Olivia Medovich
Staff-writer
Staff Congress met for their monthly meeting Wednesday in the Applied Science building.
Gina Winchester, staff congress president, presided over the meeting.
Special guest included Marie Jones, the first elected Staff Regent. Jones was present to draw three names for the Marie Jones Text Book scholarship.
Josh Jacobs, chief of staff, welcomed the congress back. He discussed three imperative issues, the recent proposed Kentucky state budget from Gov. Steve Beshear, the possibility of students having to purchase a city sticker and the upcoming Presidential Lecture.
In the governor’s outlined budget proposal there is a 6.4 percent cut to secondary and postsecondary education, Jacobs said. That would equal around $3.5 million for Murray State for the coming fiscal year.
City officials have been working on ideas to generate revenue through the city sticker involving students, Jacobs said. There was a city council meeting was last Thursday, where a proposal was tabled from Mayor Bill Wells regarding students being required to purchase the sticker.
There will be a meeting held on Thursday with students, Mark Welch, town and gown director, and the mayor to discuss the city sticker, he said.
Jacobs said the Presidential Lecture will be held Feb. 13 James and Mary
Don Robertson, vice president of student affairs, said the Office of Student Affairs is working with students who are on academic probation or warning so they can intervene and move them towards graduation.
He said Student Affairs is in the final stages of hiring a new director of retention. The person chosen will be in charge of leading the efforts to keep students enrolled.
On Feb. 9 there will be an omitted student open house in the Curris Center Ball Room, Robertson said.
Phil Schooley, staff regent, presented the results from the MSU Staff Perspective Survey 2011 to the congress.
Schooley said the results will be presented to the Board of Regents for the evaluation of the president.
Gina Winchester, president of staff congress, introduced a letter of support for the president’s evaluation on behalf of staff congress, which will be presented to the Board of Regents. The letter reflects the results of the staff survey.
Orville Herndon, staff leader for the credentials and elections committee, discussed the election timeline for Staff Congress.
Elections will be held March 13-15 with an online voting process, Herndon said.
The next Staff Congress meeting will be held at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 15 in the CTLT Applied Science Building.
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