The third College Council meeting of the school year met on November 20, 2015. Minutes from the previous meeting were quickly approved.
COMMITTEE AND TASK FORCE UPDATES
- By-Law and College Calendar Committee: The College Calendar Committee received feedback from their survey, and met soon after to discuss the results. As a result, despite limited time and formal guidance, they developed a draft for an undergraduate, on-campus calendar for current students as a first phase in a larger plan. The next phase will be an exploration of the scope of the calendar project. A copy of the calendar draft, a Q&A document, and a committee report were distributed to council members.
- Laurie Quinn will take the lead on the next phase of the calendar project, after gathering information and representation from other stakeholders.
- Transportation Committee: Champlain College earned a Silver designation from the League of American Bicyclists. A lot of great work went into making this happen.
- 2 new parking spaces added.
- 3 new handicapped spaces added in the past few months.
- First few “No Idling” signs have gone up on campus.
- Sustain Champlain Committee: Christina Erickson and 3 other faculty members attended an environmental service learning workshop. They will each be doing an environmental service learning project focused on water quality in the Spring semester.
- 5 student Eco-Reps attended the Student Sustainability Leadership Symposium at Connecticut College, 2 presenting. Champlain College was well-represented among other distinguished schools.
- 2 promising proposals for the Green Revolving Fund.
- Working with another student group on an anti-cigarette butt campaign.
Ad-Hoc Committees
- Email Guidelines: After an acknowledgment of past committee members and the great work that the committee has done on the new email guidelines, Katie reported that the Committee is ready to move forward with a more concrete proposal, after a public comment period.
Department Updates
- Student Government: Opening of the new Hearthstone area was a success!
- Semester projects wrapping up, next semester’s projects are being planned.
- Jan 18: first phase of the Archives will be published to the website.
- Leadership Dinner: Feb 13
- Staff Council: 25th Anniversary celebration still going.
- The October meeting focused on the NEASC Team visit with Michelle Miller, as well as the past and future of CPS with Laurie Quinn and Melissa Marcello.
- The November meeting focused on the Faculty Senate with Mike Kelley, and featured a Q&A session with President Laackman.
- Committee Updates:
- Staff Welfare: The Upward feedback pilot program is moving forward, employees and their managers have been participating in training sessions. They are working with the People Center to clarify language in a new Staff Grievance Policy; and also began the process of evaluating Staff Council awards (language, criteria, timing, etc.). The peer to peer High Five award pilot will end in December. Finally, they are collecting feedback on staff Performance Management tools & processes.
- Professional Development: They continue to work with the People Center on great DareU offerings.
- Networking & Recreation: The Halloween Lunch event held on 10/30 was a great success! With 95 people attending, we raised over $300 for the Champlain Angel Fund. The Committee has sent out an email survey to find out what events staff would like to have going forward.
- Next Staff Council meeting will be Tuesday, December 8th at 8:30 a.m. at Lakeside. The topic will be staff’s role in recruitment and retention of female-identified students.
- Faculty Senate: Approval for lengthening appointment terms for assistant professors.
- President Laackman accepted a series of recommendations for a task force among the Provost and faculty members regarding Faculty Board/Trustee communication. Transparency and communication across institutional lines is getting better.
Deans
- Stiller School of Business: Offers to new hires incoming.
- Stiller Women in Business is up and running, meets once a month.
- Innovation Lab is coming along well, and working on funding a named room.
- Talking to a major foundation to help fund a large national AI summit out of the Cooperrider Center.
- EHS: No updates.
- ITS: Large number of faculty searches and committees – 8 positions to fill.
- CCM: Reviewing candidates for 2 positions. Reviewing lots of portfolios!
Administration
- Champlain faculty were recognized for their work with the American Association of Colleges and Universities at the summer institute series on general education innovation. The next gathering in Chicago in June will further that work. Champlain is ahead of the curve in many aspects.
- Introducing Sandy Yusen, the newest External Affairs and Communications director!
Other Business and Announcements
President Laackman attended 3 undergraduate classes, and was very impressed by the students’ and faculty’s work.
A smoking policy addendum asking that vaporizers and e-cigarettes be allowed has been proposed from some students. A committee has been formed to look into this; College Council members are invited to join (contact Leslie Averill).
A question was raised about the Calendar Committee’s next steps. As of now, the Committee is officially on hiatus until Laurie completes the next exploratory phase. A motion was put forward to the Council to submit the draft undergraduate/on-campus/online calendars to administration for approval. The motion was carried.
Finally, there was an acknowledgment of two student groups representing the College in the 40 Hour Filmmaking Competition “Sleepless in Burlington.” One group won the Audience Award. A separate group worked over the summer and fall to develop an online voting platform for the competition.