Minutes for Oct. 31, 2001

"Optimism is essential to achievement

and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress."

--Nicholas Murray Butler

Minutes

Faculty Senate Meeting

October 31, 2001

Wednesday - 1:00 PM, Science Building Room 208

1. Call to Order
The Faculty Senate President, Dr. Tim Nealon, called the meeting to order at 1:07 p.m.
2. Reading, Correction, and Approval of Minutes
Motion made by Phil Raue to accept the minutes as written, motion seconded by Herman Hauschildt.
3. Treasurer’s Report
Emily Staats, Treasurer, reported there were no new expenditures. Faculty Senator Dee Joseph's expenses for attending the TCCTA Conference have been reimbursed. Access to actual balance was unavailable at print time, but will be included in the next meetings minutes.
4. Old Business

a. Resolution by the Palo Alto College Faculty Senate regarding Faculty Status for Librarians - letter of support written by SPC Faculty Senate.
A letter of support was written and sent to Sandy Hood at PAC. Phil Raue reported that a meeting is scheduled with the Chancellor and Librarian representatives from each of the ACCD Campuses. Phil is to represent SPC.
b. Thank you letters - letters of appreciation written to ACCD Board Members for supporting recent salary increase; thank you letters also written to senators whose terms recently expired.
Van Lopez, SPC Faculty Senate Corresponding Secretary, sent thank you letters to ACCD Board members thanking them for the recent salary increase. Additionally, he sent thank you letters to all faculty senators for their participation on the faculty senate.
c. Retention Issues
Senator Joe Whitson expressed concern regarding students being dropped for having a balance (sometimes of .50 cents) and asked if this issue had been resolved. Tim responded by saying that this issue is currently being addressed.

Senator Emily Staats commented on the constant reminders to increase enrollment and questioned if anyone has looked at a ceiling, a breaking point, or a desired maximum number for student enrollment for St. Philip's. She continued by questioning whether there is a point where St. Philip's will loose its uniqueness of an atmosphere of small classes where students receive close attention from their instructors. An atmosphere that can be lost when enrollment in classes is large and managing student advising, committee work, and other incidentals becomes more challenging for faculty.
d. Follow up on Question & Answer Forum with Dr. Runnels - comments being accepted now for this follow up meeting. Date pending, but tentatively considering the 2^nd week in November.
Tim reported that the Q & A Forum with Dr. Runnels will occur on Wednesday, November 7, 2001, at 2:00 p.m. in the Heritage Room. All faculty are encouraged to attend. Dee Joseph shared the questions that have been submitted and commented that unanswered questions from the last forum will be included in this forum.
e. Faculty Senate Goals - tabled before, this item will be discussed along with a report from Dr. Nealon, Faculty Senate President, regarding recent Super Senate Symposium held during the Employee Development Day at SAC.
Tim reported that there was good attendance at the Super Senate meeting during the Employee Development Day Conference at SAC. See attached list (at end of these minutes) for specifics on prioritized goals established by the Super Senate. The faculty senate president's of each campus will work on the goals and recruit help from faculty as needed.
f. Committee Reports

i. Election Committee - status report

Dee Joseph, Committee Chair, reported that the Committee would be meeting soon. She identified a statement in the faculty handbook that calls for the faculty senate to facilitate the development of a Promotion Appeals Committee. She indicated she would be sending a proposed amendment to the Constitution Committee to address this need.

Additionally, Dee indicated the next election of Senators would occur around March of 2002. If you are interested in being a Senator, keep an eye on your email for the request for nominations.
ii. Constitution Committee - status report
Larry Duron, Committee Chair, reported that the Committee's new members are currently reviewing the Constitution in preparation for handling proposed amendments.
iii. Professional Concerns Committee - status report
Herman Hauschildt, Committee Chair, reported that the first meeting of the Committee would be on Thursday, November 8, 2001, at 2:30 p.m. in the conference room of the Applied Science Building. First issue at hand is the anticipated completion of the revision of the Faculty Handbook.
iv. Faculty Development Committee - status report
Lester Hall, Committee Chair, was unable to attend the meeting, but Tim indicated the Committee is hard at work reviewing nominees for the Piper Award. Deadline for dossiers is the 17^th of November with a final name being submitted to Dr. Runnels by the 19^th of November. Tim also indicated the NISOD Award nominees would be the committee's next task.

5. New Business

a. Faculty Senate President's Report
The following are highlights from meeting's Tim attended.

Cabinet Meeting

Emergency response plan continues to be worked on by Dr. Candia & Dr. Carnes.

Voting held to decide if graduations would be held in December. As a result of votes submitted graduation will take place in December. December graduations scheduled for Thursday, December 13, 2001 at the Laurie Auditorium, Trinity University.

Tim announced that Sexual Harassment Training is being scheduled for all ACCD employees.

Tim indicated he had provided information to relieve stress some people are feeling because of Anthrax scare.

Employee Development Day in the Spring is scheduled for March 11, 2002, the first day of Spring Break, attendees will include college staff and administrators only, faculty will not be required to attend.

Academic Affairs Meeting

Tim indicated that administration has identified specific procedures for hiring faculty. Among them are a closer look at diversity issues and emphasis that it is imperative to have a screening committee involved in the hiring process.

Information shared that if a person leaves a department this doesn't necessarily mean that there is a vacancy in that department.

A representative from "Smart Technologies" is scheduled to do a presentation on multimedia equipment, which includes secured carts, etc. A date for the presentation was not given.

The United Way Campaign will be under way soon.

Status of SPC personnel that are also military personnel - everyone encouraged to keep an eye out and try to project whom might be called for active duty so that appropriate arrangements can be made for classroom coverage and other job related responsibilities of these individuals.

Tim announced that a new Curriculum Committee has been formed.

b. December Graduation - faculty polled results to be discussed.
As mentioned above December graduations are scheduled for Thursday, December 13, 2001.
6. Electorate to be Heard
Emily Staats brought up for discussion the proposed Distance Learning Policy Guidelines that were distributed via email to SPC All on Monday, October 29, 2001. Of concern to the faculty are issues regarding the untimely release of the draft, class size composition, release time and compensation for course development, as well as the recommended teaching load. Comments were provided to Emily to take back to the Committee that worked on the original policy development.

Dee requested input from Senator's present to complete a report for a Unit Plan Meeting she will be attending this week. She also shared a list of Faculty Senate accomplishments she has compiled over the last year that will be included in the report.
The next Faculty Senate Executive Committee will be on November 14, 2001, at 1:00 p.m. in the Science Building, Room 208.

The next Faculty Senate Meeting will be on November 28, 2001 at the South West Campus location. Future reminders will have specifics as to location, time etc. Keep an eye on your email for this information.

7. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 2:14 p.m.

Submitted by: Larry T. Duron, BSOE, COTA

See next page for item # 4 Old Business e. Faculty Senate Goals (Super Senate)

EMPLOYEE CONFERENCE SESSION:

Faculty Senate Panel Discussion

Oct. 8, 2001

Questions were solicited from audience. Please find a brief summary of

questions and replies below.

Improving Retention

SPC: Some plans in the works, Flexibility with students,

Following up on absences, Setting up a financial fund

NVC: No problem - rapid growth currently.

PAC & SAC: Working with students

Hiring and Retaining Librarians and Counselors as faculty

SPC, SAC, and PAC librarians and counselors are faculty

Salaries (1*)

a. Need to be improved for both staff and faculty

b. Push for an across the board raise

Increase Mileage Allowance

Will be on agenda

Tenure and Promotion Guidelines (2*)

All guidelines at all colleges should be the same.

Seven years ago PAC had taskforce made up of faculty senate

members. They were able to review and set policies.

PAC allows faculty to apply in 5th year, but are not tenured

until year 7.

Incentives for Faculty when Developing Web Courses (3*)

SPC no money set aside

Policy must be set at SPC and will be set

NWV has release time

PAC has release time

PAC requires faculty to have a certificate before developing Web

Courses.

SAC faculty required to take a number of programs through

Technology Center.

SAC faculty given release time to develop course

SAC some grant money available

SAC worried about ownership

What is Status of 2 Year Adjunct Full-Time Faculty at SAC? Policy

states they should be hiring full-time.

SAC Senate Chair does not know.

Policy good, but funding not available.

Status of Paid Family Leave (or Maternity Leave) Please take request to District.
Opinion of Employee Development Day at all campuses

SAC eliminated spring; mixed feelings on Fall. Make it a teaching

Day or make it a holiday.

PAC mixed feelings on fall. Make it a teaching day or make it a

holiday NWV support for fall.

SPC eliminated spring; mixed feelings on fall. Make it a teaching

day or make it a holiday.

Revisit the decision about fall employee dev. Day.

Percentages of Senators per Faculty

PAC 28 senators; 128 faculty

NWV 51 faculty - no formal senate

SPC 18 senators; 182 faculty

SAC 24 senators; 434 faculty

Question: Adjunct Faculty needs help with student harassment

Reply: Tell Administrators at high school, tell Department chair at

College.

The meeting concluded with prioritizing the list. SPC and NVC presidents identified items listed 1-3 identified by an * as priorities and issues that would be addressed this school year.

PAC and SAC would like us to address all the items and work to

implement them this year.