Meeting of
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
B. Introduction of Guests – including, but not limited to: Joseph Bednorz, Ruth Callahan, Susan High, Mary Jane Onnen, George Martinez, Patricia Vogel, and Lyle Walcott.
Guest
Interim: George Martinez and Trish Vogel
The
GCC Marketing Department is in the process of developing a tag line and image
(A “Strategic Message and Graphic”) that would be present on all GCC
materials. The process of developing
ideas for this Strategic Message has gone through several reviews. George Martinez shared the history of the
development of the concept up to this point; Senators were given a flow chart
showing the review process for the implementation of the Message. George and Trish brought the message to
Senate as a courtesy to obtain opinions on the current statement and design. The current Strategic Message features a
stylized “GCC” (complete with the palm tree in the center, larger font “C”) and
the tag line: “Our Experience. Your Success.” George
and Trish presented several of the strengths of the proposed concept to the
Senate. Invited to comment, Senators
offered suggestions and voiced appreciation of the work done.
C. The
proposed meeting agenda was adopted as amended.
D. The minutes from both the September 25th and October 23rd meetings were approved unanimously.
E.
Secretary
·
2003-2004: TOTAL of 190 full-time GCC faculty
members out of 247 total: 76.9% (This
is compared to 191 members out of 235 total for 2002-2003 = 81.3%)
·
5 49%-faculty joined,
which added another 2.5 to our count with District.
·
GCC Faculty constitutes 18.7% of the total
District Faculty, and this percentage yields a continued FEC representation of
4 seats. GCC has the second highest
membership percentage in the District (
F. President Arnoldt reported:
·
Dual enrollment is being reviewed and discussed once
again. An executive summary has been
produced to review funding options.
·
President Arnoldt encouraged Senators to read a
·
A Maricopa Financial Plan is being developed. The 15-year plan will include looking back 5
years and ahead 10 years. (See
·
It has been verified that service faculty are eligible for
tuition waivers.
·
A question has been raised whether or not supervisory
certification should be mandatory. FEC
argues that this should not be necessary if the individual has necessary prior
experience.
·
Projected revenues for District in 2004-2005 show a possible
5% reduction.
·
Deadline to complete the EBAC Benefits Survey has been
extended to
·
Student Rights & Responsibilities documentation is being
reviewed due to the possibility that it and other documents (e.g., Common
Pages) publish conflicting information, particularly concerning the RFP.
G. FEC Report
·
As above, and included in Old Business A. & E.
H. Governing Board Report. President Arnoldt reported:
· President Arnoldt expressed concern to Senate for the health of Board member Gene Eastin.
· No activity of note to faculty; see Governing Board Highlights sent by Rick DeGraw.
II. Old Business
A. Retirement & Health Insurance – Griggs for Doug Dawson
·
FEC is crafting a statement about the 49% program to the HR
Department.
·
President Arnoldt reminded Senate that 49% service is not
obligatory. The Department Chair and
College President determine whether or not the contract would benefit the
College and examine each on a case-by-case basis.
·
Committee is suggesting tiered mechanism in which number of
49% years offered is proportional to the number of years the individual has
worked in the District.
B. Election Committee - Dwyer
·
Senator Dwyer thanked the members of the Election Committee
for their help and service throughout the election process.
·
Prior to the meeting, Dwyer publicly announced (via MEMO)
the winners of the election: Frank
Rivera will be serving the remainder of a term vacated by Cate McNamara through
Spring 2006.
·
Senator Dwyer encouraged Senators to be thinking about and
approaching potential candidates for the regular election to be held in
April. At this time, a new Senate
President, Senate Vice-President, Councilor-at-Large and 5 Senatorial seats
will be up for election.
C. College Plan Review Committee –
· Senator Daugherty reported that the main contention with the current College Plan seems to be the evaluations of Department Chairs.
· The committee has come up with a proposal, which they will officially draft prior to the next meeting, that includes creating a form that includes evaluation of the roles and responsibilities of the chair as listed in the Plan. The evaluation form would be administered anonymously via automatic electronic distribution to take place by the 1st Monday in April. A complete record of responses would then be sent to the Department Chair.
· The committee discussed further technical and grammatical details that needed to be cleaned up throughout the document.
· Discussion ensued regarding evaluation of administrators (described in the College Plan but not followed up to this point), evaluation of faculty by department chairs (not outlined in Plan; considerable number of opinions on how this could or should be carried out), and evaluation of department chairs by administrators (also included in College Plan, but seemingly not carried out consistently).
·
The following motion was made and seconded: “We as a Senate direct
Senate President Arnoldt to express to President Randolph the Senate’s concern that
the College Plan, Section III: Process for Evaluation of Administration has not
been implemented since the adoption of the college Plan in 2001; and that the
Senate requests that the President's and Deans’ evaluations occur in Spring
2004, and each year thereafter.”
Motion passed unanimously.
·
The following motion was also made and seconded: “We as a Senate direct
Senate President Arnoldt to express to President Randolph the Senate’s Concern
that the Department Chair Evaluations described in RFP Appendix D.1.6 have not
consistently occurred; and that the Senate requests that these evaluations
occur in Spring 2004, and each year thereafter.” Motion passed unanimously.
· Senators also discussed the idea of designing a GCC Senate Plan of Action/Mission Statement, similar to that being done at the District level that would help current and future Senates direct their activities consistently.
D. Constitution Review Committee – Jim Reed
· Reed reported that the committee had met recently and drafted a list of concerns to review while evaluating the Constitution:
o Codify voting for FEC-At-Large and Senate VP
o Allow for the possibility of electronic voting
o Determine the differences between special committees and standing committees and how members are assigned or selected.
o Edit for internal consistency
o
Examine constitutions from other college Senates
throughout the
o Specify whom the Constitution relegates
·
Reed reported that Toni McClory has agreed to review the
Constitution for legality and internal consistency.
·
President Arnoldt reminded Senate that review of the
Constitution must take place in a timely fashion. The edits to the Constitution must be
approved by a full faculty vote. The
possibility of including ratification of the Constitution along with the
upcoming Spring Elections was discussed.
E. 12-Month Pay for Faculty - Dwyer
Implementation appears to be on schedule for
F. Scholarship Committee Report - Griggs
Scholarship Committee will reconvene during Finals Week and prepare a report before the end of the fall semester.
G. Selection Process for future PBAC for 2003—Arnoldt
·
President Arnoldt reported that PBAC had met the previous
day to confirm budget recommendations.
Many members seem pleased with the new process and find it much improved
over the old process. One part of this
improvement resulted from the fact that PBAC did not have the priority to
re-rank items coming from the subcommittees.
A decision about how much they could fund had to include the top
priorities of each of the groups.
·
Senate discussed the value of having 2 people continue on
the following year’s PBAC to offer “experience” to the group. Discussion continued on how or if that could
happen given that the Senate cannot unilaterally select which of the 4 that
served this year would continue in the following years.
·
The question was again raised as to whether PBAC is a Senate
special committee or a committee convened by the College President in which the
Senate is only brought in as a consultant to selection. (See RFP 2.10.1)
·
The question of whether a selection process for PBAC,
Staffing, Travel, etc. should be codified in the revised Constitution was
raised.
·
Question will remain on the agenda for further discussion
and action.
III.
New Business
A. October
·
Senator Reavis brought forth a suggestion from members of
his department. The request was to
consider addition of an October holiday to the Fall
schedule. The point was made that the Fall semester is currently longer than the Spring
semester.
·
Discussion about the number of days of accountability and
their distribution over the year ensued.
·
Senate asked Senator Dunnagan to review schools that had
recently added a Fall Break to their schedule to see how it affected their
accountability and what benefit this might serve.
·
Some Senators expressed concern that another holiday was not
necessary and that students and faculty already get far more time off than
those in other members of the workforce.
B.
PSA services on Faculty hiring - Arnoldt
·
President Arnoldt reported that her research revealed that
PSA employees do serve on Faculty hiring committees on other campuses and that PSA employees have served on GCC Faculty hiring
committees 4 times over the past 2 years.
·
Senators discussed the merits and drawbacks of having PSA
employees serve on hiring committees; for example: does someone who will have
to work with the new employee a great deal have a right to serve on the
committee? What counts as “qualified”
membership on a hiring committee (outside of having the required degree or
training for the position being hired)?
Are hiring committees set up consistently campus-wide? Should there be a move to make the process
more consistent?
·
It was brought up that the Chairs will consider the current
situation in which a PSA member is serving on a committee, and Senate
informally requested that President Arnoldt express its opinions and concerns
at the January Chairs meeting where this topic will be an agenda item.
C.
Course Assessment Requirement/Competencies - Reed
·
As reported by Gay Garesché at the last
meeting, faculty at
·
President Arnoldt informed Senate that MCC’s
Self-Study cycle is just starting; it is possible that HLC may require the MCC
faculty to begin evaluations in much the same what they did with GCC.
·
An additional issue with respect to assessment
has also come to President Arnoldt’s attention:
Whose responsibility is it when a student who passes an exit course in a
particular program fails to maintain those competencies during later courses in
the program? Senators’ discussions
focused on the responsibility of the students to maintain their
educational skills. Senators asserted
that although faculty are aware that a low “C” may not signify an in-depth
understanding of subject matter, it does meet the competency, and the student
must be allowed to continue in the program; a faculty member should not be held
responsible for the later success or failure of the student.
D.
Travel Regulations - Griggs
·
Vice-President Griggs reported that the Travel
Administrative Regulations are undergoing an additional period of review.
·
After the documents are released for review next
semester, there will be an additional comment period; VP Griggs strongly
suggested that employees read the new language carefully.
·
Current procedures for travel, both for employees
and students on field trips, are handled differently at every college.
E.
Senate Statement – Paula Davis/Bruce Thomas
·
Senators Davis and Thomas (both absent from this
meeting) had proposed a Senate statement regarding the on-going diversity debate
over MEMO: “The GCC Faculty Senate supports the general principle regarding
electronic messaging as outlined in the district guidelines; electronic
messaging services at the Maricopa Community College District are provided to
support education, research, scholarly communication, administration, and other
MCCCD business.”
·
Senators present felt this statement was not
strong enough. Senators Rivera and
Garcia offered to work with Senators Davis and Thomas to craft a statement that
could be distributed ASAP.
IV.
Information
A.
Student Services Reorganization – Susan High
· Senators were informed that the Student Services area has been reorganized so that Career Services and Advising now fall under the umbrella of Counseling. The Center For Learning will now lead Testing Services. These departments will now fall under the jurisdiction of the Dean of Students and Community Service. Susan High would like to have the faculty express their opinions and suggest ways to improve the various segments of this reorganization.
B.
MCCD Policies: Nepotism & “Employment Discipline” Guidelines –
Arnoldt
·
FEC has received copies of Policies that would
become Board Policy if approved. Board
Policy supercedes all other employee policy manuals.
·
The first policy would restrict relatives from
serving on hiring committees or in other ways that would be a conflict of
interest. FEC will suggest rewording of
the document to include more of the different categories of relationship as
possible (i.e., not just blood relatives would be included in the policy).
·
The second policy includes a list of possible
reasons that sanction disciplining an employee.
The document does not prescribe the manner of discipline and the
portions read by President Arnoldt included what many thought to be vague and
overly-inclusive wording. President
Arnoldt will keep Senate informed of any FEC action on this document before it
goes to CEC and Board.
C.
Commencement Speaker – Arnoldt
Various people are being considered for Commencement Speaker. Senate discussed the merits of inviting a GCC alum to bring greetings and an inspirational message to students.
Meeting
was adjourned at
Next meeting of the GCC Faculty Senate will be held on
January 29th at