Academic Council Minutes
November 15, 2001
Present: Beatrice de Oca (for Larry French), Cynthia Bettison, Ken Ladner, Gwen Cassel, George Muncrief, Jerry Harmon, Lou Ollivier, Bertha Benavidez, Al Milligan, Donna Rees, Faye Vowell, and Claude Smith
Guests: Gail Gruber, Rene Saenz, and Kathy Ryan
Recorder: Marcia Harris-Bourdette
1. Travel Violations and After-the-Fact Purchases: Rene Saenz, Director of Purchasing, addressed after-the-fact purchasing issues and handed out information from the State of New Mexico’s website (http://www.state.nm.us/). Purchasing is working on changing university policy to avoid violating state statutes and the university’s internal policies. Books, memberships, and dues were mentioned as problem areas in after-the-fact purchases. Saenz stated that professional service contracts cannot exceed $20,000, and professional contractors cannot render services until purchase orders are issued by purchasing. Purchasing will be providing a flow chart to make the purchasing process more understandable. Quotes will not be necessary for professional contractors as long as services are under $20,000. If a professional contract is over $20,000, the contract must be sent through the RFP process. Purchasing is willing to work with the departments, but asks that the departments do the best they can to get purchase orders out in a timely fashion. Delay in getting contractors’ signatures was discussed. Fax signatures are acceptable. ERA participating contractors were also discussed. Before contractors can be hired, the university must know whether they are ERA participants and contact ERA for approval to hire as independent contractors. Stipends and honoraria are different, but ERA is still contacted for approval. Dr. Harmon stated that ERA retiree participants are allowed to make up to $10,000 without declaring themselves as independent contractors. Human Resources would be a good source for these regulations. Dr. Vowell asked that Kathy Ryan send this information to Academic Affairs. Saenz further stated that, before any purchases are made, the money must be available and the correct account numbers must be entered. Purchases up to $1,500 can be made without quotes, purchases of $1,501 to $10,000 require three quotes, and purchases over $10,000 must be formally advertised. Purchasing cards will be issued in the near future to allow departments to place Internet and catalog purchases. Saenz also stated that the departments can use the Purchasing Department’s credit card for purchases if needed. Trial purchases should be tracked. Kathy Ryan discussed travel violations and stated that after-the-fact Travel Requests are a problem for the auditors. All Travel Requests must be turned in to the Business Office no later than 2 days before a trip. University vehicle requests are also an issue. The Business Office is attempting to go back to the 5-day policy for turning in Travel Requests which will assist in bringing down violations. It is very important to get Travel Requests in as soon as possible. Emergencies are understandable, but they should be infrequent. If Travel Requests are turned in after the 2-day policy, they will be accepted with appropriate justification; however, they are still considered after-the-fact by the auditors. Anyone using a university vehicle should return the vehicle full of fuel. Make sure gas credit card receipts are placed in the pouch maintenance provides. It might be advisable to make copies of gas receipts before turning them in or to keep a record of dates and amounts purchased. Receipts, however, can be turned in directly to Kathy Ryan. Ryan suggested doing open Travel Requests to cover a month at a time when travel is uncertain. The only drawback to this procedure is that reimbursement will not be received until after the period of time requested on the Travel Request. There are two university vehicles designated for local travel for which no Travel Request is required. Dr. Muncrief suggested that Truth or Consequences, Deming, and Gallup be considered local travel. Dr. Harmon asked if there are vehicles reserved to go to Mexico. Ryan confirmed that there are. Also, there is reimbursement for flights on private aircraft. Reimbursement will be made for the lesser amount regardless of the mode of travel.
2. Update on Western Initiatives to Serve Miners Laid Off at Phelps Dodge: Donna Rees stated that Phelps Dodge will be laying off a larger number of employees with the layoffs beginning in January. Western has been asked to facilitate retraining of these people. One hundred and four weeks or 6 semesters of training are available to use towards certificates, AA degrees, and finishing BA or MA degrees. The week following Thanksgiving, personnel from the Department of Labor and Pre University Programs will administer assessment exams to examine opportunities and see who wants to come to Western. We anticipate 200 to 250 people considering Western who will be able to start in the spring semester. We can attempt to convert these people to degree seeking students. Four-year degrees would be possible through the last year with Pell grants. Even if these people obtain other work, they still have 104 weeks of education money. A representative of Western will be present at Chino to talk to groups. Bertha Benavidez brought up the miners that are currently enrolled. We need to design a one-hour course of general interest to keep these people in class possibly a stress and anger management class which could start on January 8 and go for 4 days. Please give ideas for one-credit courses to Donna Rees and consider courses for other breaks during the academic year. Dr. Vowell suggested flex-time for faculty. Dr. Vowell stated that SIGRED is talking about a local economic summit, and she urged faculty to participate.
3. Gila Consortium Classes for 2002-2003: Gail Gruber asked for courses for the Gila Instructional Consortium. She needs a minimum of one per semester for high school juniors and seniors to get college credit. If full-time faculty is not interested, we will have to employee either adjuncts or faculty from the local schools. Money is available for class preparation: $1,250 to redesign a class and $1,250 when presented plus faculty overload. Dr. Harmon asked about money to support travel to the sights. Gruber stated that the grant only funds the capital equipment. Dr. Harmon asked about staff doing professional development courses and was advised there is no money available for professional development courses. Dr. Muncrief stated that the Business Department could do accounting and basic economics, Dr. Bettison offered to teach a class, and Gwen Cassel volunteered a health career services survey course. Cassel asked if the ITV services could be used for other meetings. Gruber said that that would be possible and asked for a show of interest by departments before the semester is over.
5. Civil Rights Training: Comments were solicited regarding the quality of this training. Dr. Bettison felt that Wednesday’s session at Ft. Bayard was disorganized and could have been condensed into two hours, and the facility was not ready for the number of people that showed up. However, the handouts were good references, and the presentation overall was good. Dr. Harmon asked that we find out how this process correlates with our Human Resources process. Cassel was pleased with the discussion about documenting.
Dr. Vowell stated that she would like to begin meeting on MBOs with the Chairs on November 26th or 27th. December 7th is the deadline for submitting degree plans.
Dr. Bettison stated that the Museum’s fire alarm system has begun to power down, and the fire alarm has gone off without a response from the fire department. Dr. Vowell asked that this be put in writing to Chris Casey with a copy to Dr. Vowell.
The balance of the agenda will be carried over to the next meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m.
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