To date this academic year, the Council has increased its visibility with a presentation by Co-Chairs Su Karl and Laura Weare at Fall Convocation. And, with the Richmond Administration's encouragement, it has enhanced staff communication with the creation of a list-serve to complement the group's web site (www.humboldt.edu/~staff/.)
The 11-person council works on a system of self-nomination that makes joining easy. The aim is for the Council to grow to about 15 members, each of whom serves a two-year term. "More people need to be aware of the Council's existence," Weare says. "Active participation broadens your horizons of what's going on outside your own little cubicle. We forget there are a lot of really wonderful and interesting things going on on campus."
The Karl/Weare partnership marks the first time the Council has been led by co-chairs, one of the innovations intended to make the group more inclusive. HSU has about 500 staff, Karl notes, "and a larger membership would mean greater input and more ways of looking at issues. It would make the Council more democratic and more representative."
A bigger Council goes hand-in-hand with a more active role for staff in campus affairs and governance. Weare recalls, "In the past we handed out Welcome Baskets and voted on recognition award recipients and passed on committee information from year to year. Now we have a real roleour governance role has become meatier." The Council has representation on the Academic Senate, the Presidents Council, the University Budget Committee, and the Parking and Transportation Committee, among others. Council members have a vote in each of these forums, with the exception of the Academic Senate.
Staff also gets an ear these days from outside dignitaries who visit campus. When a CSU Trustee drops by, staff is included in the visit. Most recently, former HSU Provost Manuel Esteban conferred with Staff Council representatives when he sat down with various constituencies to evaluate the university's budget crisis and fiscal reforms.
Further, Council ideas will be part of the conversation Feb. 26 when a steering committee arrives on campus to gather feedback about the CSU systems new strategic plan, Access to Excellence, a six-pronged effort to bolster P-12 academic preparation and eliminate achievement gaps.
Staff Council shares brown bag lunches about once a month with President Richmond to talk over subjects of mutual concern in a casual atmosphere. It was these informal get-togethers that led to the creation of the list-serve and the realization that the Council needs to reach out to a wider audience with more channels of communication. "Dr. Richmond gave us the go-ahead to set up a new staff list-serve so that we can email virtually anybody when we need to get information out across-the-board," Weare said. "Word-of-mouth doesn't include everybody and not everyone really reads through the weekly University announcements on Fridays."
The Council also is expanding contact through an occasional Open Forum. "When we announce an Open Forum, it would be great if 50 or 75 people showed up instead of 20," Weare said. "Theres a contact link at staff@humboldt.edu to say, 'Hi, I'm interested in becoming a member of Staff Council,' and we will respond with the date, time and location of our next meeting, which is held the second Tuesday of every month, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon." Usually the Council gathers in SBS 405 for its regular meetings. The complementary Open Forums, which provide all staff an opportunity to make suggestions for Council initiatives, are held early in the fall semester.
If the Council achieves its goal of 15 members or more, the additional help would enable it to increase the frequency of its popular newsletter, the Staff Dispatch. When Karl and Weare canvassed opinion about whether to continue the publicationa shortage of help and time has limited it to an annual issuethe overwhelming response was "Yes". (Past dispatches are available at the web site).
Karl underscores that the Council represents a wide-ranging groupadministration, student affairs, plant operations, student services, and othersand has a mandate to help promote the mission of the university through staff representation in panels. "We advise and make recommendations to the President concerning staff issues that fall outside collective bargaining units, an important function."
Karl and Weare are sold on the usefulness of the Council and its impact. "There is no question that staff involvement in the Council improves morale," Karl affirms, and the way the group functions makes it fun and easy to be a member. "Staff Council is not set in stone; we don't have official rules and regulations about how we operate. We capitalize on internal flexibility, so that when we talk with the President we feel as though we have a pretty good idea of what the 500 staff on this campus might think, but more participation would help us better represent staff. Our recent Open Forum was a huge advance in this way."
All-new HSU Service Pins for 10-and 20-year staff members are planned in the not-too-distant future. "The new pins will increase campus awareness of staff's indispensable contributions to HSU's mission and goals," Weare said. "I hope staff will enjoy this new University symbol of appreciation. Many different members of Staff Council spent years guiding the idea toward reality."