ACU Staff Senate Minutes
Wednesday – November 9, 2017
9:00-10:00 AM
In Attendance:
- Carolyn Jeter
- Chris Ballard
- Dave Beard
- Emily Berry
- Eric Gumm
- Kathy Redman
- Stephanie Woodlee
- Will Wyatt
* Ex Officio – Prentice Ashford
- Cindy Gravitt
- Grant Abston via phone
- Steve Rowlands
- Curtis King
- Shannon Kaczmarek
- D’Angelo Sands
Call to Order – Welcome
Prayer – Chris Ballard
Approval of Minutes
Old Business
New Business
About my role exercise – Emily Berry
- Was a departmental advisor for 1.5 years before centralized advising
- Now advises music, theater and Bible majors
- Gets to be very intentional with students, one on one time with students highly valued
- Easier to transition students from one advisor to another as students change majors
- Good real time data on when classes are full and how many students are in need of a certain class
- Helps to be in Wildcat Central because she can connect students to resources, many of which are in Wildcat Central or Student Life. She can walk them to the appropriate person.
- Advises 300 people
- “Wildcat Central is where students go to get help”
- Four full time financial aid employees assigned by alphabet in Wildcat Central
- 18 student staff
- 21 full time employees
Bylaw vote
Questions brought before ad-hoc committee:
ACU Dallas – at one point, Dallas Staff had their own HR department, that is no longer true due to financial concerns
Staff Senate – no employee distinctions
Deans cannot serve on staff senate according to the bylaws.
Vote: Requires ⅔ vote of current staff senators casting ballots
Not enough senators present in today’s meeting to vote; Grant Abston joined by phone at this point
d’angelo sands – motion to vote for all at once by-law changes at once
Will Wyatt – seconded
By-laws passed unanimously
Development & Recognition Committee – Potential Campus Survey
Steve Rowlands: committee wanting to collect information from staff through a survey (see attached)
feeling of concern and anxiety across campus among staff
Senate would collect the data and share a report with senior leadership
data from survey would be used to find ways the senate could show appreciation to staff
Stephanie Woodlee: can we propose edits to questions?
Steve – yes, we will send out a draft
Stephanie – who is considered staff?
Steve: Would HR know?
Stephanie – no, they don’t know who should get the survey
Eric – staff falls under several categories; we could create a set of filters to include for staff consideration
Steve: Who determines who gets the staff emails?
Emily: Kim Dennis helped me send
Curtis: ensure that the survey doesn’t trigger
Steph: I can run this past SLT?
Steve: This is our survey
Curtis: Let’s keep it at the HR level because surveys are not neutral
Steve: I want to be sensitive to everyone and I want staff to feel safe to share. As development and recognition, there are not a lot of resources. We would hope that people are appreciated in their own departments but that is not guaranteed. We first need to see if staff feel appreciated and what would make them feel appreciated
David: first of next year would be the soonest this would go out?
Steve: If we meet and decide on this by December it could go out in December
Staph: What is the ultimate goal of this?
Steve: that the senate could understand the climate
Carolyn: what could we do about that?
Emily: Pay isn’t always the way people feel appreciated. What are other ways staff could feel appreciated? Are we really doing enough? Who makes them feel appreciated? ACU or their office or both? ONe time pay? Gallup Q12 – first 9 questions are from. We added specific questions about ACU. Are you scared you are going to lose your job?
Shannon: I don’t think we intend to solve the problems, we can gather the information and think strategically.
Emily: US News and world report survey. What does acu do with that?
Steve: My goal is to assess the needs of the staff and the level of commitment with their job. I think we will find some areas that we can create improvement and advocate for staff. I think we can advocate and send letters for people on different topics These may be the right questions or the wrong questions. That’s why i wanted to run it by the senate. I want to create a climate for gratitude not complaint.
Will: Can we word the questions so that they foster gratitude
Eric: ex of potential tax on tuition breaks not captured here
Chronicle of Higher Ed also pulled from the Gallup
I don’t like answering questions I have already asked
Can we just ask the questions we haven’t asked and get results from past surveys?
An inhouse survey may not feel as anonymous
Demonstrate to staff that you have been heard before.
Steve: I like that idea. I do think the last questions would be the most helpful to us.
Curtis: Yes! Communication should be strategic
Steve: we could add 2 questions and delete 8 questions. I am hearing that we want to go ahead with this
Stephanie: Faculty senate do not send surveys through google, survey monkey
Eric: Yes, I have an account we could use. data would remain anonymous
Steve: Other more confidential methods
D’angelo: in my department we feel close, how would they know my responses come from my department
Emily: are you supervised by a faculty or staff member to see if they are in an academic or non-academic department
Eric: Or you are in a department now that is huge.. Training of supervisors is very different
Will: How many staff members are in your department?
Eric; We could offer by ranges
Steve: Who would i talk to in HR?
Stephanie: Wendy
Future Town Hall
David Beard
David: On my mind and heart – concern with morale on campus. A lot of staff removed from positions due to budget situations, it is very fearful for several employees. What is our responsibility to these people who have been released, help their families, as staff senate but as Christians. Romans 12:15 What can we do to encourage these people? We have been voted into this responsibility. What can we do to help these people.
Steph: Challenge is knowing who those people are.
Steve: What would be meaningful for them? Offering to grieve with them,
Eric: We don’t always know WHY they were released
Curtis: Will they ask where were you when I needed you?
Deangelo – could we develop to reach out and people can choose to receive the help or refuse it.
Chris: I appreciate everyone’s time on this
Announcements
Next Meeting – Thursday, December 14th – 9:00am Alumni Conference Room
Adjournment
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