Volunteers are needed to help make signature events like commencement, homecoming, and the Nobel Peace Prize Forum a success. This is also a great way to meet staff from a wide range of departments across our campus. If you are volunteering during your regularly scheduled work time and would like to use your allotted community service hours, please check with your supervisor. Weekend or after-hours commitments are not eligible for community service and would be considered volunteer time.

Commencement – Saturday, April 28

Roles include ushering, ticket taking, rehearsal support, diploma distribution, and more. Contact Kia Burton (burton@augsburg.edu) in Alumni Relations for more information.

Nobel Peace Prize Forum – September 13-15, 2018

This is an excellent opportunity to engage with the Forum’s esteemed speakers, moderators, and laureates. Roles include registration, greeting, ushering, session attendants, and more. Volunteers are also needed for the Thursday evening VIP Reception. Contact Allison Mangan at mangana@augsburg.edu.

StepUP Gala – Saturday, November 3, 5-8:30 p.m.

Roles include registration, ushering, silent auction assistant, videographer assistant, and more. Dinner will be provided. Contact Martha Truax at truaxm@augsburg.edu for more info.

University Council staff representative Jim Trelstad-Porter has accepted an invitation to extend his term of service by one year. Trelstad-Porter, a member of the University Council’s inaugural advisory team, will continue to represent staff in the internal deliberation of university-wide decisions and to advise President Pribbenow. Elections for the next staff representative on University Council will be held in spring 2019.

As a response to the name change Staff Senate took this fall to revisit the Bylaws. There were five main revisions that were brought to the University Council for review:

1. Name change to University
2. Co-chairs – at least one must be an elected representative
3. Including the union groups for nominations and election voting rights
4. Updating the employee handbook statement to the 2017 handbook version.
5. Policy Recommendations – Changes to the process
   • Adding more clarification on bringing items to HR
   • Adding University Council review

The bylaws are linked on our About page for your reference.

Any questions please contact us at staffsenate@augsburg.edu.

Congratulations to Eric Graham, Groundskeeper and Mel Lee, Assistant Athletic Director, Head Softball Coach, and Instructor for receiving the October Auggie Pride Award. Their hard work in their new roles here at Augsburg made a huge impact across campus. Staff Senate admires the work they do everyday and are honored to award them both with this month’s Auggie Pride Award.

ERIC GRAHAM

Nomination: It’s better to just go out and walk around campus on a sunny day to get a full appreciation of how one man—a new addition to the Facilities Management Team—can make a significant change to the Augsburg environment. And he did things the right way. Going from one end of campus to the other in a calculated manner, pulling weeds, adding plants where needed, edging beds, and addressing every detail. For example, his work in the quad involved moving the inappropriately placed shade-loving hosta and adding turf. To do so required removing the large roots and leveling the ground. The quad now looks like a quad should, and Eric mows it to add pattern, which gives a lovely look from ground level and particularly higher. Today I parked for the first time in months in Lot L and noticed the plantings around benches in front of Si Melby. If I were a parent dropping my child off for college today, I would believe that Augsburg was a beautiful campus where care is taken. And that is solely the doing of Eric and his team.

MEL LEE

Nomination: Melissa has been working tirelessly this year thus far averaging 14 hour work days 7 days per week. She has been doing her class load, helping students with class advising not to mention her Head Softball coaching duties and Game Management duties. She even took time out of her busy schedule to help the Excel Energy employee find the gas meter at the Kennedy Center and covered a shift for a colleague who needed to be gone due to a family funeral. Melissa has the desire to give and help others in any way possible. She exemplifies what it means to be an Auggie!!

Get out of the office and join Staff Senate in the Commons for lunch and discussion. Take some time to engage with fellow staff in casual conversation.

Wednesday, December 13
12-1 p.m.  |  Christensen Center, Commons

You can use this opportunity to speak specifically with Staff Senate members or just enjoy new company for lunch. Bring your own lunch and we’ll see you in the Commons!

Join the Augsburg community in celebrating the work of its staff during the past academic year. Food and drink will be provided. Door prizes will once again be given away.

Staff Spring Social 
Thursday, May 4
3-5 p.m.
The Quad
(In case of rain, the event will move inside Christensen Center)

Email staffsenate@augsburg.edu with any questions.

Be engaged in the Augsburg community by serving on Staff Senate. If you’d like to become a senator or nominate a colleague, send your candidate(s) names to staffsenate@augsburg.edu by Thursday, April 13. Online elections will take place April 18 – May 2. Staff Senate is filling four elected Staff Senate positions this spring.

All nominees will be verified before being placed on the election ballot. An email will be sent to all Augsburg staff with a link to the online election survey on April 18. Staff will have until May 2 at 5pm to take the survey. Successful candidates will be notified thereafter.

Staff Senate Membership

Augsburg College Staff Senate (ACSS) is composed of six members who are nominated and elected by their peers for a two-year term and two at-large members to be chosen, in every instance, by Staff Senate. All Staff Senate members have the option to serve a third year.

Election Procedures

Nomination and Voting Rights: Nominations are collected through e-mail and ballots are gathered from all staff through an online survey (staff eligible to vote are all regular full- and part-time staff, not including union, temporary staff, MMeep, MCC, or other agency groups). Staff Senate members are eligible to vote. Composition of Staff Senate: It is recommended that members be at least .75 FTE, regardless of exempt or non-exempt status.