Staff Council - June 2012 Highlights

• Staff Council elected a new President and Vice President for the upcoming year. Congratulations to Juella Sparks, President and Claudia Koch, Vice President. 
• Staff Alliance put forth a request to the President to use 5.5% place holder in the FY14 Budget request for staff compensation. Staff Alliance will have their annual retreat in August at which time there will be an election of officers for the upcoming year. 
• Health Care Task Force has now been established with 11 members. The task force will be encouraged to create a website to keep staff informed of the process. 
• Chancellor Rogers: 1. New Engineering Building will connect College of Engineering and Mines to the Bunnell Building. 2. First time the legislature has allocated monies for research. 3. Fundinbg for the heat and power plant will be requested in the FY14 budget. 4. A public/private partnership has been established to expand the Wood Center dining and to replace the Lola Tilly Commons. 5. Possible 2% tuition increase. 
• Jennifer Reynolds, Faculty Senate President - There is an effort to institute an electronic faculty reporting system. The system can be used to report: a. University performance b. Unit performance c. Outreach activities, detailed review and d. Who taught a specific course. Two software programs were reviewed by faculty and the program that will be viewed more in depth is Faculty 180 from Data 180.  This program is only being reviewed by UAF at this time and a selected few faculty members will participate in a pilot program using the software. If the program works as hoped it will go into effect for UAF and possibly all MAU's. Implementation is a concern; however, UAF faculty has a good relationship with the Provost Office and Dana Thomas and believes this program will be beneficial to the administration and faculty.