Present: Duane Elms, Marcia Bourdette, Chris Farren, Faye Vowell, Donna Rees, T. J. Betenbough, Tony Macias, Julie Miller, Christy Miller, Julie Morales, Kathie Gilbert, Rick Johnson, Carmen Maynes.

• Online class fees were discussed in depth.
• Christy Miller announced that Great Race is this week with TGIF on Friday at Dr.Counts' home. Please register and pay $10 which also includes alumni get together on Sunday. If you would like a hat, they will be $5 extra.
• Alumni directories have been mailed out to those who ordered them. This is an update of our entire alumni database. A copy was given to Julie Miller for Miller Library. The directory includes the graduates' majors and their current positions. The directory costs $80. Faye Vowell requested a copy for Academic Affairs. Rick Johnson asked if we have access to an electronic version of this data. Christy Miller stated that she does have this electronically and can sort by zip code, etc.
• Albuquerque Alumni and Grant County chapter are involved in Meet the Mustangs recruitment nights. Albuquerque is on April 23. Grant County will be attending the Meet the Mustangs afternoon on April 30 at the Red Barn.
• Christy Miller handed out a copy of the new alumni bulletin.
• There will be an endowed professorship fundraiser honoring Dorothy Blalock on April 23 at 6:00 pm. in the SMB mall area. Dorothy is our first professor emeritus. This information is also contained in the alumni bulletin.
• Rick Johnson stated that he has been working on changing the university's calendar. Fall semester is shortened by a week--December 9 instead of December 16. This includes the elimination in the fall schedule of grading day and assessment day. On January 5 and 6, everyone must be here for the meetings on assessment or strategic planning. Monday and Tuesday will be available for advising; school starts on Wednesday. Martin Luther King Day and the Seasonal Holiday and Spring Break are the only days off in the spring. Spring Break will coincide with Silver High School and Cobre. Graduation is on May 5, 2006. The trade-off for not having an assessment day or grading day interrupt coursework is to report back to school on January 5 and 6. This will be a part of "duties as assigned" on faculty contracts. Kathie Gilbert stated that directors, department chairs, and deans must take a role in spreading this information. Rick Johnson will announce this at general assembly. These two days are required. Faye Vowell stated that we are counting final exam week as part of the instructional time and everyone must meet during this week.
• In the Math & Computer Science Dept, students have instituted a national honor society and officers will be installed this week. It was a student initiative to get this going. Ron McFarland is the sponsor. The banquet will be at the Buckhorn with installation in the GRC.
• Faculty have approved small changes to the Faculty Handbook to make grievance procedures more flexible. There was no way before to allow any flexibility in the time-frame for this process.
• New faculty officer ballots are due in today. Kathie Gilbert suggested having someone in Gallup authorized to count votes there to avoid problems with mail service.
• Julie Miller stated that on April 29 the library will have a strategic planning day for media services. She has invited about 30 stakeholders across the campus including students. If anyone in Cabinet would like to attend, please e-mail her and she will put you on the list.
• Julie Miller has been working all year with Instructional Resource Committee on videos that can be withdrawn from the collection. She is in the process of finalizing the list but has not heard from some departments. Library faculty will make the decisions for departments not returning their lists. T. J. Betenbough asked about what will happen to videos that are pulled. The library will follow state regulations regarding disposal of these videos. These videos will not be given to the departments but will either be destroyed or sent to auction.
• There are significant building issues in the library. The big leaks have been fixed and ceiling tiles replaced and map cases moved back. But we have discovered a new leak this past Sunday and are still working with that. The Bloodmobile ran into the book drop in front of the SMB and damaged it. A report has been completed and the Bloodmobile people will be notified.
• We had a visit from State Library regarding access and processing of government documents as these documents move from paper to electronic sources. Librarians will be doing in-service for staff and community.
• Capt. Moiteret (sp?) papers have been given to Miller Library. Faye Vowell stated that John Lavalle might be interested in going through these papers because of his interest in military history.
• Julie Miller also attended the Association of College and Research Libraries conference in Minneapolis, MN. Faye Vowell suggested pushing for a state level Cabinet-level librarian to assist libraries with state funding.
• Chris Farren presented current enrollment report.
• Admissions had a recruiting program with Silver High. Chris Farren expressed thanks to all the faculty who assisted. They talked to 25% of the seniors at Silver. There will be a Meet the Mustangs at the Red Barn.
• Document imaging has been installed and training has been given. Process will begin early next week.
• Great Race activities are beginning. Christy Miller, Maria Dominguez, and Tony Macias are working with the student activities for this event. Thursday night is the talent show. Sunday the race starts at noon. Kathie Gilbert stated that students have expressed the desire that faculty and staff attend and support these events. Cabinet encourages all faculty and staff to support their students by attending one of the events.
• In Admissions, we will be running radio ads.
• Student Affairs has offered to fund brochures for 6 academic departments and this is progressing.
• To publicize graduate Education courses taught in the summer we will have a two-page flier.
• Admissions plans to send out posters on graduate school and competitive scholarships and believe we will be accepted into WUE which will allow students in a number of states to attend WNMU at 1-1/2 times in-state tuition rate. Will send these posters out to communities in California, and students can come for any program we offer with same admission requirements.
• Student Affairs has formed a committee to work on Student Handbook. Kathie Gilbert suggested using peer leaders or ambassadors to serve as a core group for this process. \
• T. J. Betenbough stated that SOE will start giving away old social studies materials (maps, etc.) from the Teacher Learning Center. The Teacher Learning Center is a state adoption textbook site. Teachers in our district can come in and look at these materials for K-12. Graduate Assistant, Jenny Montoya, staffs the TLC in the downstairs of the Martinez Building.
• T. J. Betenbough attended the Renaissance Group conference last week for the first time. The conference was on the University of West Kentucky. The group is proposing a discussion at the fall conference of a new mission for the Renaissance Group--possibly a more political position. Kathie Gilbert encouraged that we list in the West Wind the other institutions that are members of the Renaissance Group and possibly highlight one institution in each issue and share with Faculty Senate.
• Kathie Gilbert stated that at AQIP facilitator training, 8 attended from webmaster, purchasing, adult & community ed, Deming, Bus. Adm., SHSHP, and maintenance. She will be doing another training. We now have facilitators available.
• AQIP action project descriptions are due this Friday.
• The QNM conference was held March 31. Two new Zia Awards were presented to Presbyterian Health Services and a Veterans group.
• WNMU in conjunction with Gila Regional Medical Center will host a QNM examiner training July 12-14 in the GRC. Cabinet members will either attend or designate a member of their unit to attend.
• Representatives from Tulsa Community College will fly into Albuquerque the week of May 23 to work on joint Title V project. WNMU faculty and staff who wish to participate should contact Dr. Vowell. Cynthia Martinez as grants accountant should be one of the participants.
• Kathie Gilbert and Duane Elms will be doing Baldridge examiner training again.
• SIGRED has developed a prototype web site for their leadership project at http://www.networksforleaders.org
• Staff from Business Office visited Gallup to assist the Gallup staff in working with Banner
• Donna Rees attended the Lordsburg School Board meeting. One topic was funding for a learning center. They have $250k for learning center.
• Mary Billings and her sister presented at the E-Learning conference in Dallas. Their topic was support for blended courses, and the response was that we are at the forefront of using videoconference in conjunction with WebCT.
• Gallup graduate will be May 7. There are 72 graduates this year, approx. 11 MBAs.
• Deming graduation celebration will be May 11. Four people will be honored.
• The third annual celebration of education portfolios will be held in Gallup on April 25 at 5:30 pm. Kathie Gilbert suggested that we videotape it . The SC campus does a celebration of practice teachers.
• The Deming Headlight featured an article about Michelle Behr's appointment as an ACE Fellow.
• Leadership NM is accepting application. This is a statewide program with a $2500 fee and includes five sessions of 3 days.
• Document imaging is up and running.
• Duane Elms chaired the CHECs business meeting in Albuquerque. He is looking at alternative technologies for faculty evaluation
• Duane Elms has created a PowerPoint presentation for how to create a personal Web site.
• Luminus, the next generation portal, is up and running in beta. We will migrate to it after graduation. Dr. Vowell suggested developing student training for customizing their pages
• Student tech fees have been maintained. IT will look at student services in IT. WE want to make the services more consistent with overall IT architecture.
• Duane Elms is working on a student technology handbook.
• The power outage yesterday resulted in some disruption of services. Everything in IT came back online fairly quickly. It was caused by an accident on 180 when two pickups collided with a power pole.
• A new local business is starting in Lordsburg. They will employ 80 people and seek a program in Ag Technology for WNMU to deliver. Tony Macias and Donna Rees will discuss this.
• The Chino Building roof still leaks
• Highlands had a table at QNM promoting their summer schedule. We need to think about doing the same next year.
• NMSU has information regarding media degrees they are offering which Duane Elms shared copies of.
• On April 20 there will be four meetings in the GRC regarding unionization. 10, 12, 2, 4:00. Kathie Gilbert suggested that we stream it over Mustang Express for people on campus who are not able to attend. Dr. Vowell will see if Title V can make available in CETAL conference room and have a vcr set up to show the tape if staff are not comfortable with looking at it over the Mustang Express and cannot attend . There will be a union rep and WNMU legal counsel at each meeting.
• Staff member of the year will be selected by May 12.
• Dr. Vowell suggests we leave up all 12 months of staff employee of the month pictures.
• This is a busy time of year for grants in ABE, Carl Perkins, Welfare to Work
• The Governor vetoed renovation of Juan Chacon Building.
• State funding of $10 million for vo-tech centers is still pending.
• The Carl Perkins program is up for reauthorization in June. The focus is to create pathways for high school students to postsecondary. Because of the late date, government has extended the program one more year.
• Silver High has designed career pathways from high school level. They are coordinating with Tony Macias. Dr. Vowell has suggested that they create pathways for programs other than career and vocational programs (e.g., education). State may soon require pathway for all students.
• Tony Macias is waiting for redistribution of funds from state for last year's Perkins funding. We will have to spend or encumber it by June 30. Tony Macias is working on creating a database for achievement of student competencies for Perkins reporting. Kathie Gilbert suggests contacting Central Arizona to see if they do this with Banner.
• Great Race event last night was a success. 300 students participated in the dance and mechanical bull ride.
• Julie Morales, the PIO, is working on several things for the Great Race
• Dedication of the McDonald Student Center will be Thursday, May 12, at 3:00 pm. There will be a reception on the Third Floor of the Memorial Building.'
• Working on faculty retirement celebration
• West Wind deadline is coming up. Carmen Maynes would like an article on NCAA diversity training.
• The Chamber is interviewing for new Chamber Director. Julie Morales is on the committee.
• Prospectors met last month. Deming will not be participating with the Prospectors next year.
• May 4 is the next community relations meeting.
• Advising Training on active, collaborative learning will be April 15 at 2:00
• Orientation training for advisors will be on April 22.
• This morning's paper has an article on WNMU summer institute for students from Nuevo Casas Grandes. Trini Tolar is to be congratulated on all her work on this initiative.
• The president has scheduled budget discussions for the April 21 9:00am-2:00 pm and the afternoon of April 22. Faculty budget committee reps and reps from staff, faculty, and student governments have been invited.
• The Major fair went well. For next year, we need to increase student attendance. Thanks for Joseph Jenson and Irene Meares for all they work they put into the effort. Approximately 20 students declared a major at the fair.
• Academic Affairs is working on Institutional Review Board issues regarding research involving human subjects. Projects involving surveys should go through the IRB for review.
• The Cabinet expressed appreciation to the people who worked on the Writer's Celebration that was cancelled due to the pope's funeral. They did a great job.
• Expressive Arts is offering a five-act production in the FACT through this weekend.
• Dr. Gilbert suggests we use more electronic signage on campus. The Watts Hall sign is very effective.
• Faculty retirement reception will be evening of May 12 at the President's home. Five faculty are retiring. Dr. Darling will receive an honorary degree.
• SOE Hall of Fame luncheon will be at Noon of May 13.
• New regent officers have been installed. Tony Trujillo is the new president, Noreen Scott is vice president, and student regent Jennie Montoya is the secretary/treasurer.
• Great Lakes Airline reception will be tonight from 5-7:00 at the Chamber office. Anyone interested in bulk ticketing and flight times should attend. Dr. Gilbert suggested WNMU purchase in bulk and departments could buy as needed.