Salem Chapter MSCA Meeting
Executive Board Meeting
21 January 2003
02-03: 6

Approved 1May 2003

ATTENDANCE:
Members: Buchanan, Cullen, Everitt, George, Gould, Jacobson, Johnston, Larson, Marsella, McGee (President), Sweeney, Vaughan.

1. Meeting Called to Order
The meeting was called to order by Paul McGee, the President, at 2:00 pm in the Essex County Room, Ellison Center, North Campus.

2. Approval of the Minutes
It was moved and seconded to approve the minutes of 02-03:5. The motion carried.

3. President's Report
Honors Program Advisory Committee
Committee Description: This is a new committee whose charge is to review honors course proposals and to make proposals for changes in all honors curriculum, honors program and honors graduation criteria. These proposals will be submitted to the All College Committee. Additionally, this committee will review applications for honors grants and assist the honors coordinator with implementation and assessment of the honors program and related activities.

The membership of this committee will consist of the Honors Program Coordinator, the Academic Vice President, four (4) honors students and six (6) unit members consisting of the following:;

• Two (2) members from the School of Arts & Sciences (one 1-year term; one 2-year term).
• One (1) member from the Business School (1-year term),
• Two (2) members from the Schools of Human Services (2-year term) and
• One (1) Librarian (2-year term).

The following candidates were elected to fill the vacant committee positions:

School of Arts & Sciences
Coughlan, Elizabeth POL
Vaughan, Maggie PSY

Schools of Human Services
McRae, Maureen NUR
Metchik, Eric CRJ

School of Business
Harris, Anne-Marie MGT

Library
Vacant

Arming of Public Safety Officers
It was agreed that the Public Safety Officers' presentation at the December 5, 2002 meeting was polished, professional, and informative. However, the MSCA Executive Board and unit members across campus have mixed feelings on this subject; thus, the Board is unable to recommend that campus Public Safety Officers be armed. Chapter President McGee encouraged individual members to send President Harrington e-mails or memos stating their opinions on this matter.

Report on MSCA Board of Directors Meeting
On January 16, 2003, at the Publick House in Sturbridge, MA, there was a joint meeting of the MSCA Board of Directors and Council of Presidents. This congenial meeting was scheduled to discuss the short and long term plans the Romney administration has for the state colleges. At the meeting, SSC's President Nancy Harrington spoke intelligently on the situation and appeared to be the leader among her colleagues.

Twelve consulting teams have been examining the state's departments' budgets at no cost to the state. Romney's venture capital firm, Bain & Co., has been assigned to look at the higher education and judiciary departments, specifically to see how things are run, how money is spent, and "best practice" at the colleges. Unfortunately, Bain has little knowledge of higher education and is using the FY01 IPEDS as its guide. Bain has met with 5 state college presidents (Bridgewater, Fitchburg, Framingham, MCLA, Salem) and a number of community college presidents (including Middlesex Community College, but not North Shore Community College). Specifically, Bain is looking at non-instructional costs. Short term, Bain will recommend budget cuts of 10% to 20% for the rest of the fiscal year. Since the fiscal year is half over, these would actually feel like 20% to 40% cuts. This should occur by early March.

Long term, a 5-7 year strategic plan will be recommended to the governor, which more than likely will include consolidation, regionalization, centralization, elimination of duplicate of services, and a reallocation of resources. Information technology and admissions were mentioned in particular; Bain saw information technology as administrative rather than instructional. References are being made to the 1990 Ramirez Report, which was produced under Weld.

Board of Higher Education Vice-Chair, Peter Nessen, who has experience with administration and finance, has been appointed chief education advisor to Governor-elect Mitt Romney. Peter Tsaffaras Associate Vice Chancellor of the BHE, is handling all of the BHE contract negotiations.

PeopleSoft
PeopleSoft continues to cause problems across campus. There are a number of grievances out over PeopleSoft and workload.

U Mass Amherst doesn't seem to be having problems with PeopleSoft. It could be that larger institutions, with more IT support, can handle such a complex system. The consulting firm, KPMG has been fired, another PeopleSoft consultant has yet to be hired.

Most chairs do not have to work much with PeopleSoft as a number of clerical staff members and administrators are adept at using the product.

President Harrington will be invited to attend the next Executive Board Meeting to talk about PeopleSoft.

4. Grievance Report
There are 67 outstanding grievances; 7 are current and 60 are in arbitration. Ten grievances this year. Three grievances have been withdrawn due to good communication between administration and the MSCA Chapter president.

5. Treasurer's Report
The treasurer reported a lack of funds and an inability to pay chapter bills without withdawing money from the chapter's money market account. This is due to the State MSCA Treasurer, Gail Price, not sending the chapter money it is due. The chapter treasurer and president will be pursuing this.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:15 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Nancy George, secretary