In this issue of Clif’s Notes, I review the major actions taken by the Board of Governors on Dec. 14 and also describe staffing changes intended to help us achieve our diversity goals.

Board of Governors meeting summary

At its December meeting, the Board of Governors took several actions. I want to summarize them here.

2 percent raise

The Board officially approved the 2 percent, mid-year, across-the-board raise. That raise will go into effect Jan. 1, 2013, for staff and Feb. 1, 2013, for faculty. The details of that raise, including who qualified for it, were included in the Oct. 31, 2012, edition of Clif’s Notes.

Financial audit

BKD presented the annual audit of the University. BKD reported that the audit was clean with no qualifications. BKD also commended the University for its strong financial position.

Citizen Scholars

The Board also honored the six Citizen Scholars for 2012-13. Once again, it is an outstanding group of students, who are featured below in the “Telling the story” section.

Sustainability discussion

In recent months, the Board has expressed a desire to revitalize and reinvent both its organizational structure and its regular meetings. Toward that end, the Board will now have five full meetings and two retreats per year. The Executive Committee will play a larger role, meeting monthly to handle more routine matters, which will be ratified at full Board meetings.

For the regular meetings, the Board will now focus a major portion of its time on one topic. This will allow the Board to have more thoughtful, meaningful discussion on a “big idea” that will affect the future of the University.

The topic for the first in-depth discussion last Friday was sustainability. Background materials were sent in advance, and the Board heard about 30 minutes of presentations by students, administrators, academicians and City Utilities. That was followed by about 45 minutes of discussion by the Board. The presentations were very well-done, and the discussion was very good and extremely helpful. With the guidance we received from the discussion, we will develop sustainability plans for the future and report back to the Board. I will communicate a summary of the sustainability discussion, as well as our plans for the future, in an upcoming issue of Clif’s Notes.

For the February meeting in West Plains, the discussion topic will be the expansion of academic programs on that campus. For the May meeting in Springfield, the topic will be marketing since the marketing research will be available and fresh at that time.

I believe these changes will allow the Board and the campuses to focus on some significant issues and make better use of Board members’ time and talent. This is becoming a nationwide trend, so we are in the forefront of it.

Diversity staffing

I wanted to make you aware of some staffing changes we have made in an effort to achieve our diversity goals:

• Charlotte Hardin will now assist the Professional Education Unit as we work to improve diversity in our education programs. Charlotte is a Springfield native and has worked in a number of roles in student affairs for the past 28 years. In her new role, she will work closely with Dr. Chris Craig, who heads the PEU.
• Juan Meraz will become the assistant vice president for diversity and inclusion. Juan had been serving as head of diversity outreach and recruitment.
• Francine Pratt will soon begin working part-time in the office of multicultural programs. She will work with various student development and community initiatives housed within the Multicultural Resource Center.

These changes are effective Jan. 1, 2013. We believe they will strengthen our diversity efforts and help us move toward our goals more quickly.

Thank you and happy holidays

I don’t know about you, but I am looking forward to the break. My break to-do list includes seeing the movies “Lincoln” and “Les Miserables,” reading the latest John Grisham novel, traveling a little and spending time with family as I recharge for the spring semester. I hope you have a list that will recharge you, too.

2012 has been a good year for Missouri State University, thanks to your good work. Gail and I wish you a safe and joyous holiday season and a happy new year.