Meeting of the Winthrop University Board of Trustees

June 7-8, 2012
Gold Room, DiGiorgio Center
Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC

 

Members present: Dalton Floyd (Chair), Karl Folkens,  Jane LaRoche, Kathy Bigham Susan Smith-Rex, Bob Thompson, Donna Tinsley-Holley, Frances Davenport, Glenn McCall, Tim Hopkins, Don Long,  Scott Talley, Anthony J. DiGiorgio (ex officio).

Members absent: Tim Sease, Janet Smalley

Representatives present: Christopher Aubrie, Student Representative; Cliff Calloway, Faculty Representative

Representatives absent: None

Others present: Faculty and staff of Winthrop University, David Thackham of The Johnsonian,
Nicole Smith of the Herald.

The Board of Trustees met on Thursday, June 7 and Friday, June 8, 2012 on the campus of Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC.

 

Call to Order

Chair Floyd called the meeting to order at 4:12 p.m. on June 7.

 

Report of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Board

Chair Floyd reported that the Executive Committee had met on campus on May 23, 2012.  Several matters were reviewed and discussed.  The materials from the meeting have been forwarded to each of members of the Board.   Chair floyd asked that the Board consider a number of resolutions for meritorious service:

A Resolution Honoring Ms. Frances Davenport for Meritorious Service to Winthrop University Board of Trustees was put before the Board.  Ms. Davenport served the Board for six years as the representative elected by the Alumni Association.  The resolution was considered and discussed.  The vote was unanimous to accept the resolution.

Bob Thompson made a motion for the Board to move into Executive Session, Don Long seconded. The Board met in executive session for the purpose of the contractual and personnel matter of reviewing the recommendations of the Executive Committee on the performance evaluation of President DiGiorgio.  Glenn McCall moved the Board return to public session with no actions taken. The motion was seconded by Sue Smith-Rex.  The motion passed unanimously by voice vote.  At that time, the meeting was recessed with continuation planned for the afternoon of June 8.

As there were no requests made for public comments, the meeting continued on June 8, 2012 at 1:00 p.m.in the Gold Room of the DiGiorgio Campus Center.

 

Approval of Board Minutes of April 13, 2012

Karl Folkens made a motion to approve the minutes from the meeting of April 13, 2012. The motion seconded by Tim Hopkins. The minutes were approved unanimously as presented.

Report of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Board

Chair Floyd reported that the Executive Committee had met on campus on May 23, 2012.  Several matters were reviewed and discussed.  The materials from the meeting have been forwarded to each of members of the Board.  

Chair Floyd then asked that the Board consider a number of resolutions from the Executive Committee pertaining to the performance evaluation and contract of President DiGiorgio.  As the resolutions were from a standing committee, no seconds were needed.

Based upon the recommendation of the Executive Committee of the Board and input from the Faculty Representative to the Board as well as individual Trustees, the Executive Committee recommended the President receive an "Exceeds Expectations" evaluation. The Resolution Regarding Performance Evaluation of President Anthony J. DiGiorgio passed unanimously.

 

Report of the Committee on Academic Affairs

The next order of business was the report of the Academic Affairs Committee.  After reminding the Board that each has received a complete set of briefing notes from all of the committees, Chair Smalley reviewed the progress made on the Dacus Library renovations.  The Library staff has created a webpage update and an ongoing blog to document the renovations as they progress throughout the summer.

From the College of Arts and Sciences are preparations for a special course on Presidential Nominating Conventions.  In addition to the course is a 3 day weekend experience for Winthrop students and faculty as well as students from other universities in the State. The experience will include visits to the National Democratic Convention in Charlotte as well as presentations from delegates to both the National Republican Convention as well as the National Democratic Convention. 

From the College of Visual and Performing Arts was a report on the first ever "Winthrop Arts Crawl." The event featured performances, rehearsals, studio tours, and public arts displays. 

The NetLEAD and NetSCOPE summer conferences are planned for early June.  Approximately 150 team members from districts throughout the State will attend. 

The College of Business Administration inaugurated the Whitton Best Practices speaker series this spring.  The purpose is to provide low or no cost educational and professional development training for small business owners.  Special thanks to Ms. Elaine Whitton Davis for the financial support for this program. 

Thanks to support from the Office of Records and Registration we have registered for the Yellow Ribbon Program, a Veterans Affairs Benefits program for non-resident students to off-set out of state tuition.

University College has sponsored FERPA training as well as purchased and distributed Magnetic Card Swipes to the Math Lab, CBA Resource room, the Writing Center, and the Student Athlete Study Center to track usage and analyze outcomes.  Special thanks to Dr. Cheryl Fortner-Woods for her work in the TRiO grant application.  We expect to hear the outcome of the grant application in late September.


Report of the Committee on Finance  

Committee Chair Karl Folkens reported on the review of the 2012-13 preliminary Allocation Status Report that included the projected additional new year commitments and revenues.  Revenue projections were increased for the proposed fee increase and other potential revenue sources including the nonrecurring deferred maintenance funding in the pending legislation.

Chair Folkens brought forth a resolution from the Committee on Finance setting a 2.9% increase in tuition and fees for the 2012-13 academic year.  As this resolution is from a standing committee no second was needed.  The resolution passed unanimously.

 

Report of the Committee on Advancement and Development

Committee Chair Bob Thompson updated the Board on the trends for Fall 2012 enrollment.  At this point, trends look to remain positive with the number of admitted students up by 8.6%.  Likewise, the transfer admittance total is at an 8.3% increase over last year at this time.  Chair Thompson did caution that these numbers are in accepted students not in enrolled students.  The number of enrolled students will not be known until final counts in September.

Changes have been made to staffing in the University Development and Alumni Relations division as a way to ensure maximum effectiveness and stewardship of staff within the division.  Further refinements to the staffing structure are expected over the next two months. 

Distinction: The Campaign for Winthrop gifts to date total $36,378,652 which is 72.8% of the campaign goal of $50,000,000. 

A target analytics function was installed with Raiser's Edge, the fund development database, providing ratings on 100,000 records and wealth ratings on the top 50,000 records. 

 

Report of the Committee on Student Life

Committee Chair Kathy Bigham reviewed the progress of the athletes' Spring GPA Report.  The overall GPA is 3.13 with 61% of student athletes receiving a semester GPA of 3.0 or higher.  The athletes contributed nearly 3,200 hours of community service during this past academic year.  Several seniors received prestigious awards including Matt Horn, Becca Toor, Courtney Durbin, Katie Bolling, Carole, Reda, Guy Kubi, and Kaitlyn Rubino.

The Big South Conference held its annual Spring meetings a few weeks ago. A highlight of the meeting was the induction of Jason Colson, former baseball player, and Gregg Marshall, former men's basketball coach, into the Hall of Fame. 

Chair Bigham the reported on the activities of the Student Life division, specifically their work to refine the student conduct code as it relates to harassment and/or intimidation.  All of the code has been revised in light of the new Title IX requirements. 

 

Board Officer Elections

As the next order of business, Chair Floyd temporarily turned the meeting over to Karl Folkens for the purpose of the election of the Board officers for academic year 2012-3.  Nominating Committee Chair Bob Thompson along with Mr. Tim Hopkins and Dr. Jane LaRoche brought forth the recommendation of Dalton Floyd for Chair and Kathy Bigham for Vice Chair.  Both agreed to serve if elected.  Scott Talley moved the slate be accepted, Donna Tinsley-Holley seconded.  The election was unanimous.  The new officers will assume their duties on July 1, 2012.

 

Report of the Chair of Faculty Conference

Dr. Cliff Calloway reported on the good progress made by the faculty in reviewing the general education requirements for our students.  New classes have been added while others deleted in an effort to update the requirements.  The College of Education deserves special mention for the work they did in revamping their program to fit the needs of teachers currently in the field. 

The Faculty Conference website has been updated to be in accordance with the CMS system and is wealth of information in an easy to access format for faculty. 

Individually, faculty are now revising how they report their own annual service and research to match the new Roles and Rewards adopted by the faculty.  In the next few months, faculty will be asked to use Digital Measures, a software program that will permit the easy recording of faculty work.

 

Report of the President of the Council of Student Leaders (CSL)

Mr. Christopher Aubrie, vice president of the Council of Student Leaders, gave the report to the Board.  He reviewed plans for the annual retreat to be held on September 14-16.  The then spoke of the nation leadership conference to be held at Villa Nova University and to be attended by a number of our CSL representatives. 

Mr. Aubrie then reported on a number of initiatives and accomplishments of the CSL during the past academic year.  Most impressive was the voter registration initiative resulting in more than 500 new voters registered.  The CSL plans to pursue this initiative into the next semester in preparation for the national, state, and local elections to be held in November. 

 

Report of the President

The president began his report by thanking the faculty and staff for the exceptional work they did in this academic year.  He made particular mention of the good work in the area of Undergraduate Research under the direction of Dr. Dwight Dimaculangan.

The president briefly spoke of the Executive Officer retreats to be held in June for the purpose of closing out the previous Vision of Distinction and crafting the new Vision of Distinction for the upcoming academic year. 

 

Old Business

None

New Business

None

Adjournment

Hearing no objections, Chair Floyd adjourned the meeting at 2:11 pm

Minutes submitted by Kimberly Faust, Secretary to the Board