Faculty Senate Meeting, May 13 , 2025

Minutes

2024/2025 FACULTY SENATE

Tuesday, May 15, 2025

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Virtual Meeting-Zoom

1) Call to Order

There was a call to order at 2:04 PM

Roll Call

1. Present:
   • Glenn Heath (SCS)               (10) Camille Vega (SA)
   • Monica Aguilar (SCS)               (11) Cruz Laudenslager (SCS)
   • Jim Lowe (SCS)                             (12) Marinn Clampit (SCS)
   • Gar Casale (SCS)               (13) Crystal Chang (SCS)
   • Ed Boog (SCS)                                  (14) Chelsie Martinez (SA)
   • Eric March (SCS)               (15) Darlene Aranda (SA)
   • Jessica Grauel (SCS)               (16) Spencer Lewis (SA)
   • Jose Quiroga (SA)               (17) Alex Khaliq (SCS)
   • Kristi Roberson (SA)               (18) Arlene Herrera (SA)
2. Absent:

1. Quorum was established.

2) Approval of Minutes – April 2025

Motion to approve was Ed and Gar seconded the motion. Minutes were approved.

• Guest Speaker(s): Chancellor – Patty Charlton, CFO—Christ Viton, CHRO—Kelly Scherado Chancellor gave heartfelt thanks to individuals, offices, and departments for their hard work. It was much appreciated (on both sides).
  1. Some Announcements included: The State of the System – including we have a new Chancellor – Matt McNair who is working hard to meet everyone who works for SA/SCS.
  2. The Financial position of the state and what is happening on the federal landscape and how it will affect the State of Nevada.
  3. May 2, 2025, was a soft close for the NSHE budgets and it went well, with a few one-shot bills that were introduced. One of the bills is COLA, which is backfilling funds that were not received after the last session, mentioned at the All-Hands meeting. It would be difficult to ask the Board to continue with the Merit pool process and we must move forward to suspending FY26 and FY27 due to the deficit.
  4. The subcommittee hearing was where they went through the fiscal reports, there was a closing report that was accepted May 5, 2025, and there were some changes which will then go on to the Board for approval.
  5. Chris – We have four one-shot funds which include Nursing Expansion Continuation and Safety & Security Funds. Case load adjustment and inflation and fringe benefit rates and retirement. They approved $75 Million. They only rejected one special project.
  6. Question: Has all the money for this fiscal year has been spent? Answer: We are fully obligated/planned (all the money has been spent).
  7. Board of Examiners met and request for COLA was approved.
  8. Question: What are some outstanding projects to look forward to, in working with the new Chancellor? Answer: Set something up after the meeting in June to set a good structure for moving forward and being prepared to stay ahead of the curve.
  9. Informing the community and staying at the forefront to tell the right story about what we do so that others can see it and not question why we exist—help others recognize our role(s) and contributions.
  10. The Funding formula study was completed during the interim.
  11. We want to build on what we do as Faculty Senate and the work we do for the system and how we work together, being that we are the voice.
  12. Kelly – We are working with SCS to develop a page on Confluence to place our brand so there can be a continuation for referencing and making things more efficient.
  13. The second piece is a four-year salary study
  14. Employee Assistant Program (EAP) and learning management programs are due for extension or RFP processes. There was a request for a standing invitation to the Faculty Senate so that Kelly can present updates. An example is HR needs feedback on how often our employees use CompPsych resources. What additional resources are individuals are looking to use and advance?
  15. Question: Are we collaborating with DRI that transitions to Workday? LMS is more for instructors who teach online in a Blackboard/Canvas environment. Is this an employee tracking/training? A portion of this exists as well.
  16. Vector Solution to create training on our behalf and then we can assign it to preprogrammed groups. Some institutions use it and others use a file and add video and make it more interactive. There are limitations to Vector training and applicability to Nevada. There is a learning component that works with Workday. Theya re looking for the most efficient way to integrate and have one system that everyone can use.
  17. We have an LMS for free through Safety National which is our Excess Workers

Compensation Insurer. The community colleges have been given access to it.  They did not want to overlap with the NSHE one that is provided. It may be a great idea to have a one stop where employees can access all the information at once.

1. There was a question and answer about the difference between Salary Study, Meritt Pay, and COLA.
2. Question: The last Salary study resulted in a compression for new employees. Is there a way to address discrepancy? Answer: This will be a part of the salary study for the upcoming years.
3. We go by Board policy when looking at salaries and there have been conversations about compressions and PDQs and trying to address it in this longer compensation study. Look at it like a triangle, you have the Salary Study, Equity/Merit considerations, COLA and all these things connect which is a process that affects an employee’s salary.
4. There was an invitation to Kelly that she returns to report as the study progresses with providing updates, the invitation is also open to Chris Viton.
5. Kelly also asked more questions: What are our needs? How HR is structured for us as employees and what are the individual needs? They will ask for information and feedback and what things to prioritize. How can we bring SA and SCS together.
6. Question: To what extent does the Board make HR decisions that affect our PEBP? Michelle Kelly is our PERS Director, and she knows more about PEBP. Neither do they govern each other, but BCN and BCS oversee our benefits, and HR shares the information with the Board, provides information and they act accordingly. There is an NSHE benefits website for PEBP and in Workday HREC, which is the HR department that reviews everything, and they report to the Board.
7. Question: Can new members vote today? How do we create charges for the committee? As a faculty senate, will we work on what we want those charges to be and how we want to communicate with our stakeholder and leadership? We want to create charges where our communication does not get broken and we must learn to work together. It was suggested that we have a Safety Committee (which is required by Nevada Revised Statue).

• Chair’s Reports –

  Glenn sent out the reports

  1. BOR Meeting March
  2. New Chancellor begins June 1.

• Old Business

1. Faculty Senate Chair Election for FY26: Cruz was voted in as the new Chair

6) Next Meeting

Tuesday, June 17, 2025, at 2:00 PM via Zoom. We will host the elections for the Vice Chair and Secretary.  

7) Adjournment

Glenn motioned to adjourn and was seconded by Darlene. Meeting was adjourned at 3:06 pm.

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