Present: Virginia Cassidy, Adrienne Holloway, Glenda Jones, Lisa Kay, Amy Levin, Shirley Mashare, Adriano Moreno Nevarez, Regina Rahn, Lesley Rigg, Rhonda Robinson, and Christine Stakal, Josephine Umoren.
Absent: Karen Baker, Amanda Bartling, Monique Bernoudy, Kay Chapman, Jill Dunlap, Deborah Haliczer, Tifarah Jones, Celeste Latham, Judith Lukaszuk, Erika McCall, Julie Robertson, Talia Whitehead, and Kerith Woodyard.
The meeting was called to order by Chair, Rhonda Robinson in Lowden Hall 304 at 1:07 p.m. Two wording changes were made to the December minutes under New Business/Mentoring: change invitation to proposal and correct the spelling of Larry ‘Bolles’ name. Shirley Mashare moved to approve the minutes from the December 5, 2007 meeting as revised. Glenda Jones seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously.
Adriano Moreno Nevarez informed the PCSW members that this would be her last meeting. She has resigned her position with the CHANCE Program effective February 1st to assume the position of Policy Director with Latinos United, a small non-for-profit organization. Her impetus for attending law school was to do policy work and this will give her an opportunity to undertake this type of work. We wish her well and will miss her.
AADR report- No report.
Campus climate and quality of life subcommittee- No report.
Professional Development Committee- Julie Robertson emailed her report since she was unable to attend today’s meeting. The Networking Luncheon planning is completed for spring semester.
Awards and Recognition sub-committee- Josephine Umoren reported that the sub-committee was meeting following today’s meeting to discuss the Outstanding Women Student Award process, marketing and publicity of awards. We have received 85 nominations from 61 nominators for the Outstanding Women Student Awards.
Research subcommittee- Lesley Rigg reported that a meeting is scheduled for January 30th. She has a TA willing to do data gathering and inquired if it would be a problem to have her be a member of the subcommittee. The members assured her this would not be a problem. They will continue to identify target and aspiration institutions. The timeline is April 9th for the second draft and finalizing the report by May. Lesley will up-date President Peters of the completion schedule.
Rhonda Robinson reported that she found no formal mentoring programs in her area (ETRA). She had contacted her Dean asking several questions regarding mentoring which she would be more than happy to share if anyone is interested in asking their administrators similar questions. He is going to bring it up to the chairs and get back to her. Adriana Moreno Nevarez reported that CHANCE has no formal mentoring programs and to her knowledge there is nothing in the Latino community. Chris Stakal stated that SPS has nothing formal but Marketing has a Brown Bag Research Group that meets. Glenda Jones brought up the point of Civil Service mentoring, possibly checking with the Secretarial Advisory Council to see if any mentoring formal or informal programs are in place for that classification. Areas of cross-training, accessibility to programs, transition periods for new employees, were a few of the topics mentioned. We need to emphazes that mentoring is a university level initiative and part of the Strategic Plan and needs to be campus-wide for everyone not be focused on minorities and women but be inclusive. Mentoring programs should be available not only to new employees but especially at transition points: promotions, change of positions, reaching tenure, etc.
The PCSW annual report is being drafted and Rhonda Robinson will be bringing it to the members for in-put. The report should be proactive and contain what we would like to see happen as well as what we have achieved over the past year.
Tim Griffin’s report contained such concerns as derogatory remarks, rudeness, lack of respect, lack of response, inattentiveness, intimidation, harassment, poor supervision all of which indicate a need of improvement of campus climate. Perhaps a campus wide mandatory training of some type should be suggested. President Peters has indicated a desire to conduct a campus climate survey this academic year. We have been invited to send a representative to attend a planning meeting for this project. Even though this survey is focused on student satisfaction the results will affect NIU campus wide. Deborah Haliczer will represent PCSW.
Shirley Mashare moved that the meeting be adjourned, Amy Levin second the motion and it was unanimously approved. Meeting adjourned at 2:40 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Betty L. Baugh