Present: Tom Andre, Jan Brown, Letha DeMoss, Heidi Eichorn, Bev Kruempel, Morey MacDonald, Betty Rasmussen, John Schuh, Pam White (Convenor), Laurie Youmans
Excused: Lee Alekel, Tim Derrick, Walt Gmelch, Steve Ryan

Introductions: Pam White opened the meeting with introductions of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln team followed by ISU participant introductions. Pam reviewed the Workgroup charge and gave a brief report of the Workgroup's progress. The Workgroup has met two times and had lengthy and productive discussions, identifying tasks to be undertaken by the group.

Discussion:
Dean Marjorie Kostelnik reviewed what has taken place at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She stressed that it was especially important that they had entered into their merger with a very positive attitude. Initially there was a lot of anxiety among faculty as well as staff. They are still sorting out - things evolved that were not anticipated - not negative but positive.

Geography was an element to be considered by UN-L. Unlike the fact that our Colleges are physically across the street from one another, they have three campuses - one in Omaha and two in Lincoln that are three miles apart.

The two founding colleges operated differently in many ways - Teacher's College had lots of centralized business activity, technology, advising, and fiscal operations, while Human Resource Sciences had very decentralized activities that were handled in departments.

Think about people and philosophies - need for a year of transition after the planning year. They have accomplished in one year what they thought would take two years.

They now have two Associate Deans (1 @ full-time and 1 @ ¾-time) who are officed together, one from each of the founding colleges. They needed people with credibility and who paid a lot of attention to detail. They are both paid out of the Dean's Office budget and are on two-year appointments (not interims). One is in charge of undergraduate education and curriculum and one is in charge of accreditations/education type issues. They are working to blend academic programs -- looking at curriculum and blending while in the early stages.

In addition to the Associate Deans, they have two individuals (each @ ½-time) who are not associate deans but more like directors with liaison titles. One was previously an associate dean who is the graduate studies liaison and the other is a research liaison. Both are really 50% jobs cutting across both units.

The Associate Dean and Liaison Teams meet weekly.

The dean has two offices (one on each campus) with an office coordinator for each. UN-L modeled their set-up like Virginia Tech. They have the Finance Office in a separate building and the Academic Office in another. They did this purposely so it wouldn't appear that one college was taking over the other. There is one administrative type person on one campus and one administrative assistant on the other doing more with alumni and outside relations.

They moved to more centralized advising. Interestingly, more reductions have happened at the department level rather than at the Dean's Office level. Staff changes don't just happen at the Dean's level - there is more of a "ripple" effect into the departments.

They used all new account numbers rather than folding together - rather than the "old" college, all are the "new" college. They gave this process one year to complete changes.

Their rule has been "If we don't have a new policy, just do it the way you did before." This has allowed them to move forward rather than get bogged down wondering how to do things.

Scholarships - The Foundation worked with all living donors over the course of a year to review scholarship criteria (go broader or stay as is). The question was asked, "Was it worth it?" The response was yes because it allowed them to reconnect and become more personal with alums. About 50% of the donors were receptive to going broader. In all their meetings, only one person has said, "I don't like this. I won't give anymore."

With discretionary funds they chose not to worry about where the money came from. One college had more than the other college in scholarships and one had more than the other in faculty travel funds.

The new college allows both colleges to expand their scope. Both had over 100 years of history and tradition. They viewed the process as "Creating a New College" - something that would be wonderful in the future vs. a merger or combination. The evolutionary period is valuable.

Principles:
*If we don't have a new policy, just do it the way you did before."
*Standardized - change occurs at the unit.

Tom Andre raised a question regarding their Central Advising Center. They currently have 7 advisors for 2,600 students. They started at 500 students/advisor. The new advisors were front line in setting up the new advising unit so they are all good PR resources. In addition, they have one person in charge of practicum placement (for teacher education), one for advising, and one for certification plus one recruiter for high school students to college.