Welcome to the

DIVISION OF STUDENT SERVICES NEWSLETTER

Friday, September 9, 2011

Square Wheel Work Groups

Workplace Satisfaction
Student Communication
Internal Communication
Excellent Student Service
New Student Advising
Augie Kafer
Sandi Smith
Joyce Burdette
Kurt Klettner
Sharon Smith
Pam Santer
Tom Yencha
Violet Mosser
Leslie Sims
Heather Cline
Abigail Bowers
Jeff Scott
Tim Beardsley
Emmanuel Ogwude
Michelle Nabers
Amy Dennis
Tess Martin
Pam Clevenger
Drema Starkey
Cathy Mutz

Sandy Swisher


Christine Post

Each group will meet for no more than one hour once per month excluding December.

Each group will have a leader who must not be a lead manager and must meet with Anthony Underwood once per month for 30 minutes to update him on the group’s work.

Agenda for Workgroup Meetings

1. Select ONE problem (“square wheel”) that the group will brainstorm about at that meeting.
2. Identify the problem.
3. Determine a possible solution(s).
4. Create suggested action steps to fix the problem.

For their meeting with Anthony, the leader should prepare a one page, bullet point summary of the group’s discussion based on points 2, 3, and 4.

Meetings will begin after September 16th. The Vice President’s office will organize the first meeting of each group and then it is the responsibility of each group to meet thereafter.

Friday, August 26, 2011

"Square Wheels" Workgroups

Building on the success of our divisional retreat, we will be creating 6 divisional workgroups that will be meeting at least once per month to work on the specific areas and problems brought up by the staff.  EVERYONE will be a member of a workgroup.

Square Wheels (Retreat) Workgroups – five to six in each group


  • Workplace Satisfaction and Compliance
  • Improving Communications with Students
  • Student Communication
  • Internal Communication
  • Maintaining and Expanding Excellent Student Service
  • New Student Advising


You can talk to your supervisor about which group in which you'd be interested.

Reporting Incivility and Aggressive Behavior

While it is important that we serve the students as understanding as possible, we do them and ourselves no favors if we allow them to verbally abuse staff without consequence.

Please report ALL verbal abuse or threats to the Vice President's office in writing or by email within 24 hours of incident.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Lessons and New Ideas from the Summer 2011 Divisional Retreat

The divisional retreat, held on July 29, 2011, has received positive reviews from many in the division, including such comments as:


  • Enjoyed us staying on task
  • Completed objectives set out to do
  • Team aspect and camaraderie
  • Practical things done; let's keep the momentum going


To those ends we will begin with some positive new changes and projects:


  • An online newsletter for divisional news (you are reading it...)
  • Monthly Brown Bag Meetings for the whole division – informal, but real opportunities to share challenges and successes that members have experienced. 
  • Workgroups (Workplace, Communications, Student Service, etc). Will be based on the “square wheels/round wheels” concept developed at the retreat. Everyone in division will be part of a workgroup.
  • A half-day winter retreat beginning this February.
More to come...

Attendance Verification

Beginning Fall 2011 all students will be required to attend class (and all instructors required to take attendance). Failure to do so will result in an immediate (same semester) loss of financial aid and possible withdraw from class.

This means that disbursement of financial aid checks will not begin until September 19, 2011.

To mitigate this later disbursement, students will be allowed to charge their textbooks, supplies and up to $200 in gas cards in the Bookstore until September 19, 2011.

Students can also make arrangements for the late payment of childcare charges at the Child Development Center by contacting Bobbi Mendenhall.

Hot Dog and Soda Sale

We have surplus hot dogs and soda left over from the Interstate Fair!  Support college athletics by picking up your cookout supplies from Tom Yencha.  They are being sold at cost and sales will directly benefit students.