21 March 2017
SAC Meeting 3/21/17 Minutes
In attendance: Diane Fritz, Domenic Porrini, Zenobia Hargust, Jessica Brangiel, Christi Pappert, Lauri Courtenay, Meg Gebhard, Sue Wigo, Susan Lewis, Ben Wilson, Pam Borkowski-Valentin, Danie Martin, Elizabeth Stern, Donnie Franklin, Lynn Grady, Julie DiPietro, Pamela Prescod Caesar
Special Guest: Val Smith
Upcoming events: 4/13/17 - Spring All Staff Meeting
4/18/17 - Final SAC meeting for 2016/2017 academic year
SAC discussed a possible reconfiguration of circles due to all of the office moves around campus- is it necessary? We have 10 circles currently and it seems easiest to adjust departments to the circles into which they are moving.
At the 4/13/17 All Staff meeting an opening statement will be made on recruiting new SAC members. Several staff members are rotating off in May 2017. SAC has and will continue to provide meaningful work – for example SAC was instrumental in data gathering that led to the decision to provide MLK day as a holiday and the additional floating holiday for Memorial Day.
Christie is looking into revamping the SAC website with ITS to include a section modeled after “meet up Swarthmore” where staff with similar interests can connect.
In the fall SAC will launch a survey to staff to get their input from what they want to see out of SAC. SAC is interested in being involved in a larger campus project and/or partnering with other offices across campus such as the Lang Center (shared community service project perhaps) and Sustainability (how can staff get involved with sustainability on campus in their department etc.) Pam will help with development and distribution of the survey. SAC needs to formulate questions now for fall distribution.
Visit with Val Smith:
SAC posed the question to President Smith on how SAC can become more involved in the community.
Suggestions:
Dinner with Strangers initiative continuing this year. Invitations were sent out to the entire community. Respond to get on the list to attend an upcoming dinner or possibly lunch.
SwatDeck initiative - four people spending the day together in Philadelphia, the College funds transportation and a little bit of spending money (shared adventure) – open to all staff, faculty and students.
Upcoming Campaign launch - big campus event on March 31 to launch Campaign
Questions for SAC
Could we consider making a change to the year-end spring community gathering (currently held in Sharples)? Human Resources always puts together a fun themed party, but what does SAC think about turning the gathering into a casual family-invited outdoor picnic? Nothing expensive or complicated: just grilled food & maybe a DJ for the kids....
HR response:
There is a designated planning committee, including members of several different departments and convened by HR, which plans this event annually. Approximately 7 years ago, the committee decided to limit this event to employees of the College as a result of concerns regarding liability, growing financial expenses for the event, and overall crowd-control. Each year the planning committee reassesses the event format, and we will share this suggestion with this year's planning group.
Why is The Swatter distributed through the Daily Gazette and not mailed to all directly (not everyone subscribes to the Gazette) or easily accessible on the Public Safety website?
Public safety reports often contain confidential information thus are not distributed widely. SAC member will follow up with Mike Hill further for more information on distribution methods.
Follow up from last month on question about placement of defibrillators across campus:
Response from Public Safety: Per Mike Hill - there are defibrillators in three of the patrol vehicles and in strategic areas around campus (pool, health center, etc). While the possibility exists that more can be placed on campus, it raises the issue of cost and upkeep.
