MEETING MINUTES

LOCAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE (LOC)

CENTER FOR HIGHER EDUCATION AT UNIVERSITY PLACE IN IDAHO FALLS

Thursday, November 14, 2002

 

Present:  Ann Meikle-Howell, Bob Stiger, Jennifer Fisher, Larry Branen, Sharon Montgomery, Carol Baldwin, Leo Herrman

 

Guests:   Joy Fisher, Jim Fullerton, Greg Horton, Ray Hart, Carol Spain, Rob Spear, Connie Gomez

 

ITEM 1:  Approval of Minutes – Bob moved that the October 10, 2002 minutes be approved with two corrections.  The motion was seconded by Sharon and motion carried. 

 

ITEM 2:  Call for Additional Agenda Items – Meeting with Presidents, WGU and Security.

 

ITEM 3:  Student Activities Update

EVENTS:

  • 51 people gave to the blood drive; the Red Cross will be back on January 22, 2003. 
  • 150 children came to the Halloween Carnival; the food collected was given to the Migrant Council.
  • There were 36 attendees at the Honor Bell lecture. 
  • There were 18 contestants for the Halloween costume contest. 
  • 20 students came to listen to the ASISU Senate.
  • Flu shots are available for $7.00.
  • The new grill has arrived, it will be used during finals week.
  • The Toucan mascot costume has not arrived, it should be here by January 6th in time for first week of spring semester.  You can Toucan will be used to promote events on campus.

 

ITEM 4:  Use of CHE 206C – Bob wanted to bring to the attention of the LOC that EIFIT is bringing in equipment in for a Honeypot.  A meeting with Cory Schou is planned to discuss room usage.  Jennifer explained that Cory is willing to be cooperative, however he is concerned due to some sensitive materials in the room.  Cory is worried about security; he wanted to work with Steve Chatterton and Greg Horton.  Bob state that the initial impression was that 206C was going to be used as a classroom and Cory feels that the room is a research lab.  Therefore, the key issue is to resolve the nature of the room. 

 

ITEM 5: Parking Lot Update – Greg spoke with James Martin and was told there was no workstudy money left for this fiscal year.  Jennifer stated she would reallocate money to cover the salary for a workstudy to issue parking permit violations.  Greg stated if there were no workstudy funds available, the cost to pay 100% of a student worker salary would be approximately $2,500.  Therefore, with a 70% reimbursement from workstudy funds would cost approximately $750.  The hours would be 3 hours per night, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 32 weeks per year.   

 

ITEM 6:  Parking Permits – Bob stated that it was discovered that the Tech Library was issuing visitor parking permits that were not dated.  People who received these blank permits were filling them out for one month and using them after the library was closed.  The library will no longer issue blank permits, and their permits will have library stamped on them.  One issue that has arisen out of this is that the parking regulations do not specifically state that a visitor permit is only good for one week, so the next time the parking committee meets that needs to be addressed.  Also, any visitor parking permit used after the library has closed will be issued a parking ticket.  Some of the patrons have complained that they have to come in get a parking permit, then return to their car to put the parking permit on the dash of their car.  Fred Gunnerson has approached Bob to have blank permits given to the guards at Willow Creek to be issued there.  Conversations are continuing, but giving out blank parking permits to the guards was not a good idea.  Another suggestion that is to be addressed is possibly changing the visitor parking area that is up by the Tech Library to Visitor/Technical Library.  This would allow patrons of the library to not have to move their vehicle after arriving here.  Tony Patterson brought to Steve Porter’s attention that there was no policy for enforcing outstanding tickets for non-students.  In Pocatello letters are sent out to people that they are going to be towed.  Steve received a copy of one of these letters sent to a person here in Idaho Falls who had put in an appeal and was granted the appeal.  This letter appears to be a form letter from ISU and this procedure needs to be looked at to keep the ISU computers from generating a letter for someone here in Idaho Falls.

 

ITEM 7:  ISU Commuter Bus – Bob went out one Monday and talked to the students who rode the bus.  The conclusion that Bob came to was that the data is inclusive.  He figures that somewhere between 8 to 14 spaces are being used each day.  The question was raised again of whom are we servicing.  Ann brought up that this needs to be weighed against the outside event that occur that impact the parking as well.  It is recognized that there will never be enough parking. Bob agreed that we need to take a closer look at student services.  Do we service students who are riding the bus to take advantage of taking classes in both Pocatello and Idaho Falls, or do we service the students who buy a parking permit and cannot find a place to park.  Ray brought up that there is a liability issue of having students on campus waiting to catch the bus at 6:00 a.m.  In order to have the sidewalks clean, and lights on, maintenance crews have to come in earlier and this will have an additional impact on budgets.  Bob suggested that an effort be made when the fall scheduling begins to spread out the classes more evenly, in an effort to reduce the peak impacts that vary from day to day.  This group has not come to an agreement that University Place is a good stop for the commuter bus.     ACTION ITEM:  In the spring evaluate the impact on parking with the buses stopping here.  Ray will evaluate the impact on facilities and bring the data back.

 

ITEM 8: Meeting with The Presidents  – Discussions were held with regard to the master plan; CST; EITC agreement, which was signed; approved the EAP; endorsed the recommendation that Jim McFadden be the chair of the Idaho Falls Advisory Council; the importance of spending time on programming issues.  What kinds of joint programs can be offered?  How important it is to review the memorandum of understanding, from time to time and especially review the document with new people.  A discussion ensued that locally the leaders would be required to manage the center with the master plan as a backdrop.  The master plan will be presented to the Presidents meeting for adoption.  The recommendation to the presidents was to form a standing subcommittee consisting of the Director of ISU, Dean of UI, Facilities Administrator, Director – ISU Physical Plant, and Assistant Vice President Facilities.  This committee would address issues relating to implementing and/or changes to the master plan after it is adopted and makes recommendations to the LOC for approval or tells us that it should go to the presidents for approval.  A report on the diversity plan that the Advisory Council has been working on and the actions and activities that the group has taken, was also given to the presidents.  The parking lot changes were approved.  Meeting minutes will be made available that will show the action items and the information items that the presidents agreed to.  Larry brought up that Brian Pitcher wanted some clarification on the name of the center.  The agreement lists the name as the ISU/UI Center for Higher Education at University Place in Idaho Falls.  The memo of understanding should be cleaned up slightly to accurately reflect the activities here in Idaho Falls.  Greg asked what impact that the EITC agreement would have on the center.  Ann stated that at this time there would be no impacts, as the parking and library issues have yet to be addressed.

 

ITEM 9: WGU – Ann reviewed the letter that was sent to us by WGU and she spoke with them.  She did find out that there would not be a large impact made on the student services, the tests are very easy to administer and they will pay us $10 to $15 per test.  All the paperwork has been filled out and returned.  Larry said it would be a good idea for us to become more active as an assessment center.

 

ITEM 10: Adjourn – Carol moved that the meeting be adjourned, Bob seconded, motioned carried and meeting was adjourned until Thursday, December 5th.