Approval of Agenda: The agenda was approved with one amendment removing 10 minutes from the President's Report.

Approval of Minutes: The minutes were approved as written.

Report from Human Resources on New Hiring Procedures:

The September 14, 2001 draft of the Guidelines for Hiring Full-Time Faculty was distributed and discussed. Faculty were asked to send comments no later than October 31st to Gerry Tucker at gtucker@austin.cc.tx.us and to Stephen Kinslow at kinslow@austin.cc.tx.us. The new hiring procedures will begin this October. Revisions to the hiring process were based on comments received from last year's hiring process. Significant changes are outlined in the first two pages of the document and include much earlier advertising, an early "Go/No Go" review date, earlier hiring deadlines, provision for travel funds, and more Assistant Professor level positions. While the faculty supports promoting diversity, members expressed distrust in the process, particularly in not being allowed to rank candidates who are recommended for hiring. Faculty also expressed concerns about having multiple hiring committees within a department and about positions not being filled last year. Additionally, some faculty members suggested that reference checks be conducted before candidates' names are sent forward.

Report from Faculty Evaluation on New Evaluation Procedures:

The most recent draft, modified since the draft distributed at Faculty Development Day, of the Faculty Evaluation Procedures Manual was distributed and discussed. Faculty members were asked to send feedback as soon as possible to Boyd Bush at bbush@austin.cc.tx.us. Some key changes to the Evaluation Process include converting from calendar year to academic year reviews and from annual to three-year portfolio cycles, adding counselors and librarians into the process, archiving of evaluation materials, and classroom observations being conducted for all new faculty (and possibly extended to include lab classes and clinicals). Faculty expressed numerous concerns about the new process, particularly in regards to being told without advance notice to produce the last three years worth of course materials by this November 1st and being evaluated over the same materials used in the last two years' evaluations. Other concerns include implementing the new procedures before details are finalized, using grade distributions in evaluations, and storing and securing evaluation materials. The consensus of the Faculty Senate was that the process should be finalized and then faculty should be told to start collecting course materials for an evaluation process to begin three years from when it is adopted. The Senate was assured that because of the short notice, Deans would be flexible with the November 1st deadline and would make allowances for any faculty members who are not able to produce previous course materials.

President's Report: Laura Ore reported on the following meetings:

• September 4, 2001 - ACC Board of Trustees Meeting: The new Senate officers were introduced.
• September 7, 2001 - Executive Vice-President's Team Meeting: Dr. Kinslow's goals include enhancing community and collaboration, consistency across campuses, and dialogue sessions at the campuses. Faculty members were encouraged to attend these sessions. It was noted that the announcement about the most recent session at Riverside was distributed to employees after it had already taken place.
• September 21-22, 2001 - TCCTA Faculty Leadership Conference: Senate officers discovered that other colleges have working conditions and relationships between faculty and administrations which are often similar to and in some cases more extreme than those at ACC.
• September 24, 2001 - Academic Affairs Council
• September 24, 2001 - Senate Officers' Meeting: The State Comptroller's Review has been officially requested and ACC has agreed to help fund the review but has not heard back from the Comptroller. Scheduling problems were addressed. ACC faculty salary scales posted on the web will be updated to clearly indicate 10.5 and 9 month scales. The Master of Fine Arts salary classification problem was addressed.
• September 24, 2001 - ACC Board of Trustees Work Session: EVP Kinslow emphasized master planning, consistency, accountability, listening sessions, and ownership of dialogue. Upward Evaluations from last spring are still not available or summarized. Senate requests that all faculty complete the next Employee Satisfaction Survey to be distributed in spring. Standardized format of a syllabus was discussed and will be piloted in the spring. It was recommended that faculty educate administrators about the difference between a syllabus and the instructor's course document. Funding is needed for nursing facilities.

Discussion of Board Policy on One College Shared Governance:

This discussion will be moved to the agenda for the next Senate meeting.

Discussion of Supervisor Evaluation Summary Forms:

The Evaluation Procedures clearly specify how evaluation materials, including summary forms, for teaching faculty will be retained. Retention of evaluation materials for counselors and librarians is not clear. Documents are not being routinely sent to Human Resources. Privacy, confidentiality and security of evaluation materials are also issues for counselors and librarians. The Senate officers will address this issue with Dr. Fonte and the Vice Presidents at the next Officers' meeting.

Discussion of MFA Salary Classification:

The Master of Fine Arts salary classification problem was resolved by declaring the degree a terminal degree and placing it on the PhD level of the salary scale. Five faculty members were affected by this decision. The Master of Social Work is another terminal degree which will be referred to the Salary committee.

Announcements: The following announcements were made:

• Faculty members were asked to contribute to the State of Texas Employees Committed to Caring Benefit. Authorization forms will be placed in mailboxes soon. The Faculty Senate recommends that we support our community. For more information about specific groups, request a booklet from the campus representative.
• ACC will be participating in an AIDS Walk on October 14th, 2-4 PM. ACC employees are encouraged to participate. For more information, contact Daisy Diaz-Alemany at diazale@austin.cc.tx.us.
• Whenever possible for future announcements, please bring information (announcements, leaflets, fliers, etc.) to the Senate Secretary, Janet Bickham. Thanks!
• The next Senate meeting will be November 2nd.

The meeting was adjourned.

Jerry Caples substituted for Steve Kirschner. The following Senators were absent: Mariano Diaz-Miranda, Patrick Goines, Morgan Stout, and David Tobey.