Membership and Elections committee chair member Sawsan Shatleh nominated three members for induction into Staff Council on Thursday.
All nominated candidates were voted in and include Samantha McKinney, office coordinator for academic affairs; Robin Taylor, student health insurance coordinator for student affairs; and Stephen Canales, analyst auditor for the administrative and finance division.
“Staff Council is an overall advisory body for the staff on campus,”said Staff Council Program Manager B. Renae Milton. “It consists of elected staff members from each division, representative of the entire staff body, who come together and discuss issues related to staff, then come back and report to the President.”
Taylor was also nominated and voted in as the council’s new historian. The historian’s duties include keeping track of the group’s media, history and news clippings, as well as maintaining a photographic archive of all Staff Council events and activities.
“I like to do things with my university and my community,” Taylor said. “It’s a privilege to be nominated, and I’m excited to help get out information to my peers and be able to extend myself to others.”
Events chair member Mary Helen Meza drew attention to the council’s annual Spring Egg Hunt, for which Council President Ron Gonyea then motioned to include students at the event and to consider changing its date to coincide with Frontier Fiesta.
Subsequently, Meza proposed to create a family day for Frontier Fiesta, featuring an egg hunt, games, dancing and face painting in the morning, followed by a luncheon and then an end to the day with Frontier Fiesta. Inviting students with children to the event would only make it better, Meza said.
“We often hear UH isn’t as family-friendly as it should be and that our students who are parents feel left out,” Meza said. “This would be a great chance to reach out to those students and show them we care and that we do want them to be included.”
Staff Council meetings are held monthly, with the next meeting to be held Dec. 5.
Anything to avoid calling it an Easter Egg Hunt.