I’ve attached the meeting minutes to the email with this blog post. Please review it for items discussed and those needing attention for future meetings (i.e. your inventory of the 3 public affairs themes in your classes). I want to follow up with a couple of items that I didn’t get a chance to share with you and are important to note.
1. COM budget: I wanted to share with you during the faculty meeting that the Dean has yet to approve our carry forward proposals for this year’s budget. This means that we don’t have access to the over $30000 left in our budget from last year just yet. You’ll recall that at the August faculty meeting I provided a proposal for initiatives and priorities this year using our regular budget, incentive money from MSAS courses, and carry forward money. Some of the items include a new Level I classroom for use by COM 115 sections, support for graduate assistant for Randy, support for the debate program with a part-time coach, and faculty development money. I’ve transferred money to cover the part time assistants for this year, but I’ve put the classroom upgrade on hold for now. Dean Adams assures me we can go forward with our plans, but since we can work with ETC to install the classroom anytime this year, there isn’t as huge a rush to push this forward. As soon as I get word back from the dean on our carry forward proposal, I will let you know.
Relatedly, the Provost approved our major equipment request for a color laser printer for our computer lab. I will work with Karen to get this ordered as soon as we can. The classroom upgrade Level I request was denied. If you’ll recall we asked for another upgrade to go along with the one we are to purchase ourselves (as noted above). The provost argued that there are funds for that in other areas and didn’t want major equipment funds to go towards infrastructure.
2. Our new copier. The copier we purchased last January has a yearly service contract with a specified number of copies we can use without additional charge. When we renewed our agreement in August, it was noted that we had gone over our allotment by 20,000 copies. We had to pay a penalty on our service contract to cover the overage. There are number of reasons why we incurred so many additional copies from February to July, but I did want to make a couple of comments. I am not a copy nazi, but there are a few simple steps that you can take to reduce the wear and tear on the copier and make it so that we don’t have to pay stiff cash penalties when we go over our allotment.
• We have a policy that if you need to make more than 100 copies (total pages copied) that we submit your job to COPYTHIS. It’s far less expensive to use their service than to pay a penalty for additional copies on our service contract. This requires advance preparation on your part though and with a 24-hour turn around.
• Let me make an additional EASY suggestion, we have student workers who need to be utilized more efficiently and one way to do that is to submit your job (articles in particular) to our student worker and have them scan it and make a PDF. In most all cases, they can do the scan while you wait! They will email the PDF to you or put on your clipdrive. Then YOU send the PDF to your students or post it on blackboard.
Please take these simple suggestions for what they are, easy ways for us to save money on penalties for copy overage and make our copier last longer.
FOLLOW UP
Congratulations to Liz Dudash and her COM 597 students for putting on a professional program of Debate Watch Wednesday night at the Gilloiz. There was great turnout of both students and community members. This was a lot of work and coordination and so Liz is to be commended for providing a great learning experience for her students, but also an event that the community could participate in.
Make plans to visit with Dr. Scott Titsworth during his visit next week. At a minimum, come to the reception for him at Stephanie’s house on Tuesday night at 5:30. Don’t forgot to put Don’s reception on your calendar for Friday, October 24, at 3:00 in the Alumni Center’s Hospitality Room (1st floor). At the October 25 MSU football game, the Holt V. Spicer Debate Forum (our debate team) will be recognized between the first and second quarters. Maybe we can have a tailgate party before and all go to the football game to support the great work Eric and Heather have done with our debate team!
Next Faculty Meeting, Wednesday November 6 at 3:00 in Craig 337.
Kelly
Minutes from Sept 24 faculty meeting were attached to the email you received announcing the blog.
Reminder: Faculty meeting October 15, 3:00, Craig 337
Items for discussion to include: Banner policies and admission to the major, report of writing in the majors committee, Public Affairs in your courses list, NFL tournament participation, and others to be added.
UPCOMING EVENTS for your calendars:
• Debate Watch, Wednesday, Oct 15 at 7:00 at the Gilloiz Theatre. Liz’s 597 class is organizing the event. Consider extra credit to your students for attending! Panel discussion before debate and Q&A afterwards.
• Come to the COAL tailgate party, Saturday from 11:00 a.m. -- 1:00 p.m. FREE FOOD and games for the kids, visit with former students, and enjoy the great weather.
• Celebrating our retired faculty members!
• Russ Keeling to be inducted into the Wall of Fame on Friday, October 10 at 3:30 on the 3rd floor of the PSU near the elevators. PLEASE plan to attend so that we can support Russ’ accomplishments and contributions to the university for over 30 years.
• Don Stanton will receive the Homecoming Award of Recognition Friday, October 10 at the Homecoming Dinner.
• On Friday, October 24, we’ll have a reception for Don to congratulate him on this award. It will likely be at 3:00, location TBA. Please put this item on your calendar!
Let me know if there are other events you'd like to post on the blog.
Kelly