Present: Kathie Gilbert, Barbara James, Julie Miller, Christy Miller, Faye Vowell, Zane Howard, Julie Morales, Jerry Harmon, Tony Macias, John Counts (via telephone), Chris Farren, Marcia Bourdette.

John Counts—The Legislative Session will come to an end at noon on Saturday. This is the first time that he can remember in the last 4-5 years that the Legislature has sent a budget to the Governor. The Conference Committee met behind closed doors. The purpose of this committee is to take the budget and make the final adjustments. Regarding WNMU's budget, the 3.5% tuition credit has been raised to 4%. We will have to raise our tuition to accommodate this 4% increase. On March 31 there will be a special meeting of the Student Government to discuss fees and tuition. It looks like a 2.5% pay raise will be approved. Dr. Counts has information on Operating Budget only but not the Capital Budget. He anticipates receiving monies for mobile media classroom. He also asked each legislator to contribute a small amount to this. He has tried to increase our ITV account by about $20,000. He won't find out about the capital budget until the session is over on Saturday. It is looking pretty good for increased childcare money. WNMU will get $100,000 for BS in Nursing program. We will get a pay raise for employees, and our base budget was not cut. The budget has been sent to the Governor and because there are still 72 hours left, he must take action on before the session is over. Dr. Counts is hopeful that the Governor will deliver on his promises and stay away from any line item vetoes of the budget. Once we get our budget, we can set tuition and fees and year-end estimates. We will then be able to start to build WNMU’s budget for next year.

Dr. Counts had important meeting at Stream yesterday to figure out what is going on with the layoffs and what the prospects are for getting people back to work. We have been able to get the Governor to provide about $150,000 for economic development to attract new businesses in this area. There have been over 400 people receiving layoff notices. They will possibly receive salary and benefits through the end of April. We are trying to work with DOL, WIA, and TANF to see if we can help these people so they can stay in our community.

We will definitely need to protect future university enrollment. We had a very successful fall. It looks like under the new formula that if enrollment is up 3% we will automatically get that extra money. Yesterday, Dr. Counts and others discussed the situations in Gallup and Deming. Have talked to Highlands regarding Deming. We are in good shape in Gallup. Dr. Counts will return when session is over on Saturday. Next week is Spring Break. Staff is off on Thursday and Friday.

Kathie Gilbert—She found article on the Web that stated that most people are not graduating in four years. A large number of students at WNMU are graduating in four years. Dr. Gilbert attended the assessment conference held during the end of February. She brought back materials from the conference. We had sixteen people from Western attending and/or presenting including Melissa Blevins formerly of WNMU. Dr. Gilbert handed out extra copies of the AQIP presentation. A copy of the employee survey results will be placed in the Library. She recommends that next year we do the survey in the fall. Dr. Gilbert has just returned from the Quality NM conference where she made a presentation similar to the AQIP presentation. It was informative for folks from business and industry. The NCA is working with the Rio Rancho school district to look at using the Baldridge or Baldridge-based program for accrediting schools in that district. It looks like an AQIP-like process will be coming out for K-12 schools. Dr. Gilbert will be working on alumni surveys and graduating senior surveys. She will receive the Noel-Levitz surveys soon.

Barbara James--Staff Senate has been working on policy changes for the Staff Handbook. We have five proposals passed by the Staff Senate. One is on tuition waivers which is a clarification of the existing policy. A policy on appearance, attire, and personal hygiene was also approved. The smoking policy has been expanded. The Employee Performance Evaluation policy has also been expanded and a revision in the Grant (Soft) Money Personnel sick leave/annual leave policy has been approved. Grant money personnel will be allowed to accrue their sick leave. The Staff Senate has accepted nominations for President. The nominees are Barbara James and Peggy Lankford. Employee of the month for February was Shelley Webster, and the March employee of the month was Filberto Herrera.

Christy Miller--WNMU made the Rochester, Indiana, newspaper. The article is on the background of the Hoosiers that came to Western. It is a very complimentary article. The first student from Indiana came to WNMU in 1917. The Great Race is up and running. Christy handed out brochures with all of the Great Race activities. There will be two alumni cars in the Great Race. One is from Grant County and the other from Albuquerque. The Alumni bulletin will be going out tomorrow and Friday. It is the 16-page addition. Jerry Harmon is featured. The Alumni profile is on Anita Franks who is the oldest alumnus of Western.

Jerry Harmon—He has been working with the Deming Public Schools as a result of their decision to pay for tuition for their teachers. Over the last few weeks we have enrolled over 30 new Master's candidates. We have created a matrix to offer continuous courses for these students. The Education Hall of Fame is taking shape. The theme for the luncheon is "From Generation to Generation” which refers to the four generations of teacher-educators of which WNMU has been a part. Quotes from Dr. Light, Dr. Bowden, Hazel Sechler, President Miller, and Dr. Maldonado will be used. Dr. Harmon has received word that WNMU has been given another year on the Kennedy Center grant. A brochure will be produced on the 3 projects going on across the nation, and WNMU will be highlighted. Dr. Harmon will be attending the Renaissance Group meeting April 2-4. The action group "Best Practices" will be dealing with the transition from two-year to four-year schools. A Parent Education grant was given to La Familia to fund education and protection for young children regarding sunray damage. The CDC is working on a violence protection grant for $1.25 million to provide training for caregivers and parents. The School of Education is also working on faculty searches for elementary education and counseling. They will be re-advertising for the elementary education position. Dr. Harmon will be traveling to the Professional Standards Commission meeting. The changes in state regulations will be going on to the State Board of Education. WNMU has already dealt with these changes which are a result of the No Child Left Behind policy. Tonight there is a meeting with community members who have approached the School of Education about a charter school. We will offer the new proposed charter school that we offer to Cobre and Silver.

Julie Miller—Information Technology: Jan Jahimiak and Mary Hittle attended the SCT summit in New Orleans. It was a very useful conference. Last week Dr. Farren and Dr. Miller spoke to the Student Senate regarding the proposed technology fee. Chris Casey has asked that a computer disposition policy be developed to comply with state regulations. This effort will probably need to be funded. Miller Library: Last week the Library hosted a lecture by holocaust survivor Henry Kellen and Brigadier General Dierk-Peter Merklinghaus, featuring excerpts from Sherilyn Zeff’s Holocaust memorial program Ani Lo Eshkakh—I will Not Forget. The presentations were a great success. There were over 100 people in the Library. Thanks to Julie Morales for promoting and to student activities/multicultural affairs for refreshment. The Library has hired a new acquisitions technician to order books and materials--Michelle Reed. Sandy DeBusk, Administrative Secretary, will be moving to Colorado at the end of March. Governor Richardson has appointed Julie Miller to the New Mexico Historical Records Advisory Board. The board distributes federal funds for preserving historical records. Jolane Culhane also serves on the board. Dr. Vowell asked if IT is moving ahead to migrate from using Social Security numbers as identifiers. Steve Liebhart and Dean Foster have instituted a single sign-in for Mustang Express to aid this process. It hasn’t been able to identify specific areas to work on next. Julie Morales mentioned that Social Security numbers are still asked for to sign-in for pay records. Suggested asterisks be used.

Julie Morales--Community Relations meeting today at 4:00 pm at the Student Memorial Building One of the topics will be the new parking lot on the north side of the FACT on 12th street. Julie has been asked by Chamber of Commerce to serve on their Board of Director, and she has accepted. She is currently working on replacing the equipment that was stolen from the Public Information Office. Since the Great Race is getting close, she will need this equipment. Public Information has been fielding a lot of questions regarding the Mondragon hearing. The Daily Press asked for information on the hearing committee and the process. They stated a concern that the committee was not in continuous session until a decision was reached. The hearing wrapped up at 6:00 p.m. last night. The hearing was continued to April 1 which was the earliest the committee could reconvene. . There will probably be a story in the Daily Press today. Most of the students had not been interviewed.

Zane Howard--Students are getting ready for the end of the semester including Spring Break. After Spring Break will be the Great Race, Homecoming, and elections during the third week of April for student government. The discussion on the furniture fee is moving right along. They have blueprints of rooms and soon will be able to propose a budget. The Student Fees Committee is meeting today at noon to finalize and present to the student government in a special session tonight at 9:00 p.m. in order to have this information ready for Board of Regents.

Tony Macias--ABE received an additional $6,000 to expand services in Columbus and Deming and offer summer courses. New Mexico Works’ audit has been completed and received an excellent review. Last week was the orientation for Stream and on Monday-Friday Tony worked from 7-9 with the Rapid Response Force, etc. He also conducted a survey of the Stream employees regarding training interests. They were as follows: 110 interested in computer training, 29 interested in education, 28 interested in nursing, 12 interested in office administration, and 12 in OT. He will meet with the DOL to establish the courses and assess the cost factors. The WIA should be able to pay for tuition and books. Dr. Vowell asked that Tony meet with the various departments that will be involved regarding fees. Dr. Counts asked if there is any chance that some of this instruction may begin before the spring semester ends. Tony stated that it is possible. WIA has intensive service money for short courses which does not tap into the $7,000 cap for each individual. Dr. Counts stated that under the new formula the summer sessions that we conduct count the same as fall and spring. We will not be penalized for not conducting these classes in the spring. During the week of April 7, he will start the assessment at GRC and SMB along with DOL. A mini-job fair will be held on March 31 and coordinated by the DOL. The DOL will be bringing people from Las Cruces to discuss employing some of the Stream employees. Tony attended the Assessment conference in Las Cruces. On April 14 one of the speakers from the Assessment conference is coming to WNMU to do a demonstration with some new technology that allows students to respond in class on their computers. This would allow students who are shy to answer question on the computer.

Chris Farren--Passed out copy of the schedule for Great Race week. One of the new events is the banquet Saturday night with alumni and current students. Attempts have been made to tie in the community. The high schools will have 3-4 teams participating in the Great Race. Last Friday the 2003 catalog was taken to the printer. The Registrar’s office has finished the class schedules for fall and spring. Final corrections will be made today and send to the printer. The schedules should be back by April 1. Class schedules will be put on the WEB for pre-registration today. Official registration begins in April. Student Affairs is currently searching for the following positions: Special Needs, Asst. Director of Admissions, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, and Nurse Practitioner. Betsy Miller was in a car accident yesterday. Fortunately she was not seriously injured. Financial Aid applications are down by 182. Dr. Farren felt that this drop may be a result of the miners coming to the end of their programs. Most will only have one semester left and will be going out on internships. It is too early to predict an impact on enrollment. The fall and spring class schedules reflect a tuition increase of 4%. Housing and food fees are up 5%. After the student government meeting tonight we will know what the student fees are. We have been inundated with applicants from Arizona seeking the waiver. Arizona gave a $1,000 tuition increase for all three institutions. Dr. Counts stated that Texas tuition may increase and may have impact on El Paso students. There is no limit on how many students can come to WNMU, unlike Arizona which is limited to 200. Dr. Counts asked Dr. Farren to check with UTEP and others regarding caps on enrollment and increased tuition.

Faye Vowell--Within the last couple of weeks the Calendar Committee met and has drafted a three-year calendar which will go to the President for final approval. No significant changes were made in the upcoming year. This afternoon there will be a meeting of those interested in the renovation of the Martinez and the Phelps Dodge buildings. The architect will be there. The Math and CS people are working on two NSF grants. One would piggyback off of a grant that UTEP has successfully implemented that would have a heavy dose of curriculum revision, and the other is an equipment grant. We had Budget Hearings last week from 1:00 to 5:00. It was an open meeting in which chairs and deans presented their requests for their budgets in academic affairs for next year. The chairs will be meeting this week and will study the rank ordering for new positions. We have replacement positions being requested. The Freshman Seminar is now required for all students beginning in the Fall 2003 semester. Dr. Counts remarked that this was such a change from regular business, but thinks that this is a positive change that will help retention and student success. Dr. Vowell thanked Richard F. Rodriquez, Gail Gruber, George Muncrief, and Janet Wallet-Ortiz for their hard work in making the Freshman Seminars successful. Zane Howard asked if there would be any exceptions to this policy. Dr. Vowell stated that Dr. Arley Howard has the text of the requirement/exceptions for the Freshman Seminars. In terms of assessment, Dr. Vowell met with Dr. Taylor and there are 30 students who did not take the assessment test. They decided that these people will be required to take the test next year. This is a rising junior test which targets students who have taken between 60-75 hours. Both Dr. Vowell and Dr. Taylor think it is important to test the entire group. If these students do not take this test an enrollment hold will be placed on them. Dr. Taylor will also start doing a publicity campaign to students informing them how taking these assessments exams will also benefit students. Dr. Taylor experienced a problem with not having current addresses. Dr. Farren stated that on the web pre-registration a screen will come up allowing students to update their addresses. WNMU is experiencing competition for students in Deming and Gallup. We are entering a phase where we will see more of this kind of outreach by other schools where we already are. We are making appropriate responses with the thought that we will deliver well what we can deliver. We will not stand in the way of another school coming in but we get first offer. Discussions have been conducted with Highlands regarding Deming. They don't want to come down unless we cannot or chose not to offer certain courses. In Gallup, alternative licensure created by most of education programs in the state is going to cause renewed competition in. The extended services arm of UNM will play a larger role in that area. We will need to look at a couple of areas: Determine what courses and what degrees we will offer at off-campus sites, and ask Chairs that are interested in offering these courses to develop a plan for cycling the courses to end in degrees. Enhanced interest in on-line courses. Needle proposal courses--courses to enhance certification and licensure. Will have competition from NMSU in terms of $750,000 bill in the legislature to fund their efforts to create an on-line licensure courses. Dr. Counts has not seen the final budget but they have a one-time start-up budget for $750,000. We should continue with RUS and other things and should plan subject to availability of money to go ahead with our plans. These activities will become increasingly important because of the new funding formula. Dr. Vowell passed around a handout given out at Faculty General Assembly as a result of a study that the Salary and Benefits committee ordered. The study is a comparison of percentages of executives, administrators, and faculty salaries to CUPA averages.

Chris Casey—No report.

Other comments: Dr. Counts reiterated that the situation with Stream has nothing to do with Stream. It has happened due to larger circumstances and their principle contract which is with Gateway. Hopefully they will be able to attract other clients.

Meeting adjourned at 10:00 a.m.