Attending: Val Bates, Myron H. Biddle, Edwin Elias, Chaz T. Jaquess, Ronald W. Johnson, Tyronna Johnson, Greg McClain, NicKia McMurtrey, James A. Nicks Jr., Linda Sims Perry, Randy Shed, Claudia Tutt.

Ex Officio: Ernest K. Banks, and Gregory D. Skannal.

Staff present: Don Brackhahn, Lawrence George, Martina Hahn, Robert Mitchell, Daopu Numbere, John Park, Toni Scott, Neil Smith, and Lynn Stichnote.

I. Welcome and Introductions

Greg McClain, acting Chairman for Henry Brown, called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m.

II. Approval of Minutes of October 3, 1999 Meeting

The October 3, 1999, minutes were corrected in two places. Under Committee Reports, Fund-raising, line should read as: AHelp is needed to reach the MLK goal of $300,000 by the 25th anniversary@. The second change was to include both first and last name of person making and seconding motions. The October 3, 1999 minutes were accepted as amended.

III. Campus Update

John Park: Dr. Park thanked the group for their commitment. He noted an early retirement option has been offered on campus: 54 people have signed up (deadline is March 1), 80 or more may accept it. He stressed how important it was for the group to remain involved during the transition of new staff and faculty coming in. An administrative restructuring committee is reviewing a possible change to a Provost to handle academic administrative duties (Deans would answer to this person), leaving the Chancellor free for more development and visibility duties; a Marketing position is being considered to project a common message from the many parts of the campus which impact our constituencies. The message is three parts: How well UMR prepares students (technical and leadership preparation), level of caring on the campus and thirdly, how critical it is that engineers and scientists take leadership positions within their communities and nation. Other developments include meshing our strategic planning to the UM system, a possible position for research advocacy in Washington, DC and the fact that tremendous progress is being made in the research areas as funding continues to increase and number of research centers on campus grows. The Chancellor announced that he will retire as of September 1, 2000 and the search committee, chaired by Dr. Jeff Cawlfield, has been put on a fast track by UM President Pacheco to have a replacement by Sept 1, 2000 to avoid an interim. Dr. Park was questioned as to why there is no minority representation on the search committee. He encouraged the group to inquire of the UM system as they put the committee together. Dr. Park encouraged the committee to submit a document listing their suggestions for Chancellor criteria to the search committee as they are currently working on the search criteria. Probably cannot change the make-up of the committee at this time but they can express their concern over the committee make-up to Dr. Pacheco. Val Bates will chair a sub-committee including Ernie Banks, Ron Johnson and James Nicks to develop criteria to forward to the search committee. Dr. Park concluded with remarks on his enjoyment of working with the ACAARR.

Minority Engineering Program - Dr. Mitchell represented MEP for Floyd Harris. A report on MEP progress was provided. Highlights of the MEP activities was the fact that the 1998-99 goal for new freshman and transfer students of color was 40 and 41 enrolled and the 1999-2000 goal of 60 was exceeded by 5 students. Out of the 25 largest engineering schools, UMR is 13th in the number of minority graduates. Dr. Mitchell has worked out an agreement with Tuskegee to collaborate on a proposal to GM for funding (details in distributed report).

Status of Endowments - Neil Smith reported that the balance on the Lawrence and Catherine George scholarship was $172,000 after two scholarships of $3000 each were awarded to Charles McDowell II and Richard Word. The Martin Luther King fund balance is $254,000. The campus capital campaign has exceeded their goal, balance should be 63.4 million by the end of February, 2000. This reflects a 60% increase in the level of giving prior to the campaign.

Admissions - Martina Hahn talked about new initiatives in general recruitment: attending more national fairs and continuing representation at Missouri fairs and high school visits. PeopleSoft is a huge issue in terms of personnel as 1/3 of the Admissions and Student Financial Aid staff is involved with implementing PeopleSoft and those involved are spending 2 of their time on it. The campus will Ago live@ with PeopleSoft in early July. She distributed demographic information on the numbers of prospective African American students who were on the Admissions Database as prospects, admits and enrollees from 1995 to the year 2000. She encouraged the Student Recruitment subcommittee to contact African American prospects by phone, to host small, personal receptions for students in their homes and to emphasize unrestricted scholarship giving in the next capital campaign. Martina will provide an EXCEL spreadsheet of all African American prospects and the Recruitment subcommittee will contact as many as possible.

IV. COMMITTEE REPORTS

A. Fund-raising: Tyronna Johnson noted that 65 letters were sent to non Alpha alumni to solicit funds for the MLK scholarship fund. Another letter will go in April which will then be followed by phone calls to non-respondents. The MEP scholarship was begun at the end of December with a donation by Jorge Ocha, a former MEP scholar. Work continues on developing this endowment. The LCG endowment goal is $200,000 by April 1. Letters were sent and follow-up phone calling will take place between now and April 1 to stimulate pledges.

B. Legislative: James Nicks noted that 330 people from the four UM campuses and Extension attended Legislative Day on February 23, 2000. He encouraged others to attend next year as it was very enjoyable. He also stressed to St. Louis alumni and students that they need to contact Representative Bill Clay, Jr. of St. Louis. He continues to have a bad impression of the minority experience at Rolla and he needs to be informed of the improvements as he is a powerful force in state politics. James Nicks will forward representatives= names to Toni Scott and she will coordinate a campaign by students to contact them.

C. Public Relations: No Report

D. Recruitment: Val Bates: His group will work with Martina Hahn to line up representatives for the NSSFNSS College Fair in Houston, TX. As aforementioned, the group will work with Martina also to contact all prospective African American prospects.

E. Retention: Myron Biddle : The committee will meet with Floyd Harris to find ways they can be involved in the summer MEP program. They would also like to be involved in Toni Scott's work with the Academic Excellence program. Their third goal to work directly with at-risk students by contacting them to provide support and inspiration and finally to discuss the possibility of ACAARR having representation on the campus recruitment committee. A suggestion was made that the group read the latest issue of Black Enterprise which has a set of desirable criteria for a university which was developed by prospective African American students, parents, faculty and staff to assist families in reviewing campuses.

F. 4.0 System: Greg McClain noted this sub-committee was dissolved at the last meeting.

G. Multi cultural Education Support Program: Toni discussed the campus climate study put together and distributed by students.

V. Old Business

A. 4.0 Point System: Toni Scott reported that the Academic Excellence program modeled after the A4.0" ended as the same type of support and follow-up was already being offered through many other sources on campus including the Master Student class for minority students, as well as retention programs through the Center for Personal and Professional Development, Residential Life, etc. Only 3-4 students were showing up for Toni=s programs.

B. Report of Students on Campus Environment: NicKia McMurtrey, Chaz Jacquess, and Edwin Elias provided a copy of the Campus Climate study they conducted. They discussed the results of the survey (a copy of the results will be provided to the committee).

VI. New Business

A. Vacancy: Lawrence George announced that Myron Biddle's term on the committee will be expiring. George will contact alumni who have expressed an interest in serving on the committee.

Meeting was adjourned by acting Chairman McClain at 3:15 pm

Future Meeting Date: October 8, 2000.