Glendale Community College Faculty Senate

Meeting of October 24, 2002

Approved Minutes

 

(Please note: General interest issues or meetings & notifications are listed below in bold to allow them to be located more easily.)

 

I.  General

 

A.        Call to Order:  A quorum being present, President Carmela Arnoldt called the meeting to order at 2:30 P.M.  Senators present included: President Carmela Arnoldt, Vice President John Griggs, Treasurer Diana Abel, Secretary Pamela Nelson as well as Larry Bohlender, Jim Daugherty, Amanda Dunnagan, Robert Hubbard, Gary Marrer, Cate McNamara, Alicia Ottenberg, Robert Reavis, Carl Samuels, and Bill Stewart. FEC Representative-at-Large Linda Smith and Senate-selected FEC Representative Jim Reed were also present.

 

B.         Introduction of Guests – including, but not limited to, Ruth Callahan, Jane Camp, Nicholas Darus (ASG, FAC), Gay Garesche, Robert Gaytan (ESG), Char Howey, Kait Kaman (student), Niall McCarthy, Felicia Oranga (ASG V.P.), Patrick Turner and Lyle Walcott. 

 

Adjunct Faculty Association Interim: Adjunct Faculty Web Pages

Niall McCarthy & Patrick Turner showed Senate the work-in-progress Adjunct Faculty web pages (to become operational January 2003). Diana Abel had previously designed a brief page.  New pages are more comprehensive and will be useful for new and seasoned residential faculty as well.  The Adjunct Faculty Web Page Committee (consisting of Diana Abel, Jim Hamilton, Chuck Jeffery, Niall McCarthy, Pat Turner and Bobby Sample) has met several times to develop a set of pages that would keep Adjunct Faculty more “in the loop.”  Development of these pages will also help comply with NCA/HLC recommendations to provide Adjunct Faculty with additional support and consistent information.  Senate was given an on-line tour of the framework of the pages and an on-paper “map” of the plan for the completed set of pages.  Questions, suggestions, ideas, etc. about the Adjunct Web Pages and their content should be forwarded to Diana Abel.

 

Student Interim: Re: Changes in MCCCD and GCC transportation policy and van funding

Robert Gaytan (ESG) and Nicholas Darus (ASG, FAC) presented a concise request to the Senate: Options other than using Fund 2 funds (student activities funding) for paying for new vans (due to the current 15-passenger van freeze) should be considered.  The presenters acknowledged the difficulty and liability involved in the current van situation, but they wished to bring the funding issue to the Senate body in hopes that other methods of funding the purchase of new vans could be found.  The presenters suggested two alternative methods of funding: (1) Deferring or ceasing of credit card usage fees paid by the college during registration (by restricting credit card usage, charging the fee to the student as part of registration, or negotiating with the credit companies to lower the transaction fee) and using the ~$140,000 difference to fund new vans, or (2) Filing a class-action suit against the manufacturer of the vans in hopes of getting all or part of the cost of the new vans paid by the manufacturers.  Students cited that, nationally, 865 deaths have occurred as result of the safety issues of the 15-passenger vans and that this national concern might force the manufacturers into taking significant financial action.

 

President Arnoldt thanked the students for their well-thought-out presentation and assured them that options aside from using Fund 2 money were being considered by the College and District.  President Arnoldt also informed the students that the Faculty Senate was not the body that would be making the final decisions on this matter, but that the student concerns had been heard and would be forwarded appropriately.

 

            C.        The proposed meeting agenda was adopted as amended.

 

            D.        The minutes of the September 26, 2002 meeting were approved.

 

E.         Diana Abel (Treasurer) reported a balance of $13,239.10 (no change since 9/26) for all accounts. 

 

            F.         President Arnoldt reported:

·        Copies of the Faculty and Staff Campus Climate booklets were distributed to all Senators.  Senators were reminded that HLC has charged the campus with continuing to investigate Campus Climate.  PAC and the Administrative group will also discuss possibilities.

·        A thank you note from Rene Díaz-Lefèbvre regarding acknowledgement of the passing of his father was received.

·        Senators were asked to examine a copy of the brochure that is being distributed as part of the GCC Presidential search, which closes in January.

·        Senators were encouraged to participate in Homecoming activities for week of November 4-9, culminating in the football game vs. Dixie State at 7pm.

·        “Futures” committee, which has been broken down into subcommittees for Fall 2002, was meeting concurrently with this Senate meeting.  Committee chairs have been asked to consult a campus calendar in order to schedule future meetings, which do not conflict with Faculty Senate or major campus meetings (i.e., Budget the following Thursday also conflicted).

·        The May issue of The Advocate has an interesting article regarding faculty salaries.

 

G.        FEC Report - President Carmela Arnoldt reported:

·        Last FEC meeting was a Strategic Conversation during which 12 key action items were discussed and prioritized.  Parts of these action items consisted of improving District PR with the public and increasing respect for Faculty needs within the District leadership.

·        Two “Listening Sessions” hosted by the Chancellor at various campuses have been cancelled.  Two more are upcoming.

·        General Fund (AZ State) will be cut 0.37%, coming to a budget decline of $164,000 for GCC.

·        Questions about Travel Funds have arisen regarding how the leftover funds (~$119,000 district-wide) from 2001-2002 will be redistributed.  Options include rolling over the funds back into Professional Growth, but questions remain about how that money will be distributed within the Professional Growth system and about who will make the decisions regarding where the money will be used.  FEC will decide at its next regular meeting on 11/12/02.

 

H.        Governing Board report. Vice-President Griggs and President Arnoldt reported:

FEC President RK made a statement that faculty hope the Board will not repeat this year’s decision to offer the chancellor a 6+% increase when faculty receive one percent.

 

II.  Old Business

 

            A.        Retirement & Health Insurance – Pam Nelson for Doug Dawson

 

·                             10/16 Meeting: Dianne Johns (Director of Compensation – District) made a presentation on active employee future insurance that could be presented to the Board.  This included information of increases in premiums.  There are approx 4000 benefit-eligible employees in the District, and the 16-23% increase in premiums will have to be paid by district or the insured employees.  Gary Peterson (Buck Consultants) also made a presentation on creating viable options and models for insurance for retirees.  These options included ASRS-only rates, Stand Alone rates, Blended rates and Modified Blending (similar to a plan being considered by the Glendale High School District). 

·                             10/23 Meeting – BCBS representative expected - no notes received as of Senate meeting

·                             Next TWO Meeting of Retirement Health Care Subcommittee – Wednesday, November 6, 2002 @ 2:30pm, District Office, 6th Floor – hopefully an ASRS Representative will be presenting & Wednesday November 20, 2002 @ 2:30pm, District Office, 6th Floor – Rufus Glasper or District Legal Department representative

 

B.         Ad Hoc Campus Memorials Policy Committee – Arnoldt

·        Committee will consider gardens and inclusive landscape design to incorporate memorials found around the campus in logical, esthetic, and environmentally appropriate ways.

·        Committee will convene after the current construction process is completed.

·        People are needed to serve on this committee.

 

C.        Faculty Development Committee - Smith

·                             New faculty training continues

·                             Future plans: Dr. Janice Denton will be coming to GCC on the Thursday of Spring 2003 accountability week to present on Assessment.

·                             Possible programs under consideration include: (a) Professional workshops and presentations designed to keep Faculty up-to-date in content areas (possible $50 stipend?) and (b) “Lunch & Learn” presentations made by fellow Faculty on research or things we’ve done as part of our faculty growth or work.

 

 

III.  New Business

 

A.        ReadFest - Griggs & visitors: Jane Camp & Char Howey

·        ReadFest is Wednesday, November 13th

·        ReadFest Committee requested $750 for popcorn machine rental.  Motion to provide funding was made and seconded; motion passed unanimously.

·        Committee members requested volunteers to staff the popcorn booth from 9am-1pm on the day of the event.  Those interested in volunteering should contact Marilyn Schiedat.

 

B.         Testing Center – Griggs & visitor: Gay Garesché

·        Garesché collected comments from several faculty over the course of the last month and obtained information at the Testing Center committee meeting.  These include:

 


Faculty Comments on the Testing Center:

·         About four faculty members wrote to say that they have had very good experiences with the Testing Center.

About 15 to 18 faculty wrote to report the following concerns with the Testing Center:

·         A few faculty are convinced that cheating took place or that test security was breached on tests administered at the Testing Center.  (One faculty member is sufficiently concerned, that he has removed the make up opportunity from his syllabus.)

·         A couple of faculty said that directions were not followed.

·         Rocks and maps are still not accepted at the new Testing Center. They were used at the Center for Learning testing center.  (A clarification was made at the Senate meeting that faculty are not asking to use chemicals in the make up testing area).

·         A few faculty wanted to be able to leave tests without listing the names of students who will be taking the test.  (It was discovered that some departments have made private arrangements to do just that with the Testing Center.  Hence, the policy varies by department.)

·         Faculty asked that Testing Center staff count tests left, to facilitate keeping track of them.  (This was the policy at the CL testing center.)

·         Faculty would like a separate line for faculty checking in tests. (This now exists.)

·         Exams have been lost or students have been told there is no test for them.

·         Students have been given the wrong test on numerous occasions.

·         The fact that the Testing Center does not open until 9:00 on Fridays is a problem.

·         Concern was expressed about whether a computer-based testing area will continue to be available.  (The Nursing and Psych. departments apparently have an area in one of the HTCs).

 

Administrative concerns about the Testing Center:

·         2500 make up exams were given between 7/2/02 and 9/2/02.  Given that school was not in session most of that time, it suggests a very high number of make ups will be given this year.

·         Believes faculty are sending whole classes over to take make ups. (David Merkley assures me that is no longer happening, with the exception of flexible format courses, which are designed for students to take exams outside of class).

·         There is exceedingly high traffic in the Testing Center at the very end of the semester.  (It would be very helpful, if faculty could closeout the opportunity to take some tests before the last week of the semester).

·         Administrators don't want temp workers handling rocks, maps, etc. (Alice staffed the CL testing center with temp workers for many of the hours it was open.  Temporary workers didn't seem to have any difficulty handling these materials in the past.)

 

·                    Senate discussed possible ways to obtain Faculty input on what direction they would like to see the Testing Center move.  Griggs suggested taking a set of questions to be distributed at the Chairs meeting; others suggested that Faculty Senators would be a good conduit to Faculty.

·                    Senate asked Garesché to come up with a set of possible questions to be examined at the next Senate meeting, so that concise and consistent questions could be asked to all faculty regardless of the distribution method.  Senators discussed sending these questions out to their constituency once received (Rec’d 10/29/02).

 


Possible Questions to Solicit Faculty Input Concerning the Testing Center (from Gay Garesché):

·         Do you use the Testing Center now for any type of make-up-type testing?

·         If cost were not important, what would be the ideal purpose and function of the Testing Center?

·         Given that the college president has already suggested that more spending on the Testing Center could mean fewer faculty positions, what would be an adequate purpose and function of the Testing Center?

 

 

 

C.        District Capital Planning Committee member – Arnoldt

·                                             Committee will be charged with overall District planning.

·                                             Recommendations and planning may affect any proposed Bond.

·                                             Meetings will be 2x/month on Friday afternoons.

·                                             Members are still being sought.

 

 

D.        College Plan: Clarification of Department Chair Elections and Nominations/Ballot Dates

·                                             Sections of the college plan seem to be in conflict regarding dates of Department Chair nominations and balloting.  Section A3 – “nominations will be considered closed the Friday before the week of Thanksgiving” vs. Section A4 – “The week prior to Thanksgiving, a secret ballot will be distributed…” (seemingly implying that ballots will go out before nominations are closed).

·                                             A motion was made and seconded to alter the languages such that:

A3=”nominations will be considered closed the Friday before Thanksgiving.”

A4=”The Monday after Thanksgiving, a secret ballot will be distributed…”

This leaves no conflict with A4 = “ballots will be cast by Wednesday of the last week of regularly scheduled classes in the Fall Semester.”

·                                             Motion passed unanimously.

 

E.         Ballot Box – Arnoldt

·                             A choice is necessary to determine where the ballot box (for above Chair elections) will be located on campus and who will monitor it.

·                             Senate discussed possible options and agreed upon the Life Science building, to be monitored by Martha Gail Richmond (of Dean Abel’s office) and the other administrative assistants.

 

IV.  Information

A.        Ocotillo Sub-Committee – John Gibson or Representative (Arnoldt)

·                             New GCC subcommittee has been formed as a subcommittee of the District Ocotillo Committee and with the assistance of the GCC CTC.  Committee name to be determined.

·                             Committee is meant to bring together various “splinter” technology groups and bring people across campus who are working on emerging technologies together

 

B.         Homecoming Week – Nanci Burk or Representative (Arnoldt)

·                             Catch the spirit of GCC and support the GCC Gauchos!

·                             Senators were encouraged to participate in campus activities Nov. 4-9, 2002

 

C.        Emergency Meeting

·                             Faculty Executive Council requests all colleges to call a special meeting for October 31st or November 1st.

·                             GCC meeting to be held Friday, November 1st (Saguaro Park) at 2pm.

 

D.        Gaucho Mentoring Program  - Trini Sandoval

·                             (Heard with Interims to allow Sandoval to return to work)

·                             Sandoval has been working the Mentoring program throughout the semester and has given presentations to a number of campus groups and classes.

·                             Mentoring program needs both faculty and staff mentors for students of all levels and interests.  Please contact Trini Sandoval if you are interested.

·                             Mentoring program is a user-friendly, inter-personal program in which the students choose to become involved.  Mentors offer support throughout the semester.

·                             Sandoval reported that the resurrection of the “Early Warning” program of several years ago has been discussed.  This program would target students who were doing poorly in a class during the semester.  Significant changes would be made in the older program such that the faculty would contact the student directly during class (so as to avoid earlier liability problems); the faculty member would give the student options of mentoring and tutoring that are available to help them improve and succeed.  Sandoval pointed out that the Early Warning system is only implemented once a problem has been noticed, whereas support through the larger Mentoring Program would exist throughout the student’s career.  Focus groups to consider the resurrection of this program will be formed and dates will be set and announced shortly.

·                             Student retention is the goal of both Mentoring Program and of the re-designed Early Warning system that is being considered.

 

E.         Membership – Nelson & Reed (Unofficial)

·                             Faculty Association membership continues.

·                             Senators have been informed when one of their constituents has joined the Association.

·                             Senators were urged to continue contacting their constituents and to encourage their membership in Faculty Association.

 

The meeting adjourned at 4:37 pm.

 

Next meeting of the GCC Faculty Senate will be December 5th at 2:30 pm.

(The regularly scheduled meeting time falls on Thanksgiving Day.)