Minutes for 12/05/01

Faculty Senate Meeting

December 5, 2001

Wednesday - 1:00 PM, SPC Southwest Campus, Room location B133, Building 3020

1. Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by Dr. Tim Nealon, Faculty Senate President at 1:03 p.m.
2. Reading, Correction, and Approval of Minutes

Minutes of the last meeting were approved as submitted.

3. Treasurer’s Report - Unit Plan and fiscal implications will be discussed

General expense account balance - $1247.75

Expenditures - $252.25 for faculty senate representative to attend Texas Community College Teachers Association (TCCTA) meeting.
4. Old Business

a. Committee Reports

i. Election Committee - status report
Dee Joseph, Committee Chair, reported that an email will be sent before the end of the semester and again at the beginning of the new semester to request nominations for a 5 member Promotion Appeals Committee. Nominations can be forwarded to Dee via email or hard copy.
ii. Constitution Committee - status report
The Constitution Committee has not met; a meeting will be held the beginning of next semester. Please forward any concerns regarding the Faculty Senate Constitution to Larry Duron, the Committee Chair.
iii. Professional Concerns Committee - status report
The Professional Concerns Committee has begun to meet with the focus being the completion of the revision of the Faculty Handbook. Herman Hauschildt is the Chair of the Committee; feel free to contact him with any concerns.
iv. Faculty Development Committee - status report
A request for nominees for the NISOD Award has been sent out. Please check your email and nominate a colleague you feel is worthy of this award. Lester Hall is the Chair of the Committee. A request has been received by this committee from a sister campus (impressed with our process) to share the nominations process the committee has been utilizing for nominations for awards.
b. Faculty Status for Librarians
Phil Raue reported having attended a meeting on November 7, 2001, with the District Chancellor, Dr. Robert Ramsey, and 23 other District Librarians, as well as two Faculty Senate Presidents to discuss this issue. As per Phil, Dr. Ramsey supported the Librarians desire to have the Librarian positions within the district be of faculty status, as they have been previously.
5. New Business

a. Faculty Senate President's Report
Emily Staats, Faculty Senate Treasurer, attended the SPC Academic Affairs Meeting for Tim. She reported the following highlights from the meeting:

Reduced tuition pilot program (state mandated) will begin February 4, 2002. Currently, there are approximately 12 courses that will be offered in a 13-week semester. The courses will be held between the hours of 2:00 & 5:00 p.m. This is being done in an effort to utilize classrooms during down times.

The Distance Learning Plan has been forwarded to the Higher Education Coordinating Board. See it soon on the Faculty Senate Web Page (http://www.accd.edu/spc/facsenat/). The Plan in its entirety will be put on the SPC Web Page within a few weeks. Keep an eye out for an announcement, via SPCAll. (The Faculty Senate received several comments about the proposed Distance Learning Plan. Another opportunity was offered to the Faculty to meet and work on revisions (thank you to those that attended the meeting) and the revisions were submitted to Administration for review.

Holiday Work Schedule - offices need to stay open through December 19, 2001.

Microsoft Academy - SPC has been selected as a site for Microsoft Certification Training.

Administration encourages other academy's to be developed.

b. Mixer planned for first week back in the Spring (2002) - event will be planned
A Faculty Senate mixer is being planned for the beginning of next semester. Look for announcements.
c. Faculty Senate Web Page Revision - one stop resource format to be discussed
Van Lopez and Dee Joseph will be working on updating the SPC Faculty Senate Web Page to reflect a one-stop resource for faculty. Anticipated links to be included are District Policies that affect faculty, a school calendar, etc…
d. Faculty Opinionairre for District Services - to be discussed
SAC is in the process of finalizing an opinionairre for district services to include central receiving, facilities, human resources, etc…that they are willing to share with us. Several programs at SPC have faced challenges in receiving supplies and equipment necessary to run their labs, the feedback from the opinionairre may be helpful in identifying areas that need to be addressed.
e. New Retirement Plan - to be discussed
The DRAFT will soon be up on the Faculty Senate Web Page.
6. Electorate to be Heard
No electorates were present aside from the Senators, however email received by Faculty Senate members was read and discussed. Questions about the Question & Answer Forum and the process for nominations for awards were received and answers were provided to the interested parties.
7. Adjournment
Before the adjournment of the meeting, Congratulations were expressed for Dr. Patricia Candia for her appointment to the position of Vice President of Student Affairs, Gregory Hudspeth for his appointment to the position of Dean of Arts & Sciences, and for Dr. Tim Nealon for his nomination for the Piper Award.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:09 p.m.