for course hours totaling 12 or more, the tuition currently
remains the same, we are waiting to hear from BOR if this policy an be changed. The guaranteed tuition plan may be
phased out, but we will have to wait to hear from the governor on that. The $75 institutional fee may end.
It was also reported that the target student enrollment is 10,000 by 2011. To meet this goal summer enrollments need
to increase and we need to not only enroll new students but maintain current student enrollment.
Core and course fees have been added for spring 2009, which go to the college that the course falls under. These
need to be spent in the current FY. These funds can be used to pay for part time faculty.
D. FACULTY STIPEND FOR TRAINING SESSIONS
Lacey reported that she met with Dr. Mescon on this and was informed that, when the stipend was offered to faculty
for these sessions, they did not know that staff would also be taking part. They are looking into paying the 7 staff who
took part in these sessions.
E. NEW MEMBER DRIVE
Lacey welcomed the new members who attended the meeting and stated that she was glad to have a full body of staff
represented who can let us know of issues in every department.
VI.
NEW BUSINESS
A. CSU STRATEGIC PLAN
Lacey indicated that there is a new CSU vision and mission statement. Staff Council opinion on this document
would be appreciated. Lacey will have it e-mailed to all members for their review. Any additions or changes should
be passed on to Lacey by 9 February 2009.
B. STAFF USE OF FITNESS CENTER
Mack stated that his department was not clear on the policy for staff use of the Fitness Center, how to apply for use,
or the proper fee for the use of that facility. Why do some staff pay when others don’t? Laurie stated that there is a
$10/month fee for all staff or faculty to use the Fitness Center. This is a reasonable fee, since the students are the
ones who have paid for the facility. There is a form available on the HR webpage that staff can complete in order to
sign up to use the facility and to have the fee payroll deducted. There is currently no way to confirm whether or not
someone is approved or denied access to the Fitness Center. It was suggested that a proxy card system be used to
allow entry to only those who have paid. It was also suggested that the form be made available during new staff
orientation.
VII.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mack brought up the issue of furloughs (days off without pay) for staff, as a way to reach budget cut goals. Furloughs
are supported by the State, but the BOR is not in support of it. They may be capped above a certain pay level. Any
further updates on this issue will be reported at future meetings.
Mack encouraged all to use the new Gmail system. He will send instructions on how to transfer Cougarnet calendars
to the new Gmail calendar system. Training sessions are now being offered for use of the Gmail calendar.
Mack further announced that CINS is attempting to implement a self-service log-in change for Novell. If someone
forgets their password or gets locked out of the system, there will be a link for them to answer several questions for
which they have previously set up the answers. This will be rolled out to the students first. Mack will send out
questions for us to review in order to get our feedback.
The city sirens that were activated for the statewide tornado drill on 4 February 2009 to highlight “Severe Weather
Awareness Week” could not be heard all over campus. Laurie indicated that the committee in charge of this
acknowledged that e-mail and phone notification would be too late if there was an emergency and the sirens could not
be heard. Several suggestions were made for a temporary fix of this problem:
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It was suggested that each department have a weather radio.
Maybe CINS could send a message to everyone’s computer screen to indicate that there is an emergency.
Use the buddy system, to make sure that all of your co-workers are accounted for.
Until there is a communication fix we will have to rely on the current system as well as any other ways to relay
emergency information.
Kat Cannella announced that Continuing Education has partnered with “So Much Comfort” which is an organization
that sends clothes to soldiers who have been wounded in battle. Contact her for more information on the event that
will be held on Sat., 7 February 2009 beginning at 9am for this organization.
VII.
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting adjourned at 10:52am
Respectfully submitted by
Christine Murphey