President’s Council Meeting Summary

April 16, 2003

 

Present:  Dene Thomas, Rob Lohrmeyer, Rita Morris, Whitney Pugh, Carmen Rahm, Renee Hofeldt, Deacon Meier, Richard Moore, Patty Leonard, Chet Herbst, Dawn Byers (recorder).

 

Absent:  Kathy Martin, Dean Froehlich, Janis VanHook

 

Calendar Review

Calendars for April and May were distributed noting President’s travel and major campus events.

 

President’s Report

President Thomas received a favorable out-briefing on 11 April from the NASC evaluator, Dr. Phil Backlund, regarding his visit here for our accreditation interim review.  He said that “L-C has made amazing progress.”   President Thomas will receive a copy of Dr. Backlund’s draft report to NASC, and the college should receive the official report of the visit from NASC sometime this summer.  President Thomas, Chet Herbst, and Renee Hofeldt will meet soon to discuss protocol concerning publication of the NASC report.

 

President Thomas reported that US News has ranked Lewis-Clark State College as the #1 college in our category (Tier 3, public, 4-year baccalaureate) for the year 2003.

 

The search for a provost is progressing.  Three candidates will visit campus the weeks of April 21 and April 28.  President Thomas encouraged everyone to take time to meet and talk with the candidates. 

 

President Thomas, Rita Morris, and Whitney Pugh will be attending the State Board of Education meeting later this week to be held in Gooding at the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind.  President Thomas is concerned how the State Board will receive our student fee increase proposal.  Not having a budget yet set by the legislature makes any funding proposal uncertain.  The President’s Council will be presenting three alternatives to the Board as per their task to find a way to make fee increases predictable.  Those alternatives are: 1) use a 90% average of peer institution fees; 2) use averages from WICHE and other national organizations; 3) place the cap at 10% increase. 

 

Provost and Vice Presidents’ Reports

 

Provost:

·       The search for Community Programs Dean is progressing.  Within the next three weeks, four candidates will be giving presentations and attending interviews here on campus.  Once the interviews are completed, Rita Morris will solicit recommendations from the search committee.  She also encouraged others outside of the search committee to e-mail her with any thoughts or comments concerning the candidates.

·       Recommendations are due to Rita Morris by Friday from the search committee working on the Technical Programs Dean position.  All efforts will be made to conduct the Technical Programs Dean interviews on campus before the conclusion of the semester.

Administrative Services: 

·       The budget has not yet been set by the legislature, but once we receive word of the college’s allocation, we will have about three weeks to put together and submit our budget to the Board. 

·       The Student Technology Fee Committee will meet next week to review proposals for the use of next year’s Student Technology Fee allocation.

·       Approximately $41,000 of Institutional Development Funds for next year were reviewed and allocated earlier this week.

 

Student Affairs:

  • This year was the 31st student government for LC, the 3rd that Deacon Meier has worked with.  Student government made great progress this year under the watch of a communicative president and hard working senators.  Their biggest disappointment was not having made more progress with the LC boathouse.
  • Significant progress was made through the efforts of past Student Body President Tate Smith toward establishing a radio station at LC.  As it now stands, LC will take over the FCC radio license previously held by Lewiston High School and plans are being made to remodel space in the SUB for a studio and broadcast room for the station. 
  • Arrangements have been made to designate spaces near Clark Hall and Talkington Hall as resident parking only.  Residents of the halls will be able to purchase special parking stickers for those reserved spaces for $10 more than the regular campus parking permit.  The residence hall parking stickers will be a different color in order to easily distinguish them from the other parking stickers.
  • The Student Government sponsored book exchange has been firmed up and is showing great success.
  • Arrangements for the Graduation Banquet to be held the night before graduation at the Elks Lodge are progressing nicely.
  • Student Body officer elections will be conducted Wednesday and Thursday of this week, April 16 and 17.
  • On-campus housing appears to be full already for next school year.  The Residence Life office is now generating a waiting list.  Efforts are being made to have a website available to prospective students that help them identify off-campus housing in the absence of available on-campus housing.  Deacon Meier will be sending DeeDee Kanikkeberg to a conference this summer that addresses creative ways to fund new campus housing projects.
  • The deadline for the Health Insurance RFPs is April 30th.  We should find out who was awarded the contract from the State Division of Purchasing office in early May.  Things are on hold until then.  It was agreed that the term “mandatory” will be dropped from the descriptions concerning the Health Insurance.
  • Deacon Meier will attend a Lewiston Chamber of Commerce meeting today where discussion will take place concerning reductions in service by Horizon Air.  The Chamber will also be looking into the cost effectiveness of applying for grants that would help to maintain a certain level of service by the airline.  Deacon was asked to pass along the suggestion that the Coupon Packs be reinstated by Horizon.

Direct Reporting Units

           

Athletic Department:  There will be a Booster picnic Friday afternoon, 4 p.m. until game time.  All Warrior Boosters are invited

 

Advancement:  The Foundation Scholars BBQ was held April 15th.  It was a very nice event.

 

Institutional Planning, Research & Assessment:  Chet Herbst shared the results of the latest IPEDS Graduation Rate Survey.  Discussion occurred concerning the work the IPRA Office is doing to gather statistics that will be meaningful and useful to the college.  It was suggested that we also look at our present unique performance measures and determine their current value as assessment measures.

 

Other Reports  

 

CSO:  The Classified Staff Organization Employee Recognition luncheon and last meeting of the school year will be held tomorrow, April 17th.   New officers will be elected at this meeting.  It was also decided by a majority vote of the CSO members that the Chair position remain a one-year term.

 

Planning is progressing nicely for the CSO-PSO 1st Annual Professional Development Day to be held at LCSC on April 25th.  There are currently 105 people signed up to attend and sponsorship has been very successful.  Patty thanked everyone for their support in helping make this day a success.   

 

Faculty Senate:  Andy Hanson recently spoke to the Senate concerning advising intervention and the use of mid-term grades.  At the upcoming Faculty Association meeting on April 22nd, the graduation list will be approved and the two retiring faculty will be honored.  At the next Faculty Senate meeting on April 24th, Chet Herbst will speak on assessment.

 

Around The Table

 

The revised Evacuation Plan will soon be distributed to all departments/divisions.

 

The presentations given by the Provost candidates will be broadcast on Channel 13.

 

The new e-mail server is up and running.  The server provides more processing power, more memory, and the web interface is more user-friendly.

 

Auditors will be on campus June 9th for the I.T. Financial Audit.

 

Meeting Adjourned

The next President’s Council will be held on Wednesday, May 7, at 9 a.m., in the Alumni Board Room.