The governor is here for the actual board meeting which is getting started a few minutes late due to a photo op for the trustees; in fact he just walked by me on his way to the front of the room and I decided not to reach out my hand to get him to shake it, the way a bunch of others did.
Bill Carroll, trustee emeritus, is now talking about his memories of being a trustee, after hearing a flattering pronouncement in his honor.
Another former trustee, Andrea J. Loughry, is being pronounced as great and in fact, from Trenton Peabody HS. Her list of accomplishment/merit is quite long and impressive. She will make a few remarks once the list is read.
She is an engaging presence…well-worded remarks. Five things we need to take giant steps toward:
(1) reform our sunshine law to grant us opportunity for some HR executive session decision meetings
(2) outstanding UT alumni – should be eligible to serve as well
(3) efficiency and effectiveness become part of our system’s DNA at the staff level
(4) remember our charge is for stewardship for our entire state, not just locally
(5) each of you is held to a higher standard, should participate on a donor level, to ask other members to
Dr. DiPietro is now speaking to give the President’s report
He is giving us both a pictorial and verbal tour of his first year in office.
The lottery task force report is now his theme…I am not sure when the changes will occur, but in November we will know more about how much higher the requirements will be raised; one idea, he says 21 ACT and 3.0 GPA will likely be the new requirement
He is now chronicling how many anniversaries the system has seen this past year.
He also said people are 70% to 75% of our budget.
Compensation advisory board (the Simpson Company consulting), he says that we are at 78% of the market median for staff and 87% across faculty (I think he said) across the system.
Compensation has been a major focus so far
Engagement survey will happen next month
Future: budget hearing on Nov 15, 2011, with governor Haslam. He guesses we will have a lean to tight year again, so we will have to deal with that. Our building problems will need to be dealt with.
CCTA outcomes will be used to justify building completion over coming years.
We hope to be able to give a multi-year perspective to our students on what they can expect to pay during their time on our campus.
He is on facebook and on tweeter. He can be followed at UT President on twitter and on FB. He said he started by emailing tweets to Hank Dye, until Hank finally started to tweet.
It is a privilege and a joy to be your President
We need to be proud of our public service and outreach, this is an important part of what we do.
He is committed to advancing the University.
Cheek is introducing the new athletics director, Dave Hart, twenty years as ECU and FSU. Visionary and true leader, nationally.
Athletics are not the most important, just the most visible part of a university
He has been here only five weeks. He has spent time sitting one on one
People are our best commodity
Keith Carver is now updating us on the ongoing Strategic-Planning efforts.
When then heard from the new AD.
We also had approval of the new VP for Development who has a salary of $290,000 per year and a few other perqs.
We are now working through a group of resolutions pertaining to the budget, capital outlays.
We did that a little while and then adjourned. This was certainly a shorter meeting than the one in June past.
