May 2025 Meeting Minutes and Handouts

Call to Order – Chad Willis, Chair

Item 1: Treasurer’s Report – Natalie Davis, Treasurer and Abigail Miller, Treasurer-Elect     

See attached report.

Item 2: Tip of the Month: Leadership Workshops – Samantha Williams, Vice-Chair

Leadership and Service provides free leadership development workshops to both staff and students! Have an upcoming staff meeting or retreat? You can request a workshop from us, and we will come to you to provide an immersive leadership experience for your team. Some of our most popular staff workshops are DiSC and True Colors but you can see the full list of offering and descriptions by navigating to our website. Fill out the form on our website to request a workshop! 

Item 3: Staff Shout-Outs – Hana Fuller, Secretary 

  • Whitten Smart, Special Assistant to the VPIT, VP for Information Technology
  • Dr. Kimberly Conner, Technology Adoption Specialist, VP for Information Technology
  • Roxana Chynoweth, Administrative Assistant II, School of Social Work
  • Michele Dziadik-Willingham, Research Coordinator, School of Social Work

Item 4: Staff Concerns – Krystyn Fleischauer, Parliamentarian

Check the status of submitted Staff Concerns

Item 5: Red Parking Permit Raffle – Hana Fuller, Chair, Marketing, Events, and Fundraising Committee

Congratulations to our five randomly selected AY 2025-2026 Red Parking Permit raffle winners!

  • Cynthia Gonzales
  • Marcus Goss
  • Jacob Land
  • Ali Saman Chopra
  • Tara Stuart

Staff Council raised $3,800 from ticket sales. All profits go to staff scholarships, awards, and initiatives. Thank you to our sponsors: 

  • Office of the President
  • Office of the Provost and VP for Academic Affairs
  • Division of Student Success
  • Office of the Vice President for University Advancement

Item 6: ERP Assessment Team Updates – Krystyn Fleischauer, Parliamentarian 

The ERP team has now reviewed all three on-campus vendor presentations as we're looking to contract with one vendor for all HR, Finance, and SIS needs. Any feedback that staff members have for any/all of the presentations they attended should be submitted via the appropriate vendor and day's form. 

Ellucian: April 3rd and 4th

Ellucian Day One Survey

Ellucian Day Two Survey

Oracle: April 29th and 30th

Oracle Day One Survey

Oracle Day Two Survey

Workday: May 6th and 7th

Workday Day One Survey

Workday Day Two Survey

Follow up sessions on specific areas with each vendor are being scheduled prior to a recommendation being made by the committee. 

At this time, Ellucian's platform includes Banner which we are all familiar with, but their HR and Finance components are through third party vendors. Oracle and Workday have all three components (HR, Finance, and SIS) in one platform. Please contact staffcouncil@txstate.edu or any Assessment Team Members if you have any questions about the vendors, process, etc. 

Item 7: Updates to Staff Council Roster – Chad Willis, Chair and Krystyn Fleischauer, Parliamentarian

As voted on and approved by Staff Council, the 2025-2026 roster will increase from 27 to 39 seats. The goal of increasing the number seats is to more accurately reflect the staff body. Additionally, more human power will allow us to more effectively distribute tasks and workload among Staff Council members. As a reminder, positions are determined based on EEO category with percentages reflecting the total staff body. 

The new Staff Council make up is as follows:  

Total positions per EEO category.  

  • Administrative - 4  
  • Professional - 18 
  • Secretary/Clerical - 6 
  • Service - 3 
  • Skilled - 2 
  • Technical/Paraprofessional - 5 
  • Round Rock Campus - 2 

Round Rock staff, please consider nominating and serving. We have 2 seats allocated to that area if we can get people nominated and elected!

Item 8: Staff Council General Election Nominations – Amy Aguirre, Chair, Elections, Scholarships, and Awards

Are you or someone you work with a passionate advocate for the value and well-being of Texas State staff? Do you want to make a difference on campus? If this sounds like you or someone you know, please complete the form below to nominate yourself or a colleague to be a Texas State Staff Council Member! Nominations for Fall 2025 – Spring 2028 are open now through May 23!

We anticipate openings in the following EEO categories for the 2025-2028 cycle:

  • Administrative | 2 seats
  • Professional | 10 seats
  • Secretarial/Clerical | 4 seats
  • Service | 2 seats
  • Skilled Worker | 2 seats
  • Technical/Paraprofessional | 2 seats
  • Round Rock | 2 seats

Item 9: Committee Updates for AY 2024-2025 

  • Goal 1: Parking, Joshua Lopez 
    • No updates.
  • Goal 2: Employee Benefits and Accessibility, Stephanie Daniels 
    • Communicating with the Library on a more accessible version of the records retention schedule. 
  • Goal 3: Leave/Time Off, Abigail Miller 
    • No updates. Setting a meeting with Talent Development and Communication from HR in June.
  • Marketing, Events, and Fundraising, Hana Fuller  
    • Concluded Red Parking Permit raffle fundraiser. Planning Staff Council retreat for July. 
  • Council Effectiveness, Krystyn Fleischauer 
    • We're awaiting some final edits to the Operating Procedures and if they are received by next week, we will present the edits at our June meeting.
  • UPPS, Brandi Martinez 
    • No updates.
  • Elections, Scholarships, and Awards, Samantha Williams
    • Scholarship and award winners for 2025 were announced yesterday at Kudos and Karaoke.
      • Dr. Lawrence Estaville Employee Excellent Award
        • Dr. Clare Duffy
        • Ashtyn Davis
      • Rodrigo Rodriguez – Outstanding Service/Skilled Worker Award
      • Miguel Hernandez Staff Council Undergraduate Scholarship
        • Reyes Angela Stowe
      • Frances Padilla Estavillo and Theadocia Hodges Richey Staff Endowed Scholarship
        • Thomas Rodriguez
  • Compensation and Benefits, Leslie Burgess 
    • Working on Staff Concerns. Institution survey regarding benefits is now closed and we will begin reviewing the results soon.
  • Veronica Halfin
  • Michele Dziadik-Willingham
  • Jhonatan Morales
  • Amelia Herrera

TXST AI Bots – Whitten Smart, Special Assistant to the VPIT, VP for Information Technology

Ask TXST Policies chat bot. Users will need to login with their SSO to access. The bot is programmed with university and TSUS policies. Users can ask the bot a question related to policies, and an answer will be generated with references. The bot is refreshed weekly to account for policy updates. Downvoted responses will be investigated for accuracy. 

The chat bot AI is sourced through Amazon Q Business. 

Company knowledge = chat about company data and insight on company files and datasets. General knowledge = upload files, chat about wide-ranging topics. 

TXST bot will eventually be publicly available on the main TXST website. Currently being tested on the Division of Information Technology website. 

Keep your content fresh on your website so that the bot is properly informed! 

Item 10: Announcements – Chad Willis, Chair 

Closed Session – Staff Council members only

Adjournment – Chad Willis, Chair

Motion: Abigail Miller, Second: Kim Dunbar.