Revised Draft of the Minutes of the Faculty Senate Meeting of December 12, 2012
Paul Lococo, Chair
Susan Lum, Vice-Chair
Eileen Cain, Secretary
Senators Present: William Albritton, Yumiko Asai-Lim, Michael Bauer, Eunice Brekke, Eileen Cain, Candace Hochstein, Helmut Kae, Eiko Kosasa, Keith Knuuti, Michael Lane, Paul Lococo, Erin Loo, David Millen, Kay Ono, Blanca Polo, Tara Rojas, Michael Scully, Christy Takamure, Greg Walker, James West, Irwin Yamamoto
Senators Absent: Paula Asamoto, Christian Ganne, Susan Lum
Guests: Chris Matz, Head Librarian
Ann Wherry of Kimo Bean
I.Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 3:15 pm with a quorum.
Minutes were approved unanimously as amended.
III. Campus Report
- Chris Matz, Head Librarian, reported that the Library has had a very successful semester.
1. He introduced Ann Wherry of Kimo Bean. The new Kimo Bean coffee shop will open on January 7, 2013 in the Learning Commons. They will be open Mondays – Thursdays 7:30 am – 6:00 pm and Fridays 7:30 am – 3:00 pm. They carry 100% Kona coffee. The prices will be comparable to coffee shops like Starbucks in this area, not as expensive as coffee shops in Waikiki.
- The Learning Commons has an iPad collection. There are 30 now and there will be more available. Junie Hayashi works with library patrons to help them use the iPads.
- A Leeward CC International Engagement Committee is being formed. This campus-wide committee will look at making recommendations concerning International Engagement and education on our campus While the chair of this committee has yet to be appointed, Chair Lococo expects that Becky George will head this committee. There will also be one formal appointee of the Faculty Senate.
- New Faculty Orientation: Cindy Martin has agreed that the Senate can make a presentation for New Faculty Orientation. The Executive Committee will do this. We will present some important resolutions that the Senate has passed. New Faculty will be informed that the Senate represents them.Senator Cain invited Senators to suggest ideas to be included in this orientation.
A. Standing Committee Reports
1. Curriculum Committee (Lane)
- Committee Chair Michael Lane proposed that the Senate approve all of the course modifications and a new course proposal approved by the Curriculum Committee, as listed in his report dated December 12, 2012, which had been distributed to the Senate.
b. Curriculum Committee Chair Lane reported that a new course has been proposed: CHN 111 Elementary Conversational Chinese I. This is for people who just want conversation but do not need to learn to read or write. This course is taught at UH- Mānoa.
Senator Ono asked for clarification of the difference between this proposed class and Chinese 101.
Senator Asai-Lim explained that there are two tracks at UH- Mānoa. If students start studying the language by taking CHN 111, they cannot take CHN 102 afterward, but they can take CHN 112. Leeward CC tried to offer a similar class in Japanese, but there was not enough student demand.
Senator Brekke asked if there is enough demand for CHN 111 here.
Senator Lane responded that the proposer thinks that there will be enough demand for it.
Senator Asai-Lim indicated that here is a concern that CHN 101 and CHN 111 will compete with each other.
Senator Hochstein asked if there is any faculty at Leeward CC who can teach CHN 111.
Senator Lane responded that the proposer is a lecturer who already teaches several Chinese classes here.
c. Senator Lane informed the Senate that there is some discussion about the number of credits offered for music courses. These are typically 2-credit courses. Music faculty want to raise it to 3-credit courses. Curriculum Committee wants to get an explanation about why they want to increase from 2 to 3 credits. The Committee decided to wait before voting on this.
Senator West mentioned that credits for music classes have been based on contact hours. Faculty find this overwhelming. They want to convert from contact hours to credit hours. We will be offering courses that other campuses offer for more credits. This seems to be more fair to the Music faculty and the students. In addition, most of Leeward CC’s music faculty is full-time, unlike UH- Mānoa; most of their music faculty are lecturers.
Senator Lane invited Senator West to speak to the Curriculum Committee about this matter.
B. Chair’s Report (Lococo)
1. The All-Campus Council of Faculty Senate Chairs met on November 30, 2012.
- Accreditation: Each CC received initial reports already. Leeward received only two recommendations. The other campuses received at least seven. The accreditation team expressed concern over GenEd in AAS degrees—it is possible that since the whole system is deficient in that area, an individual campus might go on warning or less-than-warning but not receive full approval status.
- The accreditation team expressed a concern over how our IT is developed and determined—we rely on the UH system; but maybe ACCJC wants a CC system, or possibly even that each campus should have own IT system. At present, this isn’t clear.
- Budget: The Governor reduced the BOR request for $50 million extra down to $10 million for two years, plus about $2 million for DE initiatives. The budget still must go to Legislature for review and approval.Chair Lococo reminded senators that our Legislative Committee will keep an eagle eye out for developments.
- UHCC system is concerned about part-time students who are seeking degrees. They have a low success rate. There is an initiative to improve this at the UHCC level, with an allocation of $250,000.
- Teaching 300-level courses on the CC campuses: State law restricts CC’s teaching 300-level courses to Technical courses ONLY. Otherwise, they MUST be in an arrangement with a four-year school. State law allows CC’s to offer Applied Technical Bachelor’s Degrees (like Maui College has).
- At several of the UH Community Colleges, there is conflict between CTE faculty and Liberal Arts Faculty regarding Gen Ed. The CTE faculty are resisting what they perceive as the Liberal Arts faculty “forcing things down their throats,” especially being“forced to require Eng 100.” Chair Lococo reported that he was told that at HawCC, the automotive faculty are especially “militant” about GenEd requirements. Chair Lococo mentioned that he is not aware of any such conflict at Leeward CC.
Senator Ono asked if these colleges are talking about GenEd requirements for the AS degree. That has been part of our AS degree for years.
Chair Lococo reported that VP Morton said that “it is essential that Faculty Senate control GenEd.” Can delegate up to a point, such as with the Curriculum Committee and/or GenEd committee, but ACCJC absolutely requires that the Senate be in control. GenEd cannot be imposed by the Administration.
2. Campus Council Meeting of December 3, 2012 (Lococo)
a. Members of the Campus Council had been asked to present a plan for how they will communicate information to their constituencies.
b. The Vice-Chair of the Senate is on the Campus Council, so Chair Lococo will ensure that either the Chair or Vice-Chair will report actions of the Council and have such actions included in the minutes.
c. Out of UHCC “C3T” grant of $24 Million for workforce development programs, Leeward CC got $1.5 million. Dean of CTE Ron Umehira and Mike Moser of OCEWD have a number of initiatives they are working on.
d. February is National Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month.
e. Sometime in the Spring Semester ,the Campus Council will send out a survey of Council effectiveness.
C. Standing Committee Reports (cont.)
2. Elections Committee (Loo/Takamure)
The Committee Co-Chairs reported on the results of the recent Faculty Senate election.
There was a good turnout for voting: 60% of faculty voted. The majority voted on the first day. The committee will draft guidelines for future members of this committee and guidelines for candidates when they submit a statement and photo as part of the nomination process.
Senator Ono asked if there had been a better turnout in the past when the election was conducted using a paper ballot.
Senator Lococo responded that there was a better turn-out: about 80% of the faculty voted when .paper ballots were used.
Senator Lane asked if the decrease in voting was a result of the fact that the ballots were emailed. Some Faculty don’t check their email.
Senator West noted that, with a paper ballot, one could see that some colleagues had not voted because the ballot was still in their mailbox, so it was possible to encourage people to vote. But now the ballot is invisible. He asked if there is a way to find out who didn’t vote and get someone to encourage them to vote.
Senator Lococo mentioned that two other Division Chairs had also spoke to him about this, and he believes it is a legitimate request.
Senator Asai-Lim asked about eligibility to run for the Senate and whether Lecturers are called “Faculty.”
Senator Lococo indicated that lecturers must have a teaching load of at least 8 credits in order to run for the Senate. If their teaching load falls below 8 credits, they cannot serve on the Senate.
Senator Albritton wondered whether people did not vote because they did not know about the election or because they did not get nagged to vote? Should we send a paper note to faculty and tell them an election is going on?
Senator Lococo pointed out that even 60% is a high turnout, and it gives the Senate a lot of clout.
Also having 26 candidates running for 11 seats is pretty impressive. That also gives the Senate clout. Efforts to encourage voting are worthwhile.
Senator Loo asked whether Division Chairs should be given a list of who is running for the Senate.
Senator West mentioned that it would be good to have a list of who is eligible to vote.
3. Faculty Committee (Ono)
- Senator Ono thanked Chair Lococo for attending a meeting on her behalf.
- Senator Ono said that she was aware that the issue of clarifying guidelines for Contract Renewals was assigned to Faculty Committee. She and Senator Lum are working on this.
- Senator Ono reported that from the Academic Policy Sub-committee: a policy on Prior Learning Experience is being drafted by the Academic Policy Sub-committee on all campuses except UH- Mānoa. The proposed policy will be circulated for input. Senator Ono will present a copy of this policy to the Faculty Senate at our next meeting.
4. Social Engagement Committee (Ono)
The party was held this month. Senator Ono acknowledged Senators Scully and Brekke for their work on this.
Senator Ono thanked the administrative secretaries for helping and ordering the food and the Senators who showed up and brought helpers. Thanks to Senator Kae for being the emcee. There was no revenue for door prizes. Senator Ono will go to the Campus Council and ask each unit to contribute. Senator Ono expressed disappointment that this was not on the agenda of the Campus Council.
Senator Brekke mentioned that some people on campus are not permitted to drink alcohol on campus before 4:30.
Senator Ono: People in Operations and Maintenance (O&M) were upset that this event was scheduled at 3:00 pm instead of lunchtime because they get off work at 1:00 pm. They will have a separate party. If the party had been on December 7, after the last day of classes, this would not have been a problem.
Senator Lane asked if there could be something type of less formal gathering, with pupu and wine. UH-Mānoa has these kinds of gatherings every week.
Senator Hochstein mentioned that people do not usually want to pay for such events. She suggested having it after 4:30 pm. The schedule depends on our purpose. Do we want to have a way for faculty to get to know each other, or do we want to include secretaries and O&M?
Senator Ono asked how many want to have a faculty-only byob party. We can start with that and then expand later.
Senator West suggested having a wine-tasting party with Tamura’s Fine Wine and Liquors.
There was support for this idea among the Senators.
A. Policy on the use of Smokeless Products in the Classroom (Lococo)
Chair Lococo informed the Senate that Smokeless Products have been under discussion. There is concern since they release a vapor, and some faculty on campus asked for the Senate to take up the issue. Vice-Chancellor Mark Lane is gathering information about this from the UH System. However, at the recent CCCFSC meeting, Chair Lococo learned that a policy is being drafted at the UHCC system level by Mike Unebasami. The issue is apparently more complicated than some had considered. One campus restricted use of these products to the smoking areas, but the people using these products are trying not to smoke. Since requiring them to be in a smoking area made quitting more difficult, so that restriction was removed.
B. Grading Policy (Lococo)
UHCC system is considering having a common grading policy. Do faculty want to add plus and minus grades? Chair Lococo asked for input.
Senator Hochstein spoke against plus and minus grades. They don’t buy anything. Minus grades can hurt students. They can lower their GPA.
Chair Lococo pointed out that a D minus grade will not allow students to get writing intensive credits at UH-Mānoa.
Senator Knuuti mentioned that students wonder why we don’t have plus and minus grades.
Senator Brekke pointed out that a C minus grade is lower than 2.0.
Senator Polo added that as A plus grade will not raise a student above a 4.0.
Senator Hochstein indicated that a C minus can keep students out of certain programs. This could increase the number of gatekeeper courses.
Senator Lane asked whether plus and minus grades would just complicate discussions with students about their grade.
Senator Lococo asked if the Senate wants to do anything about this. He was asked to bring this to the Senateby the VP UHCC system office for recommendations.
Senator Polo asked whether all campuses have to change, or whether it can be decided campus-by-campus.
Senator Lococo replied that now it is decided campus-by-campus, so we could as a campus adopt the policy regardless of the rest of the colleges in the system.
Senator Knuuti mentioned that faculty members can put in their own syllabus that they do not give plus or minus grades.
Senator Ono asked if the UHCC is bringing this up as a preliminary move to devise a common grading policy.
Chair Lococo said yes.
Senator Ono suggested that we could go back to our units and ask for a straw vote on this. It will take a long time to come to agreement on this.
Chair Lococo asked Senators to ask colleagues about this and try to get a sense of how people feel about this issue. We can take it up again at our February meeting.
A. Adhering to Registration Deadlines (Hochstein)
We adopt a policy to say we adhere to our application deadlines. It is difficult for us to administratively disenroll students in the first week when at the same time we are scrambling to register students because we are still accepting applications even though the deadline has passed. Counselors are asked to help such applicants to get classes. The Dean of Student Services is accepting these applications. That is his right and privilege. Does the faculty want to ask admin to hold firm to an application deadline. This will affect our head count and income. Holding to the application deadline would help the students we already have.
Chair Lococo said that it would be good to know if late registrants do not do well in their classes. Is there data about this?
Senator Hochstein: That data is not available. About 800 students would be affected.
Senator Lane: Is this a financial issue?
Senator West; How many applications do we accept after the due date and what is their success rate? This data is needed in order to support this proposal. We need to know how many people will be affected by such a change. 800 students is a high number.
Chair Lococo: We need data on how many students register late.
Senator Loo: What would success rate mean?
Senator Brekke: Success rate is how many pass the class.
Senator Brekke: We need the number of students who registered on time and passed on failed.
Senator Lococo: If there are deadlines, why are they not being followed? We need a more specific resolution for a future meeting.
Sale of Essays on online plagiarism sites will be discussed at Jan. meeting.
- The Policy on Policies relates to how policies are created and adopted. Chair Lococo informed the Senate that an administration proposal has been referred to the Program Review committee which will look it over and make recommendations to the Senate.
There are 3 policies coming from the Administration to the Senate next semester:
- Class attendance no-show policy, in response to Faculty Senate Resolution 12-40.
- Disenrollment policy for students who do not meet prerequisites.
- Developmental Ed policy requiring students to take their Developmental Ed classes in their first year here. This will involve scheduling.
C.Smoking at Leeward CC
A faculty member asked Chair Lococo to bring up the idea of a No-smoking policy at Leeward CC, similar to the policy recently established at Kapi‘olani CC. He was also asked to bring up the present policy, that smokers need to be a certain distance from buildings; this law is not being enforced.