Wednesday,
December 11, 2002
9-11a.m. – 429 Law, Portland
I. ATTENDANCE:
The meeting was called to order at 9:09 am by Senate Chair, Rodney Mondor.
Present: Daniel Axford, Julie Archibald, Donna Bird, Norma
Charette, Dana Gray, Eric James, Pat Marston, Susan Martin, Rodney Mondor, Kathleen
Pease, Nolan Thompson, Colleen White; Guests: Steve Rand, Dewey Ferguson
Excused: Robin Day, Casandra Fitzherbert, Kim-Marie Martin,
Michael Mullett, Elaine O’Reilly, Pamela Roy, Kerry Sullivan, Lisa Yaeger
II. ACCEPTANCE OF NOVEMBER 13, 2002 MINUTES: Minutes from the meeting were approved.
III. PRESIDENT’S OFFICE REPORT: No report; Rosa Redonnett was excused this meeting.
IV. EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE:
a. Treasurer’s Report- Eric reported
that there is $662.31 in the account. A discussion took place about the charge
from last spring’s luncheon (approx. $400), as the monies were charged
to the account in this fiscal year, even though they were used last May. Eric
will contact Aramark to get more information on the billing process and why
it wasn’t charged last fiscal year.
b. Communications/Website Committee- No report
V. NEW
BUSINESS:
a. Guest Speakers- Steve Rand, Registrar and Dewey Ferguson,
Parking and Transportation Manager spoke about the upcoming changes in parking.
Construction is slated to begin December 23, 2002. The 15 Surrenden Street building
will be demolished on or about that date. The construction of the parking garage
is slated to begin in late January. The first step of construction is clearing
away the dirt and debris and then driving 200-250 pilings into the ground. This
will also start sometime in late January.
The majority of the Bedford Street lot will be closed. 375-400 out of 550 spots
will be closed during the first stages of the construction.
Parking Options:
Marginal Way – 300 spaces will be available for USM. There will buses
which run every 15 minutes starting at 7am and running through until 10:05pm.
You will need a sticker to park in this lot; however the sticker is free and
can be obtained from the USM Police parking office.
Baxter Boulevard – there are 107 spaces leased on this property. This
lot is open to all faculty, staff and students with valid USM parking stickers.
There are no shuttles provided from this lot to campus.
Sam’s Club satellite lot – this lot is located at the corner of
Payne Road and Gorham Road. There are 209 spaces that will be serviced by the
Portland to Gorham shuttle. You will not need a sticker to park in this lot.
Plans are still being finalized on details such as signage and parking space
locations within the lot.
The Metro – USM will provide free, 10-ride tickets and free monthly passes
for faculty, staff and students to use the Metro from the Park and Ride lots
at Pride’s Corner and at the Legion Hall on Route 25. These can be obtained
at the USM Police parking office.
Portland to Gorham Shuttle – park in Gorham and take the shuttle to the
Portland campus. There are currently no plans to increase the number of shuttles
between campuses. Dewey added that the shuttle service does give him numbers
on a weekly basis of how many people used the shuttle during each run, so they
can evaluate usage and act on it using these numbers.
Steve Rand encouraged everyone to park in Gorham and use the shuttle to go to
Portland. Other advice was to schedule meetings in Gorham, preferably in the
later part of the afternoon or early in the morning in Portland (prior to 10am).
There will be other changes in the spring due to the new parking situation.
1. All parking lots on the Portland campus will be open to students.
2. There will be 2 lots on campus that will be restricted to students only;
Woodbury Center Lot and 11 Baxter Blvd. lot next to the Student Senate building.
3. Work schedule change for employees. Employees can choose to work from 7-3:30
so lots will be freed up for 4:00 classes. Employees can talk to their supervisors
for more information. This schedule is in effect for 2003. Steve added that
according to the traffic study, even 15-20 people using this new schedule will
make a difference at 4:00 class times.
There will also be vanpool and carpool services offered. For more information please visit:
http://www.usm.maine.edu/commuter/transporation
or contact Sarah Wolpow at sarah.wolpow@maine.edu.
The Free Press reported that there will be a carpool area at the Steego Building.
Steve Rand reported the carpool area has not been approved at this time.
There was discussion about placing blown up maps in lounges/student centers to help everyone figure out where they can park.
Rodney reminded us that if there is a problem with a shuttle (not enough seats, shuttle leaves before its scheduled time) that these problems should be reported to Dewey Ferguson with as many details as possible. These details should include: day, date, time, campus, and the issue.
Dewey added that there are currently 6 shuttle runs a day from Portland to Gorham on which people have to stand. It was noted that it is legal for people to stand on the shuttle. There is also a shift change that normally occurs at 3:00pm, so people waiting may see the driver may drop off the riders, then leave. There is another driver/shuttle coming for the next scheduled pick up.
A question was raised regarding the safety of vehicles at Marginal Way. Steve Rand noted that the parking lot is patrolled regularly by USM Police as well as Portland Police.
Steve Rand reported that 20-25 spaces will be gained sometime at the beginning of the spring semester. The remaining spaces are scheduled to open in approximately April.
Portland Hall Shuttle – non-Portland Hall residents would normally pay a fee to ride this shuttle. Due to the changes in parking on the USM campus, the fee will be waived for non-Portland Hall residents until the lot is back up. Non residents can ride the shuttle with the understanding that Portland Hall residents will have priority seating. ID’s will be checked.
Mandatory student parking fees were charged starting this past fall semester. They will be $45 for the fall semester, $45 for the spring semester and $30 for the summer.
For up-to-date parking information, please visit http://www.usm.maine.edu/parking.
b. Susan Martin motioned to contribute $250 each year to the Employee Development Day fund. Dana second the motion and the motion was passed. Rodney will notify Hillary Crossman and will get the funds transferred.
c. Eric informed the group that employees who have a state.me.us email addresses will be changing to maine.gov addresses. These are mainly people who work for Muskie in Augusta.
VI. COMMITTEE REPORTS/UPDATES:
ByLaw
Committee: No Report
Election Committee: Donna Bird reported that an online voting
system will not be created in the near future, if at all. This will be discussed
in more detail at the January meeting.
Combined Staff Senate Feasibility Committee: Dana Gray reported
that the largest issue facing the committee is how it would be possible to combine
2 senates that have different mission statements and focuses. The mission statement
of the Classified Senate has a different focus than that of the Professional
Senate, and the committee needs to revisit how it would be possible to join
the senates given this difference.
Board of Visitors: Rodney Mondor reported Bailey Hall bond issues were discussed
and the legislative group is putting effort into reaching out to USM alums to
gain support for the University. He also noted that the Chancellor has been
very supportive of USM.
VII. SENATE
REPORTS (previously viii)
Classified Staff Senate: Kathleen Pease reported that the Bob
Caswell presented the USM branding presentation. The senate decided to donate
$250 to the Bruce Roberts Fund this holiday season.
Faculty Senate: No Report
Student Senate: Kathleen Pease reported that they will be attending
a leadership conference in Texas at the end of February.
VIII. OLD
BUSINESS (previously vii)
Goals and Objectives of ProSen
Goals 1, 2, 3 and 7 were completed during the August 2002 meeting, and can be
viewed on line at http://www.usm.maine.edu/prosen/archives.htm.
Members of the
senate were broken up into 3 groups and given the task of brainstorming ways
of achieving the goals set forth:
Goal 4) Collect Information to/from and disseminate info to other
staff
action 1) Use the ProSen and USM-L listservs to disseminate and
collect information from other staff.
action 2) Add a “suggestions box” on the ProSen
web site so people can get information, comments and suggestions to the ProSen.
action 3) Use the phone distribution list system to send voicemails
to Professional Staff, which highlight points of interest from that month’s
senate meeting, then directs them to the web site to get more information. There
would need to be a designated person(s) on other campuses (LAC/August…)
who could do a distribution list on their phone systems.
Goal 5) Make connections with Augusta, Lewiston/Auburn Campus, and Muskie
action
1) Conduct a survey of the number of Professional Staff there are per
unit and how many of these are from Muskie/Augusta/LAC. Talk to the Dean of
Muskie regarding the addition of seats in the senate that would be reserved
for Muskie employees – make the seats based on the percentage of Muskie
employees that make up the prof. staff. The bylaws would need to be updated
and the increase or decrease in Muskie staff would need to be evaluated.
action 2) Conduct more business via the ProSen listserv. Make
sure prof. staff are aware that they can be a part of the listserv even though
they are not on the senate.
action 3) Host an open house senate meeting in Augusta. Invite
prof. staff to the meeting. The bylaws would need to be changed so we could
meet somewhere other than Gorham or Portland.
Goal
6) Positive relationships with administration
action 1) Keep attending Board of Visitors meetings.
action 2) Have administrative staff rotate who comes to our
meetings.
action 3) Have someone from the senate attend the President’s
staff meetings on occasions.
action 4) Have *active* professional senate staff members at
various committee meetings, such as Parking and UPBAC. People representing us
must come to a meeting to report on their committee.
action 5) Have senators attend University functions. Have badges
for senators to wear at functions.
IV. MEETING ADJOURNED at 11:07am by Senate Chair, Rodney Mondor
Reported by: Julie Archibald, Co-Secretary
Next meeting: January 8, 2003, 9:30am to 11:30am – Husky Hut, Gorham
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