Cabinet Minutes

21 October 2003

Present: Chris Farren, Donna Rees, Kathie Gilbert, Rick Johnson, Chris Casey, Julie Morales, Tony Macias, Christie Miller, Jerry Harmon, Julie Miller, Mary Hittle for Duane Elms, Carmen Maynes, John Counts, Faye Vowell

* Academic Affairs is correcting advisors prior to enrollment which starts Nov 1.

* The Operational plan for Academic Affairs is available on the shared drive on Mustang Express

* Academic Affairs is sending out instructional load report and fall 2003 class size report to chairs this week.

* There will be a Chairs meeting on Thursday, 30 October to discuss faculty positions they wish to fill for next year. All are welcome

* Grad Council meets this week

* The NM AAA meets in Las Vegas, NM on Friday

* Faye Vowell will be inviting departments to present at the Academic Support inservices on tips for advising students who want to major in departmental areas.

* Academic Support Faculty Advisors are working on projects to make advising better when they are not advising students. George Muncrief is working on following up with students who did not return to this year to find out why. Lynn Hall is developing a tutorial for advisors to interpret the Discover program.

* The President shared the legislative priorities for funding this year: fully fund the workload, 5% salary increase, and do not increase the tuition credit.

* We have a draft IT mission statement out for comment. It was distributed at the ITT meeting last week.

* This is an NCATE mock visit week.

* Faye Vowell shared suggestions from the General Assembly last week regarding ways to make communication better: fund an ombudsperson position; before decisions are make in regard to changes in policy or procedure, a message needs to be sent to ask for input from the stakeholders; all minutes need to available via the web; the President needs to do a column in the WestWind; when the policy committee meets, the agenda and date need to be published ahead of time.

* Kathie Gilbert has initiated a Process Measurement PMT. Members include Ed Hall, Duane Elms, Betsy Miller, Jennifer Halleran, Rene Saenz. The moderator is Julie Miller. 29 October is the first meeting.

* Kathie Gilbert is participating in a conference call from the American Productivity & Quality Center to begin collecting baseline data on best practices. We are the only higher ed institution participating.

* The President handed out two documents to be revised in the near future: "Student Success Efforts and Initiatives at New Mexico's Public Universities" and "Working for Economic Development in Southwest New Mexico." He asked for recommended changes to the latter document to be shared at the VP meeting next Tuesday.

* The QNM judges are meeting this week to decide whether there will be any site visits. Our feedback report should come in December.

* The Systems Portfolio (this is our regional accreditation effort)--Kathie Gilbert facilitated a strategy forum for North Central last week. She garnered some good ideas. A Western team will go to another strategy forum in Feb 2005. She will be reviewing a calendar of what needs to be between now and May when it is due.

* The Math/Computer Science faculty were involved in a conference last week. Rick Johnson thanked the President for his warm welcome. He received a number of comments on how approachable our President is. The banquet speech was very good on the topic of simulation of the human heart.

* General Assembly recommended a President's column in the WestWind. Rick Johnson also recommended that the VPs also contribute columns.

* There will be a scrimmage with softball on Saturday.

* TAC is close to finishing the project on campus.

* There are no capital recommendations yet from CHE.

* A one year walk through is being done on the GRC. Chris Casey will bring up the topic of the echo cancellation system that will help with the feedback problem we experienced at the Assessment Convocation.

* The Prospector's legislative reception will be Feb 5 at the El Dorado at 6:00 pm.

* October 31 is the deadline for the next WestWind.

* The Perkins site visit will be rescheduled.

* At the TANF conference in Alamagordo Tony Macias received two additional slots for students to attend a two year progrm. We are up to 22 slots.

* We have received a contract with Luna Co to start an ESL and GED program in Columbus.

* Drafting and Design has internships in the community. Two students in the internships are being hired in the jobs where they interned.

* Info is being gathered for the Alumni bulletin. Please submit items for inclusion.

* Alumni meetings will be as follows: ABQ Nov 8; Las Cruces Nov 11, Deming Nov 19.

* April 18 is the date of the Great Race.

* Tickets are still on sale for the University Club.

* All systems are go for the NCATE visit. The visitors have all the necessary documents. They will visit Deming as well as SC.

* Dr Leo Pauls, Executive Director of the Renaissance Group, visited us last week.

* Kathie Gilbert will be meeting with Barbara Taylor this week to discuss NSSE and Noel Levitz.

* Next week Barbara Taylor will be facilitating a meeting on two to four year transitions in teacher education programs to create an advisement compact and core competencies

* Jerry Harmon passed out copies of the conceptual framework which has been enhanced in three areas: assessment, technology, and diversity. He also showed a video created by Roy Howard and shared copies of the powerpoint that will be shared with the mock visit team. Kudos to Roy Howard for his efforts.

* Jerry Harmon thanked Donna Rees and the Extended University staff for their support of the education programs.

* Patt Leonard just back from Gallup where she did 3 BI sessions.

* Hopefully the first week of Nov we will hold interviews for the public services position in the library. Please attend the open forums and give feedback. This position is the public face of the library.

* Theresa Strottman had her surgery to replace her elbow last week. It went well.

* Barbara Taylor and Julie Miller are working on a FIPSE grant to integrate an information literacy model into the curriculum in student success courses and in school of ed courses so students not only possess information literacy but they also know how to teach information literacy.

* Duane Elms is at Cheks this week.

* A policy draft has been submitted to Faye Vowell on virus protection, disposal of equipment, privacy, and personal web pages.

* Duane Elms met with Student Senate on the technology fee and they are working together on its disbursement.

* Faye Vowell gave an update on the furniture purchase. Marcia Bourdette is putting together the purchase order for the tables and chairs; we are trying to order off of the state contract. Departments with specialty requests (items other than tables and chairs) will be asked to complete the purchase order themselves. They will need to do this in a timely fashion.

* The first Math/CS brown bag lunch was a success.

* Midterm grades are available to students.

* A job analysis in Academic Support and Admissions office is being conducted by Peggy Lankford.

* Student Affairs equipment allocations will be out by the end of the month. Major projects such as document imaging are being considered.

* The recruiter position is being advertised.

* The CHE data report is ready for CHE. The President thanked Betsy Shook for her work on this report.

* All of our CIPS code problems with CHE have been addressed successfully by Betsy Shook.

* Mary Hittle and Jan Jahamiak have worked hard to support Betsy Miller and Betsy Shook. Chris Farren thanked them.

* Web registration discussions are ongoing. Students have their pin number to access their data online. The apin number is created anew each semester. Advisors will distribute them to their advisees. These can be accessed through the Mustang Express. Betsy Miller has worked to address the pre-requisite problem

* The Food Service PMT last year created a plan to remodel food services area which will take place during Christmas Break.

* The Financial Aid PMT resulted in increased online access to student financial aid data. The imaging system idea also came out of this group.

* Last Wednesday the Extended University staffs from Deming, TorC and SC met in TorC. They will again in Deming in November after the WCET conference.

* In Gallup, Donna Rees met with Elaine Jordan in regard to the BIA grant. The project is going extremely well.

* UNM and Northern Arizona have asked for info about our writing lab curriculum because of our success with our Navajo students.

* Gallup students are going to build a hogan near the Western building.

* Increased enrollment in Extended University sites as well as a work shift has placed additional demands on staff.

* Students at the Extended University sites are giving input on how to use their technology fees. Gallup wants wireless access.

* The Regents Manual and Policy manual are available on the web. When the library gets up to full staff, Julie Miller will ask a librarian to help with indexing the site. Currently the rough organization is by vice presidential area.

* Our graduation speaker is Dr. Robert Glennen.

* Jim Fischer and Frank Juszcyzk will be retiring at the end of the year.

* The next cabinet meeting will be in two weeks.

* VP Meeting

* The President asked Donna Rees to provide a list of programs that NMSU can bring to Deming without interfering with WNMU by Friday.

* Vicente Fox is going to be in Santa Fe on Nov 5. We will have 6 slots. The President would like the following people to attend: Carmen Maynes, Faye Vowell, Tony Trujillo, Linda K Jones, Linda McArthur.

* Donna Rees made a presentation on the need for additional funds for salaries and supplies and equipment to the VPs. Chris Casey, Faye Vowell, and Donna Rees will meet on Thursday to continue the discussion.

* On Tuesday, Follet will host a luncheon to thank Western for ten years of working together.