Greetings from the Senate of Academic Staff. I am Dennis Shaw and this is the third year I have had the honor to chair our senate. We are one of three governance groups on campus (along with the Stout Student Association and the Faculty Senate). There are two categories of Academic Staff on campus, the first is Instructional Academic Staff which would include Lecturers and Researchers, and the other is Professional Academic Staff, which would include everyone from librarians, financial aid counselors, residence hall directors and the like to department supervisors and administrators.
We are fortunate on the Stout campus to have a Chancellor and administration that has embraced Baldrige principles and believes in shared governance. All three of our senates are given opportunities to participate in almost every decision made on campus.
One of the most recent opportunities was this summer when we joined many others from campus, community leaders, legislators, business and education leaders, and from your board at the Chancellor’s 2015 Visioning Session this summer. I’m looking forward to the next step in the process which is to present the themes from the retreat at campus listening sessions. Our Senate’s listening session is next week.
Our senate expects to be busy again this year with tight state budget issues (which usually results in Academic Staff trying to do more with less), staff upset that the state cut our promised 2% raise in half in July, working out how we can provide some more contract security particularly for instructional academic staff, and I’m sure there will be a number of decisions we will be involved with as the campus continues to move forward.
Let me close by saying that again this year I attended the scholarship reception and program which always gets me energized about the new year. I want to thank the Foundation and the Alumni Association for your continued support of the institution and especially for your caring about these fine students. I hope you also have time to stick around for the football game and interact with students at that event also.
Thanks again for inviting me to visit with you again today!
Dennis Shaw, 2008-2009 Chair
Senate of Academic Staff
