Minutes
Faculty Senate Meeting
Wednesday, April 25, 2001
Science Building Room #208, 2:30 p.m.
Tim Nealon, Faculty Senate President, called the meeting to order at 2:30 p.m.
Minutes were accepted and approved as posted on the Faculty Senate Web Page.
One expenditure has cleared, the purchase of 3 packages of formatted disks from central supply (one box has been used to provide the Professional Concerns Committee members with the Faculty Handbook Document, 2 boxes remain available for further use by the Senate - one box given to the Recording Secretary for Faculty Senate use and the other stored with the Treasurer.)
$83.36 expense pending for the purchase of notebooks & dividers for use by the Faculty Senate Historian to archive Faculty Senate business. Challenges have arisen in using the purchasing process in place. Standard Operating Procedures unclear. Treasurer working on resolving this issue.
$500 spent for the Awards Reception held on April 17, 2001 also pending the completion of paperwork.
Travel expenses incurred by Faculty Senate Representative at the TCCTA Conference also pending completion of paperwork.
Faculty Senate President requested order of meeting agenda be altered to discuss the election results and nominations of new officers before the Committee reports. Senators present voted unanimously to do so.
A. Committee Reports
a. Election Committee - results report
Elections Committee Chair had to leave but provided information to the Recording Secretary before leaving. Election results revealed 65 members of the electorate voted. 4 votes had to be voided. Newly elected Senators are as on the email message sent on 4/16/01 by the Election Committee Chair. They include: Ed Beaty, Diane Bellinger, Larry Duron, Herman Hauschildt, Mary Hays, George Johnson, Timothy Nealon, and James West. The Faculty Senate President announced the names of the new Senators.
The Faculty Senate President indicated he would be generating a memo to inform Administration of the newly appointed Senators.
Proceeded with nominations and voting for new Faculty Senate Officers. Senators will hold office for one year. The slate of new officers is as follows:
President - Tim Nealon
Vice President - Dee Joseph
Recording Secretary - Larry Duron
Corresponding Secretary - Van Lopez
Treasurer - Emily Staats
Parliamentarian - Herman Hauschildt
Historian - Bill Fuller
The Faculty Senate President also requested that appointment of new Committee's be tabled until the first meeting in the fall. Senators present voted unanimously to postpone appointments until the first fall meeting.
b. Constitution Committee - results report
Constitution Committee Chair had to leave but provided information to the Recording Secretary before leaving. 55 people voted for the constitutional revisions. One vote had to be voided. 79.6 to 80% of the majority vote for each of the 19 amendments was in favor of the revision.
A Senator brought up for discussion the inclusion of the SPC South West Campus in future meetings of the Senate. Although information addressed SPCALL via email is distributed to all SPC faculty and staff, he suggested considering having at least one meeting at the SW Campus next year.
Another Senator suggested the use of PDF Writer Software for future elections over the Internet.
Several other issues arose that will be forwarded to the newly appointed elections committee.
c. Professional Concerns Committee - report
The Professional Concerns Committee met yesterday (4/24/01) with Dr. Carnes, the Dean of AS & T and received information regarding how the promotion process is handled on that side of the house. There appears to be some inequities between the process for promotion between the Academic side of the house and the AS & T side of the house. A member of the Professional Concerns Committee suggested exploring some options mentioned by Dr. Carnes in an effort to create parity between both sides of the house. This issue will be discussed further at the next meeting of this committee.
The committee hopes to meet one more time before the end of the semester.
Committee Chair indicated she would follow up with Dr. Byrd and Dr. Mayo to review the faculty handbook and have it available by this coming fall semester.
d. Faculty Development Committee - report
Chair reported there are 8 nominations for the Faculty Excellence Award. He will be notifying the nominees and the committee will be working on selection of the recipient of the award over the next few weeks. He also reiterated that the Faculty Excellence Award Announcement would be made at the Fall Convocation rather than at graduation as it has been in previous years.
The Committee Chair indicated timelines have been drafted for all of the awards to alleviate the rush to select awardees.
The Faculty Senate President and other Senators shared positive feedback they have heard from Administration regarding the increased visibility and activity of the Faculty Senate.
e. District Student Affairs Council - report
The last meeting was held on 3/29/01. Topic of discussion was the issue of continuous enrollment. The Faculty Senate Representative on this committee shared some information from the Summary Notes (Minutes) of the Committee: "At SPC, Dr. Tatum is in the process of meeting with department chairs to develop a plan. Dr. Tatum's recommendation is that we follow our current policy which allows for changes during the first two days (instructor and department chair signature required) and then there is an process to request an exception." "It is Dr. Tatum's opinion that department chairs want the flexibility of moving students in and out of classes to meet individual student needs up to the 12th day of class." A memo to faculty chairs from Dr. Tatum identifying late registration issues was also provided by the faculty senate representative for the record.
A senator present questioned how the VCT (Virtual College of Texas) classes would be handled. The faculty senate president indicated VCT followed our (SPC's) calendar.
Our representative on the committee indicated another meeting is scheduled for tomorrow (4-26-01).
A. Election of Officers - will occur at this meeting
Held earlier in the meeting as mentioned above.
B. New Committee's - will be formed at this meeting
Tabled until the first fall meeting of the Faculty
Senate.
C. (This item was not on the agenda, but was brought up for discussion.)
Promotion Appeals Committee - the Faculty Senate Treasurer indicated Policy DLC Local, page 6 of 6, identifies this committee and the appointment of committee members being due in February of each year. This did not occur this year and she suggested consideration of the previous committee members continuing until new members can be appointed.
The Faculty Senate President identified this as an issue for the Elections Committee to handle.
D. (Also not on the agenda, but discussed.)
A senator requested follow up on the Spring Faculty Development Day issue - Faculty Senate President indicated the Senators identified to deal with this issue would be meeting tomorrow (4/26/01) to review the questionnaire that will be distributed.
Another senator questioned how this would affect the Academic Calendar for the spring since it is already set. No answer available. Results of the meeting between the Faculty Senate President and the College President will likely provide an answer.
A member of the electorate raised some questions about the process for voting for the constitution. He identified that a 30-day notice was not given and that absentee voting was not available for voting for the constitutional revisions. The Faculty Senate President indicated these issues would be researched and the necessary information would be provided.
7. Adjournment
The President announced the next faculty senate meeting date - August 29, 2001. He also indicated the faculty senate executive committee would be meeting one week before, August 22, 2001. Time and location to be announced later.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:29 p.m.
Submitted by:
_________________________ ________________________
Larry T. Duron, BSOE, COTA Dr. Tim Nealon
Recording Secretary President