university SENATE OF
Minutes of Meeting 424
20 April 2005
Synopsis:
(1) The Senate approved Proposal 26-05, Additional Grades of E* and U* change to Proposal 28-04.
(2) The Senate approved Proposal 32-05, Ph.D. program in Biomedical Engineering, as an emergency proposal.
(3) The Senate heard reports from Les Cook on recruiting and marketing and from Ingrid Cheney on benefits.
1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
President Monson called University Senate Meeting 424 to order at 6:22 pm on Wednesday, 20 April 2005, in Room B45 EERC.
Secretary Glime called roll. Absent were representatives from Army/Air Force ROTC, Chemistry, Computer Science, ME-EM, Physics, KRC, and Auxiliary Enterprises. Liaisons in attendance were Becky Christianson (Staff Council) and David Forel (GSC). Academic Services – Engineering, and Finances and Advancement currently have no elected representatives.
2. RECOGNITION OF VISITORS
Guests included Ingrid Cheney (Human Resources), George Fox (Administrative Computing), and Michael Neuman (Biomedical Engineering).
3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
President Monson asked to move the unfinished business ahead of the reports so that the proposals could be addressed this evening. He also asked to make a brief report on the Provost search after the IT presentation.
C. Selfe MOVED and Clancey seconded the motion to approve the agenda as amended. The motion to approve PASSED on voice vote with no dissent.
[Appendix A. NOTE: Only senate and library archival copies of the minutes will contain a full complement of the appendices.]
4. approval of minutes from meeting 422
Sutter corrected the discussion of Proposal 29-05. In the third and fourth paragraphs, Gorman should be changed to Sutter.
Bruch MOVED and Clancey seconded the motion to approve the minutes of Meeting 422 as corrected. The motion PASSED on voice vote with no dissent.
5. Committee business/reports
President’s Report
1. There will be a special meeting of the Senate on April 27 so that the Provost can give us a budget update. A video-stream of the meeting will be available "on-demand" by the next day at: http://webmedia.mtu.edu It also will be available on the Charter TV channel 20, Monday and Thursday from 7-9 p.m. Please inform your constituents of these opportunities to view the meeting and to provide you with questions that they may want answered.
2. The At-Large Senator elections have been completed. The new staff At-Large Senators are Brenda Helminen and Scott Pollins. Larry Sutter has been re-elected to fill the open faculty at-large position.
3. In addition, Scott Ackerman and Mike Needham (alt) have been elected to represent the new Academic Services A constituency. Monson has been elected to serve as the alternate for the
4. At the last meeting, a question was raised about the need to conduct an election for an At-Large Senator when there is no opposition. Upon review of the Senate Constitution and By-Laws and Robert’s Rules of Order, Monson concluded that such an election was necessary. Article IV, Section A, paragraphs 4 and 5 of the new Constitution states that At-large Senators shall be elected by the entire faculty or professional staff constituencies. Monson suggested that next year’s Senate enact a By-Law allowing for Senate election by acclamation when there is only one candidate for an at-large Senate position.
5. President Monson will send to all Senators the web address for the video streaming of next week's budget report by the Provost.
6. UNFINISHED business
C. Selfe MOVED and Bruch seconded the motion to approve Proposal 26-05, Additional Grades of E* and U* change to Proposal 28-04.
[see minutes, page 11459, for a copy of this proposal]
The motion PASSED on voice vote with no opposition.
Janners MOVED and C. Selfe seconded the motion to take up Proposal 32-05, Ph.D. program in Biomedical Engineering, as an emergency proposal. The motion PASSED 24:4 on secret ballot.
Sloan MOVED and C. Selfe seconded the motion to approve Proposal 32-05.
[see minutes, page 11445, for a copy of this proposal]
President Monson pointed out that the proposal had been changed to a Ph. D. in Biomedical Engineering instead of an interdisciplinary degree. The first sentence under Introduction,
Senator Amato-Henderson asked the Finance Committee to give a brief report. Sloan reported that the committee really liked the program. However, they did not have enough information on the budget to assess if we could afford it. Senator Janners stated that we should discuss the program and let the Administration decide if we can afford it.
Bruch called the question. The motion to approve Proposal 32-05 PASSED on voice vote with no opposition.
Mike Neuman (Biomed.
7. reports
Les Cook, Office of Student Affairs, presented a report on the changes and plans of that unit. Student Affairs took over a number of administrative areas: Student Records and Registration, Alumni Records, Admissions, Financial Aid, International Programs and Services, Educational Opportunity and University Programs, and University Relations. After the re-organization, the International Advancement Program and Commencement and Special Events units were eliminated; the latter was divvied up among several groups.
A number of things were consolidated – Residence Life, First-Year Programs, all the Student Organizations. We had residence hall coordinators who were professional staff people living in the residence halls who had to be there 24/7; we tried to give them a little bit more meaningful responsibilities so that they actually have some other responsibilities outside the residence halls, such as one of the assistant directors working with Greek life and one with first-year programs. Students took on additional leadership responsibilities in the residence halls.
There are also some changes with Enrollment Services. Our plan is that International Programs, Admissions, Financial Aid, and Student Records be moved into one group called Enrollment Services. We are looking for someone to oversee the group as a whole.
The area of communications is one they will continue to work on. There is a position open right now for an Executive Director of Marketing and Communications. This is something that many people have said we have needed for a while. They continue to hone things down in the area of Student Affairs.
Part of the re-organization was to establish a cross-campus committee on recruiting and marketing, composed of faculty, students, and staff. These two topic teams developed a list of priorities. The top priority would be establishing cross-campus recruiting and marketing teams. President Mroz and Cook met with every academic department. They plan to get more alumni involved. Alumni Relations at one time had a position to hire someone from the alumni as an outreach coordinator for career programs to help us recruit. The
There are lots of data from the Summer Youth Programs, but no one has ever done anything with that information. They are also revising the systematic distribution of financial aid to use it more effectively. And they are looking at retention and how to improve. Many of the suggestions have come from the Student Commission. The student satisfaction survey has just gone out and by the following Monday 1216 responses were returned. The University web site has been beefed up and is more user friendly, but it needs to be beefed up more to keep up with the latest technology; it is way behind and is the first place students, parents, and counselors look.
They have talked to students and recruiting teams about who we are. What does one say in an "elevator speech" when you have only 30-40 seconds. They characterized our students who are bright, motivated, adventurous students who create the future. Student feedback on what MTU is about added that it is a place where you "can be who you want to be."
Cook distributed the "Be Smart" brochure to Senators. Senator Beck suggested adding something summery to the brochure.
Monson asked what enrollment looks like for next year.
Cook responded that there is now an admissions dashboard on the web, so daily reports on enrollment and financial aid can be seen by the academic department. Fall applications are greater than any time in the past 10 years. There are 4285 total applications, an increase of 17% over last year. There are 3521 students accepted, up from 2961 last year. Since portals opened on Friday, 300 students have enrolled, whereas last year there were only 300 at the end of the enrollment period. Housing is up by 70 students. Transfer students are up by 19%. Accepted international students are up 33%, a real surprise because they are down nationally. Minority acceptance is up 8% and female applications are up 25%, but their deposits have not increased. There are 25 applicants from
For Preview Day they had considered that anything over 100 participants would be a successful event. They had 167 students and 265 guests.
An outside group that assessed university communications recommended an executive position on communications and marketing, reporting directly to the President. A small marketing advisory board (5 people) has been named, mostly VP's of marketing firms who are also alumni. Campus visits are important; students who visit have commented that this is the first place they visited where they actually met faculty members.
Senator Flynn asked if the quality of students was going up or being maintained. Cook responded that it is going up because the larger number of applications lets admissions be more selective. Senator Wood asked if there is a floor for ACT scores. Cook responded that schools and colleges set that level. Senator Amato-Henderson stated that 18 was the lowest, but Cook countered that it depends on the department.
Senator C. Selfe stated that we should put a different face on the "Be Smart" brochure – a person of color.
Cook stated that he would provide President Monson with the Power Point program that wouldn't work so it could be posted for Senators and constituents to review.
Ingrid Cheney presented the Benefits Liaison Group report, which is required semi-annually. She expressed her appreciation for the Benefits Office staff and the Benefits Liaison Group members.
In 2004 we saved approximately $200,000 by removal of dental coverage and reduction in drug coverage. The number of people in the premium plan rose from 2002 to 2004 with a slight decrease in 2005; the number in the standard plan displayed the opposite trend. Hence, dental costs and total costs went up. Nevertheless, we are mostly running a single digit increase while other institutions are mostly in double digits. The number of dependents is decreasing with factors of increasing faculty and staff age and layoffs and retirements contributing. This has resulted in a steady decrease in the number of lives ensured for health care since 2000. The number of employees in the premium plan went up steadily from 2002 to 2004. Gross costs increased from 2002 to 2003 by nearly $1 million, but they actually decreased by $41,000 in 2004.
In 1999 the administrative fees to BCBS were $21.53 per month per contract for administration of the plan. In 2005, this has risen to $34.27. Human Resources is working to get this figure reduced.
If claims exceed 130% of that estimated by BCBS, Blue Cross pays those overage costs. This extra insurance now costs $8.86 per contract per month. This protection incurs a "stop loss" fee. That fee rose from $.44 per person per month in 1999 to $8.86 in 2004. We have never gone over the ceiling in recent years. By raising the yearly ceiling to $300,000 Human Resources has reduced the monthly cost to $5.95. They are hoping to get the monthly administrative fee down to $28 per month per contract.
The Healthcare Audit Reward Program (HARP) has saved considerable money. Since 2001, 62 employees have participated. BCBS has paid out $108,000 in billing errors that were found by employees. Each employee gets 35% of the money recovered through reported errors (up to $500), totaling $13,000, while MTU saved $95,000. One major cause of such errors is work-related injuries that should be charged to workman's compensation, not to BCBS insurance. Others, in order of number of claims, include service not performed, patient not on contract, Medicaid/Medicare related, claim paid twice, overcharged, MTU secondary, wrong contract charged, and same name as patient.
The TechFit rebate has increased to $150 and is now paid up front. As of March 2005, 56 new members have joined this year and 18 have rejoined. The benefits office has put on 17 Lunch & Learns and is holding a Benefits Fair on 12 May.
The RSVP retirement plan has attracted 15 faculty, 16 staff, 6 AFSCME, and 3 UAW employees. Of these, 27 have taken the Monetary-Cash option, 11 have taken the Monetary-Health Option, 1 has taken the 3-year Phased Option, and 1 has taken the Phased/Monetary-Cash option. Also 31 (17 faculty, 8 professional staff, 2 UAW, 4 AFCME) have opted for the ESP. There are currently 201 retirees with health insurance through the university.
No one was available to represent the Blue Ribbon Committee to present the report.
President Monson reported on the Provost search. The committee has completed the position description. They are going over the ad to get it out in early May and hope to invite the candidates for interviews early in the fall semester.
C. Selfe stated that we need to do something about our instructional technology. It is pitiful.
8. Adjournment
Bruch MOVED and Turnquist seconded the motion to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 7:45 PM.
Respectfully Submitted by Janice M. Glime
Secretary of the University Senate