Staff Council Meeting

Staff Council Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

267 University Hall

2:00-4:00 pm

In Attendance: President Hopkins, Dr. Steven Berberich, Dr. Mark Polatajko, Misty Cox, Jerry Hensley, Jamie Henne, Aaron Skira, Elizabeth Styers, Dawn Banker, Suzanne Semones, Cindy Riley, and Amanda Watkins.

President Hopkins opened the meeting by revisiting his 10-year transformation plan he enacted upon his inauguration in 2007. Wright State has experienced some challenges such as SSI reductions (Ohio is 46^th out of 50 states) and the completion formula change. President Hopkins will be telling this story publicly very soon and will address the recent news articles in the Dayton Daily News.

1. New & Old Business with Dr. Berberich
   1. Suggestion Box submissions (OLD)

• Updated Bylaws – Do we have final approval so we can begin following them and upload them to the Staff Council website?
  • Dr. Berberich will meet with Dawn Banker and Misty Cox for clarification on some items.
• The Hangar patio doors
  • Dan Papay indicated the closed doors are due to patron concerns regarding temperature (cold) and leaves. Vendors were also concerned with keeping the area clean.

2. Suggestion Box submissions (NEW)

• Parking on campus is a recurring issue for many students. While faculty parking remains two thirds vacant, student parking is overflowing, creating vehicle accidents, backed up parking lots, harm to pedestrians walking through the parking lot to get to class, and an increase in tardiness for student participation in classes. More students are enrolling each year to Wright State but the parking has not improved to accommodate the influx of students. I propose to change half of the faculty parking spaces into student parking to allow for fewer backed up parking lots, fewer parking lot fights over parking spaces, and a safer environment for students to walk to class without fear of being hit by an angry driver looking for a place to park. It would not take a great deal of money or energy to paint half of the faculty spots with white strips instead of yellow to improve the parking situation. It would mean more student attendance in classes as well since currently the average student spends half an hour to an hour circling the parking lot to find a space to park. Some of these students arrive three hours prior to their first class and still cannot find a parking spot. I know construction at the Arts Building blocks some available parking at the moment, which aids in the problem. However, with the increase in student numbers, the parking spaces taken up by construction would still not be sufficient enough to cut down on the parking issue. What I suggest is simple to accomplish and is not time consuming. A simple evaluation of primary parking lots not generally in use by faculty will show the amount of space wasted that could be put to better use for students who need the parking space. Please consider my proposal not just for the sake of the students who currently struggle with parking, but for prospective students looking to attend a decent campus with available parking and for the safety of pedestrians trying to navigate the parking lot without risking being hit by backed up traffic due to lack of parking. Thank you for your time and consideration.
  • Dr. Berberich will forward to Rob Kretzer in Parking Services for review.
     
  • Budget shortfall-President Hopkins is addressing the budget by being strategic about hiring and enhancing centralized oversight and control of college/divisional/departmental budgets. The university’s Provost and COO have restructured key business processes for strategic hiring, space management, and capital project to lend enhanced resource optimization and expenditure controls. This will allow the university to realign its annual budget to expected operating revenues. Due to a material reduction in operating revenues since 2012, driven mainly by the cut in SSI, after-effects of the Great recession, and ramifications of the conversion from quarters to semesters, reserve funds were dedicated to vital strategic activities such as institutional aid, strategic real estate acquisition, student access to success support, and strategic hiring on one-time salary provisions.

4. VP/CFO/COO road map-A reorganization will be in effect on January 1, 2016. More information is to come.
5. Lapse in communication - finding out important info. from the news vs. finding out from University administration-President Hopkins’ goal is to be transparent and  he is working on a strategy to address media rumors by using You Tube, social media and hosting a press conference. He asked Staff Council to act as leaders to the campus community and to stay positive when addressing rumors and media reports.
6. Building & Grounds committee-Meeting information provided to Jamie Henne (dates and times). Also posted on the website.
7. Task Force on Affordability & Efficiency-Discussion postponed for future meeting.
8. Taxes for WSU employee graduate students – Can taxes be taken out at tax time?-Dr. Beberich will review and provide an update.
9. Lighting at the roundabout-Dr. Berberich will research and provide information at a later meeting.
10. OSCHE Summer Conference 2016-No action/tabled.

2. Additional issues/topics/events
3. Raidersgiving-Email invitation to campus sent today. The event is next Thursday (Thanksgiving). The event will be discussed at the next meeting.
    
4. Should we invite Jeff Ulliman to our next meeting to give us a budget update similar to what he gave the BFO’s?-Do not feel a need until reorganization is complete.

Next Staff Council Meeting:

Wednesday, December 9^th from 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – 267 University Hall