The second College Council meeting of 2016 met on March 25.
Before beginning, the Council introduced guest Katherine Birrow, Special Assistant to the President, to the group. She will work closely with the Board of Trustees and Advancement. Minutes from the previous meeting were then approved.
COMMITTEE AND TASK FORCE UPDATES
- By-law and College Calendar: The Academic Calendar has been approved through 2019, and will soon be posted by the Registrar. Next year, Becky Peterson will chair a new process that will provide a regular check of the Calendar pattern.
- Sustain Champlain: Christina Erickson’s new office is in the basement of Ireland – stop by and say hello!
- Eco-Reps announced the winners of the 2016 Kill-A-Watt Challenge. We’ve saved about $2700 in energy costs, and those savings will be transferred over to Financial Aid to support student scholarships.
- February was Sustainability Month, and it was very successful. There will also be an event for Earth Day in April.
- The Champlain Publishing Initiative has started Profiles in Sustainability, a new series of blog posts on the Sustain Champlain blog.
- The Green Revolving Fund had 4 proposals for the year, should see some interesting things soon! Projects include a recycled greenhouse, made of recycled plastic bottles, to be placed near the Community Garden.
- Purchasing: Working with the Campus Store to encourage more fair trade apparel options. Also, the new campus Swap Shop is now open in the basement of Skiff Hall.
- Transportation: Parking on campus will be available during the summer, barring major events. Staff should keep an eye on emails to keep track of when parking is barred. Details will be coming soon.
- It’s Christie’s last day as of March 25! There will be a pop-up surprise farewell for our long-time shuttle driver today at 10:00 a.m.
- Google Ad-Hoc: The Cabinet has approved the guidelines suggested by the Committee, and is now working on communicating those guidelines to the wider campus community. Next, the Committee plans to work with SGA to tackle student email.
Department Updates
- Student Government: Elections start March 25. There are 3 Presidential, 3 Vice-Presidential, and 16 Senate candidates. After election and transition period, on April 18, the first meeting with the new Cabinet will take place. Therapy dogs will be around at Hearthstone during voting, as well as a popcorn station. Voting stations will also be over at CCM EATS.
- Staff Council: At the February meeting, the President’s Cabinet came and shared their top work priorities for the remainder of the year. Shaylea also shared a fun look back at the past 25 years of Staff Council with a photo-filled presentation.
- At the March meeting, the Strategic Communications & External Affairs team came to share the rest of their presentation from February’s Town Hall.
- Committee Updates: The Staff Welfare Committee is examining upward feedback pilot program results and evaluating the peer to peer High Five award pilot. They continue to work with the People Center on performance management tool revisions.
- The Professional Development Committee is still working together with the People Center on DareU offerings.
- The Networking & Recreation Committee had a very successful bowling night in March; they are currently working on more events.
- The Executive Board is collecting nominations for the Staff Council Award (due March 25), and they have formed a Nominating Committee to fill the slate for annual elections coming in May.
- The next Staff Council meeting is on 4/13, in Alumni Auditorium.
- Faculty Senate: Meeting was held, no updates
- Deans: No updates.
- Administration: Major events are coming up for admitted students and families in April, tremendous interest already. The Admissions team is also on the road building relationships with prospective students.
- Facilities: Eagles’ Landing is proceeding apace, financing is being worked on now. Construction will likely start in 2016. A steering committee is being formed for the new ITS building; there will be more information soon.
- International: Spring break trip to Zanzibar was successful. International business courses will also be taking place in Montreal in the next couple of weeks; there’s a special interest in reaching out to new students for these courses.
- The International Round Table every Monday and Friday is still popular.
- Over 50 students are in Europe at the moment; in the wake of recent events, there had been worries about safety. All of our students are safe.
Meeting adjourned.