Inceptia, a provider of support and resources for higher education in the areas of federal compliance, financial aid management, repayment solutions and financial education, formed the Commission on Student Success to provide advice and assistance related to student success and retention with a focus on secondary and post-secondary students and administrators.  Members provide counsel and insight for Inceptia to develop industry-leading solutions to help students persist and schools improve retention and graduation rates. Members also participate in thoughtful discussions around best-practices and trends and share ideas for new opportunities and partnerships.

Membership is comprised of areas representing research, student services, academics, financial aid, special interest, and corporate.  Members are appointed and reappointed by Inceptia. Dr. Marin is an alumnus of NMSU and currently serves as the Director of Student Affairs with oversight of the Student Success Center-Hardman, TRIO Student Support Services and Career Services. The twelve-person Commission will convene their first meeting in June 2013 at the Inceptia headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Come to a free workshop and find out! 

• How will more than 400,000 uninsured New Mexicans get health insurance beginning in January?
• What is the “Medicaid Expansion”?
• What is a health insurance “Exchange”?
• Who is required to get health insurance – and what kind of penalty will people pay if they stay uninsured?
• Are there special rules for students?

Denali Wilson (left) and Cadence Furth (right), both with Campus Tutoring, and the charming PabloToro, which was awarded for the most engaging activity at the March 5
Check-In/Check-Up Expo.

Check-In/Check-Up Mid-Semester Review Expo was held in the old bookstore  in Corbett Center on Tuesday, March 5. Sponsored by Aggie Welcome & Orientation, the event was geared toward providing information and support to all NMSU students. Questions pertaining to a student’s awareness of resources and engagement in those resources were to be answered with a yes or a no by the student on the prepared Check-In/Check-Up card. Participating students engaged with the student support organizations to complete their Check Up card and be eligible to win a mini iPad, $50 or $25 B&N gift card.

In order to encourage engaging activities by the representative organizations, a contest was held to determine the most engaging. Three anonymous judges circled the tables engaging with representatives. After tallying all votes, the Campus Tutoring Service was awarded the highest honor. “Pablo Toro” (appropriately named by Student Success Center Hardman’s Trio Program) is the mascot and traveling trophy for each Expo. He will remain on display with the Campus Tutoring Service until fall semester’s Mid-Semester Review Expo. At that time, Pablo Toro will be awarded to the most engaging activity table organization and remain for another six months until the following spring Expo.

Click on image for a larger version.

Last summer, we started talking about values at the Open Forums, then through a discussion post that we were all asked to comment on.  From that, a wordle was created.  Since then, our SAEM Advisory Team has done some work around this.  This fall, they grouped similar ideas and  worked on definitions for our values. What you see to your left is the result of our work, and what our SAEM values look like in our daily practices of serving the NMSU community.

Thanks to all members of SAEM who contributed to this. We heard from many of you at last year’s Open Forums and in the discussion post that this type of document is important in defining who we are and what we believe. You also told us that the process is important in giving staff a voice in our direction as a unit.

You still have that voice. Share with us what you think by providing your comment below.

SAEM Values (pdf)

Employee Service Award and Staff Recognition Ice Cream Social

Presidential Visits
April 22-May 3, 2013
Times and places will be announced
Candidates for the NMSU President will hold forums open to all staff.

SAEM Open Forum
May 16, 2013
10:30 am and 1:30 pm,  Doña Ana Room, Corbett Center Student Union 3rd floor
Vice President Montoya will update staff on NMSU and SAEM news. Employees can attend one of the two sessions.

Come out and support your Aggie men’s basketball team by winning some free tickets! The SAEM Vice President’s Office is giving away a total of 100 free tickets! 50 tickets will be available to the basketball game on March 7 against Louisiana Tech and 50 tickets to the game on March 9 against UT Arlington.

To win free tickets, leave a comment stating how many you want (limit 4 free tickets) and which game you want to attend. Tickets will be given out on a first-come-first served basis. If you want more than 4, you can get extra tickets at the group rate of $5 per ticket at the Ticket Office. Just ask for the SAEM group rate. (You must be an employee of SAEM to recieve the group rate or win tickets.)

Seats will be located in the upper bowl (Section 222), and SAEM will be recognized on the scoreboard, and a shout-out to SAEM from the announcer at each game.

Come out and enjoy a great game and cheer on the Aggies!

This conference had three featured presentations:

Men and Masculinities by Shaun Harper

• Harper spoke about the socialization of men to be rough and tumbled. We reward behavior which causes males to be tough and not show emotions. However, our code of conducts penalizes such behavior. Harper talked about ways of working with men to begin to change the rough aspects of masculinity into male citizens, which positively contribute to our institutions. Harper also shared information on recent research he has conducted which focuses on males in institutions of higher education that exemplify what are considered good/outstanding quality. Shaun Harper is co-author of College Men and Masculinities: Theory, Research, and Implications for Practice (2010)

Legislative Updates by John Lowery

• Lowery spoke of the matters looked at by the 112^th and 113^th Congress and discussed how these bills/acts may impact higher education
  • Violence Against Women Act – this act did not pass in the 112^th congress. However, it will be reintroduced in the 113^th. If passed, the revisions may impact the reporting areas of the Cleary Act. The measures would add domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking as areas to report. Campuses will need to have written explanations of the rights and options for victims of these crimes as well as sexual assault.
    • The Senate passed their version of the Violence Against Women Act on February 12, 2013

• Cleary Act
  • Fines for violations on the reporting of Cleary can move up from $27,500 to $35,000 for each violation. There is discussion of having different amounts depending on the size of a campus.
• Concealed Handgun Laws
  • Currently there are two states which allow concealed handguns to be carried on campus (Mississippi and Wisconsin). In 2013, eight states have initiated such laws in their state legislatures. Currently, New Mexico does not have such a law. However, Texas is one of the eight in the process.

Case Law Updates by Bill Fischer, W. Scott Lewis, and Saundra K. Schuster

• A teacher who makes accommodations in the classroom for a student with a disability only sets the precedence for that specific class. The institution is not required to provide the same accommodation campus wide.
• Due process, as set by an institution, must be followed. Small mistakes may not be reason for finding in favor of the student. However, a series of small mistakes can add up to be enough to consider a violation of student rights.

Behavioral Intervention Teams

• Set the mission statement of the BIT
• Create procedures for the ways the BIT will respond to issues
• Conduct a yearly retreat for the BIT to
  • Review procedures
  • Review cases
  • Review FERPA and FOIA (Freedom of Information Act)
  • Develop a marketing plan so others know and understand the BIT
  • Read The Handbook for Campus Threat Assessment & Management Teams by Deisinger, G., Randazzo, M. O’Neill, D. & Savage, J.

Side note

Attending ASCA reminded me about the importance of continuing our education as professionals. When we stop going to conferences or reading books, articles, or journals we stop growing. We end up doing the same thing year after year. Eventually, our services become outdated. This hurts us as professionals and our students. The students at NMSU deserve the best. Attending conferences is a great way to learn current best practices and to connect with colleagues across the nation. It also allows us to gauge where we are as an institution. This past conference let me know we are doing some things better than other institutions (or maybe the first) and there are areas we need to improve. Finally, conferences can rejuvenate us in our jobs and creates a refocus of our energies.

Contributed by Michael Jasek, Dean of Students

The purpose of the Employee Council is to:

• Investigate matters involving the policies and procedures of the administration of the university.
• Make recommendations based on such investigations to the president of the university.
• Establish and maintain an organization of the university staff

a. To provide communication between the staff and the administration of the university.
b. To provide communication among the several parts of the university staff.

Please take a moment to congratulate Monica!

In the Microsoft Excel seminars, we learned new techniques and shortcuts to help us work more efficiently and be more productive.  Some of the information which was covered in each session is as follows:

Microsoft® Excel® 2007/2010 Basics

(Beginning to Intermediate Users)

• Design and organize professional looking worksheets
• Formulas and functions
• Charts and graphs
• Copy, move, delete, insert or replace anything in a worksheet with ease
• Solve common printing problems
• Create and use simple macros to automate repetitive tasks
• Sorted, organized, calculated, and analyzed spreadsheets
• Group and Filter Data

Excel® 2007/2010: Beyond the Basics

• Create, manage, and modify Pivot Tables
• Power tips and surprising shortcuts
• Adding eye-catching graphics to charts, graphs, tables and reports
• Data Filtering, Querying, and Analyzing data
• Sharing Excel Across Workgroups
• Using Lookup and Database Functions
• Exploring Custom Views and Formatting

Some of our many A-HA moments:

• When in doubt, right click.
• Double click to Autofill.
• Pivot Tables can help us see the “big picture” by automatically extracting, organizing, and summarizing data.
• Secure data with a password .
• Select the data in the Excel spreadsheet, press F11 and a chart is automatically created.
• Keep a file on the recently used files list using push pins.
• Hold down the Alt key and press “=” for a shortcut to autosum.
• Relative versus absolute referencing.
• View large worksheets with split windows using the split window box in the upper right hand corner of the spreadsheet.
• 3D Referencing.