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Minutes of Administrative Staff Council
November 7, 2002
Call to Order
Laura Emch called the meeting to order at 1:30.
Members Present
Ann Betts, Amelie Brogden, Nora Cassidy, Wayne Colvin, Dave Crooks, Jim Dachik, Carl
Dettmer, Laura Emch, Deb Fleitz, Dave Garcia, Brady Gaskins, Kim Grilliot, Terry Herman,
Sally Johnson, Deborah Knigga, Susan Kozal, Sue Lau, Lona Leck, Joe Luthman, Sandy
Miesmer, Emily Monago, Karen Schwab, Tom Scavo, Phyllis Short, Ron Skulas, Robin Veitch,
Robert Zhang
Member Substitutes
Mary Lynn Pozniak for John Clark. Beth Casper for Tina Coulter. Tony Howard for Mike
Fitzpatrick.
Absent
Sandra DiCarlo, Cindy Smith, Nicole Voorhees, Barbara Waddell, Brady Gaskins
Guests
Jim Wiegand, Public Safety
Approval of Minutes
Wayne Colvin moved and Sandy Miesmer seconded approval of the minutes from
October 3, 2002 with one change. The name of the guest that attended October’s meeting was
incorrectly reported as Jay Hartwell-Lein (CMAI). It has been corrected to read Joy Hartwell-
Lein (CMAI).
Chair’s Report
The written report submitted by the chair is reproduced below.
Chair’s Report-November 7. 2002
1. ASC Executive Committee met on October 8th and 22nd. Topics including 'Unscheduled
Closing Policy" and "Automated payroll system for Students" were discussed.
2. Susan Kozal has volunteered to be our representative for the new faculty committee of
" Professional Affairs".
3. Ann Betts will be the Administrative Staff Council representative to the newly formed
University Dining Services Advisory Board.
4. Robin Veitch (ASC Vice-Chair) and I attended the Constituent Caucus on October 3rd.
5. I represented ASC at the President's Advisory Council on October 17th.
6. Robin Veitch and I attended the President's Panel on October 17th.
7. I encourage all ASC Committee members to review their committee goals, as approved by
ASC Executive Committee, for 2002-03. Any questions, concerns, or assistance in
accomplishing the goals should be directed to ASC Exec.
Vice Chair’s Report
Robin indicated that she would be ready for her first report next month.
Secretary’s Report
None.
Committee Reports:
Amendments:
Jim Dachik reported that the committee is reviewing minutes to find corrections to the handbook
and are up to the minutes from 1998.
Awards and Special Recognition: Deb Fleitz reported that the committee met to look at the
overall program. They decided to remain on a quarterly schedule in awarding the Spirit of BG
award for administrative staff members. CSC is still awarding their award monthly. The
committee is updating the language on the forms found on the ASC web site. Their next meeting
is in December.
External Affairs:
The written report submitted by the chair is reproduced below.
ASC External Affairs Committee Report
November 7, 2002
Holiday Parade
· Scheduled for Saturday, November 23, 2002. Step off time is 10:00 am
· Parade line-up is on E. Merry Avenue at 9:20am (Bay-H)
· The committee met today and we are working on candy donation drop-off sites campus
wide. Asking for volunteers in various areas to be designated as drop-off sites for candy
donations. (Thank you to Laura Emch and Dave Garcia for volunteering to be their
buildings’ candy donation drop-off site person.)
· Dianne Widman-Abbott (dabbott@bgnet.bgsu.edu) is contact person from External
Affairs Committee if interested in being listed as a candy donation drop-off site.
Messages will go campus-wide via ASC Listproc soon with current drop-off locations
and requests for drop-off site volunteers.
· Committee members strongly encourage the participation of Administrative Staff in the
parade. Committee members plan to wear brown, orange and Santa hats. We also suggest
that participants wear the same or holiday colors, if possible. However, this dress in not
required for participation. Family, children, friends, pets, etc. are welcome to join staff in
the parade.
· More than 30 Classified Staff members and only two Administrative Staff members
participated in the 2001 Holiday Parade as noted by committee member Phyllis Short.
We greatly want to change this for 2002 Holiday Parade with Administrative Staff
support.
· We would like to extend our sincere thank you to everyone who had previously
volunteered and volunteered at the meeting today to provide support for the 2002 Holiday
Parade (Laura Emch, Dave Garcia, Robin Veitch and committee members).
The External Affairs Committee respectfully submitted this report:
Dianne Widman-Abbott
Emily Monago**
Laurel Daman
Nicole Voorhees
Phyllis Short
Ron Skulas
**Chairperson
Internal Affairs:
Kim Grilliot indicated that the committee is continuing to work with Marsha Serio to clarify the
goals and outcomes of implementing a mentoring program for new administrative hires. Marsha
has given the committee three models of mentoring programs to review. The goal is to set up a
program as soon as possible.
Personnel Welfare:
None.
Professional Development:
Amelie Brogdan indicated that the form for funding requests has been updated and sent to the
web site. Priorities for awarding funds will be discussed at the committee’s next meeting. The
committee is documenting their procedures.
Salary: Dave Garcia reported that they would be meeting later. He is meeting with HR
to review CUPA information.
Scholarship: Nora Cassidy reported that the committee is finalizing raffle items.
Faculty Senate Liaison: None.
Classified Staff Council Liaison: Ron Skulas CSC is pursuing a reduction in the cost for staff
to use the recreation center, or preferably, seeking to gain access at no cost to staff. Good data
has been received and reviewed by CSC to support this. He indicated that there is an indication
that President Ribeau is in favor of this, but other approvals are needed before it can move
forward. Ron asked if ASC would be interested in pursuing this initiative.
Old Business:
Laura Emch asked if there were any comments about the drafted response to President Ribeau’s
questions on team building. The draft is reproduced below.
How Do We Answer the President?
According to James M. Kouzes and Barry Z .Posner, authors of The Leadership Challenge,
" Central to the process of collaboration is leadership" (1995, p. 154). Kouzes and Posner have
done extensive research on what works and what doesn't work to foster organizational growth.
Their conclusions nicely parallel sentiments of what our own BGSU administrative staff members
reported were necessary for our own growth as a truly collaborative organization.
In response to the first area of inquiry, which is, " How do we promote a collaborative
environment, not just in our units but also across units?" members of our staff reported that the
university as an entity would be most successful if all team members were to begin to model
positive, professiona lly conscientious, mission-supportive behavior in all of our actions and
activities and at all levels. Numerous staff specifically shared their desire to see various levels of
management involve themselves in training in which understanding the practical nature of
collaborative groups, specific skills and methods for collaboration and cooperation for success
were the topics.
For example, one constituent replied, “Collaborative effort often requires that those involved
be accorded a great deal of flexibility in meeting the ongoing demands of their position....
Setting up systems of cooperation and schedules for collaboration, finding funding for new
efforts, and executing the project can sometimes necessitate delegation or possible delay of
non-essential duties. Supervisors who wish to encourage new projects that involve
collaboration across or within disciplines must be ready to accommodate and support these
efforts.” while another reported a need for “A fund for collaborative projects, having a
structure similar to EECAP's, but with different funding objectives, would go a long way
toward encouraging these goals.” Kouzes and Posner state "empirical analyses confirm the
strong relationship between leadership effectiveness and enabling others to act" and that
" Leaders also personally benefit from behaving collaboratively... A leader who fosters
collaboration is much more likely to be seen as personally credible than one who promotes
competition between members of the same organization" (1995, p.153).
Therefore, while ongoing training is crucial for proactive growth at all levels and in all aspects of
our work, our perceptions, as well as a great deal of qualitative research, indicate that this
modeling is especially effective in management leadership.
The second area of inquiry ASC has been charged with investigating is "What can administrative
staff do, individually or by units, to further the mission and success of BGSU." Research
indicates that effective collaborations involve three key areas: development of cooperative goals,
seeking integrative solutions and building trusting relationships (Kouzes and Posner, p. 154). At
BGSU, we are on our way to embodying all three of these elements. However, to just possess
these three tools is not enough: specific and ongoing work is necessary to promote positive and
proactive change.
Our most formidable opponent at this point seems to be the "we've already tried that" mentality.
Listening and building trust are also cited as two very important factors in building collaborative
atmospheres; this works because people perceive these moves as respect-building initiatives. In
addition to nurturing mutually supportive and respectful environments, administrative staff also
would like to see increases in open sharing and communication between all constituents of the
University about what is working and what is not working well.
ASC’s suggestion for action is a series of focus groups, using volunteer members from all five
constituent groups. Managed team projects that meet real goals and challenges of our constituent
groups--again, with appropriate representation across constituent groups and areas--might be an
even better solution. This strategy would ensure that the skills and abilities being fostered through
training would be utilized in practical and genuine ways, not just in exercises on paper.
Collaborative environments work best when there is a "light" at the end of the proverbial tunnel,
something to strive for. One reply that struck us as particularly interesting was that there seems to
be a lack of genuine recognition for departments, divisions, individuals and programs that are
successfully collaborating now. Specifically, “Although there are models of highly successful
collaborations at BGSU (e.g., Theatre Dept.), recognition of team projects [is missing]”.
Kouzes and Posner state that in collaboration we must "Make certain that the long-term payoffs
of mutual cooperation outweigh the short-term benefits of taking advantage of the other
party/ies." BGSU’s administrative staff can, with communal effort, accomplish this goal.
After no concerns or questions were expressed, Laura asked if the response could be forwarded
and the council agreed it should be forwarded as drafted.
New Business:
Dr. Folkins:
Dr. Folkins spoke to council about the pressing issue of retention of students from their first year
to their second. In the 1980’s our retention rate of this group was well over 80%. This past year
our retention rate was 77.8%. Given BGSU’s attention to student success Dr. Folkins stated one
would think we would be doing better in this area. The question he posed was “why aren’t we
doing better?”
He stated that several factors play a part in retention, but research has shown that building
community and connectivity are key factors in student retention. To further our institutions
efforts, BGSU will be launching a major initiative by creating an office that will be co-directed
by Connie Ruhl-Smith and Bud Beatty. The focus of this office will be retention efforts. They
will be coordinating the development of more intrusive advising efforts as well as such projects
as mid-term grade reporting for at risk students. They will also be looking at increasing
supplemental instruction efforts.
Deb Fleitz asked if any attempt had been made to see why students left. Dr. Folkins indicated
that this had been done. The Office of Admissions is phoning students to get information as is
the College of Arts and Sciences. Institutional Research is studying information to see if there
are any patterns that exist such as courses students took or major/college information.
Wayne Colvin asked if where students live is being looked at as a possible factor. He indicated
that they used to track retention by floor in the dorms. Amelie indicated that this information is
still being tracked. However, she thought it was by dorm, not by floor.
Dr. Folkins concluded by encouraging staff to share any thoughts or ideas on retention initiatives
with Connie and Bud.
Dr. Dobb:
Dr. Dobb was present to discuss the unscheduled closing policy. She said the new policy had
been drafted and the hope was it balanced “sanity and weather”. The previous policy was not
always clear on what procedures were. She hoped that the new policy would not be leaving as
much open to interpretation. She acknowledged that no policy could ever address everything but
felt the new policy addressed the majority of items. The policy would be changed to address the
issue of essential employees if the university were closed over 24 hours. She said a prolonged
closing would necessitate additional employees being available. A list of essential employees
will be posted on the web site in October every year. The questions was asked whether
supervisors could challenge a non-essential employee’s decision not to come into work or to
leave early due to weather and their concern for their personal safety. Dr. Dobb indicated,
“ Human Resources had said they will be there to support any supervisor disputes about an
employee choosing to leave early.”
Adjourn
Amelie Brogdan moved and Ron Skulas seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 3:10.
Respectfully submitted:
Sue Lau
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