Currently@Carleton

Sometime in the coming several weeks Elise Eslinger, Associate Vice President and Chief of Staff in the President's Office, will begin a parental leave. Joe Hargis, Associate Vice President of External Relations, has graciously agreed to fulfill the Chief of Staff duties in my office on a part-time basis in Elise's absence. Please join me in thanking Joe for his service. When this transition occurs, Joe may be reached at x5597 or at his current extension, x4327 or at jhargis@carleton.edu.

We appreciate all that everyone at Carleton does year-round and in June to support alumni engagement with the College. The Class of ’59 set a new 50^th attendance record this year, and we had just over 2,100 people on campus for the weekend. Our alumni left feeling reconnected, confident in the College's future, and just plain happy. While the weather certainly helped, so did the fact that due to many of you on campus, things went very smoothly this year. Thanks especially for your patience with the challenging parking situation on Friday.

Beginning July 1, budget managers will find their 2009-2010 budget(s) on line at The Hub. Most departmental budgets are complete and available. Please note that the 2009 budget carry-overs will not post to your 2010 budget until the financial audit is complete at the end of September. Thank you for your patience as we wrap up 2009.

The Budget Manger Reports available on The Hub have been enhanced to provide subtotaling features for each budget control level, as well as comparative year display. We have added budget control summaries to the "Summary Views" with the intention of saving you the time and effort of downloads to create similar subtotals in excel. The budget control summaries download to excel as well.  No changes have been made to "Detail Views." A new "Comparative Summary View" will display prior year activity for reference. 

Please log on to The Hub and select the link titled "Budget Manager Reports." Additional information about Carleton's budgeting process and how to use the Budget Manager Reports is available from the Business Office Web site.  

If you are a budget manager or are responsible for monitoring a budget and do not have access to these reports or have questions about your 2009-2010 budget(s) on The Hub, please contact Kara Lloyd at klloyd@carleton.edu for assistance.

Carleton College has received a $10,000 grant from the Xcel Energy Foundation to fund its “Natural Science in Natural Lands: Improving the Carleton Arboretum” project. The grant will fund the new "Natural Science in Natural Lands" project, which will heighten the educational and recreational value of the Cowling Arboretum. The grant will help provide training for Arboretum staff on state-of-the-art restoration methods, will increase opportunities to participate in restoration activities for everyone on campus and in Northfield, and provide new signs to help visitors enjoy the Arboretum.

“One of the most common concerns we hear from Arboretum users is a need for more directional signage.  We want everyone to feel comfortable using the Arboretum and not hesitate to explore new trails and sections of the Arboretum they have not seen before” Nancy Braker, Arboretum Director, said. “The grant will also help us increase opportunities for community members to learn about restoration techniques and to volunteer to help maintain the area.”

“Xcel Energy's success is directly related to the vitality of the communities we serve,” said Pamela Gorman, Xcel’s manager of community and local government relations. “It's our mission to use our knowledge, resources, and skills to meet the needs of our communities and to ensure that our service area is a desirable place for our customers to live, work, or own a business. Among the ways we help build stronger communities is through our Xcel Energy Foundation focus area grants, including the one awarded to Carleton College.”

The Arboretum is open to public use year-round for recreation and nature appreciation activities. Carleton is receiving this grant after submitting a proposal to the "Environment" program of the Xcel Energy Foundation. The grant was competitively awarded.

Congratulations to our students, faculty, and staff on another academic year filled with accomplishments! June marks not only the end of our academic year, but it also marks the end of our fiscal year on June 30. We would like to remind you of a few housekeeping items before you leave campus.

• We encourage all campus employees to make sure all College purchase orders, invoices, employee expense reimbursement requests, travel expense reports, travel advance receipts, and all deposits are submitted to the Business Office before you leave campus for the summer.
• Petty cash custodians are reminded to reconcile their account with the Business Office. If you will not be accessing your fund during the summer, please turn it in to Candace Koen for safe-keeping. Please be aware the Business Office will be conducting random audits of the departmental petty cash funds during the month of June.
• The Business Office cashier window will close at 3:30 p.m. on June 30 to audit year-end cash balances. They will reopen at 9:30 a.m. on July 1 for the new fiscal year 2009-2010!
• All vendor invoices and employee expense reimbursements for the month of June (or earlier months) must be submitted to Accounts Payable by noon on July 7 (or sooner!) to ensure they are posted to the appropriate fiscal year.
• Visa purchases posted to your card on or before June 30 will be charged to fiscal year 2008-2009. Orders should be placed at least a week in advance to ensure they post to your card prior to month end. June Visa transactions must be reviewed and approved by Tuesday, July 14.

If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the Business Office at x7095. Thank you for your support as we work to close our fiscal year in a timely and accurate manner.

Randie Johnson, Purchasing and Risk Manager, will be out of the office as of June 22 for tendonitis surgery and recovery. During her medical leave, please direct your purchasing inquiries to Kara Lloyd and your insurance inquiries to Linda Thornton. This temporary restructuring will apply until Randie returns to the office; please join us in wishing her a speedy recovery.

Accounts Payable inquiries can be directed to Melissa Smith, Kara Lloyd, or Linda Thornton. This restructuring will remain in place after Randie returns to the office in order to allow her to focus more fully on institutional cost saving initiatives.

Effective July 1, Administrative Council has recommended a new mileage reimbursement rate for Carleton employees of $.45/mile. This $.10/mile reduction is an institutional cost saving initiative which we project will save $10,000 to $15,000 annually. This measure was identified as a cost-reduction initiative in which the entire college community could participate.

IRS regulations limit volunteer mileage reimbursement rates to $.14/mile. Students traveling for club sports, CSA, or otherwise on behalf of Carleton College qualify for the volunteer mileage reimbursement rate.

Please join me in offering Peggy Sellers best wishes in retirement and many thanks for her contributions to Carleton. As Mailing Services Assistant during the past nine years, Peggy processed the College’s outgoing mail and assisted many of us with our personal mailing needs too. In addition, during the past two years Peggy confidently monitored our printer consumables program, ensuring that offices had access to the supplies needed to print and copy without interruption. Peggy’s cheerful smile and positive attitude will be missed by all. Her last work day will be Tuesday, June 30. 

Please join me in wishing Nancy Sweeny best wishes in retirement and many thanks for her twenty-five years of service to the College. As Mailing Services Coordinator, Nancy served as the primary resource for the College on United States Postal Service (USPS) rules and regulations. She ensured that the daily outgoing mail was processed correctly and assisted many of us with our personal mailing needs too. Nancy is looking forward to spending her free time with family and friends. Her last work day will be Friday, July 17.   

The annual clean-up day to "Take Back Your Space" is scheduled Thursday, July 23. Note that document shredding will only be available in front of Leighton Hall from 9 a.m. to noon. Contact Dennis Easley x4137 if you have any questions.

In the next couple of months you will notice changes in your office cleaning schedule. Custodial services have been reduced by two FTE's as a result of the Voluntary Separation Program. In addition, Facilities will be absorbing cleaning responsibilities for Cassat and Memorial Halls with current staffing, which equates to another two FTE's. The impact to our custodial program is a reduction of service for office cleaning and non-public stairwells to once per week. This includes the removal of trash in offices.

Custodial Services will begin transitioning to reduced office cleaning on July 1 in the following buildings: Library, Willis, Scoville, Chapel, and Music and Drama. Please know that if your trash is full and needs to be emptied, additional bags are usually located underneath the existing bag. We will continue our regular office deep-cleaning this summer as usual. All other campus offices will be scheduled to change in July and a weekly office cleaning schedule will be provided as soon as it is available. Please contact Kirk Campbell at x4460 if you have any questions.

A Goodsell Observatory Open House is scheduled Friday, July 3, 10 p.m. to midnight, if clear. View the moon, planets, stars, and nebulas. Open houses are the first Friday of each month. Times vary and the event is cancelled if cloudy. A schedule is on the Web.

I wanted to thank all of you for your ideas and leads regarding the dog bite incident in the Arb a few weeks ago. I am happy to report that the dog owner and dog were located the day after the bite. The Arb visitor was relieved to be able to avoid the vaccinations. We have been working hard to educate dog owners who use the Arboretum to keep their dogs on-leash. Even friendly dogs have bad days once in a while, and many Arb users are unaccustomed to dogs or are uncomfortable around them. Thanks so much for helping make the Arb safe and welcoming for everyone. Please be in touch if you have any questions or concerns at x4543.

This one-hour introductory class will demonstrate and highlight some of the updated features in Microsoft Office 2007, including the Ribbon interface. The Ribbon is a new way to organize and see the options available to you in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. While we will mainly focus on Word, you will be able to apply the things you learn in this class to the other parts of the Office 2007 suite as well. You'll feel more comfortable with the new version of Office after this session.

Dates and times are:

• Tuesday, June 30, 2 to 3 p.m.
• Wednesday, July 1, 10 to 11 a.m.

All classes will meet in CMC 11 and space is limited.  Please register on the ITS calendar.

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