Approval of Agenda: The agenda was approved as written.

Approval of Minutes: The minutes of both the February 1 regular meeting and the February 15 special meeting of the Senate were approved as written.

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."

President's Report: As President of the Senate, Laura Ore reported on the following meetings:

• Senate Officers' Meeting, February 4, 2002-The Senate Officers discussed concerns from the February 1, 2002 meeting and were told that the hiring freeze would likely affect full-time faculty hires for '02 and '03. All present agreed that the memo blaming faculty for student evaluation problems was inappropriate and should be addressed by the Faculty Evaluations Committee. Officers asked for a full accounting of course releases and stipends awarded this academic year and were told that this information would be given to the Senate soon. Officers were also informed that grade distributions on various web sites are accurate due to open records requests. Officers expressed concerns about not receiving timely information about the budget crisis and pressed for the promised program review from the State Comptroller. Protocols for looking at a community college were discussed and it was suggested that the Senate look at the State Comptroller's review of El Paso Community College. President Fonte instructed EVP Kinslow to work with Senate leadership to look at full-time faculty representation on committees and councils in an effort to increase shared governance.
• ACC Board of Trustees, February 4, 2002, HBC-President Ore gave her allotted speaking time to John Cise so that he could explain the current full-time faculty salary deficiencies. He asked for $2.4 million to get faculty salaries back up to average again.
• Budget Crisis Briefing, February 8, 2002-The Senate President observed a presentation of the austerity measures being enacted at ACC for the duration of the budget crisis. The cuts will come from instructional areas as well as administrative areas. Hiring freezes will affect every sector of the College including the full-time faculty. Each instructional unit must trim 5% of its budget right now and each administrative unit must trim 15%. The outline of the Budget Revision Process is available on the web.
• Academic Council, February 8, 2002-President Ore received numerous Administrative Rules for discussion by the Senate's Policies and Procedures Committee. Standardized Rules for a Syllabus passed, as did revisions to the rule on Testing Centers.
• Special Senate Meeting, February 15, 2002-The resolution from special Senate meeting was presented to President Fonte, EVP Kinslow, and Board Chair Davis. No response was received from Chair Davis. President Fonte did respond with an e-mail that even in the face of the resolution he was still willing to work with the faculty to make ACC better. He reiterated a call to put more full-time faculty on committees and councils. EVP Kinslow expressed his thanks for the consideration of the Senate in the past and indicated that he will work with faculty as well.
• ACC Board of Trustees, Work Session, February 18, 2002, EVC-The Board met with members of the community to look at ACC's place in the community. Several comments were made about the good aspects of the College and its influence; however, concerns were also offered about the cutting of class sessions and the raising of tuition. The Board did not refer at any time to the Senate's resolution of February 15, 2002. In fact, most of the members were quite complimentary of President Fonte's handling of the budget crisis, taking particular note of his "giving back" the ½ priced tuition and his "giving" of 1% of his last year's salary raise for scholarships.
• Meeting with EVP Kinslow, March 1, 2002-A small committee met to begin looking at shared governance and faculty representation on various committees and councils of the College.

Discussion of Class Cancellations:

Faculty members are still confused about why 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 who is deciding which classes to cancel, and they are asking whether political favoritism is playing a role in determining which classes to cancel. They also still 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. And instructors want to know how Dr. Fonte determined that only 118 students were affected by the class cancellations. The faculty believes that this figure is much lower than the actual number of affected students.

Discussion of Teaching for Free:

A draft of the Volunteer Teaching Proposal was distributed. While many faculty members admire the willingness of instructors to teach for free, the Senate does not support this volunteer teaching initiative and believes the proposal should have been dismissed by the Administration without consideration. The Senate also believes that these well-meaning faculty members should have consulted with the Senate and Adjunct Faculty Association before offering to teach for free. The Senate also believes that by teaching for free, faculty members are enabling the Administration to continue to make messes, knowing all the while that faculty, as always, will intervene on behalf of students and will prevent potential disasters from occurring so that the institution will continue to function.

Report from Salary and Benefits Committee:

Chair John Cise reported on money needed to bring the full-time faculty back up to average and agreed to ask the Board for $2.4 million for full-time faculty raises. Faculty members expressed concern about a recent statement by the Adjunct Faculty Association President and agreed to ask for clarification of this statement, which said that full-time faculty should not receive any raises this year. It was also pointed out that at least one faculty member had a supplemental retirement annuity payment that was taken out of her paycheck in January but had still not been sent to her retirement plan company. Faculty members were asked to verify that correct payments are being regularly sent to their retirement companies. The Senate Officers were asked to check into this at the Officers' meeting.

Report from Policies and Procedures Committee:

Chair Constance Elko distributed three Administrative Rules with the committee's recommendations for each:

1. Adjunct Faculty Service on Task Forces and Shared Governance Councils
2. Retention Elections, and
3. Progressive Discipline Procedures. The committees recommendations were approved with one additional change to the first of these three rules. In the rule on Adjunct Faculty Service, the first paragraph under item 7 was changed to read, "Adjunct faculty serving on task forces shall be paid a stipend of $20 per hour for meetings scheduled and attended. The task force chair shall maintain minutes and a record of attendance and starting and adjournment times." The Senate agreed that the rule on Retention Elections cannot be supported. In order to promote shared governance, Task Force Chairs and Program Coordinators must be responsible to their Task Forces and Programs. This accountability can be established by electing, as opposed to appointing, these leaders. Task Force Chairs are currently elected positions. The Senate agreed that wherever possible, elections should be held for Program Coordinators. The rule on Progressive Discipline Procedures was changed to state clearly that it does not apply to faculty. A committee consisting of John Cise, Diane Kramer, Susan Hord, and Nick Sarantakes, was created to examine termination of and progressive discipline procedures for faculty. The Senate asked the Policies and Procedures Committee to look at the Administrative Rule on Task Force Chair Election and bring it back to the next Senate meeting with recommendations.

Discussion of Shared Governance: The Senate agreed that no meaningful shared governance exists between faculty and the Administration, a clear violation of Board Policy. One example of the lack of shared governance is the recent creation of an Administrative Rule on Retention Elections, which was drafted without consulting faculty. The Administration continues to ignore recommendations of faculty and the College's committees and councils. Administrative web sites often do not have complete or up-to-date information. Since there is no statement in Board Policies or Administrative Rules that the faculty has authority over curriculum, ACC is not in compliance with SACS. To promote shared governance, the Senate discussed creating an Academic Leadership Team, consisting of Task Force Chairs, Program Coordinators, a representative counselor, and a representative librarian. The initial idea was to have this group meet monthly to discuss issues and make recommendations to the other councils and committees of the College. The Officers were asked to take this idea to the Officers' meeting. A faculty member recommended that the Senate examine a copy of the El Paso Community College audit performed by the State Comptroller's Office to see how faculty were handled. It was suggested that faculty should take a proactive role now in the performance review, identifying areas of waste to recommend the Comptroller's Office examine. It was also pointed out that full-time faculty overloads are the same as adjunct loads. The faculty is puzzled by the Administration distinguishing between these.

Discussion of Call for Resignation:

Since the special Senate meeting February 15, the Senate surveyed faculty members on each campus and found that a majority of faculty who responded support calling for Dr. Fonte's resignation. However, the Senate stopped short of asking the President to resign and decided instead to support ACC's American Federation of Teachers Union's call for Dr. Fonte's resignation.

Discussion of Hiring Committees:

Faculty members expressed concerns about irregularity in the hiring committee for counseling positions. They believe that there are too few counselors on the committee. They also believe that positions need to be filled before summer, when counselors are busiest, and asked Senate Officers to look into this matter.

Report from Audit and Elections Committee: Results from the first call for nominations were distributed. The Senate approved the following numbers of faculty representatives to serve on the Senate for Academic Year 2002-2003: CYP 1, EVC 2, HBC 0, NRG 5, PIN 2, RGC 4, and RVS 7 (total 21). The second call for nominations will be sent out soon.

Announcements: The following announcements were made:

• Faculty members are encouraged to attend the Board meeting on Monday, March 4.
• ACC's AFT Union needs help with the upcoming Board elections. Both union members and non-union members are invited to participate. For more information, contact Evan Butcher at 415-1702.
• The next Senate meeting will be March 29th.

The meeting was adjourned. The following faculty members substituted for Senators who were unable to attend the meeting: Diane Kramer for Steve Kirschner, Constance Elko for Robyn Richter, and Terry Perrin for David Tobey. The following Senators were absent: Daisy Diaz-Alemany, John Maynard, and Morgan Stout.