02-06-2008

Staff Assembly Executive Council

Wednesday, 02/06/08, 10-11am

Crosby Zanzibar Room

Attended:  William Gibson, Jill Wilkinson, Linda Grigsby, Brady Nielsen, Mike Tobin, Bill Kostelec, Anna Gonzales, Tim Woodard, DaVina Hoyt, Connie Hickman, Kim Gieber, Raymond Reyes, Dan Bubb.

 

Staff Climate Assessment (Raymond Reyes and Dan Bubb)

Raymond shared a graphic representing his current thinking of diversity on campus.   Yellow circle in the middle represents the core areas of the university.  The orange circle around it contains mission elements on the value of diversity.  The blue outer ring identifies action areas: leadership development, curriculum, community, communications, recruitment/retention, and climate.   Raymond recalled only a handful of incidents of hate expressions over the last couple of years, pointing out that sometimes we use these things as defining how Gonzaga feels about diversity, but do we really know that notion represents us?   Raymond and Dan were invited to a think tank which resulted in a conclusion to assess the campus climate and a list of questions for approaching that activity.    A steering committee was formed:  (get names from Raymond), and this group crafted a purpose statement to guide the work and outlined the effort.   Phase One (Pre-assessment) focused on educating the steering committee about assessing climate, finding out how other universities assess climate, and data mining information existing on campus.   Currently the committee members are distilling the university information.    Phase Two was designing and testing a survey before Christmas, which has now been rolled out to the students.   A faculty-focused survey is now being developed and tested, with hopes to have this disseminated by March.    The committee now wants to construct a survey for staff, and wants help from staff as soon as possible, being as inclusive as possible.    Dan’s intentions are to use the information gathered to pursue grant funds to support educational programs, at least, and hopefully much more.    Linda Grigsby suggested the compensation committees interests are represented, possibly to be incorporated into the climate survey.  

Intercultural Relations Initiatives(Anna Gonzales and DaVina Hoyt)
Anna and DaVina described that Unity House is now under the Student Life umbrella given the need to intertwine diversity more with the students and achieve goal 4 of the strategic plan, but they intend to broaden the relationships across the entire university to foster a community based on trust, honor, love and respect.   One idea for this is to create an advisory board reflective of key areas of the university, and they requested a representative from the Staff Assembly because we are a vital component of the campus community.    Understanding among our group varied of the purpose and mission of Unity House when asked.  They challenged us to toss our traditional notions of diversity out the window, and focus on variety with a shared vision.  The Student Life division recently participated in an assessment of intercultural competence, and studying the results will help Unity House identify the educational programs needed to increase intercultural competency within the different departments and professional development opportunities for staff.  Raymond expressed support and hope for the new energy with the transition of this unit.  Representative expectations for the Advisory Board would be a meeting twice a semester, with a one year commitment, renewable upon the person’s interest.    Ideally, a commitment to May 2009, but okay if a person could participate only until the end of this school year.  The Advisory Board would become a brain and heart trust for community information and value to assist in leading the university forward and creating an inclusive community where everyone feels welcome and safe regardless of background or ideology.    Members would max at 16.  Marcia needs to submit a name, and an alternate, by Feb 11th.

Announcements:

-          AVP Candidate Interviews:  GU Engineering Dean Dennis Horn 11am, Fri 2/8 in Foley Teleconference Rm

-          Heads Up Gonzaga  - planning committee members needed

Next Meeting:  Feb 20, 10-11am in Crosby Zanzibar (focus will be on the climate assessement survey questions)

Action Items:

Angela get e-versions of Raymond’s handouts and post on Blackboard

Dan share the student and faculty surveys with Angela who will post to Blackboard

Linda email Compensation Committee draft survey to Angela to post to Blackboard

Everyone review the student and faculty surveys and get insights from other staff before the next meeting.