View in another language. French, German, Spanish.

Organization and Staffing

During the past seven months the Finance & Administration Division has lost the services of three key people—Joan Rigdon, Comptroller; Bill Milow, Director of Purchasing and Stores; and Barb Updike, Director of Human Resources. Consequently, we are in a period of reevaluation of the Division’s organization and services. It is our objective to have the Division reorganization completed by June 30, 2000.

Steve Smith has moved from the Budget Office to the Comptroller position in the Business Affairs Office. Sandy Eggert and Irene Morris will be moving to the Business Affairs Office where they will continue to provide purchasing services. Marvel Danzer will join Facilities Management’s new customer service unit—"The Shop" (there will be more about this new service concept in a later edition of this newsletter). Departments will handle their purchasing transactions and requisitions as they have in the past. An announcement will be made when these moves occur. Other organizational changes previously announced include Carol Stallkamp as Interim Director of Student Financial Services and Phyllis Wisen as Interim Director of Human Resources.

Budget

The budget situation continues to be a challenge with many more needs than resources available. The Minnesota House and Senate are currently considering bills to provide MnSCU with a supplement in the amount of $11,584,000 to cover deficiency funding of enrollment growth. Unless some unusual allocation formula is developed, we would expect to receive approximately $1,075,000 in FY2001 which would just about balance the FY2001 budget plan. If you are interested in the details of the University budget, you can visit our web site <mnsu.edu/dept/finadm/> for our latest budget information.

Student Financial Services

In December 1999 the Student Financial Services unit was created. This unit encompasses the Financial Aid Office, the Accounts Receivable Office and The Hub and MavCard Office.

The staff in Financial Aid had a difficult fall because of numerous computer system problems with the PC SAFE software. Due to their perseverance, good work and extra effort a majority of the financial aid students received their spring aid on the scheduled distribution date of January 28, 2000. Aid continues to be processed, but the focus of the unit is currently on the collection of receivables. More changes are ahead for this unit as the Financial Aid Office implements the MnSCU financial aid module for use in processing 2000-2001 student aid. We believe this software is stable and do not anticipate problems in the timely delivery of aid to students in fall 2000.

Approximately 285 applications for summer financial aid were received by early April, and 53 award notices have been sent out for the summer. The goals of making the first summer awards by March 24 and having the first batch of letters out by April 3 have been met.

The Minnesota Association of Financial Aid Administrators has expressed its appreciation and thanks to Karen Hatfield, Pat McAuley and Linda Beer for conducting financial aid presentations at more than nine high schools in our community. Together they have spoken to more than 500 students and parents.

Human Resources

A number of projects and events are being handled by the Human Resources Office:

The implementation of a self audit based on the Fair Labor Standards Act for several bargaining units has been started. The time period is March 1 through June 30, 2000.

The Retirement Luncheon will be May 8 in the Student Union Ballroom.

The Leadership 2000 series continues with the next session scheduled for May 9, "The Following Part of Leading".

The balloon deduction for summer insurance will be taken on the May 19 paycheck for faculty on the nine-month pay option.

The Human Resources web page is being continually updated and is located at <www.mnsu.edu/dept/humanres>.

Parking

After 2-1/2 years with no increase, the Parking Advisory Committee has recommended a series of permit rate changes to finance a number of parking lot upgrades and to eliminate the intersection bottleneck at Stadium Road and Ellis Avenue. Proposed increases were the highlight of the Annual Public Hearing on Parking Policies held April 6. Customers are encouraged to stop by The Hub now and hand in their registration form and make a down payment on their fall parking permit to avoid standing in line in August. The Parking Advisory Committee continues to find ways to minimize the impact of building and road construction—we all survived last summer’s disruption, and next summer’s road and building improvements will be yet another challenge.

Barnes & Noble Bookstore Remodeling

If you haven’t been to the Barnes & Noble on-campus bookstore in the past few weeks, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. Up to $340,000 is being spent by the University’s on-campus bookstore contract vendor to sharpen its culture of great customer service. Without Barnes & Noble’s $300,000 annual guarantee, MSU’s non-need based scholarships would be few and far between.

Campus Beautification

We have a wonderful campus, and we intend to make it more attractive for prospective students, current students, and our faculty and staff to enjoy. On April 26, 2000, to celebrate Earth Day we will have a campus clean-up activity starting at 1:30 p.m. On May 10 we will be planting flowers starting at 1:30 p.m. We had a great response to our request for volunteers to assist in planting flowers and maintaining flowerbeds. More information will be going out to the volunteers around the end of April. For those who did not sign up but are interested in helping, please contact Donna Hensel at 2267.

Credit Cards for Faculty and Staff

We are close to finalizing an agreement for a corporate credit card program. Faculty and staff will be able to obtain the corporate card to be used when traveling on University business. This card is a replacement for the American Express Corporate Card. More information will be available around April 20, 2000.

Purchasing Deadlines

Final dates for submitting requisitions to be charged to FY2000 are as follows:

May 10, 2000 Purchases of goods and services that require formal University bidding—over $25,000

May 19, 2000 Purchases of goods and services that require informal University bidding--$1,000-$25,000

June 12, 2000 Purchases of state contract items or other goods and services that do not require bidding—under $1,000

June 16, 2000 Non-state employee contractual agreements

June 30, 2000 Local purchases on purchasing cards/CAO-35s

We will be updating the budget information monthly, and every other month we will be sending out a newsletter so up-to-date information regarding the Finance & Administration Division is available. It is our intent to improve customer service to students, faculty and staff. We also intend to make significant strides in improving the appearance of the campus. Ideas that you would like to share and concerns you may have regarding how we are doing would be appreciated. Please call or e-mail your ideas or concerns to us.

fiscal-affairs@mnsu.edu

507-3889-6622