Approval of Agenda:

The agenda was approved as written.

Approval of Minutes:

The minutes of March 1 were approved as written.

President's report: The following was reported at the Faculty Senate Officers' meeting:

• The resolution of the vote of no confidence was presented.
• She also discussed the lack of shared governance in relationship to course cancellations, and the disparity between the number of course cancellations in the academic area versus the number in continuing education.
• Laura also informed the Administration of the Senate's position on teaching for free, which is that it is not condoned nor supported by Faculty Senate.
• In addition, some faculty ORP issues were discussed, and according to Gerry Tucker, have been resolved. Will ask clarification of 15-day rule.
• Retention election-Faculty Senate is opposed to retention elections.
• Shared Governance-Discussed the lack and need of a task force for counselors, but were informed that this will not change.
• Informed that the hiring committee for counselor positions is actively interviewing for the fall semester.
• Additionally, the following items were presented at the Board meeting: resolution, objection to teaching for free, request for real shared governance, especially in the formation of administrative rules, thanked the Comptroller for agreeing to come to ACC, and requested that faculty be paid at a fair wage.

Discussion of Shared Governance

Faculty voiced concerns about needing a better work environment, and not reactive all the time. We need reasonable time lines to follow (reference to falls schedule & faculty assessment instrument). Administration is still "top-down" management. Faculty must be involved in instructional organization. Faculty must be able to govern themselves, not simply follow a "one size fits all" approach. Structural differences already exist between assistant task force chair and program coordinators (different scheduling options) The question was posed, "Who determines if there is an assistant task force chair?". In defining shared governance, the ratio between administration and faculty needs to be established. In regard to hiring, the issue of who writes the job description was discussed; once again, this seems to be another example of a "top-down" approach. The question was raised if there will be funds available for hiring for the fall. The impression is that this discussion of shared governance is simply SACs driven, and will disappear once SACs has left. This concept needs to remain a viable procedure.

Discussion of Faculty Overloads

The Faculty Senate agreed to request the Administration increase the overload limit from 20 hours to 21 to allow faculty to accommodate other teaching obligations (fractional enrollments, etc.) Additionally, it was agreed upon that the term overload be changed to extended teaching opportunity.

Discussion of MSTA Staffing

Full-time faculty contracts allow for a minimum of 15 hours and a maximum of 20 hours, and those full-time faculty contracts should be honored before MSTA contracts. MSTAs were created without the input of full-time faculty, and faculty senators believe that this is another example of a lack of shared governance.

Discussion of Faculty Assessment Instrument

The Faculty Senate needs more time to review this document, and will forward this document to the Policy and Procedures committee.

Report from Salary and Benefits

No report was made.

Policy and Procedures Committee

The proposed Administrative Rule in regard to health sciences criminal background check was returned to Health Sciences faculty for further review. Some faculty expressed concerns with legal issues and ACC rules being more stringent than state-regulated rules. Open enrollment implications were discussed, and senators stated that this was another example of a lack of share governance.

• The proposed TASP exemption AR was fine.
• The proposed Task Force Chair Election rule was accepted with changes.
  • In #1, "fall" will be deleted and "year " will be added;
  • #6 is deleted for alternate #6;
  • #8 will delete from the third line, "The Committee….of the taskforce meeting."
  • #9 shall add after appoint, second line, "for a one-year appointment."

  Additionally, it was determined that if adjunct faculty do not participate, they should not be reappointed.

Report from Nominating Committee

Names of nominees for senators were read to those in attendance and will be emailed to all faculty members.

Discussion of Parking at Rio Grande

Parking is getting worse at Rio Grande and motorcycles are now taking the place of where cars used to park because the motorcycle parking space was converted to a deck.

Other

The meeting was adjourned.