A special Senate meeting was held to discuss and determine an appropriate response to ACC's current budget crisis. The following resolution was passed at the beginning of the meeting: "The press may attend and report on the meeting but must obtain permission to quote any individual faculty member." It was also agreed that non-Senate faculty members would be allowed to speak but would be limited to three minutes. Faculty members were reminded that the FY02 Budget Revision Process is posted on the web at http://www3.austin.cc.tx.us/bdgtoff/.

Faculty expressed concerns about the current budget crisis including, but not limited to, the following:

• Gross mismanagement, incompetence, and poor decision-making by ACC's president is directly impacting the students. This is a continuing pattern which is growing more and more serious. The current crisis is the president's fault. He has repeatedly gone against the advice of colleagues, faculty, and staff.
• Dr. Fonte is presenting the current crisis as a growth problem instead of acknowledging that many of his special projects have played a major part in the budget problems. These projects include, but are not limited to, the acquisition of Datatel, the renovation of Highland Business Center, creation of the International Business Program, development of the Downtown Business Center, acquisition of an Albertson's grocery store to serve as another small campus in south Austin, creation of an Athletic Director position and Golf Team for ACC, and participation in the Reduced Tuition Program.
• Broad sweeping changes are announced and then rescinded regularly at ACC. This is confusing to all affected parties including students and often results in much wasted effort by ACC faculty and staff.
• Students are receiving incomplete information. They do not understand what is happening and are uncertain about the new fees and how it will impact them. Both students and instructors have been told that specific classes have been cancelled but later have been notified that those same classes have been reinstated. The Reduced Tuition Program was cancelled and then reinstated. This is all very confusing to students. Students are also being told that they must wait four to six weeks to receive refunds for cancelled classes.
• ACC's faculty is not in any way responsible for the current budget crisis, but this fact is unclear to students and the community. The faculty wants to participate in finding solutions to the budget crisis and to take a proactive role in the decision-making process of the college.
• According to Human Resources' data, ACC has fewer full-time faculty, including librarians and counselors, this year than last year. ACC had 376 full-time faculty last year versus 371 this year. ACC budgeted for 437 full-time faculty positions this year. The difference between budgeted costs and actual costs, given the 66 fewer full-time faculty than expected this year, should compensate for the $3.3 million deficit this year. Given all of this excess money in the budget, faculty members would like to know why ACC still has such a large deficit.
• Faculty members asked the Senate to ask the Administration for an explanation of an increase in expenditures from 2000 to 2001 of more than $3 million in Student Services and almost $4.7 million in Institutional Support.
• President Fonte has not actively pursued the Faculty Senate's repeated (since 1999) request for a State Comptroller's financial and performance audit of the College.
• It appears to faculty that in many instances Dr. Fonte either does not know or does not tell the truth.
• The budget crisis is being used to promote an increase in the tax base. Faculty members pointed out that if the college cannot manage the funds they have, then why should the community even consider a future tax increase? In order to ensure a future tax increase, major changes must be made and ACC's Board of Trustees and the Administration must secure the support of faculty and staff.
• Faculty members are confused that full courses, classes that do not cost the college money, core curriculum courses, and courses required for TASP requirements and graduation have been cancelled, while some elective courses and continuing education courses have not been cancelled. Faculty members want to know why some college-credit courses are being moved to continuing education. They also want to know why continuing education classes do not include out-of-district, application, building use, and other fees that are included in college-credit tuition.
• The faculty was disappointed that ACC's Board of Trustees has publicly commended Dr. Fonte for admitting his mistakes when they should be denouncing the current state of affairs. The Senate agreed that the Board should be reminded of its responsibilities to students, taxpayers, and the community.
• The faculty strongly opposes the administrative rule on retention elections proposed by Dr. Fonte and suggested the rule be rewritten to apply only to ACC's president.

The Senate discussed at length whether to call for the president's resignation but decided for now to consider this matter after Senators have had time to survey full-time faculty at the campuses they serve. After much discussion, the following resolution was passed by the Senate:

"WHEREAS ACC'S announced budget deficits, and the possibility of additional deficits, reflect poor planning and financial mismanagement; and

WHEREAS the president's budget deficit responses-including the cancellation of classes and the handling of the reduced tuition program-have damaged the College's credibility and created confusion and hardship for many students; and

WHEREAS the president repeatedly ignored the Faculty Senate's 1999 request for a State Comptroller's performance review of the College and opposed the Board's subsequent allocation of funds to support that review; and

WHEREAS the president has resisted any meaningful system of shared governance so that faculty might affect the course of the College for the benefit of our students;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Senate reaffirms its resolution of September 15, 2000 that we have no confidence in President Richard Fonte's ability to effectively manage Austin Community College.

All faculty members were encouraged to attend ACC's Board of Trustees work session at EVC on Monday, February 18, and the Board meeting at HBC on Monday, March 4.

The meeting was adjourned.

The following Senators were absent: Steve Kirschner and John Maynard.