Staff Senate Meeting
February 18, 2009
The Staff Senate met on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. in Reynolds 205. Senators in attendance were Wendy Burge, Marcela Brunson, Gaye Calhoun, LaTricia Davis, Brenda Garrett, Charles Honza, Sarah Jennings, Pat King, Essie Moore, Eric Plummer, Shawana Reed, Becki Talley, Houston Taylor, Shelly Whaley and Donald Wray. Visitors included Wilma Williams.
Approval of Minutes
The meeting was called to order by President Shelly Whaley. A motion to accept the minutes of January 21, 2009 was made by Eric Plummer and seconded by LaTricia Davis. Please note that in the previous minutes it was stated that Roger Guevara resigned from the senate due to job responsibilities. This should be amended to state that Roger Guevara resigned from the staff senate due to a reassignment from a staff contract to a faculty contract.
Old Business
Staff Senate Parking Appeals Committee
Becki Talley gave a report on the new Staff Parking Appeals Committee. The committee, consisting of Gaye Calhoun, Charles Honza and Marcela Brunson, met to draw up rules for the committee. It was agreed to take the university parking appeals rules and modify them to fit the staff parking appeals committee. A copy of the rules will be posted on the Staff Senate Website as soon as it is available. The committee will meet on an as-needed basis.
Election of New Officer to Fill Vacancy
A motion to table the election of a new officer was made by Essie Moore and seconded by Marcela Brunson.
Committee Reports
Staff Breakfast Committee
Brenda Garrett reported on the Staff Breakfast committee. The plans for the breakfast are moving forward and everything is on track for March 23.
Staff Senate Website
Templates for the new staff senate website have been developed and several staff members are working on the content for the pages.
New Business
Budget Update
Darrell Morrison gave a report on the budget. He compared budgets from the last few years and showed that although the revenues are up, the expenditures are up also. Undergraduate tuition is down due to retention issues, but graduate tuition is up. State funding is down. Even though salaries have increased, so have fringe benefits and health insurance. He reported the main problem with declining revenue is retention among the students and the rising costs of running the campus, along with stagnant state appropriations. He also noted that he hopes to be able to hold the budget as it is. He reported that the budgets were being distributed to the dean’s and department chairs. He also noted that mileage for travel is going down from .45 to .42 beginning March 1.
Staff Development Survey
Shelly Whaley noted that Tammy Sims from Human Resources needs feedback on what kind of staff development would be beneficial for the staff members on campus. It was agreed questions would be submitted to Shelly Whaley and she would send them to Tammy.
Faculty Staff Picnic
The annual Faculty/Staff picnic will be held on Friday, April 24th at 5:00 p.m. at the Welcome Center. There will be new games this year for the children and adults.
Founder’s Day
Shelly Whaley and LaTricia Davis reported on the Founder’s Day activities. Plans are being finalized for the day. The event will be April 1 with the picnic on the ground beginning at 4:15 p.m.
Other
Questions from the Senate
There were two questions from staff members that were presented to the senate. One question was how to request more trash cans for areas on campus that do not have them, but are high traffic areas. Charles Honza suggested that an e-mail be sent to the Physical Plant to request them, but this had already been done without any response. It was suggested that maybe trash cans from areas that were not in high traffic areas might be moved, especially to the parking lot across from Reynolds Center.
There was a question about whether there could be newsstands that sell the Arkansas Democrat or Banners News on campus? Shelly Whaley said she would check on it.
Adjournment
The motion to adjourn was made by Donald Wray and seconded by Charles Honza. The next scheduled meeting will be March 11, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. in Reynolds 205.
