Staff Council Meeting Minutes – March 2018

Staff Council Updates
April 11, 2018

Staff Council met on Wednesday, March 21 at 8:30AM in Lakeside 101/102. Below are the meeting minutes (to be approved on April 18, 2018) for your review. These minutes can also be found on the K: Drive, located at K:\Staff Council\Staff Council – Meeting Minutes\June 2017 – May 2018 (Note for Windows 10 users: the K: drive is now the P: drive on your machine). Please send any revisions to Cullen Bostock at cbostock@champlain.edu prior to the April 18 meeting.

I.  Welcome – Call meeting to order (Shaylea Scribner, Facilitator)

II.  New Employee Welcome

The group welcomed 5 new employees!

• Matt Gagne – Sr. Web Developer, IS
• Corey Austin – Systems Manager, IS
• Katherine DelGreco – Talent & Engagement Coordinator, People Center
• Catherine Wheeler – Sr. Operations Coordinator, Events & Auxiliary Services
• Nicole Every – Enrollment Operations Coordinator, CPS

III.  Approval of the February meeting minutes (view at https://staffcouncil.champlain.edu),

• A motion was made to approve, motion was seconded, and the February meeting minutes were unanimously approved

IV.  Academic Affairs Update – Dr. Laurie Quinn, Provost and SVP for Academic Affairs

• Laurie began by giving some background and updates regarding Champlain Online (Commonly referred to as Continuing Professional Studies or CPS). Champlain’s distance learning efforts began in 1993 by offering a handful of online courses. Enrollment for online programs consistently hovered around 500-700 students until the introduction of the TruEd program in 2014.
• The TruEd program is a strategic effort to partner with local and national employers to address their professional development needs by offering discounted tuition (15-60%) for online programs. Champlain works closely with employers to assess their current workforce and anticipate future needs as far as talent management and development. The most notable TruEd partner is the Federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
• Once the partnership with OPM was finalized, Champlain Online saw a massive spike in enrollment, which Laurie referred to as the “Tsunami”. Laurie acknowledged that this spike in enrollment effected a number of campus departments, including IS, Finance, Student Accounts, etc. Currently, online enrollment has surpassed that of the traditional, on-campus students with approximately 3,000 students and the goal (as part of the revised 2020 plan) is to reach 4,000 online students.
• Laurie provided some detail regarding the online student body at Champlain. The TruEd/Standard split is about 75% and 25%, respectively and about 35% diverse (compared to about 14% for traditional students). Nationally, the trend has been that adult students take online classes on a part-time basis. Champlain Online is seeing more and more students taking on increased course loads in an attempt to complete their degrees quicker. That is, despite life events and other personal/professional demands. This is a testament to the Advising, Admissions, and Transfer Credit teams that serve Champlain Online students.
• Champlain Online maintains the College’s small class philosophy and places a lot attention on quality assurance. Courses are led by Adjunct Faculty members who are often practitioners working in the fields/focus area of the program.
• Laurie provided the following table which shows the financial impact of TruEd/CPS in terms of the College’s revenue margins in comparison with TRAD.

Laurie noted that while 3.3% seems low, it is still very strong. Peer institutions of similar size as Champlain typically run at a deficit.

• On the TRAD side of things, Laurie noted that the College is exploring a competency based model to incorporate a more practical, pragmatic approach in degree programs. Considering the many hurdles associated with such changes (e.g. accreditation, financial, systems, etc.), this initiative is currently in a pilot phase led by a handful of CORE faculty members. Laurie added that the College is researching new, cross-disciplinary options for majors. For example, a healthcare/business degree which would prepare graduates to serve an aging workforce.
• The question was asked about what kind of improvements TruEd partners may be experiencing as part of their partnership with Champlain Online. Laurie noted that the timing of the OPM partnership worked well to address gaps in government positions as a result of retiring employees. The online degrees for Cybersecurity are especially timely considering the recent breaches that have occurred nationally, including an incident which affected OPM. The College remains thoughtful/strategic about designing programs that address national needs and aim to balance that with the needs of individual TruEd partners.
• One member of the group asked whether there is concern regarding diversity of professional experiences in individual classes. She provided an example from her own online experience feeling out of place as a result of being in a class with a majority of government employees. Laurie noted that proportions are often reflective of the 75/25 split (i.e. TruEd/Standard) and it is certainly something to be mindful of moving forward.

V.  People Center Updates – Christine Hutchins

Modern Think ‘Great Colleges to Work For’ Survey

• Christine reminded staff that the Great Colleges to Work For survey will be administered beginning March 19 until April 6. Regular part-time and full-time employees are highly encouraged to take part in the survey as it is a vital measure of their experiences and ability to thrive at Champlain. The College saw a 53% response rate when the survey was administered for the first time in 2011. The last time the survey was administered, that response rate increased to 78%, which is the aim for this year.
• In July/August, People Center and Cabinet will meet with a representative from Modern Think to go over the results and key insights will be presented to the College community in September. Laurie added that the Cabinet spends a lot of time going over the results and emphasized that the data is used to inform decisions aimed at improving the institution.

2018 Performance Management

• Christine reminded the group that no changes were made to the process for this year considering the imminent implementation of Oracle. Necessary changes as a result of your feedback will be incorporated into the new system.
• Important dates regarding Performance Management:
  • April 2: Process launch, notification of Self-Evaluation Process in Workday “tasks”
  • April 20: Self-Evaluations are due to Managers
  • April 23-May 14: Managers complete review/evaluation
  • May 26 – June 15: Conversations regarding evaluations between Managers and employees. June 15 is the final due date for evaluations to be submitted in Workday.
• There were a couple of suggestions/concerns discussed for which Christine noted will be considered in developing the Performance Management functions of Oracle moving forward. Specifically, methods for addressing/documenting early or mid-year projects that may be forgotten considering the self-evaluation process only occurs once a year. Also, ensuring that past self-evaluations from Workday are somehow archived when we make the switch to Oracle.

VI.  Committee Updates

Staff Networking & Recreation

• End of year event planning is underway. The committee also discussed the possibility of making Trivia Nights an ongoing event for anyone who wants to join.

Communication & Engagement

• Reminder that 2 nomination forms can be found on the Staff Council website – Staff Council Award and Executive Board Member nominations (available positions: President, Treasurer, and 3 Board Members)

Manager’s Roundtable

• February meeting was a continuation of their “Why in Action” discussions and included conversations about the new St. Paul Street facility and the budget process.

Staff Council Executive Board

• Reminder that staff have access to view Board of Trustees Executive Summaries through the Faculty & Staff portal on the website.

VII.  Announcements

Transportation

• Nic Anderson announced Champlain’s partnership with a number of area businesses and the City of Burlington to provide a city-wide Bike Share program. This low-cost annual membership provides access to a fleet of bikes around the city of Burlington, including right outside the CCM building on campus.

Champlain College Step Challenge

• The walk to Australia is still underway and ends on April 15! In 3 weeks we achieved 11,969,001 steps, in 4,970 miles with 44,531 active minutes

VIII.  Closing – if you have questions, feedback, ideas – please speak to one of our Executive Committee members