February 2006 - University of Regina

CATS
Campus Administrative and Technical Staff
MINUTES
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Language Institute Theatre, Rm. 215
8:30 a.m.
Chair: Karen Wiome, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research
Scribe: Maureen Voss, Financial Services
Members Present:
Maureen Voss, Financial Services
Karen Wiome, Grad Studies & Research
Holly Hastie, Human Resources
Sandy Slopinski, Human Resources
Loanne Myrah, CCE
Audrey Perra, Science
Lee Aument, Science
Lois Adams, Science
Raeanne Thompson, Science
Rose-Marie Bouvier, Arts
Karen Shepherd, K & HS
Jennifer Love Green, K & HS
Erna Pearson, SIPP
Annette Revet, President’s Office
Guest Speaker(s): Professor Kathryn Laurin
Acting Vice-President – Administration
Wendy Tebb, Business Admin
Michele Ellingsen, Business Admin
Heidi Eger, Business Admin
Sheila Potts, Business Admin
Bev Liski, Reg Office
Susan Husum, Admissions/Reg Office
Jason Vogelsang, Reg Office
Meigen Schmidt, Research Servcies
Jamey Wolfe, Supply Mgmt Services
Jim Woytuik, Supply Mgmt Services
Jan Bell, Fine Arts
Jeannette Teece, Fine Arts
Pat Patton, Physical Plant Security
Sandra Marten, Student Dev. Centre
Kathryn gave us some thoughts about moving from Dean of Fine Arts to the VP’s Office.
She came up on the Academic Side, as Chair of Department of Music, then Dean
of Fine Arts. She was shocked at David Barnard’s request to “cross over to the
dark side”. However, she agreed, went to an IT conference over the summer, read
some Finance Books, and jumped in.
She said she learned to look at the University differently. She hadn’t realized how
important Administration was to meeting the University’s mission and Goals.
She is now an advocate for the fact that, without the administration side, a
university wouldn’t have the academic side.
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She indicated that Budget Issues gave her a lot to learn. She also found it interesting and
challenging to have to interact so much with Government, especially in the
Budget area.
She feels she has learned to think less about her personal interests and more about the
institution as a whole. She has worked at not reacting in a knee-jerk fashion
based on her own personal likes and dislikes, but tries to see all sides.
Kathryn indicated that, to serve in a leadership role and to be effective, one must be able
to build good relations. You can’t dictate from the top down. People just don’t
buy in. Leadership means listening and communicating well and making
informed decisions. She believes it is important to hear other’s perspectives, and
then work on an optimal decision.
Kathryn believes that it is important for a leader to foster a supportive environment so
that people can do what they have to do. Leaders need to empower people to do
what they know how to do. She found she respected people for their expertise
and deferred to them. Her job is to remove obstacles so others can do their jobs
the best way they know how.
She says leaders should not be afraid to admit when they make mistakes. They should
just admit it. People will accept that you are human.
Kathryn says it’s OK to feel fear. Fear keeps you humble and keeps you sharp!
Kathryn mentioned new developments:
We have a new Risk Manager, Annette Revet.
In IS, a person is here from Paradigm Consulting to make a lot of the changes
noted in the Unit Review.
They are working on improving the budget.
Kathryn noted that one of her biggest challenges is that the budget was being based on
assumptions that turned out to not be reality. Another challenge is in the whole
Federated College’s Fee Share arrangements and its impact on the budget.
Audrey indicated her concern over how the people high up in the Admin Side are being
held accountable for supporting the academic side. Administrators’ performance
is often reviewed based on reports prepared by those administrators. Are the
reports verified for the accuracy of the claims made? Perhaps Administrator
reviews should include the performance question being sent campus wide for
comments from the people that administrator is supporting.
Kathryn indicated that Unit reviews are also used as a performance measurement tool,
and are now being used on Administrative Units. She believes that Financial
Services and Physical Plant are up next for Unit Reviews in a year or 2.
Kathryn also indicated that Administrative Units must go through the budget process, and
that there is some assessment at that stage in terms of effectiveness. Audrey
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indicated that the budget presentation can contain anything the department wants,
whether factual or not.
Kathryn indicated that the review process is not a perfect system and asked for
suggestions.
Jan indicated that the units should be evaluated on whether they are providing service or
not…by soliciting input from other areas of campus.
Kathryn indicated that there is a need for better internal communication and that this
matter has been brought up with Barb Pollock.
She said that everything is resource-driven. There is never enough money, so the leaders
must manage expectations…manage them down to reduce expectations.
Other questions have been brought forward as well, such as “Why do some units charge
for services and some don’t? Some units are set up for cost recovery, while others
are funded to provide those services. However, Kathryn indicated that she
doesn’t know why it is that way.
When Kathryn was asked how the budget was going for this year, she indicated that at a
recent meeting with John Biss at Dept of Learning, John mentioned that he is
‘sleeping better at night now.” They took this as a positive sign!
1. Review of Agenda - no changes
2. Review of the Minutes of January 17, 2005 – no concerns
3. Business Arising from the Minutes - none
4. Update on Committee Activities
4.1 Finance/HR: Maureen Voss
From Financial/HR meeting on Monday, February 13, 2006:
We discussed ensuring that all U of R Employees have their UR e-mail address
set up in Banner. This point was taken to GASP.
We discussed adding UR e-mail addresses with a preferred status for all Alumni
Accounts which currently have no e-mail address. Finance/HR didn’t have any
issues with this.
We asked the Finance/HR Committee their opinion on whether expense claims
that are less than $75 should be paid through Direct Deposit, or continue to be
paid by Petty Cash. We decided we can probably give people a choice. The
expense claim form will be amended to reflect this choice. Also, while the form
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is being amended, we would like to make other improvements. An e-mail will be
sent out requesting feedback on how to improve the expense claim form.
A request has been made for Information Services to add the ability to add
comments in the Employee Management page of the new Electronic Timecard
System. This system is currently being tested by Science.
Concerns were brought forward to Information Services about the Information
Services Inventory System, specifically the number of errors in FOAPALs when
the file is received by Financial Services for upload, and the fact that this problem
may just be a symptom of larger problems surrounding the system.
4.2 Student Advisory Team: Rochelle Fenwick – no meeting, no report
4.3 GASP: Karen Shepherd
From GASP meetings on Wednesday, January 18, February 1 & 15:
• U of R Website - Information Services and Communications are in discussion
regarding how best to administer the U of R website and the resources required.
There is a Web Services Development page if you want to initiate a web project.
• Software Selection Criteria - the subcommittee established to review software
selection criteria continues to meet and will send a draft to the GASP committee
for review
• Banner 7 - testing has begun. The planned rollout date is June 2006
• GroupWise – the server hosting GroupWise has arrived. Information Services was
to review internally and then it was to be distributed to the Faculty of
Administration and Luther for testing. An e-mail went out to CATS members
requesting feedback on what individuals feel are important features to have in the
Email/Calendar software package (reference:
http://www.uregina.ca/compserv/training/email.htm
• Electronic timecards – have been implemented and are working well for Physical
Plant. The Faculty of Science was to use the web time cards this February. The
Library will be the next test site.
• U of Training – employees who are past students and new employees cannot
register via the web due to an admissions hold on the system. The Registrar’s
Office and Information Services are reviewing this to determine how to handle
this in an effective manner.
4.4 COACS: Sheila Potts – no meeting, no report
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4.5 Student Issues Committee: Raeanne Thompson
Registrar’s Update:
IntelliResponse: this new feature can be found on the U of R homepage under Ask U of
R. As of Feb 13, 2006, there had been a total of 3270 questions asked using this service
and 1606 distinct users on the system.
An update was given to the members regarding the upcoming Registrar’s Office
renovations. The main issue of concern was access to the files in the vault during the
renovation period. It is anticipated that access will be limited to once a day during this
time, therefore, faculties needing information on student files during this time will need
to request the information in advance. It is expected that a two-day turnaround will be
needed but a memo will be sent from the Registrar’s Office once this procedure has
been determined.
Concurrent Programs: report was made indicating that permit overrides will still need to
be entered during the upcoming registration period for courses within the students
secondary program. Work is ongoing to try and develop a solution to this issue on
BANNER.
Changes to Pre-Professional Programs
An update was given about some changes that are expected in the Pre-Optometry and
Pre-Physical Therapy programs. Changes will have to be reflected in the 2007
Undergraduate Calendar once the details are known.
The major concerns are that the U of S has indicated that they will not accept our KHS
168 course as the Anatomy pre-requisite for the Physical Therapy program. They have
indicated a 6 credit hour course from Athabasca University that students could take.
Jennifer Love-Green from KHS will contact U of S to discuss the situation further.
The second concern is that the Pre-Optometry program is moving to a 3 year
undergraduate program (currently a 2 year program). Within that three years, there are
two courses required that the University of Regina does not offer and equivalents are not
available through distant learning options that have been explored. For students starting
into the program this Fall, they will be told by the Advisors that they can complete their
first two years at the University of Regina and if they appear to have an academic
average high enough for continuation in the program, they will have to transfer to the
University of Waterloo to continue their undergraduate studies in order to apply to the
College of Optometry.
Professional Development
Discussions began surrounding a proposed professional development event on the U of
R campus for employees involved in the area of Student Services. The membership of
the Student Issues Committee will be forwarding their topic suggestions to Lori Peltier to
assist in the designing of the event.
The meeting concluded with a round table of updates from the various
faculties/departments represented.
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5. Other Business - none
6. Adjournment
Next Meeting: Tuesday, March 21, 2006
8:30 a.m.
Administration Humanities Boardroom, 5th Floor
Guest Speakers: Victor Thomas, URSA Student Union President,
and Greg Krätzig, Graduate Student Association President
(URGSA)
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