|
The meeting was called to order by President Mike Midgley at 1:05.
1. Approval of Agenda
The agenda was approved as written.2. Approval of August 29 minutes The minutes of October 3 were approved as written.3. Faculty Assessment Process John Hastings presented an overview of the mission and planned activities for the Faculty Development Office. The office will be "driven by faculty need" and "instructional related. A Faculty Development Steering Committee will report to the Executive Vice president through the Director of Faculty Development. A separate committee, the Faculty Assessment and Development System Design Team will be a subcommittee of the Academic Affairs Committee and focus on assessment. John asked Senate members to indicate whether they have an interested on serving on these committees. He also noted that Staff Development is a separate entity, under the direction of Dee Feniman.4. President's Report The 25th Anniversary Committee is attempting to locate original faculty members, and Mike asked the Senate to review a printout of original faculty and indicate whether they had information on current addresses or phone numbers.
Mike asked Senators to contact him if they want to serve on the Faculty Development and Assessment Design Team, or to provide suggestions for Senate appointments to the Committee.
5. Treasurer's Report
The Senate's treasury, totaling $40, was transferred to Cherry Luedtke.
6. Salary and Benefits Committee Mike Midgley reported for Carol Hitzfelder.
Information compiled for salaries will be provided on the Faculty Senate Web page.
Data collected for salary averaging does not include El Paso and Del Mar--these colleges were used in previous years, but have been dropped for this year's data. The Committee is comparing statistics on a national basis, selecting 8-12 cities with comparable community colleges and cost of living.
Al Slavinsky has resigned from the Salary and Benefits committee. Mike read a letter from Al expressing concern over the decision to target on average salaries.
7. Developmental Studies Discussion focused on a special called meeting held by the Administration to discuss data taken from Developmental Studies' annual data profile. At that meeting, there was some discussion of Kaplan Educational Centers' recent involvement in developmental education at other colleges. It was also disclosed at that meeting that ACC Administration had met with the Kaplan group. At this point, Senate discussion was opened to non-Senators as well as Senators. A lively discussion followed. A major source of concern was that the discussions with the Kaplan group were held before the relevant task forces were notified or involved. Other issues were whether the annual data profile data is accurate, concern over outsourcing of faculty and curriculum, and the proper use of consultants. The following resolution regarding these issues was made and seconded:
Whereas, president Fonte in both his May and August speeches identified faculty empowerment through Task Forces as a major component of his reorganization;
Whereas, he additionally identified specific responsibilities of faculty, Task Force Chairs, and Program Coordinators for decisions impacting curriculum, pedagogy, and student success;
Whereas, he specified a particular process within the newly implemented organizational framework by which this would be carried out by Task Forces;
Whereas, the college Executive vice President stated tot he developmental faculty for the first time last Monday night that student retention, and success within courses could be improved and, for the first time, indicated a need to start a discussion with faculty regarding this issue;
Whereas, the college executives, as along as six weeks ago, had a presentation with a private contractor regarding the purchase and implementation of a curriculum;
Whereas in the past two years the development curriculum and success rate of students in subsequent course has undergone review by a committee composed of faculty, both vocational and transfer, counselors, advisors, and administrator, and only one curriculum modification was recommended and has been implemented;
Whereas, the college administration has failed to inform or to involve any Task Force faculty in discussion of any of these issues prior to Monday night;
The Faculty Senate requests that the administration fully inform the Task Force of all specific concerns they have identified and allow the Task Force to follow Dr. Fonte's stated process of involving and empowering Task Force faculty to address and solve curriculum issues, and meanwhile, to postpone any communication with the private contractor regarding remedial curriculum until the Task Force has time to study and respond to the curriculum issues as identified by the administration and the Task Force.
The resolution passed.
8. Reorganization Issues Mike asked for comments concerning the special called meeting with Frank Friedman. The Senate had a brief discussion of that meeting. In general, it was felt that the meeting had been useful for both the Senate and Dr. Friedman.
Mike also explained that additional clerical help will be made available for task force leaders, and that hourly money will be put in the assistant dean's budget.
Senators continued to express concerns about communication. Some faculty expressed concern that deans are electing to override Task Force recommendations for budgets.
Senators discussed responsibilities assigned to task force leaders and the task forces' role in creating budgets. Senators looked at the responsibilities assigned to workforce program coordinators and how they compared to those assigned to task force leaders.
A resolution regarding these issues was made and seconded. The resolution requested that duties formerly performed by department heads be delegated to Task Force Chairs and Program Coordinators, and that compensation be adjusted accordingly. Much discussion of these issues ensued. The resolution failed to pass. Members expressed concern that the resolution was too narrow, and that adequate reflection had not yet occurred. They felt that the issue should be remanded to the Senate's Academic Affairs committee for additional study, and that this committee broaden the scope to comment on additional positions (Assistant Deans, for example) and other issues they might identify, including a need to determine exactly what problems and concerns are common to faculty system-wide and what recommendations could be made to provide solutions. Several areas were identified: certification of adjunct faculty, communication, chain of command, supervision, morale, room assignments, budgets, and textbooks.
It was decided, however, that an immediate recommendation be made regarding Task Force chairs and their duties. The following resolution was made and seconded.
The Senate recommends that Administration demonstrates the support of Task Force leaders in the form of hourly clerical support and that leaders be compensated either through additional release time or a stipend.
The resolution passed. A motion was then made and seconded that Mike direct the Senate's Academic Affairs Committee to:
study the role of task force chairs in depth, including the breadth of required duties as they relate to quality of instruction through appropriate expectation, department size, numbers of faculty assigned, their management and mentorship, equipment and textbook needs, budgetary concerns, classroom assignments, scheduling for college credit, professional development, short semester and the like, student advising and issues known only by faculty fulfilling those roles.
The motion was approved.Meeting was adjourned at 4:30.
Stephen Rison and Judy Scholl were absent.
|
