- Approval of Agenda
The agenda was approved as written.
- Approval of May 1 minutes
Mike distributed the minutes for senators' review. One minor modification was noted. Since the minutes had not yet been printed and distributed, this will be incorporated into the printed minutes.
- President's Report
Mike read a letter from Tom Gingras, in which Tom explained his reasons for resigning from the Senate. In accordance with the by-laws, the RVS senators will select someone to replace him for the remainder of his term.
Prior to this meeting, there had been some discussion of piloting a Kaplin project for developmental studies this fall. Mike said that he had discussed this with the administration and that no "outside" projects would be piloted this fall. However, several projects remain under consideration for the spring semester.
Senators revisited the concern about the traditional process of decision-making regarding academic issues being made by administration. Senators also expressed concern that faculty were not included in decisions about budgetary issues, scheduling, and adjunct faculty.
Mike and the other officers briefly discussed recent officers' meetings with board members. He also noted that a tax rate increase is a priority for the board for next year.
- Consideration of issues related to scheduling
Mike reported on the response to the Senate's May 1 resolution on scheduling (see May 1 minutes). He noted that this resolution had been presented to Dr. Fonte. Dr. Fonte indicated that the administration was very willing to discuss Senate recommendations to improve this process. Mike briefly discussed the Senate's position on this issue, and asked that a meeting be scheduled to discuss this in more detail. This was agreed to. The Senate's primary concerns with the current process have to do with the timing of the Provosts' input into the process, and the integrity of the college-wide schedules developed by the Task Forces. The Senate believes that the scheduling process would be greatly improved if the Provosts provided their input at the beginning of the process, rather than at the end. This would allow the Provosts' recommendations to be incorporated into an internally coherent college-wide schedule. This would still maintain the Provosts' including community needs in the schedule. It was noted that the current method of scheduling is an ineffective use of deans time and expertise. Also, Senators noted that there is no established method for appeals and routing information back to the Task Force, resulting in a great deal of confusion, and impacting the schedule negatively.
The following resolution concerning scheduling was passed:
The faculty believes that academic processes should properly remain in the academic sphere. Accordingly, we believe that overall responsibility and authority for the academic course schedule should remain within the academic line. The responsibility for developing the schedule for a program should be that of the appropriate Task Force/Program Coordinator, Dean, Associate VP, and Executive VP. Input from Provosts should be given to the Task Forces/ Program Coordinators in a timely manner prior to the development of the schedule.
This resolution will be forwarded to the administration.
5. Policy & Procedures Committee report
The Board has begun a discussion of a proposed policy on the use of adjunct faculty at the college. The Policy and Procedures Committee reported on a draft of the proposed policy, Draft Policy on Principles for the Use of Adjunct Faculty. No significant modifications to this draft policy were recommended. It is expected, however, that the Board’s discussions of this policy will continue over the next few months. It was explained that the board wants increased diversity for the faculty, and that as many adjunct faculty from the job fair would be interviewed as possible. The specific process for this, and the role of the Task Force, is somewhat unclear. A clarification will be requested.
Senators asked that administrative policy be clearly communicated at all levels. Senators agreed there were no serious specific problems at this time, but indicated they might want clarification on selected administrative issues in the future.
