UVI Senate Meeting Minutes ACC 142 1 A-B (STT) and EVC 807 (STX) Friday, April 20, 2012 MEMBERS PRESENT Ardrina Scott-Elliott David Hall Dayle Barry* Shirley Lake-King* Nancy Morgan Judith Edwin Paul Jobsis Tina Koopmans Bernard Castillo Noreen Michael Raquel Santiago-Silver Maria Fleming Patricia Harkins-Pierre* MEMBERS ABSENT/EXCUSED Haldane Davies Karl Wright Dionne Jackson Leslyn Tonge⁺ Henry Smith Cherise Burton⁺ Daniella Henry⁺ Legend: *late arrival, ⁺ absent I. CALL TO ORDER Senator Morgan called the meeting of the Senate to order at 1:15pm on Friday, April 20, 2012. II. ROLL CALL A quorum was established with six (7) voting senators and 4 cabinet senators present at the start of the meeting. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES No minutes for prior meeting March 23, 2012 IV. REPORTS a. Financial Policy Senator Lake-King reported that the Financial policy committee commenced in January 2012 and is working with a consultant, Mr. Malcolm Kirwan, who has been instrumental in assisting with the process. The document is slated to be presented to the Board of Trustees on June 9, 2012. Some areas identified are procurement, travel and surplus property. It will be sent out to faculty and staff for feedback by next week. The purchasing section of the document will require some review and adoption. This will assist with the competitive bidding and procurement and determining thresholds. Travel reimbursement will be adapting the process of travel per diem and eliminating the need for receipts and alleviate the accounting area of heavy travel reimbursement processing. b. Strategic Plan Senator Hall stated that the IEAAB met last week and their comments were proposed and they will be incorporated in the Strategic Plan document. All of the constituency groups are encouraged to respond by the deadline indicated in the memo. There is a tentative meeting scheduled for May 25, 2012 of the Planning committee. At the Cabinet retreat scheduled for May 14 or 15th all comments will be considered and necessary edits made. On June 9th the Board of Trustees will be meeting and the draft plan will be presented. On June 8th at the Board of Trustees retreat members will have an opportunity to review the strategic plan. Action: Senator Jobsis will research if the Strategic Plan was disseminated to the Faculty for review. c. CEA position decision Senator Hall reported that one of the Presidential goals was to review the Campus Executive Administrator position. An assessment was made and the UVI community felt that the position added little value to the administrative structure, 80-90% felt not to continue with the CEA positions and the temporary structure should continue. A memo will be sent to the UVI community explaining the proposed changes and recommendations. Recommendation: Permanently dismantle CEA positions on both campuses, both Directors for Campus Operations report to Chief Financial Officer and Deans of Student Affairs report to Provost. The Provost will coordinate the needs of St. Croix on daily operations. Physical Plant and Security on both campuses will report to the Director of Campus Operations. d. Periodic Review Report Senator Hall reported that the Periodic Review report was reviewed by an external editor and also an expert reviewer for feedback and recommendations. The PRR will be sent to the ARSA committee of the Board of Trustees on Monday, April 30, 2012. It will be shared with the Executive Committee of the Board on May 6, 2012. The document is slated for early submission prior to the June 1, 2012 deadline. e. Student Conduct Code Senator Hall reported that the Student Conduct code was being coordinated by Dr. Doris Battiste and Ms. Miriam Osborne-Elliott. The consultant is Attorney Ed Stoner and he has been working with the University to finalize the document ensuring that best practices and consistency is inputted to the document. He is the author of the Model Student Code of Conduct. He made a site visit in January and met with constituency members and incorporated their feedback into the proposed document. The final draft was submitted to Cabinet and additional changes were recommended and forwarded to legal counsel. The document is in the process of being resubmitted to constituency groups for review. SGA is scheduling open forums for the students to voice their feedback on the document. Senator Hall indicated that the reason for the revisions to the existing codes are a section of the code was found to be unconstitutional about a 1 ½ ago and we needed to come into compliance and our present code was out of date and it needed to be updated with best practices of various college campuses. Goal is to have the draft document presented to the ARSA committee of the Board of Trustees on May 15, 2012 and approval of the document on June 9, 2012 at the Board of Trustees meeting. Feedback by all constituency groups is needed by the first week of May. f. Solar panel project Senator Hall updated the committee about the University’s progress in reducing our energy efficiency on the Water and Power Authority of the Virgin Islands. We are currently focusing on solar panel production of energy. We distributed an RFP and had numerous companies submit proposals. We created a committee made up of faculty and staff and invited four of the companies to present their proposals and answer questions. The selection committee selected one company that was forwarded to the Building and Grounds committee of the Board of Trustees. After their approval it was forwarded to Executive committee of the Board of Trustees where approval was granted to enter into a power service agreement with the selected company. Two open forums have been scheduled on both campuses to disclose information regarding the project. The University is not funding any money to the project just purchasing power from the company. The project will assist with generating an estimated 50% of the power that the university consumes on both campuses. Savings is estimated at approximately $800,000 – 1 million annually. g. 50th Jubilee Activities Research Day 2012 Senator Hall shared that he was fortunate to attend the Research Day on St. Thomas and was impressed with the quality of the poster sessions. It was enlightening to have faculty present. The feedback from the St. Thomas campus was unique and powerful commitment and that more community participation will be focused on at the next session. Commencement 2012 Senator Hall indicated that commencement this year will be very special. He encourages all to attend and indicated that some special degrees will be presented to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the university. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, President Spellman College. Community Engagement 2012 Senator Hall indicated that UVI will be participating in the Adults Parade for the 60th anniversary of Carnival on St. Thomas. A committee comprising of faculty, staff and students have taken the task of formulating a troupe and all are invited to participate in this cultural event. Fall 2012 Upcoming Events -Holiday Galas ending the 50th anniversary celebration to be held in December 2012 on both campuses. -The time capsule event- headed by Ms. Racquel Santiago-Silver to be held on both campuses. h. Academic pursuits Research Day Senator Castillo and Jobsis reported on the success of Research Day. Senator Castillos stated that there were approximately 15 posters presentations on St. Croix. Senator Henry Smith commenced the program on St. Croix. Many were in attendance including a Freshman Development Seminar class. It was a success on St. Croix and a greater attendance will be the focus for next year. Senator Jobsis reported that the organizers were Senator Smith, Drs. Richard Nemeth and Frank Mills. There were approximately 30 or more poster presentations and some round table discussions. Well attended by research faculty, masters students, nursing and science/mathematics students especially Science 100 students. English Proficency Exam (EPE) Senator Harkins-Pierre reported that the EPE exam was administered and the pass rate was 70%. Senator Harkins-Pierre indicated that previously the pass rate was between 50-60%. An assessment is being conducted to update the process and procedures of the EPE exam. i. Sisters With Purpose Senator Michael reported that the Sisters With Purpose conducted their induction ceremonies on both campuses. The induction ceremonies consisted of a total of 60 charter members of which 40 were student and 20 were associate members consisting of faculty and staff representatives. On the St. Thomas campus Dr. Braithwaite-Hall shared a poem by Maya Angelou and the keynote speaker was Board of Trustees member Jennifer Nugent-Hill. On the St. Croix campus the keynote speaker was Mrs. Lisa Wyne-Magnus. Our coming focus will be to build our female student s community engagement, assist with preparing for work opportunities, work attire and speech. The organization is tentatively planning a reflection activity for the students and will be conducted prior to their departure for the summer on May 7, 2012. V. OLD BUSINESS Acceptable Use Policy Senator Morgan stated that were no changes or revisions submitted on behalf of the Senate and that a motion can be made to accept the policy. Senator Jobsis made a motion for the acceptance of the Acceptable Use Policy and it was seconded by Senator Harkins-Pierre. Senator Santiago-Silver reported that Staff Council sent changes to Senator Koopmans regarding the policy and that Senator Koopmans indicated that the changes would be incorporated into the document. Senator Jobsis withdrew his motion until an update from Senator Koopmans regarding the inclusion of changes from Staff Council and any additional constituency groups. The vote carried unanimously and the acceptance was tabled according to Senator Morgan. Human Resources Policy Manual Senator Hall indicated that Ms. Miller will be addressing the Senate on this issue. Ms. Miller indicated that the manual was submitted to the Cabinet and revisions were received to incorporate into the document. The manual was forwarded to legal counsel for review and suggestions will be incorporated and resubmission to the Senator Hall by May 3, 2012 and redistribution to the UVI community. Budget Committee The Budget Committee met today and has concluded their deliberations and the recommendations will be forwarded to Senator Hall shortly for his review and acceptance of a balanced budget for FY2013. Public forums will be held on May 2, 2012 in regards to the budget recommendation. VI. NEW BUSINESS None VII. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 3:05pm