August 10, 2021

The meeting was called to order by Diann Brodnax, President, at 10:03am.  Roll was taken by Diann Brodnax via the TEAMS participant list.  A quorum was present.

Officer present: Diann Brodnax, Dimples Jones

Members present: Stephanie Allen, Ashley Glenn, Stacie Granger, Paula Gregory, Alicia Hargreaves, Sharlene Hatch, Charlotte Holliman, Johnny Jarrell, Chrissy Jones, Karen Kessinger, Candice Moore, Jenny Mutz, Albertine Rideau, J T Robertson, Sharon Sanders, Ashley Sheehan, Julie Walker, Jon-Michael Wallace

The minutes for the July 2021 meeting were approved via email vote.

Committee Reports:

Executive Meeting: No report. However, Diann did attend the monthly Provost lunch.  The lunch includes the Provost, president of Faculty Senate, the president of Staff Council, and the president of Council of Instructional Departments (CID). The university president will begin attending these monthly lunches, too.

Community Service Committee: Stacie Granger announced the following:

• Food drive to restock the Cardinal Pantry 8/30 – 9/17
  • An announcement will be put in the Weekly Campus announcements
  • Take pics when you make a donation and submit it to Staff Council for a chance to win some LU swag
  • Dimples announced that the LU Bookstore would accept a PO from Lamar and that we would just need to pick out what we wanted, and they would set it aside
  • We are waiting on approval from Finance to process the PO. If not approved, Diann suggested that the Staff Council members donate a few dollars each to go towards the purchase of the swag prize.
• VFW Lids for Benches – this was given under the Staff Relations report by Paula Gregory and Alicia Hargreaves
  • The campus is partnering with Pepsi to collect plastic lids for benches. Many cities in Texas do not allow the homeless to sleep on park benches.  100 pounds of lids will make one bench.
  • Alicen Flosi (Director of Sustainability) is also on-board with collecting these lids. As a timeline is more defined, Alicia will notify the Council members and send out a flyer to be used in our buildings.
  • The dining hall has also agreed to collect lids.

Staff Relations Committee: Paula made the following announcements:

• E1 Parking Lot
  • Bert Wager (guest at Staff Relations Committee meeting 8/5/21) addressed the E1 Parking Lot issues
    • The roofing materials are being moved to another location.
    • The contractor fence will be moved back significantly.
    • The southeast corner of the lot will be repaired.
    • The equipment will be removed from the lot.
    • The entry gate arm will be re-installed by the end of the week.
    • The lot will revert back to a reserved, gated lot for the start of the Fall semester.
  • ADA vs Wheelchair Accessibility
    • Kyle Mutz (guest at Staff Relations Committee meeting 8/5/21) was glad to partner with the Staff Relations Committee in addressing the ADA issues on campus.
  • While the bathrooms are ADA compliant, they are not all wheelchair accessible.
  • There is good verbiage in the new strategic plan addressing accessible issues (doors, bathrooms, sidewalks).
    • Per Diann, Dr. Brenda Nichols stated that the covered walkways were torn down due to structural concerns and will not be replaced. Also, the covering over the key gates is on the list, but it is very expensive and not high in priority.

Nominations Committee: Diann gave the following report:

• The committee is reaching out to those Council members who have missed 4 or more meetings to see if they still want to serve.
• Once they have all been contacted, if there are any openings, a notice will be sent out for nominations.
• Nominations can be made by either the person wanting to serve or by another person.

Bylaws Committee:  Stacie Granger gave the following report:

• Still working on the Diversity Committee description
• Looking over the Bylaws for any revisions that need to be made

Ad Hoc Committee:  Sharlene reported that the committee is creating a satisfaction survey and will have more details at the next Staff Council meeting.

Old Business:  There was no old business.

New Business: The following items were discussed:

• Diversity Strategic Plan
• Bello-Ogunu will be our guest speaker at the September Staff Council meeting. He plans to discuss the Diversity Strategic Plan with Council members and will ask our input on the plan.
• All Council members are asked to RSVP to the September meeting in order to ensure that enough copies of the plan are available.
• August Staff Council Meetings
  • There was discussion regarding moving the August meeting.
• Stacie made a motion to move the August meeting to the 1^st Tuesday of the month.
• Paula seconded the motion.
• The motion passed and the August meeting will now be held on the 1^st Tuesday of August.
• Staff Council Meetings
• In-person vs TEAMS Staff Council meetings:
• In-person only
• TEAMS only
• Combination of in-person and TEAMS (at the same time)
• In-person, but with contingency for TEAMS
• Meetings with guest speakers – in-person
• Summer meetings – TEAMS
• No formal decision was reached at this time.
• Diann asked that all Council members relay any pertinent information to her or the other officers so that an informed decision regarding the Council meetings can be made.
• Possible Guest Speakers
• President and First Lady Taylor
• Provost Brenda Nichols
• VP Jeremy Alltop – Finance and Operations
• VP Anthony Sanchez – Human Resources
• Director Wilma Jackson – Diversity and Inclusion
• Director Alicen Flosi – Sustainability
• Diann asked that Council members submit names of other possible speakers.

Good of the Order:  No report.

The next Staff Council meeting will be September 14, 2021, at 10:00am in the Reaud Event Center.

Stacie moved to adjourn the meeting and Sharlene seconded the motion.

There being no further business, Diann Brodnax adjourned the meeting at 10:39am.

Stephanie Allen