Cabinet Minutes
February 10, 2004

Present: Jerry Harmon, Faye Vowell, Chris Farren, Duane Elms, Donna Rees, Julie Miller, Rick Johnson, Marcia Bourdette, Christy Miller, Tony Macias, Chris Casey, Julie Morales.

• Faye Vowell started the meeting by thanking everyone for the cards and flowers she received during her recovery from surgery. She is glad to be back.
  
• Duane Elms discussed the Information Technology Strategic Planning. He passed out hard copies of power point slides for review by Cabinet. The next meeting will be February 17, Tuesday, 2:00 p.m. in GRC conference rooms.
  
• Last Friday at 3:00 connectivity to the internet was shut down to reconfigure our incoming router in order to create a DMZ for our internal network. All servers that we don't want exposed to outsiders will be behind DMZ and less susceptible to hacking and attack. Dr. Farren asked whether this will allow recruiters to enter applications and inquiry cards during the evening. Duane Elms replied that we would attempt to get this info past the firewall. Admissions’ goal is to respond within 48 hours for students applying. Students can fill out applications on-line but cannot send them electronically. They just print them out and mail them. Duane reiterated that this would be a goal. All applications will be available on-line and looking at putting.
  
• Faye Vowell asked about video conferencing for advising. Our band-width comes directly from Las Cruces who buys in bulk from El Paso. Our costs are defrayed because of the rates negotiated with CHEKS and now Magnet. Rick Johnson asked if the lead universities have the same problems that we do. He suggested that we look at asking the state government to include outlying areas in the fiber backbone. Could we go together with City and other agencies? Duane Elms stated that we can increase our bandwidth through Qwest. Some of these areas have been considered in connection with the Playas project.
  
• Late last week Chris Casey went to Santa Fe for the Regents' meeting. The main purpose of the meeting was for Dr. Counts, Dave Lepre and John Anderson to update the Regents regarding the legislature. She cautioned that this information was good as of Friday, but there have probably been changes since then. The legislature is recommending full formula funding but there are some adjustments that are detrimental to our institution. Institutions that participate in 135 mile waiver program may experience significant reductions. This could be as much as $100,000 to $125,000 for us. We make $70,000 to $100,000 on land revenues. There will be a deduction in state funding for this. There is a 4% tuition credit increase, 2% compensation increase for higher education, as well as shaves to special projects except for healthcare. On the capital side, this is a GO bond year. On CHE's critical list for funding would be Harlan Hall and additional infrastructure and technology money. Mobile media classroom is recommended for funding at $90,000.
  
• Rene Saenz has resigned; Jon Saari is acting. Valerie Wood has also resigned.
  
• There will be individuals on campus from TAC to work on heat/problems.
  
• PD-Martinez project should bid within the next few weeks and construction will begin in May after classes. Classrooms can be occupied in the fall. Classes will not be taught there during the summer.
  
• Men's basketball plays Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Softball plays on 2/20 and 2/21. May.
  
• Chris Casey will check on H.B. 439 for Donna Rees. The new Executive Director of CHE is in the process of visiting state institutions--Letitia Chambers.
  
• Tony Macias—Applied Technology currently has 116 students enrolled in a computer networking class at Ft. Bliss. Tony Macias will be working with Purchasing on an RFP for another class in March with 100 more students. These people will probably be placed under the military statute to bring them under New Mexico jurisdiction and therefore be treated as NM residents. Chris Farren believes that this is a renewable source for students.
  
• On Friday Tony Macias has a meeting with e tech prep people. The Tech Prep used to be hosted by WNMU, but was picked up by a private organization and funded by the state. Tony wants to regain this funding. He will meet with Marjorie Gillespie who works for Tech Prep. We don't have tracking for students in tech prep. He will set up process for tracking these students from WNMU. Tony Macias will work on having a key instructor on campus. Tech prep is a course such as A+ cert where we have an articulation agreement with a high school and high school instructor is qualified to teach. Student gets college credit. This is career-curriculum driven and can be other than tech programs. It is analogous to career pathways.
  
• Tony Macias will request copies of curriculum and articulation agreements for Perkins Grant people on February 25. There will be an entry interview at 8 am and exit at 11 am.
  
• The testing room is ready for A+ certification on DSL--10 computers w/surveillance camera during testing.
  
• Tony Macias met with the Prospectors in Santa Fe and also met with Governor Richardson.
  
• Jerry Harmon--SOE GGSC was invited to attend the opening session of the Navajo Nation Council. He heard Joe Shirley's state of the nations speech. We are a part of the Navajo Nation Teacher Education Consortium--an initiative to improve education within the Nation. 32 of 66 schools are on corrective action plans. It is an agreement to increase the number of Navajo secondary education teachers.
  
• Jerry Harmon encourages anybody who has had a teacher that is a graduate of WNMU to nominate them for the Education Hall of Fame.
  
• At the state level, the three-tiered licensure and highly qualified mandate are causing problems. Deming put out a list of teachers that will not be highly qualified and who must be highly qualified by July 2006 in order to keep their jobs. Teachers are being forced to have endorsements in the areas in which they are teaching. WNMU has a tremendous opportunity in summer school. Teacher shortage across the nation is lessening and those employed are holding on to their jobs. Faye Vowell asked for results of Deming personnel action particularly content-wise to serve these potential students directly.
  
• SOE also had significant discussion about the vision of BOR moving toward an education doctoral program. A vision statement can be expected after NCATE.
  
• Jerry Harmon urged us to look at the revamped SOE web page thanks to Rod Sanders.
  
• NCATE Accreditation update. The institutional report is now in the hands of Virginia Huegel, Julie Miller, Cynthia Bettison, and Kathie Gilbert with a request to provide editorial comments or revisions. On 2/26 the state pre-visit will take place. Dr. Harmon gave a handout on the SOE Conceptual Framework. Cabinet members' knowledge of this handout is critical for NCATE visit. Additionally he provided possible questions for three VPs--emphasized first four questions for this meeting. Please bring this handout back to future Cabinet meetings for discussion.
  
• Julie Morales reported that the Measurement PMT meeting is tomorrow.
  
• Community Relations will meet at 4:00 in the SMB. Christy Miller will be discussing University Club and Tony will discuss Playas project. Mike Martinez will have construction updates. The Chief of Police will probably be there also to discuss speeding on 12th street. Dr. Farren will talk about enrollment; Linda MacArthur will talk about NAFTA Casas Grandes trip.
  
• Julie Morales handed out WNMU profile sheets. Dr. Vowell asked that these be sent out to local legislators and extended campus legislators. This information will be put up on Mustang Express or website.
  
• Christy Miller reported that January and February have been alumni chapter months. She met in Deming on January 27. With a good core group of alums. Sean Rees and Andy Hernandez are working on this. This chapter is planning a social called "Friends of Western in Deming." Las Cruces chapter met on January 28. Mike Alecksen addressed recruiting. Albuquerque alumni met on Saturday. Dr. Counts and Regent Davis attended. Dan Tressler, Interim Foundation Director, and Christy Miller are working on endowed professorship with George Muncrief and Mike Metcalf. Christy Miller will work on getting donations from alumni for matching funds.
  
• Christy Miller is working on the Great Race alumni reunion. There will be a TGIF on Friday at Dr. Counts' home, an alumni softball game on Saturday, and possibly a banquet on Saturday night and race on Sunday. April 18 is Great Race.
  
• On January 21-23, Donna Rees attended BIA meeting with Elaine Jordan in Albuquerque regarding schools on corrective action plans. BIA is very disorganized at this time. We are having problems providing technical assistance to schools. BIA met with Jordan and Maguire and have reviewed issues and reached consensus with BIA on what next steps are. Another issue with BIA is that they have no concept of how telecommunications could resolve some of their problems and are unwilling to invest and provide access to people.
  
• On January 26-28, Donna Rees was in Santa Fe and attended Chamber Legislative Luncheon and Governor's breakfast. Governor's message is that New Mexico will be business friendly. She also attended Sierra County Legislative dinner and met with John Smith and Nick Homus from economic development. Sierra County is discussing lack of water in the county. Larry Rucker in T or C and Adam Pauley, county manager, are working to collaborate on projects. They are discussing a possible expansion of T or C learning center next year.
  
• Donna Rees also met with Irvin Harris from Gallup/McKinley area. She discussed technology money for GGSC, and Harris made $50,000 commitment.
  
• Extended University enrollment looks good: T or C down a bit but have identified new instructors with Master's in Business Education who could do OFAD program.
  
• The Playas Project meeting has been postponed until April.
  
• ENMU is putting their MBA on-line.
  
• In May the Expressive Arts Dept. will be holding clay workshop with significant ceramist--Blair Mearfeld. This could also be offered as non-credit workshop.
  
• Julie Miller reported that two positions in the library will hopefully interview before the end of month--Public Services Manager and Multi-Media Technician position.
  
• The House bill for the bond for libraries is being discussed tomorrow and Julie will send out to faculty/staff an e-mail regarding this $42,000,000 bill. She asked for support from Cabinet.
  
• The FIPSE proposal to incorporate a particular model of problem-solving into student success seminar was not funded.
  
• Chris Farren reported that head count up 1%; down 1% in credit hours; these figures do not include the Ft. Bliss group. When they are added in, we will be 4% up in headcount and 3.6% on credit hours. For all centers, Deming up 16%; Gallup up 14%; T or C down 14%. Silver City campus is down 3%. The learning centers are becoming more and more critical to funding and Ft. Bliss classes are the answer to the miners' who graduated in December.
  
• Financial Aid staff went to Albuquerque to look at document imaging. There is a demo this morning on this software. UNM has been using it for four years and is in the process of converting so it can be done with Banner. There is a company that works with Banner that recommends that we get their software--this is what presentation is on this morning. Scanners would be $8,700 a piece and software is about $1,700 per workstation. At this point the system is being considered for admissions, financial aid, registrar, and housing. The advantage is that paperwork is scanned and then paperwork is shredded--folders will not have to move between departments. Another advantage is we get away from possibility of losing paperwork given to us by students. Faye Vowell asked that Graduate Division be considered for this program. Donna Rees suggested also that off-campus sites be considered. Faye Vowell suggested a PMT on this program. Julie Miller supported the PMT on the basis of state laws regarding retention of documents. Jerry Harmon also supported PMT from the academic departments' perspective.
  
• Duane Elms will buy CD production recorder which will also print label on CD.
  
• Fall schedules are going to departments today and need to be processed in timely manner.
  
• On the summer schedule, we want to separate out graduate courses in education. If possible, would like to list degrees in education and see if they can't be worked into a three or four year summer cycle. We would mail this out to all school teachers west of I-25 and into Arizona. Jerry Harmon was asked to assist on this project after NCATE visit.
  
• Faye Vowell asked that a separate listing be made to make on-line a campus.
  
• There will be a meeting tomorrow regarding post-registration--we still have people that are not entered into system.
  
• JCB now has electronic doors.
  
• 400 students participated in the Science Olympiad on campus--thanks to all faculty and staff, students and Police Academy who participated. Ken Ladner did a great job planning and organizing.
  
• Planning for Great Race starts Thursday. Maria Rolfe is designated to coordinate this event. We hope to buy at least 10 additional hoods so VIP teams can get sponsors.
  
• Student Affairs has also set a goal of creating transfer articulation programs for top 5 community colleges that we get students from. We will take each of our degrees and let students know which courses to take.
  
• We will get two posters out to advertise early scholarship and competitive scholarship. California campuses asked to reduce enrollment by 10% so we will market in California.
  
• Rotary scholarship information is going out this week--two $1,000 scholarships.
  
• Gwen Cassel is not here because her daughter had a baby; she will be out for a couple of weeks.
  
• QNM Conference registrations need to get in by February 12 in order to get the pre-registration rate. People can attend the conference or only the awards ceremony – the latter will be very crowded so if we don’t get in early we may not be able to get tickets. If you have an interest in going, send e-mail to Marcia Bourdette.
  
• Yesterday Andy Hernandez, Donna Rees, Peggy Lankford, and Jenny Halleran met to talk about issues surrounding advising particularly at the extended campus sites and particularly in regard to the Student Success Seminars. We have students who failed the seminar last semester and did not re-enroll and some who enrolled and dropped and some who did not get enrolled. We are going to start a class as soon as we figure out who needs to take it hopefully before midsemester. Our goal is to say that people have to take it in their first semester.
  
• The number of new freshmen at T or C and Deming and even in Gallup is interesting and we need to have discussions about how we will adequately serve these students. Peggy Lankford stated that we need to figure out how to have a more direct presence from Student Affairs. We will be meeting with Chairs and Academic Council about how to better serve off-campus sites. Enrollment is up so that problems will be created--out of space.
  
• The Systems Portfolio Forums are going very well (thanks to everyone who is making it work) and the information we are getting at the forums is going to be invaluable in the writing stage (which is beginning NOW). Kathie Gilbert would really like for people beyond directors and managers to also attend – to date most have been the professional employees more than the folks who often are the ones that keep us going. Two more forums remain – February 20 and March 12. The next one looks at student and stakeholder needs and Supporting Institutional Operations which we all know something about whether we keep the grounds, register students, provide secretarial support, or enter data. Let’s encourage people to get involved in the process.
  
• The Calculators we will be distributing on campus and will use at the NCA meeting and QNM meeting are here and the president’s office staff is getting them ready for campus distribution.
  
• We are preparing a display for the QNM and NCA meetings. We will need some technical support. Our next meeting on this will be Monday, February 16 at 3p.m. and all are welcome. Kathie Gilbert needs some volunteers. Garth Gerstein is working on the video that will be shown at the QNM awards session.
  
  

Meeting adjourned at 10:30 a.m.