Faculty Senate
April 22, 2016
RCC/SOU Higher Education Center, Room 117
Present (in bold):
Bob Bagwell
Lynn Black
Karl Brake
Andy Childress
Tiffany Clarkin
Sandy Contreras
Kevin Culhane
Curt Erikson
Mandi Feetham
Robert Felthousen
Kiersta Fricke-Gostnell
Doug Gardner
Joyce Graham
Michael Grutchfield
Jeanine Henriques
Charlotte Hutt
Bryan Jeffs
Felishia Jenkins
Kenneth Jones
Jessica Kitchen, co-chair
Alex Kozlowski
Victor Matoush
Kristi Mersino
Kathy Meyer
Glen Moulton
Diana Moynahan, recorder
Deb Murphy, co-chair
Carolyn Oates
Cyndy Patterson
Tom Pike
Kathleen Salinas
Erin Schibel
Jim Shaw
Midge Shaw
Lori Sours
Serena St. Clair
Dorothy Swain
Task Force Updates and Group Work
Student perspectives and engagement – Need to focus on engaging students outside of the classroom. Adjunct faculty outnumber full-time faculty. To engage more fully with students, adjunct faculty should have additional time to meet with students for office hours, etc. One-on-one face time keeps students in college. This has been talked about in FAMAT for the past two years. At a recent Board meeting ASGRCC did a presentation on clubs and how the number of clubs has doubled this past year. We need to get adjunct faculty involved in club activity with students.
Midge Shaw mentioned that she builds in one-on-one time with students in her writing classes because she doesn’t want to lose that time with them. Kristi Mersino noted that she comes in on her own time to meet individually with students because she can’t afford to take time away from class. Glen Moulton noted that the PT Faculty Forum has been talking about adding one hour of office time to adjunct faculty.
Serena St. Clair cautionedthat there are things we can do as Faculty Senate, but other things are addressed in FAMAT. We should concentrate on how we can support these ideas.
Sustainability – Dorothy Swain said the goal for this year was to do Earth Day activities on three campuses; they did it on two of three campuses (April 21 for RWC and RVC). They wanted to work in a curricular piece and accomplished this with student posters for the event as part of the Chemistry classes, and studentpapersweredue on the same topic at end of term. They also want to find a way to encourage other instructors to incorporate sustainability into their curriculum. Next year they would like to have green tours of each campus and develop a brochure for a self-guided tour. The Green Team started a book group and will read Collapse by Jared Diamond; they will meet at lunch during the May 6 Inservice to discuss the book.
Strategies for developing a culture of safety and conflict resolution – The task force got started shortly after the UCC shooting; they had questions about first responders, but it was not their intent to suggest we arm faculty although some faculty may have some special training. Task force members weren’t aware of the policy that employees may not carry a weapon on campus even if they have a concealed carry permit, but private citizens may carry. At least for increased awareness, the policy was clarified. Curtis Sommerfeld came to Faculty Senate and talked about emergency procedures which was a way to increase awareness among Faculty Senate. We still want to focus on conflict resolution. For example, psychological profiles show that school shooters tend to beloners. We can identify that person and deal with those issues in the classroom before an event takes place.
When CurtisSommerfeld attended a past Faculty Senate meeting, he mentioned that there should be faculty expectations of what to do in emergency situations and asked for Faculty Senate’s help on a “statement.” Was this a Human Resources piece? Tom Pike will follow up with Curtis.
Faculty Senate and Mission – Midge Shaw reported. How faculty are evaluated: peer, self, student, and administrative. Faculty are evaluated every five years after the probationary period. We want to give options for each of those categories, for example for a self-evaluation, a portfolio could be created to give to an administrator. Changes happen in administration so it’s nice to let people know who I am. The burden would be on the faculty member to produce something. Midge said her group would put together a proposal.
Do administrators feel they need training in doing observations? There’s a whole skill set that goes along with that.
Best Practices – Joyce Graham/Carolyn Oates–Their grouptalked about loneliness of adjunct faculty and how mentoring could be a good idea and open it up to other departments. A newsletter by Faculty Senatethat addressedvarious issues was suggested. Best practices – could have a “feature teacher article” (faculty with a good idea; doesn’t have to be a long term faculty). They could show examples by taking a lesson and illustrating with different learning styles. Questions could be submitted, and a master teacher could write a response to a question. Topics could include burn out, mentoring, or imagination.
Serena St. Clair thought the idea of newsletter was good, but asked how it would be structured and what would the workload impact be. It would be a great promotion for the senate with a shared governance and teaching and learning aspect. It would promote teaching and learning, but how would it happen so it’s not a burden to someone.
Professional Dialogue Process
Deborah Murphy gave a program presentation about Early Childhood and Elementary Education. Faculty Senators took notes and shared feedback with her.
Announcements
The Faculty Senate award nominations have been submitted. The sub-committee is meeting April 26 to finalize awards.
The May luncheon committee is moving forward. Faculty Senate would like to invite administrators and the RCC Board to the event. The committee would still like to have another volunteer or two.
The co-chair for next year will need to be from Jackson County, the election will happen in May, and the announcement of the new co-chair will be made at the June 11 Faculty Senate meeting prior to commencement.
Next Meeting
May 27, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Table Rock Campus, Room 184. This will be the faculty recognition and luncheon.