West Campus Senate Meeting Minutes

Thursday, 1:15 pm, September 13, 2012

6-202

PRESENT: Sean Jennings (presiding), Ruby Alvarez, Beverly Bond, Jayanti Brand, Karen Cowden, David Curtis, Jeff Donley, Claudia Genovese-Martinez, Deb Hall, Kitty Harkleroad, Lynn Hearn, Gloria Hines (for Tullio Bushrui), Sue Matthews, Diane Orsini, Regina Seguin, Michael Snyder, and Desiree Voita

GUESTS: Barbara Shepherd

  1. Approval of Minutes –The minutes from the July meeting were approved with a minor correction.
  1. Campus President’s Report: None
  1. Senate President’s Report
  1. Associate Faculty Title: Ideas for a new title have been submitted by the campuses, but a final decision was tabled until the creation of Faculty Rank. It was suggested that Sean bring up the topic of the title at the next Faculty Council meeting and try to get it settled. The West Campus Faculty Senate had previously suggested “Certified Learning Facilitator.”
  2. Bookstore: Sean requested that the group notify him of any issues they or their colleagues have encountered with bookstore orders so that he can compile a master list.
  3. CoursEval: Some were upset about not being told about the new tool prior to it coming out. The Nursing Division experienced problems in that they could see each other’s evaluations since they team teach. Sean will download and email the white paper on how to encourage participation. As far as the Student Assessment of Instruction itself, the preference is for it to include standardized questions for all, but have the ability to offer alternative questions specific to departments.
  4. 4-Month Contract – Senate At-Large Representative: Science inquired as to whether a faculty member with a 4-month contract can serve as an At-Large representative. According to the bylaws, the Senate can have up to two, with the main concern being whether someone on a temporary contract can fulfill their term. The group voted to allow.
  5. Proposal to Change Bylaws: The proposal to change Article 14, Section 2 of the bylaws to allow for electronic voting was approved.
  6. Senate Record Keeping: Formal actions will be documented using the proposed tracking form(s). Regina volunteered to help with structuring how the documents will be stored so that they can be more easily retrieved by topic.
  7. Other Proposed Changes to Bylaws: Changes will be discussed with the group one more time before distributing them to faculty.
  8. Full-Time Faculty to Administration Ratio: The definition of full-time faculty changes depending on the report; sometimes 8-month and 4-month faculty are included and other times they are not. An operational definition and data is needed from the Institutional Effectiveness group. There will be more meaningful discussion of this topic once the data is received.
  9. Discipline Chairs: Talk of doing away with discipline chairs and hiring dean assistants appears to be more rumor than fact.
  10. Student Assessment of Instruction (SAI) Ownership/Primus: This was discussed during the CoursEval discussion (above).
  11. Faculty Council Charge/Name of Campus Associations: The Senate will entertain the name change after updating the bylaws.
  12. Faculty Ombudsman: There has been discussion college-wide as to what this “mediator” should look like. The campus associations will also address this with their campus presidents.
  13. Principles Related to Faculty and Students: The idea is to define professionalism before it is defined for faculty. The Senate must first identify their expectations of college-level students and their expectations of faculty.
  1. Division/Department Reports:

Advising: Student Services will be reconfigured in the SSB. New student orientation is being revisited because they feel students are being given too much information at once; also under consideration is requiring that students register for at least one class before leaving orientation. A lot of financial aid suspensions/petitions are still being reviewed.

Allied Health: The division is in search of a new faculty member for CVT.

Architecture, Engineering and Technology: Concerns were expressed regarding the parking lot and the location of handicapped/faculty spots near the University Center. It was also questioned whether there should be signage indicating handicapped priority in the restrooms.

Business, Behavioral and Social Sciences: Mildred Franceschi is serving as acting Interim Dean.

Communications: Some have experienced issues regarding textbooks.

Fine Arts: Sean was able to clarify the use of overloads/supplements during the summer term.

Library: The library is now part of Learning Support under Karen Reilly.

Mathematics: A concernwasexpressed regarding students wanting to video tape lectures. Permission is needed from the entire class.

Nursing: Concerns from the division included textbooks on back order and issues with CoursEval. The division is almost fully staffed; there is just one more opening to fill.

Science: Dave Curtis is the new representative for the division.

At-Large: Regarding Post-Tenure review, Dr. Shugart spoke of a portfolio for faculty; opportunity will be given to examine the issue and voice opinions.

Reminder: BIG discussions on Student Navigation and Student Purpose will be on Friday, September 14 at 1:00 pm. The discussion on Student Learning will be Tuesday, September 18.

  1. Committee Reports:

Curriculum Committee: None

College Planning Council: None

College Operations Council: None

Compensation Committee: None

Post Tenure Review: None

Student Assessment of Instruction: None

  1. Items from the Floor: None
  1. Adjournment