Board of Trustees holds meeting at Keene State

The third meeting of the 2009-10 academic year for the University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees took place last Thursday April 29 in the Mabel Brown Room in the L.P. Young Student Center at Keene State College.

Discussion for much of the meeting focused on approval for a capital budget request that would total $225 million in state funding as well as $225 million of USNH funding.
KSC Director of Human Resources Kim Harkness attended the meeting to present a PowerPoint on the college's “master plan” regarding human resources at the college.
 Harkness was introduced by KSC President Helen Giles-Gee, who outlined the vision of the college since 2005.

“The greatest resource of all is personnel,” Giles-Gee said.

Harkness' presentation focused on the ways the college has been expanding full time faculty professors and making sure departments are up to date on technology and staff.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees Edward C. Dupont began the meeting by complimenting the college and its commitment to updating the campus and its buildings, and expressed his happiness to be a part of the campus.

“For the first time in many months I won't make remarks about finances,” Dupont said. “It's too nice of a day.”

About a dozen members of the Keene State College Education Association (KSCEA) showed up for the meeting wearing buttons with the slogan “Got Contracts?”.
Chairman of the Negotiations Committee for faculty contracts Pete Stevenson said the presence of the KSCEA members was to “remind” the trustees on the board that faculty are still working without contracts.

“They haven't signed our contracts and we need to remind them of that,” Stevenson said. “Delay is not acceptable.”

Stevenson said low attendance from faculty was mainly due to issues with class scheduling as well as the preparations involving finals week at the college.
Political Science professor Chuck Weed said many KSCEA members’ “feelings of anger” over the issue of faculty contracts had subsided after a meeting with the president of the college.

“We've been told the contracts are going to be signed in June, but we've been confused as to why that hasn't happened earlier,” Weed said. “We're told they'll be signed, but we still don't have a lot of confidence.”

Weed said that overall he doesn't think the protest had much of an impact on the board of trustees.

KSC Student Trustee senior Justin Sadzewicz said he heard about the possibility of a large protest prior to the meeting, but didn't think their presence would be much conflict.
“The board of trustees is responsible for hiring faculty and making contracts,” Sadzewicz said.

He continued, “I don't think they're going to try and make them angry.”
Sadzewicz has represented KSC on the board for two years, and will attend his final meeting as a voting member in June at the final meeting of the year at  the University of New Hampshire.

The USNH Board of Trustees meets four times a year on a rotating basis between the four colleges in the system alternating between KSC, UNH, Plymouth State University and Granite State College.

Brian Anderson can be contacted at banderson@keeneequinox.com