University Council Minutes

Wednesday, October 4th, 2017

8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

SUB 233

Printable Version (.docx)

• Call to Order
  President Waded Cruzado
  • President Waded Cruzado called University Council to order at 8:30 AM.
• Approval of Minutes for September 6th, 2017
  • Shelley McKamey motioned to approve minutes; Alison Harmon seconded the motion and minutes passed unanimously.
• University Wide Information/ Announcements
  • President Cruzado expressed how great Homecoming weekend was and having the advisory councils back on campus. She thanked everyone that helped to ensure they were there. Special thanks were given to Chris Murray for his idea for the advisory groups to network and convene together in one setting. She emphasized the importance of the Accreditation book compiled and encourages everyone to read this material and to include Tami Eitle as we are two weeks out from the accreditation visit.
• Old Item
  • Update to Enterprise Data Stewardship Policy
    Jerry Sheehan, Vice President for Information Technology
    Kellie Peterson, Legal Counsel
    • Kellie indicated friendly amendments were made and moved to approve with changes given in past 30 days. Motion passed unanimously.
• New Item
  • Proposed name change for the Diversity Awareness Office
    Ariel Donahue, Director, Diversity Awareness Office
    • Dr. Kearns introduced Ariel Donahue and Ariel introduced her staff. Ariel provided history of the office, the office mission, and how they got to the new name proposed today: Diversity and Inclusion Student Commons. Terry Leist asked how they worked towards the name change. Matt Caires asked how best to communicate that DAO isn't going away, rather being rebranded and Ariel reiterated that it will be highly communicated and that this is a new name change and will have new branding.
    • Tracy Ellig moved to suspend University Council rules and move forward with voting today rather than waiting another month. Chris Fastnow seconded the motion.
    • Motion carried unanimously to suspend rules to vote today. Sylvia Sparkman and Dr. Chris Kearns seconded. Motion carried unanimously named and the name change has been approved to Diversity and Inclusion Student Commons.
    • President introduced a writing class who attended University Council and students introduced themselves and their majors.
• Mountains and Minds: Learners and Leaders
  • Presentation on Access
    Ian Godwin, Office of Planning & Analysis
    • MT Undergrad Headcount Enrollment (Fall) is up.
    • New Transfer Students (Summer and Fall) is down.
    • Graduate Student Headcount Enrollment (Fall) is down.
    • Online Credits (AY) is up.
    • Online Courses (AY) is up.
    • Gallatin College Headcount Enrollment (Fall) is up.
    • % Financial Need Met is slightly down.
    • Total Headcount Enrollment (Fall) is up.
    • Native American Student Headcount Enrollment (Fall) is up.
    • Other under-represented Ethnicity and Race Headcount enrollment (Fall) is up.
    • International Student Headcount Enrollment (Fall) is down, but the goal has still been met.
    • Non-Traditional Age Student Headcount Enrollment (Fall) is down.
    • President Cruzado thanked Ian for the presentation and mentioned that OneMSU will be November 1-2, 2017, and invites University Council to participate.
    • Dean Hoo provided a comprehensive report of Graduate Education with a Task Force: Improving Graduate Student Admissions and Degree Completion that began in January 2016. Provost Mokwa thanked Dr. Hoo for her work on this important task force. He asked the timeline for recommendations made. Dr. Hoo said it takes time but we have the recognition and the quality is certainly the most important. President Cruzado has started a new portion of University Council showcasing each month some units across MSU. MSU TechLink and Dr. Will Swearingen were introduced.
• Knowing Your MSU:
  • Overview of MSU TechLink Center
    Dr. Will Swearingen, Executive Director, TechLink
    • Dr. Swearingen introduced Brett on his staff. MSU TechLink was established in 1996 as a NASA funded technology transfer center. They are highly integrated into MSU's land-grant mission. They are implementing a MSU Business Foundary to integrate between MSU Business outreach units. Dr. Swearingen provided an overview of TechLink.
• Public Comment
  • No Public Comments
• Updates
  • Self-Study Report for Accreditation and Oct. 16-18 Accreditation visit.
  • GFCMSU Engineering Day coming up.
  • MSU Billings head count is slightly up, FTE slightly down.
  • 2019 AGEP National Summit wil be hosted at MSU.
  • Veterans Student Support Center celebrated its 6th Anniversary on Oct. 3rd.
  • Accreditation team for WWEMU will be here next Monday, Oct. 9th.
  • Celebrate Ag Nov. 3rd-4th.
  • Parent and Family weekend Oct. 7th
  • Writing gift to Letters & Science. Professor Finney lecture at the Ellen Theatre. Western Lands and People Series - Oct. 16th
  • Oct. 26th lecture in JABS with Google executive and MSU Alum.
  • Bobcat victory in volleyball and track and field this past weekend.
  • MOR new planetarium show.
  • OPA updating accounts. Strategic Planning about to begin.
  • Tracy Ellig introduced new News Director, Michael Becker.
  • Premier presentation by MT PBS airing on Nov. 13th at 8PM. Charlie Russell documentary.
  • Freshman Honors mini Ted-talk on Oct. 14th. Concert at Tippet Rise on Oct. 14th
  • College of Engineering grew again this year. Women in Engineering rising.
  • Nursing avg. GPA 3.6 getting placed out to the campuses. Nursing students doing first aid stations at athletics events.

Note: The next University Council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 1st, 2017.