CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SAN BERNARDINO President’s Office
Administrative Council Meeting August 10, 2009
Present: Aguilar, Arlin, Bisbee, Bodman, Bowerman, Caballero, Dickson, Freund, Frost, Fukazawa, Gardner, Hatcher, Jandt, Kamusikiri, Karmanova, Karnig, Langford, Lilienthal, McGowan, Moran, Nassar, Robinson, Thompson, West, Yasuhara, Zorn
Absent: Aylmer, Burns, Carlson, Chen-Maynard, Clark, Kray, Rincón,
Wilson
Guests: John Craig, Mark Hartley, Olivia Rosas, Jodie Ullman
1. Announcements:
· Open forum on Faculty Furloughs today at 11:30 in the Pine Room, Lower Commons. Six campus closure days (aka State Shutdown Days) will be applied to the faculty and added to the staff’s already existing 13 days, making a total of 19 out of the staff’s 24 furlough days to be staff campus closure days.
2. “Going Paperless”: Establishing Principles for Electronic vs. Paper Copies of Documents
One of our goals is to become as paperless as possible. Mr. Freund will look into the options and costs for making electronic signatures available on the campus; meetings are also taking place at the system level to look at “paperless” issues and he will report back to the Administrative Council once he has further information. The Accessible Technology Committee met this morning and Ms. Frost emphasized that “going paperless” would need to ensure that documents remain accessible.
Most department personnel files will probably remain paper for the immediate future so any documentation that needs to be placed in those files should be available in a paper format (for the time being, any copies of correspondence for department personnel files sent out by the President’s Office electronically will include the proviso that a paper copy may be requested). However, there is also interest from faculty and deans in going paperless with personnel files, once proper security measures are in place, for ease of access.
The audience of the materials needs to be a factor in the form they take (e.g., students prefer electronic communication; high school counselors appear to prefer a paper catalogue; older alumni may prefer a paper magazine). The Admin Council was cautioned to differentiate between online access of documentation as opposed to transmitting the documentation via e-mail. The other caution is that many campus servers have limited space, which is hindering some offices from moving completely to a paperless environment.
Dr. Karnig called for a short-term committee to be established, headed by Mr. Freund and Ms. Frost, with members including Ms. Lilienthal, an HR representative, Dr. Aguilar, Dr. Zorn, a student representative, Dr. Caballero, and Mr. Robinson, with additional slots for those who are interested. A charge needs to be drawn up. While the goal is to be paperless, we do not wish to do anything counterproductive to the functioning of the institution. Questions/steps include:
1. Generating an inventory of both the broad (e.g., alumni magazine, catalogue) and micro elements (e.g., communications around someone being tenured or promoted)
2. Establishing the types of approvals needed; do campuses have the right to decide hard copy vs. electronic?
3. What additional licensing is needed? What are the costs?
4. How does the form of communication impact the content?
5. What kind of options do we have for all of the above, and which are the ones we wish to take advantage of?
3. Update: Furloughs
Dr. Bodman has met with the Deans and the Faculty Senate concerning furloughs; today, he and Dr. Karnig will hold an open forum for the faculty. The day after Thanksgiving cannot be added as a state shutdown day for the faculty (though it is for the staff) as it is not a part of the academic calendar. The 4-day state shutdown day sequence will be from 21 – 24 December; December 28 – 31 will be a holiday week, as planned; we are waiting to hear whether or not the Governor will designate a half-day pre-Christmas Holiday, which we can move to the 18th of December.
Ms. Lilienthal and Mr. West will finalize and circulate the furlough planning forms for faculty and staff, respectively, by the 31st of August. The forms will require approval by a department chair (faculty) or a supervisor (staff).
4. Update: Budget
Units with temporary help employees whose contracts are to be non-renewed or renewed need to work with Mr. West. Non-reappointment does not mean layoff; there will be no layoffs in the calendar year 2009 (except possibly for members of the bargaining unit which did not accept the furlough plan). This is a challenging and difficult situation, and units are asked to operate with sensitivity.
5. Update: Enrollment
An enrollment summit will take place in 9 days. CSUSB’s census day is tomorrow, when numbers can be finalized. So far, the adjustments made to date have lowered our enrollment figures as planned. Dr. Karnig reminded the Admin Council that we are positioning ourselves in 2009-10 for the mandated enrollment decrease in 2010-11.
Concerns include:
· Maintaining the health of graduate programs;
· The length of time it is taking to remove students from sections means that previously full sections can be reduced in size at a late date; and
· The volume of phone calls to Admissions from very unhappy students is requiring a nearly 24-hour operation, to review all the applications and handle the complaints.
6. Roundtable
Mr. Fukazawa is 20 years old today.
Pre-season practice for fall sports (men’s and women’s soccer, cross country, and volleyball) begins this week.
The 5mph speed “bump” on University Parkway will be reduced to a 15mph speed “hump.” Measurements of car speed crossing onto campus were made, and some cars were clocked at 50mph. If cars hit the speed “hump” at excessive speeds, they will be damaged.
Minutes Prepared by T. Wise
