The University of Mississippi Staff
Council
A message from the President.
Unfortunately I was not here to listen to Chancellor Khayat give us an overview of The University of Mississippi’s progress over the past few years. I did, however, get to read the minutes and know that Joni Camp was the perfect Staff Council leader for this meeting. The Chancellor has mentioned many times that every person on this campus has a purpose, is important, and when the occasion arises, steps up to meet new challenges. Joni exemplified this by leading our September Staff Council meeting during my absence. How blessed we are to have a brilliant Chancellor, outstanding Faculty and a Staff that is beyond comparison. This truly is a Great Public University. Thanks to the Chancellor and everyone at Ole Miss for helping make it so. Regards, Tony.
PRESENT: Brenda Brannan, Joey Brent, Rachel Bost,
Dennis Bullard, Joni Camp, Nina Cheshier, Mathew Deming, Earlene Foster,
Shellie Harrison, Melissa Hudson, Dino Johnson, Cathy Laswell, Shannon Lovejoy,
Steven Maples, Renee Moore,
Conny
Parham, Jean Pinion, Hilarie Pryor, Amelia Rodgers, Dave Sagaser, Linda Sallis,
Doug Stuart, Jeannette Wells, Amanda Wood
EXCUSED: James Akey, Judy Fos, Mary Harrington,
Sam Johnson, Regina Jordan, Buddy Kahler, Michele Mize, Tony Seaman, Mark
Shows, Karen Tuttle, Rosa Vance
2:36 p.m. Welcome was made by President-Elect Joni
Camp. Chancellor Robert Khayat was the
guest speaker for today's meeting.
Since 1995,
when he became our Chancellor, the University of Mississippi has experienced a
revitalized campus, and it has become even more beautiful than before. He has also made compensation for staff more
competitive.
CHANCELLOR ROBERT KHAYAT:
Chancellor
Khayat thanked Joni for the introduction.
"The Chancellor's job is just one job among 2300 jobs. Everybody here has a job to do. It takes the team to do the work.”
·
Since the
middle ‘90s, the University has had an increase of 2500 students. We now have students from all states and
over 70 foreign nations. Our population of African Americans has almost doubled since the
early ‘90s, from 5.6% to 13%.
·
The
University has had $250 million invested in buildings, and has increased the
salary from minimum wage to $7.02 an hour.
Over the last 6 years, we have increased compensation by 17.5%. This includes the January 1, 2003 adjustment
that will be made. Over the past 6
years, we’ve received approximately 3% a year in salary increases.
·
Anybody in
our staff and faculty can increase their salary. A wonderful Christian writer, Frederick Beatner, uses the Latin
term “bocare” which means to call. He
says, “The person who has found his/her calling with the compelling needs of
his/her soul intersects with the compelling needs of the world.” So, if you are an Artist and you are drawn
to Art, then the world’s needs are being met.
Whatever your heart desires, that’s your calling; that’s what our world
needs and you are doing your service.
·
The first
thing I did when I became Chancellor was to have a series of campus-wide
meetings. We invited comments from both
faculty and staff on how to make the University a better place. Students come first. We don’t exist without our students. Second, for staff and faculty. Third, for business. These series of meetings produced 123
suggestions, which boiled down to 21 strategic measures, and then to 7 goals.
·
The goals
included an Honor’s College, a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, enhancing the
teaching and learning environment (which meant beautify and clean the campus),
increasing compensation for faculty and staff, attracting a more diverse
student population, reaching the million-book level for the library, and
increasing research/funding to a nationally compatible level are just some
goals that have been fulfilled.
·
The goals
are the same everywhere. We would like
to be the best Liberal Arts College. If
you go to a place like Yale, Stanford, or Princeton, you will see that they
have similar goals. Stanford wants to
be one of the premier comprehension universities in the world.
·
We make
sure that the students have an opportunity to be successful. Staff has made contributions to help make
Ole Miss unique to students. This is a place where people are respected,
loved, nurtured, and challenged. One
example of greatness is a former staff member at the Law School, Grace Brown,
who nurtured and made a difference in the life of Thad Cochran. Without Thad Cochran, we would not have the
$150 to $250 million buildings on campus.
He may not have been who he is without Grace Brown.
Question: What
are we doing about traffic and parking?
Answer: Johnny Williams, Karen Jones and the Facilities Planning Group have contacted a group of design engineers who know about traffic and parking. They have asked them to come study our situation, and to make some suggestions.
·
One
suggestion was brought up to make this a walking campus or bicycling
campus.
·
Another was
the parking garage. This issue has been
looked at. It would cost $10,000 per
space over a 20-year period to build the parking garage, which comes down to
$49.00 a month to pay for a decal to park in the garage. There are several good locations for a
parking garage like at the PPD service station.
·
Another
consideration was a gated parking area.
The arms used for the gates are made out of some kind of
particleboards. People could drive
through them, and we would have to replace the arms. Those particleboards are used at the airport and they have been
run through many times.
·
Ticket
revenues paid primarily by students are important to us. It helps pay for scholarships, but it is not
helping the parking situations.
·
One
suggestion was to not allow first-year students to bring their vehicles on
campus.
·
This would
affect students’ thoughts about coming to Ole Miss.
·
The
Chancellor has thought of some incentives to give first-year students. For example, if a student doesn’t bring a
car to campus, 50% will be taken off of his/her housing bill.
·
The discussion
of the Wal-Mart parking lot has been a suggestion. We have also looked into having a storage area at the old Kroger
parking lot.
·
Another
suggestion was that we buy golf carts and put trailers on the back of them
instead of using a bus.
·
Traffic is extremely
dangerous during peak hours. One staff
member suggested that the University use Cobra Security to direct traffic
during those times. UPD is working on a
plan to help control the situation.
Question: What
about daycare?
Answer: We have looked at every operational daycare in the country. We offered the land, billing and collection of fees, security, and fencing if they would build the building and run the program. Three different companies ran the numbers and no one could make the numbers work.
·
If anyone
has any suggestions to this issue, please let us know. This is a priority on our list and we would
like to solve it. A nice location to
open a daycare would be near the Women’s Athletic Center.
Melissa Hudson thanked the Chancellor for his generous donation of the Staff Textbook Scholarship fund.
·
In 1995, we
had 11,000 students. We are now up to
12, 400 students. 2 main sources of
revenue are state appropriations and tuition.
The tuition is now a major factor in helping us to keep our budget
stable. In the last 3 years, the state
has reduced funding; however, there will be a 2% raise available January 1,
2003.
·
We have
been able to save on landscaping by using pine straw. We mow 35% less grass than we did 2 years ago. This has freed up $20,000 for the Staff
Textbook Scholarship program, $10,000 per semester, thanks to the great
leadership from Jeff McMannis, Pam Roy, and Johnny Williams.
Linda Sallis pointed out that there is a parking lot where the Intramural Fields used to be. She did not know about it until she sent her students to mow the grass. The Chancellor will pass this along to Vice Chancellor Wallace to send out a memo. The information was put out on the web.
Joni Camp
thanked Chancellor Khayat for his time.
Joni then introduced new members.
We have 2 new members today, Matthew Demming, representing EEO category
3 and Shellie Harrison, representing EEO category 4.
TREASURER'S REPORT: Approved with no corrections.
AUGUST MINUTE’S: Approved
with no corrections.
OLD BUSINESS:
·
"Meet
& Greet" went extremely well this year. Appreciation goes to all who volunteered their time to assist the
new students on their first and second days of class. A total of 36 staff members volunteered this year, which was a
record number for attendance in the past.
·
Textbook
Scholarship Fund: There were many staff members who applied for the
scholarship. Friday, August 30, 2002
was the deadline. There were a total of
86 staff members who were approved for the scholarship. Out of the 86, 46 were returning staff
members. Shannon Lovejoy expressed
appreciation to Shelley Morrison in Procurement Services and Rob Ellis at the
Bookstore for their help in the billing process.
NEW BUSINESS:
·
The October
9, 2002 Staff Fall meeting will be televised this year. Time and location will be announced at a
later time.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
·
The
Athletic Committee met last month.
Eddie Crawford gave a tour for the Committee at the new South End Zone
at the Stadium.
3:19 p.m.
Meeting adjourned.
/s/Tony
Seaman, President
/s/Joni Camp,
President-Elect
/s/Amanda
Wood, Secretary
Staff Council
e-mail address: staffcouncil@olemiss.edu
Staff Council
Homepage: http://www.olemiss.edu/orgs/staff_council