Cabinet Minutes
13 April 2004

• The President talked about a community grant received from the Sirolli Institute.
• General Assembly will meet on Thursday. Elections results will be announced. The primary topic will be the revision of faculty evaluation system.
• The activities of the Great Race week have begun.
• On April 29 from 6:30 to 9:30 at the Hilton in Las Cruces, we will have a "Meet the Mustangs" night. All parts of the institution will be represented. Admissions will invite faculty from each department. If it is a success, we will take it on the road.
• The final checklist for NCATE preparation is being completed.
• The first reviewer will arrive this afternoon. An SOE pep rally will take place at 1:00 today. The 911 contact number is Gail Gruber's cell phone.
• We will have a Cabinet meeting next week with one agenda item: how are we doing with NCATE.
• Cabinet will also have a "hotwash" on Thursday at 7:00 pm and Monday evening at 8:00 pm.
• There will be an open NCATE meeting at 8:30 in the GRC on Thursday morning. The campus is urged to attend.
• At 5:00 pm on April 21, the Cabinet, faculty involved with NCATE, the Professional Standards committee and the people involved in the CHE Verification Audit are invited to a celebration in the President's back yard.
• The Community Relations committee met last week. They will meet again in August. One of the topics that came up was lighting to be sure it is pointed down. The committee is working to have a stop sign placed at the Roda (sp) Rd intersection.
• WNMU will be featured on the cover wrap for Business Week in the June issue. This is due to the Business Department which has adopted this publication for use in their classes. This is a great publicity opportunity for us.
• Western is working with the community to involve them in the Great Race by allowing community children to ride the Pink Panther, one of the original cars. The raced this year is dedicated to Dick Drangmeister, who is terminally ill. The mayor will also be signing a proclamation for Great Race Week.
• The spring theatre production of Sylvia begins this week. It has an all student cast.
• The student dance last night was a great success; about 300 students attended.
• On April 26-28, Tony Macias and Jerry Harmon will be going to meet with the Technical University in Casas Grandes to establish a partnership. Tony wants to write a grant to further this effort.
• Bertha Benavidez, Tony Macias and Socorro Rico will attend the tech ed conference in San Antonio in the near future.
• We have received carry over monies from Carl Perkins to fund certification for Virginia Huegel and Bertha Benavidez in MOS, Roger Lamb to receive training and certification as a master teacher in construction, Mat Eilert to be certified in three areas.
• The CNET curriculum has been revised and went to C&I for the April meeting. CISCO and Linux curriculum has been integrated into the curriculum.
• Another cycle of customized training in the 6 month CNET program will be offered in June. It will be funded by DOL and will be marketed through DOL.
• The program in Ft. Bliss is going well. The RFP will go out on April 12. In July we will recruit for a program starting in August.
• We are finalizing the curriculum for an instrumentation program to take to C&I for the Playas program.
• Tech Prep at WNMU is being explored. On Wednesday, 23 April, Tony will bring in teachers from Animas, T or C , and Lordsburg who will meet with WNMU faculty to ensure that there is curriculum alignment.
• The Works Program has received a verbal indication that it will be funded again for next year.
• Business Affairs is working on budget issues.
• The second budget meeting for the FY05 budget will take place on Wednesday at 11:00.
• Gwen Cassel distributed cards advertising the Very Special Arts program in Silver City on April 16. A lecture will take place at 5:30 in the GRC followed by an opening at Galleri Urbane from 7:30 to 9:00.
• The School of HSHP has scheduled a Retreat for 23 April to do some strategic planning.
• OTA pinning will be on May 15 at 2:00 at the GRC.
• Gwen Cassel attended a grants management program in Denver last week. There is a real potential for a master's in rehab counseling. There are a couple of new grant possibilities.
• Andy Hernandez has been invited to be a member of NM Humanities Council and has accepted.
• Pat Maguire is being recognized as a dedicated leader on Girl Scout Recognition Day in Gallup.
• Roy Howard is doing a lot of the things that Frank Zuniga talked about in the last ITT meeting. Donna Rees will be pursue this and present again at ITT.
• April 1, Donna Rees attended her first WIA Board meeting. There is a new Office of Workforce Training and Development and reports directly to the Governor. All work force training will be administered by this group.
• An economic planning grant application has been submitted by Hidalgo County to establish a learning center.
• Gila Instructional Consortium — Reserve is interested in adult course offerings. Animas is interested in joining the Consortium.
• Jason Collet is in T or C and Deming to install Compass on machines today.
• We are also looking at Banner Web applications to decide if we need to maintain the VPN.
• We are reviewing procedures for online application.
• Regent Tony Trujillo will serve on the Governor's Task Force on Higher Education. He will chair the subgroup on student success.
• The next BOR meeting will be on May 13. We will need to do a briefing on Student Success initiatives for them. We will also have our capital requests ready for them.
• We need to include Duane Elms in the planning for the expansion of Juan Chacon and a new Expressive Arts Building.
• IT is starting to look at software to support taking credit cards over the web especially for online courses.
• IT is working on irregularities with email on campus.
• Interior wiring and fiber connections are completed for Regents Row.
• Web for Applications is being worked on by IT — it is under test and will go live soon.
• IT has converted the Web page for financial aid applications so they can be emailed to us.
• A housing virus policy, a student obligation letter if they want to be on the network, a set of FAQs and a letter on the implications of peer to peer file sharing have been developed to be a part of the orientation package available when students move into the residence halls.
• The ITSP plan is proceeding; the open meetings for everyone to give input into the gaps that need to be addressed.
• Our CD copier has arrived.
• The week of May 3, Duane Elms will attend Baldrige Training.
• We are in the process of removing the old VAX machines. When they are gone, we will install a spam filtering function — hopefully within a month and a half.
• The book that Pat Maguire co-edited Traveling Companions: Feminism, Teaching, and Action Research (Praeger:2004) has been published.
• The President is on the Board of the Renaissance Group, the President of our Athletic Conference. He is also the state representative for AASCU and attended their conference in DC last week.
• The CHE verification audit is scheduled for next week. Betsy Miller is spearheading the preparation effort on this.
• Dates of importance
• May 7 — PDK initiation in Gallup
• May 8 — Gallup Graduation.
• May 13 — BOR meeting and retirement party
• May 14 — Honors Breakfast, Hall of Fame lunch, Nurses Pinning Ceremony, Law Enforcement Graduation, and Graduation
• May 15 — OTA pinning and meeting with Congressman Steve Pearce
• May 18—Deming Friends of Western reception and graduation celebration for students who did most of their work in Deming