leave Archives - Presidential Updates

Clif’s Notes Vol. 2, No. 8

March 13, 2013 by Clif Smart

In this issue of Clif’s Notes, I review information from the Board of Governors retreat, announce the recipient of the University Leadership Chair and announce the two extra given leave days.

Tuition and fees approved for 2013-14

The one action item on the Board of Governors Retreat agenda March 7-8 was approval of the tuition and fees for 2013-14. For complete details, please see the news release.

As you will see, the increase for next year is very modest and at the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase of 1.7 percent as required by law for resident undergraduates unless a waiver is granted. The tuition rate next year for resident undergraduates will increase from the current $200.48 per credit hour to $204.00 per credit hour.

Missouri State University continues to be a tremendous value for students. In addition to being below the national average, we are well below the University of Missouri, which has approved a rate of $274 per credit hour for resident undergraduates next year. For 30 credit hours, that means an annual savings of more than $2,000 just on the tuition.

Our goal continues to be to provide access to all qualified students who want to attend Missouri State, while maintaining the quality of our programs.

Board gets updates at mid-year retreat

The Board of Governors met March 7-8 in St. Louis for its mid-year retreat. The Board discussed a number of issues but focused on two major topics: an update on the 10 goals for 2012-13 and the need to improve facilities on campus.

Action items for 2012-13

The Board discussed the 10 action items for this year. As you recall, those included:

Enrollment
Funding
Public affairs
Diversity
Student access and learning
Graduate programs
Profile
Facilities
IDEA Commons/JVIC
Marketing.

For more about these, I refer you to the State of the University address last fall.

Facilities

We also presented our facilities needs to the Board for discussion. The focus was on the need to expand and improve classroom and laboratory space, especially for those programs that have expanded significantly in recent years. We are hopeful that the bonding proposal now being discussed in the Missouri General Assembly will help us address these needs, but we probably need to find a way to do even more.

The Board also discussed the following:

Our desire to construct a Welcome Center at the entrance of campus
The need to add apartment-style housing for our students
The necessity to improve some athletic facilities primarily to address safety and Title IX issues and the related need to ensure sufficient space for intramurals and student recreation

The Board concurred with our overall approach and asked us to continue to look at these priorities and to begin exploring funding options. All of this will wait until the final decision has been made on the statewide bonding initiative.

Endowed Leadership Chair

At the retreat, the Board also voted to award the Missouri State University Leadership Chair. Based on my recommendation, the Chair was awarded to Dr. Jim Baker, vice president for research and economic development and international programs. The designation is for two years and will provide $2,500 per year in supplemental pay.

As you may recall, the University Leadership Chair was established in 2008 by the Board of Governors under the leadership of Mary Sheid. The ultimate goal is to raise $1 million for the fund. The Board is able to award the chair to a member of the University’s central administration who demonstrates superb leadership. The only other recipient was Dr. Michael T. Nietzel, who held the designation from 2008-10. At that time, the fund did not generate any stipend.

Jim is very deserving of this award. In his 20 years at Missouri State, he has been instrumental in helping develop and expand several signature programs, including the Jordan Valley Innovation Center and IDEA Commons, and Missouri State’s international programs. He is also well-known statewide for being the long-time co-host of OzarksWatch Video Magazine.

Jim loves this University and its students. While we have many great members of the administrative team, I can think of no one more deserving than Jim of this recognition.

Exercise your right to vote April 2

There is an election April 2 with many important ballot issues in Greene County as well as surrounding counties.

In Greene County, the April ballot includes a wide variety of candidates and/or issues in nine cities, nine school districts, one fire protection district and one public water supply district. One issue of particular interest on the Greene County ballot is the bonding for Springfield Public Schools (R-12).

For information about all issues on the ballot, please consult the county clerk website for the county where you live. I encourage you to learn more about all the ballot issues and then exercise your right to vote on April 2.

Extra leave days identified

As you know, the President has the ability to grant up to four extra leave days each year for staff. This year, I have approved two additional days:

Friday, July 5 — With the Independence Day holiday July 4, this will provide a four-day weekend.
Wednesday, Nov. 27 — With the Thanksgiving holiday, this will provide an extended break.

Conclusion

I hope you have a relaxing spring break. I look forward to having you all back on campus March 18 as we finish the final two months of the semester and year.

—Clif

Send comments Follow Clif Smart on Twitter

Last fall students in Dr. Brian Calfano’s American Political Behavior and American Democracy and Citizenship classes created, produced and implemented their own research experiment involving social media advertisements.

The Click to Count experiment assessed whether people would click on social media ads for locally targeted, non-partisan election information and if an endorsement from the League of Women Volunteers influenced the decision to receive that information.

[youTubeVideo url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Meb6Qks4i14″ height=”351″ width=”570″]

Prior to the November elections, people who clicked on the Facebook ad were directed to a “Your Vote Counts” page and asked to click for Greene County election information. The visitors were then assigned to one of two conditions: the Click to Count logo with just a Web promo or both the Click to Count and League of Women Voters logos.

The students found that participants were five times more likely to click and watch the video when the League of Women Voters logo was included.

Clif’s Notes Vol. 1, No. 13

March 14, 2012 by Clif Smart

In this issue of Clif’s Notes, I want to update you on the budget for both fiscal year 2012 and fiscal year 2013, review major outcomes of the Board of Governors retreat, designate additional leave days for staff and highlight recent private investments in Missouri State University.

Budget updates

First, for the fiscal year 2013 budget, not much has changed since the last issue of Clif’s Notes. The Missouri General Assembly is on spring break until March 19 at which time the full House will discuss the budget.

There have been some amendments made to fully restore the higher education budget to this year’s level. It is unclear how likely those amendments are to prevail. For now, we need to continue to plan for the 7.78 percent reduction discussed in the Feb. 14 issue of Clif’s Notes.

Proposal process

For the current year (fiscal year 2012), you have heard that Governor Nixon has released about $2.3 million to higher education. For Missouri State, that means $200,000. I want to explain how we intend to allocate those one-time funds.

Of the total, $150,000 will be for academic-related projects and $50,000 will be for non-academic projects. Our intent is to make these dollars available through a grant process, with the money available to spend through June 30, 2013.

Soon, Provost Frank Einhellig will distribute more detailed instructions and a timeline for the academic proposal process, and I will do the same for non-academic. I can tell you this much:

Academic — Frank has agreed to match the $150,000 with $150,000 from his reserve for a total pool of $300,000; the priority for proposals will be for initiatives that continue to enhance enrollment; proposals for summer school 2012 may be included.
Non-Academic — I will match the $50,000 with $50,000 from the president’s reserve for a total of $100,000; this will account for two-thirds of any proposal; the unit making the proposal must commit to funding the other third (i.e., if a proposal is $30,000, the grant will cover $20,000, and the unit will be expected to cover the other $10,000). The deadline for submitting non-academic proposals is March 30.

We look forward to seeing the proposals that come forward during this process.

Board of Governors mid-year retreat

The Board of Governors met for its mid-year retreat March 1-2 in St. Louis in conjunction with the men’s Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Tournament, which has become a tradition in recent years.

The primary purpose of the retreat was to update the Board on our progress in implementing the long-range plan, Our Promise. This was especially helpful to our new Board members. The Board also touched on several other items.

Presidential search

One of the main outcomes of the retreat was the Board’s decision to move forward with the presidential search. This was described to you in some detail in an email last week from Board Chair Gordon Elliott. In the near future, there will be a presidential search website that will contain all of the pertinent information as the process moves forward.

As you probably know, I will be a candidate for the position, so I will maintain some distance from the process, which I started by excusing myself at the retreat during that discussion.

Open forum

Another outcome of the retreat will be a campus open forum sometime later this spring. The purpose of the forum will be to gain campus input on recommendations to revise or eliminate several targets originally identified in the long-range plan. Prior to the forum, I will circulate the recommendations and the rationale for the changes. We will seek campus input both in writing and at the forum before finalizing and making the changes.

Scorecard

Finally, the Administrative Council and I will be working on preparing our scorecard to measure our progress on goals in the long-range plan. We will keep the main scorecard to 10 to 12 key indicators, with individual units continuing to measure a broader array of goals specific to their work.

The importance of private gifts

On many occasions, I have spoken and written about the increased importance of private contributions given the budget challenges we are facing. Private support is critical to our ability to advance the University in many areas. That is why it was so gratifying to recently announce two significant gifts.

What started as a friendship with the staff in the Garnett Library at Missouri State University-West Plains ultimately led to a $4 million gift to support students with financial need who attend that campus. It is the largest single gift for student scholarships in the University’s history, and we very much appreciate the generosity of Lorene Thompson Brooks.

When JQH Arena was built, the budget did not allow for the completion of the Bears and Lady Bears office and locker room complex. A conscious decision was made to create “shell space” under the south lower bowl which could be completed when private gifts were available. That has now occurred, thanks to the generosity of Mr. Jim D. Morris. His leadership gift will be coupled with a gift from the McQueary Family and other donors to make that project a reality.

Speaking of the McQuearys, on April 20, we will officially open the new wing of the McQueary Family Health Sciences Hall. This new wing is a major asset for the health programs at Missouri State.

Private gifts also have assisted us in moving forward with the Gohn Hall project in West Plains, the Science Scholars’ Laboratory addition at Greenwood Laboratory School and the Robert W. Plaster Center for Free Enterprise and Business Development, the first phase of which will be completed in late fall of this year.

Two points: First, I want to offer my public congratulations and thanks to all who have made these gifts possible. In some cases, these commitments were the result of relationships built over many years. Second, please know that we continue to work with potential donors on other buildings and initiatives in support of our academic programs and our co-curricular programs. Every investment by a donor moves the University forward.

Additional leave days

As you know the president has the discretion to provide up to four additional days of leave for staff. For these two days, the University will close as it would for any holiday leave. The two additional leave days are as follows:

Friday, May 25, 2012 — this is the Friday before the Memorial Day holiday, thus providing a four-day weekend
Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012 — this is the day prior to the two-day Thanksgiving holiday, thus expanding this to a three-day holiday for staff

Closer to the end of the calendar year, we will address the possibility of granting additional leave days during the December/January mid-year holiday break.

Conclusion

I continue to be honored to serve as your interim president. I appreciate all you do to help Missouri State University succeed.

–Clif

Telling the Missouri State story

Last week, Missouri State fraternities and sororities joined together to celebrate sisterhood and brotherhood in the Greek community through Greek Week. During Greek Week, pairs of fraternities and sororities compete against other pairs in a series of events, from philanthropy nights and service events to banners and relays. A VIP reception also honors scholastic achievement and excellence within the fraternity and sorority life community.

Gail and I attended the week’s signature events — the VIP reception and Greek Jam. At Greek Jam, about 50 students from each fraternity-sorority combination performed choreographed routines that they have been practicing since January and developing since last summer. This year’s Greek Jam winner was Sigma Kappa/Theta Chi/Alpha Phi Alpha; they were also the winners of overall Greek Week. Their winning performance can be watched below. They were fantastic as were the other groups. We were glad we were not judging.

[youTubeVideo url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf3Ton6KeTc” width=”560″ height=”316″]

Besides having a great time, these students made a difference in our community. As a whole, the fraternities and sororities raised $1,500 for Children’s Miracle Network and collected about 5,500 pounds of food for Ozarks Food Harvest. About 100 sorority and fraternity members also helped clean up Jordan Creek during a service event Saturday, March 10.

Well done. Thanks for inviting us to participate.

Clif’s Notes Vol. 1, No. 5

September 21, 2011 by Clif Smart

I want to use this issue of Clif’s Notes to update you on the budget process for fiscal year 2013, revisions to the travel policy and the plan for a shared leave pool for staff.

Budget process

Today, we are posting information for the fiscal year 2013 budget preparation. By visiting the Financial Outlook website, you can see the overarching goals, the budget assumptions and the committee structure. All committee members have been selected and posted to this website.

All committees will begin meeting in the near future. For example, the Executive Budget Committee will have its first meeting on Sept. 29. Dr. Eric Bosch has agreed to chair the Executive Budget Committee again this year. One of the first agenda items will be a discussion of a mid-year salary increase for faculty and staff. My plan is to have a recommendation to take to the Board of Governors at the Oct. 28 meeting, with implementation on Jan. 1, 2012.

Improved process

We are using an improved version of the process we used last year. We have made three notable changes for this year:

Faculty have selected their own representatives to the college committees, as well as the Academic Affairs Budget Committee and the Executive Budget Committee
The provost will chair the Academic Affairs Budget Committee
A Personnel Reallocation Task Force has been formed and will report its findings and recommendations to the Administrative Budget Committee for consideration

Overarching goals

While the overarching goals are listed on the website, they are worth repeating here. There are four:

Create a pool of resources to fund an across-the-board salary increase for faculty and staff.
Determine criteria for allocating one-time funding.
Develop a strategy for funding new initiatives.
Begin to develop plans that will incentivize and reward colleges and other units to increase enrollments and revenues, without compromising academic quality, with such plans to be implemented in the fiscal year 2014 budget.

As was the case last year, minutes from the committee meetings and other updates will be posted to the Financial Outlook website throughout the budget process. There is an easy mechanism for you to submit your comments, and I invite you to do so.

Revised travel policy

I am pleased to report that we have revised, streamlined and improved the travel policy. The revised travel policy is effective today (Sept. 21).

Most of the changes make it easier for you to be reimbursed for travel expenses. For example, the “zero balance” hotel receipt requirement has been eliminated; exceptions to meal maximums may be approved; and one employee may turn in meal receipts for a group of employees. So that fewer expenses have to be paid by you personally, the revised policy allows procurement cards (P-cards) to be used to pay more expenses.

Some benefits also have been changed. For example, the daily meal maximum has been increased from $50 to $57, and foreign travelers may upgrade their flight class to economy plus.

One reduced benefit is the elimination of meal reimbursement for single-day trips. Such meals must be reported as taxable income, according to 2011 IRS guidelines, and the office of financial services simply does not have the manpower to track this activity. As a result, these expenses will no longer be reimbursed.

Our goal was both to improve the travel policy and to clarify all key issues. I think we have accomplished those goals, and I want to thank the committee members who reviewed this for their good work. We anticipate scheduling at least one implementation session for those staff members who work most with the travel forms, approval, etc.

Shared leave pool

For several years, the Staff Senate has advocated for a shared leave pool. Late last academic year, a specific proposal was drafted. We have now reviewed that draft and made some minor changes. It is my plan to take this proposal to the Board of Governors for approval sometime this calendar year. Implementation would be for fiscal year 2013 (July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013).

The shared leave pool would apply to eligible staff (i.e., at least 9-month employees) as well as 12-month academic administrators.

The purpose is to provide a safety net against salary interruption for employees who have a qualifying event causing them to be unable to perform their assigned job duties. Some examples include major surgical procedures, cancer treatments, stroke or other serious health conditions. Donations of leave hours by employees provide income to an affected employee who would otherwise be on unpaid leave.

Participation in the program is voluntary, but you must donate at least 24 hours (3 days) to be eligible to benefit from the shared leave pool. A committee composed of representatives from Staff Senate, human resources and the administration will review the requests.

As you can imagine, the plan has other details. Once it is finalized and ready to send to the Board of Governors, I will alert you so you can review it online.

We are very pleased to be taking action on this long-awaited program. I know many of our colleagues will benefit from it in the years to come. Again, once the policy has been posted and the Board of Governors has taken action, we anticipate having an implementation session to answer your questions about the program.

I hope these updates are timely and helpful. Thanks for all you do for Missouri State University.

–Clif

Telling the Missouri State story

This fall, a student with learning disabilities came with her parents to enroll at Missouri State and to make the transition to college. This story was told to me via an email from the parents. Below are excerpts from that email; I have substituted “our student” for the name.

When the family was on campus for the Student Orientation, Advisement and Registration (SOAR) Program, they met with Dr. Steve Capps and Amanda Polking with the Learning Diagnostic Clinic and Project Success.

“We cannot express how comfortable they made us feel with our choice in Missouri State,” the parents wrote. “They made our student feel comfortable by sharing their own personal experiences and an appropriate amount of humor that made our daughter feel right at home. We could physically see our student’s anxiety release while talking with them.”

Just before coming to Missouri State, the student also was diagnosed with a digestive illness that involves multiple food allergies and sensitivities. This created a lot of stress for both the student and her parents. Learning a new diet regimen and seeking out appropriate foods added to the transition to college that was already overwhelming. The family met with Katheryne Staeger-Wilson, director of the Disability Resource Center, to seek help.

“She (Katheryne) was again amazing,” wrote the parents. “Not only did she make us feel that accommodations can be made, but getting accommodations will not be an inconvenience to our student or Missouri State.”

The family wanted to follow up with the contact names Katheryne had given them, but there was no time to make appointments in advance as they normally would have. So, they walked into the “closed” dining hall at Blair-Shannon and motioned for help from the first Chartwells employee they saw, Shift Manager Lanita Petzold. Lanita helped get the family connected with the appropriate Chartwells staff to discuss the special dietary needs.

“Lanita’s compassion, knowledge of food sensitivities and empathy blew us away!” the family wrote. “She single-handedly relieved a whole lot of our worry. We literally handed her a list of about 10 food allergies that includes, dairy, wheat, eggs and sugar. Lanita’s response was, not only can we help you with this, but this is not a problem or inconvenience for your student or our staff. Lanita walked us over to a food cooler that will soon contain items like soy milk and gluten free bread and assured us these items will always be available. She let us know that the food service team is there and ready to make accommodations, and it will not be a hassle to negotiate through. She ended by saying, “Don’t worry. We will make it happen.”

The email from the family ended with this:

“The purpose of this story is to let you know that even though Missouri State is a very large university, it has the ability to accommodate to the individual needs. This was shown to us not only at the department head level, but at every level through the university. It is not an easy task to take a vision for the university and communicate this vision into action at every level throughout the campus. For this reason, we felt it was very important to let you to know what an amazing job the Missouri State University family has done.”