Next Cabinet Meeting will be in Serna Conference Room on October 11, 2005.

• Christy Miller reported we are making great progress on the Alumni Garden.
• Jason Menicucci who is living in Dallas, Texas, is interested in organizing an alumni chapter in that area.
• The University Club had its first meeting last week. The University Club Party is scheduled for November 12 at the Buffalo Bar.
• A total of 11,600 Alumni Bulletins have been mailed out. Christie Miller would like to commend the students at WNMU especially the women’s basketball team along with Brent Hanson along with the work studies who helped to get it in the mail.
• Alumni Homecoming activities include the TGIF in Graham Gym this year, an Alumni Mixer after football game, and many more activities.
• Duane Elms is working on an idea to replace some of payphones that have been removed with courtesy and emergency phones and adding some additional emergency phones. He circulated a map that outlines this project. These emergency phones will be marked with lights. Faye Vowell asked about extending this coverage to classroom buildings that do not have phones. Duane Elms stated that this will be an additional project that IT is working on. The first phase could be completed by the end of the fall 2005 semester.
• Steve Liebhart and Dean Foster will be presenting on Advising Space at the CHECs conference. This will be the second week in October.
• Duane Elms is in contact with SCT to get the workflow implemented at lowest possible cost. We may need another server and Oracle license. Workflow would give us the ability for our faculty and staff to register on-line along with a number of other possibilities.
• Chris Farren stated that we need to get the kiosk project moving. Duane Elms stated that IT is working on some things so this could happen.
• We have submitted a proposal to Economic Development of New Mexico on our film initiative for a $1.5 million facility. Thanks to Mary Billings for getting this done.
• Donna Rees has been in contact with Stephanie Mays and the Governor has still not distributed money for film proposals. She will be putting together something about our new initiative to update them on the direction we are going.
• Donna Rees thanked Laure Romero Jones and Faye Vowell for taking care of Graduate Special Student Form. This initiative has helped BIA enrollment and has facilitated the process greatly; we probably picked up 20 graduate hours.
• The Social Work program in Gallup is moving ahead. Social Work has worked with the SOE to offer Navajo language courses through our bilingual program to its students.
• Bruce Pelon’s series of training for adjuncts in Deming and T or C on effective teaching and technology in teaching have been well received.
• Last year, Donna Rees looked through enrollment on-line to see why students were taking our classes. Some students out-of-state are former WNMU students who are attempting to finish their degrees.
• Donna Rees has also attempted to gather information from online students regarding their experience of online classes. One student she spoke with is taking 9 credit hours online this semester. When Donna asked whether she could have taken 9 credits if she had to attend face-to-face, the answer was no. She also stated that the on-line course is harder because she can’t fake it in the on-line course. This class is making her more of a self-learner, and she is taking more responsibility for her learning in this class and this has had a positive effect on her face-to-face classes.
• Faye Vowell asked Donna Rees to market on-line courses to faculty or at least make the list of on-line courses offered available to advisors for people in who may be in similar situations
• Randy Jones expressed his thanks to Donna Rees for her help regarding bookstore issues.
• Mary Hittle reported that ballots for new staff senators will be going out shortly for this year’s elections.
• The first Friday in October, Staff Senate will be having the Staff Senate picnic.
• Tony Macias stated that he is working with WIA in regard to the Western Works program. ABE is moving forward.
• Tony Macias is working on an industrial maintenance program for Lordsburg which includes electrical and air conditioning courses. These programs will be in place for next fall.
• Applied Technology is setting up a digital media production program. One course will be offered this semester to start mid-October. There are 3 certifications that will come out of this program. We have hired David Baker as a visiting faculty member in this area. We have been working with David for about a year on other projects. Tony Macias handed out a synopsis of the media program coursework. This program should also appeal to the local art community.
• Tony Macias attended the "Aztec Stories" program last night. This was a wonderful presentation.
• Randy Jones also thanked Tony Macias and Donna Rees for their work with Lordsburg.
• On Wednesday, Randy Jones and President Counts are presenting to a group from HED on our capital projects focusing on two areas: infrastructure and the Juan Chacon renovation. Tony Macias and Donna Rees have been very helpful in providing data for the testimony and will also attend the presentation.
• Faye Vowell thanked Tony Macias for giving up his conference room in Watts Hall for offices for new faculty in Nursing and OT.
• Julie Miller stated that the Library has hired two new staff members: Katherine Warren as Reference Librarian and Bill Shafer as a multi-media technician working with Garth Gerstein in Media Services. Both started in their new positions yesterday.
• On September 11, Miller Library hosted a poetry reading in the library by Bei Dao, who is a Chinese poet living in exile in the U.S. We had 98 in the audience primarily from the community. Julie Miller received a lot of thanks for offering this type of program. Zephyr Press, Bei Dao’s publisher, wants to partner with WNMU to bring other writers into this area.
• On Friday, we celebrated Constitution Day in the Library. We distributed 300 pocket-size Constitutions before noon—we ran out. These were made available through the offices of Senators Domenici and Bingaman. Thanks to the Peer Leaders who staffed the table distributing the copies of the constitution.
• Miller Library will have a banned book reading on September 27 at 7:00 p.m. in celebration of the First Amendment. Dr. Manzanarez and Dr. Hayes will do a brief question and answer period after the reading.
• The Library has been working diligently to provide support for our sites in Deming, T or C, and Gallup. Julie Miller has visited these sites and will continue to do so. Thanks to Donna Rees for providing support for several initiatives to serve these students better. We’ve been testing a full-text of electronic books and will ask Extended University to purchase this. We will also fund a proxy server which will enable our databases to have log-in capacity from remote locations.
• We have also implemented e-reserves at the circulation desk. We can scan documents, or CDs that have information for students; we can place these in the library catalog and access them with a password.
• We have been storing a 4’ x 3’photograph of Old Main in the Library vault for years. Recently the Silver City Museum exhibited this photograph. Because it was in danger of damage. , the photograph has now been remounted and reframed and will be hung in the School of Education in a ceremony Homecoming weekend. We will invite Senator Bingaman to this presentation.
• We have been experiencing problems in terms of videoconference connections. Garth Gerstein is working with IT to identify where in the network these problems are occurring and to reconfigure to ensure that video traffic gets through and we don’t get disconnected. Please have patience with this process. Thanks to IT for providing support as we try to get these problems ironed out. Faye Vowell asked that the parties involved get together and give ETA regarding a solution to this problem. We will first seek to stabilize videoconferencing with Extended University sites. This is a high priority item.
• Julie Miller stated that when we decided to go with IT based videoconferencing it was a financial decision, but we are limited because we do not control the pathways unless we are able to limit the pathway as we are with our virtual private network. Our limitation now is a consequence of this decision. Duane Elms stated that IT would investigate this problem.
• Faye Vowell reported that last week the School of Ed in Silver and Gallup had an ITV conference with the education faculty from ENMU to discuss developing a joint doctorate in education. There are definitely some of challenges but we have identified a process by which we will begin working on the problems. Pat Maguire will develop a vision statement and share with all partners. There will be some increased pressure on VPAA travel budget because we would like for Gallup and SC faculty to meet face-to-face with ENMU faculty to discuss course content and what type of degree it should be.
• There is a Faculty Art Show in McCray Gallery. Faye Vowell encouraged everyone to visit.
• On Saturday, Chris Farren, Faye Vowell, and Trini Tolar met with Lilvia Soto from Casas Grandes to discuss issues relating to a program in Casas Grandes.
• Next week we are having the Nursing accreditation visit. We may all have an opportunity to meet with the accreditation team. Hopefully we can meet with Pat McIntire to be briefed.
• Chairs Council met last Thursday; one of the big items was program review. We look at programs on a five-year cycle, but the Regents Handbook also has a provision to review outside that cycle. Additional programs may be reviewed this year.
• The Graduate Deans from New Mexico met last Friday on our campus. The expressed appreciation for the beauty of the campus and the food providing conjunction with 16 September, Mexican Independence Day. Faye Vowell, Rick Johnson, and Ron McFarland made an initial presentation on the Information Security Master’s Degree. After a constructive exchange in regard to changes and additions that WNMU needs to make, the consensus of the Deans was not to vote on our proposal and ask us to submit it again after the changes were made. Among other issues, we need to demonstrate that the State would receive more benefit from the program than the State would pay us in formula dollars to offer the program.
• This week Graduate Council and Graduate Monitoring Committee will meet. The Graduate Monitoring Committee works with flow of paperwork for graduate students and includes Admissions, Registrar, and any faculty teaching in a graduate program.
• Faye Vowell had a meeting on Friday afternoon with people who are coming up for promotion and tenure or who want more information on the current process.
• Faye Vowell encouraged Cabinet members to enroll in the Leadership Academy class which will be offered on Mondays. Ernie Noack will present the first session. She asked Cabinet to encourage the people who report to them to enroll.
• Chris Farren stated that we have hired Joy Luper as a new recruiter in Admissions. She will be here by October 11.
• Randy Jones will organize a meeting to discuss the results of our efforts to get students finalized. Faye Vowell asked that Peggy Lankford and Dennis Miller be invited to this meeting.
• Renovation of Muir Heights is moving forward and hopefully will have first completion of roughly 20 units by the end of this semester and lapping over into next semester.
• Students have done a great deal of planning on Homecoming as have Alumni. This will be an exciting event. There is a shortage of cars for the Homecoming parade, and we have a call out for these vehicles.
• Enrollment is doing an internal study to see in the last 5-6 years students who have less than 30 hours to complete do not graduate. We will be looking at the degree area and if we can’t get these students into the on-line courses to complete their degrees.
• Next week Dr. Manzanarez and Chris Farren will be training student government on parliamentary procedure.
• Mr. Miguel Hidalgo has been named Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Financial Administration. Kathy Cantrell is leaving HED to go to TVI. HED has some formula team volunteers who have been working on the formula.
• Randy Jones wants to ensure that we establish a construction project planning process and involve the stakeholders. Business Office is planning a move which will involve putting the supervisors in a more cohesive location with the people who are working the windows.
• Ernie Noack, Ann Chrestman, and T. J. Betenbough visited Socorro last Friday. The issue of concurrent enrollment was brought up. ENMU-Roswell is pulling out of its current offerings there. Socorro would like us to offer nursing, EMT, and forestry. We will pursue opportunities in this area. Faye Vowell asked the minutes of this meeting be written up for future follow-up.
• Faye Vowell asked if we have a rotation for on-line NeTL courses. John Counts would like to sit down with Faye Vowell and T. J. Betenbough and get an update on the NeTL program. We need to be seriously thinking about graduate courses on-line in education. Donna Rees stated that Educational Leadership is on-line at other institutions.
• T J Betenbough continues to work with Donna Rees, Mary Billings, and Karen Murphy regarding NeTL courses.
• Faye Vowell stated that a lot of our initiatives are very labor intensive with low enrollment possibilities. It is imperative that we think about executing these initiatives as efficiently as possible.
• Carmen Maynes announced that we will have a special session board meeting this Friday at 1:00 p.m. in the Serna Conference Room.
• Carmen Maynes attended an Affirmative Action meeting in Albuquerque recently
• The HACU Conference will be in Phoenix at the end of October. WNMU will have a display table. We have taken a ½ page in the conference brochures. Victor Carbajal received a scholarship to attend this conference. Regent Jennie Montoya is also interested in attending.
• Calendar items:

1. December 2 is the Annual Awards Banquet at the Flame. The band will be Rhapsody with Brandon Perrault as social hour entertainer. Dr. Cunningham and choir will also perform.
2. December 3 will be having the dedication of the main Court. to Coach Drangmeister
3. Graduation is on December 9.

• Last Friday, we had the Polo Sierra room dedication. Carmen Maynes thanked Jean Springler, Julie Morales, and Crystal O’Coyne for their work on this.
• Julie Morales is currently working on campus directory and is finalizing it this morning.

.

Meeting adjourned at 10:34 a.m