Faculty Senate Council DRAFT
October 8, 2003
Central Conference Room
2 p.m.
Present: Tim Payne, Diana Sampson, Amelia Acosta, Pamela Pasquale, Rachel David, Lauren Wilson, Bob Thompson, Susan Kolwitz, Bruce McCutcheon, Shalin Hai-Jew, Jeannette Idiart, Crystal Hanscom, Diana Knauf, Tom Moran, Carol Henderson
Guest: Robin Young
1. Welcome and Introductions Tim Payne
Tim opened the meeting, then had the members of the FSC introduce themselves. He mentioned the need to appoint an official Vice-Chair to replace him when he automatically became Chair, due to Terry Taylor’s appointment as Dean of IAS/SS.
Tim is very excited about this year’s FSC membership.
2. Approval of Minutes: May 14, 2003
Motion by Rachel, seconded by Amelia to accept the minutes. Unanimous approval.
3. Open Comment period from Faculty Senate members All
a. PPA’s (Program Planning Assessments) are due within a very short time of the start of the quarters. Faculty would like to have more time, and would like to see if they can have more say, in the timeline. Tim recommends that we keep this item on the agenda.
TO DO: Tim will take this to Carol Henderson and report back
b. Diana Knauf was appointed to the FSC in the Spring as the FACTC rep.
c. Tim encouraged faculty to come to the meetings to bring up anything about which they are concerned during the open comment period.
d. FSC meets the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of most months (according to Faculty Senate By-Laws).
4. Conduct of Council Meetings Tim Payne
a. Please be sure to send a proxy if you can’t make the meeting, as business can only be conducted if there is a quorum.
b. It may be necessary to revise the process of choosing reps, as it may not be appropriate for the deans to be the ones who are ultimately responsible for making sure that their departments have chosen reps.
c. Representatives are basically a conduit of information between the Faculty and FSC.
d. Tim provided a check list regarding treats for the meeting, for choices and sign-ups.
e. Tim will be conducting the meetings using Roberts Rules of Order (Parliamentary Procedure) which are required by the Senate By-Laws, and which enable a meeting to be run in a fair and orderly manner.
5. Faculty Senate Vice Chair selection Tim Payne
Amelia Acosta made a motion to elect Rachel David to the position of Vice Chair. Rachel accepted the nomination. Her selection was unanimously approved. This position has traditionally been a precursor to serving as Chair. The Vice Chair is involved in regular meetings with the Vice President for Academic Affairs before the FSC meetings, which is good training for the Chair position.
The appointment of Rachel now leaves an opening for another rep from IAS/SS.
6. Amelia was appointed last fall as Recorder and Diana Knauf as FACTC rep. Tim Payne
7. Drop for Non-Attendance Debriefing Tim/Carol Henderson/Robin Young
Carol and Robin wanted to hear from FSC how this has gone. Some felt it had gone quite well as wait-listed students were able to get into classes right away. A few experienced problems due to the way the registration process for wait list openings was currently set up, as it left open a window where students were able to sign up for openings before some of the wait-listed students were able to. Robin said she can reverse registrations if she has a faculty signature for the wait-listed student. Carol hopes that there may be a technical solution to this problem.
This is still not a very good process for classes which meet only once or twice a week.
TO DO: Continue to let students know about this procedure.
This information is on the intranet and this winter will also be included in the schedule.
There is also a problem of students moving between different sections of on-line classes. Is there a way to route students to the correct class from the start?
TO DO: Come back later to the issue of registering for, and moving between, On-line classes. This item will be opened again at the next meeting for more discussion.
8. Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Survey Carol Henderson
Carol wanted to be sure to let faculty know ahead of time that they would be asked to allow time again this fall for a Noel-Levitz survey in their classes. This survey will be run every other year so that we’ll be able to build up data. The results of the previous survey are available in the library on reserve. Jim James also has a copy.
9. SB 5135 – “The Lingering Student Law” Carol Henderson & Tim Payne
Carol and the faculty are very concerned about this. The intention of the law is to ensure that students will move through the 2-year community and technical college system in a reasonable amount of time. As students are partially funded by the state, the state sees this as a way to keep education costs within limits.
This law, however, has the potential for many unintended consequences which could actually be to the disadvantage of many students, and to the effective running of the colleges themselves. It is possible that about 38-40% of our students could be impacted by this law.
Carol hopes that faculty will get involved in trying to implement this law with minimal negative impact for our students. Tom Curtis has asked Tim to see if he could get several faculty members to serve on a committee to deal with this. Crystal Hanscom and Shalin Hai-Jew volunteered. Anyone else who is interested should contact Tim Payne.
TO DO: In order to inform the faculty and the students about this in an accurate way, it is hoped that the EbbTide will work with Tom Curtis to write an article about this law and its potential consequences.
TO DO: Contact the Legislative Director of the Student Government.
TO DO: Get faculty involved in this.
(4. Continued)
a. It is important that the Faculty Senate Council create subcommittees to work on certain issues as there is not enough time during FSC meetings to get everything done in 1 ½ hours.
10. Grading Issues Tim Payne & Robin Young
Robin sees that some change is needed. She handed out a list of concerns and recommendations. (see the following document).
This list includes;
§ Deleting the “H” grade
§ Incomplete Contract copies need to be turned into Records Department
§ Request clarification of the deadlines for P/NC and NC grade options
§ Conflict of the audit grade as described in the grading policy and in the section regarding assignment of early exit grades
§ “Z” grade = hardship Withdrawal-Student documentation to be placed in student’s file, accompany the Grade Change form and /or schedule change form.
§ Grade Changes and Policy 5040 (Records)
Robin discussed each of these issues. Tim and Robin have a goal of greater communication between Enrollment Services and the faculty.
TO DO: Include this list of concerns with the minutes
TO DO: Put “Z” Grade on the next meeting’s Agenda for further discussion.
11. Faculty Senate Purpose/Mission Tim Payne
Tim feels that one of the most important goals of the year for the FSC is to determine the issues in which the entire faculty (Faculty Senate) should be involved, and to keep them informed about these issues. He is concerned that some academic issues may be decided by the Administration without adequate analysis by, and input from, the faculty and that there are issues (such as grading) that should be scrutinized by the entire faculty rather than through representative committees. With the new college governance structure, it is important to clarify what issues are in the purview of different governance groups. FSC should consider clarifying the mission and purpose of the Faculty Senate by updating the By-Laws. Tim will be meeting with former Faculty Senate Chairs Terry Taylor and Art West to analyze this further.
12. Next meeting: October 22nd
Proposed meeting dates for the year: Oct 22, Nov 12, 26(?), Dec 10, Jan. 14, 28, Feb 11, 25, March 10, 24 (?), April 14, 28, May 12, 26, June 9 (?)
The meeting was adjourned at 3:35 P.M.
Minutes recorded by Libby Fiene
Faculty Senate Council Secretary