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, Ruth Callahan, Rene Diaz-Lefebvre, David Rodriguez, and Trini Sandoval.
C. The
proposed meeting agenda was adopted as amended (see below).
D. The minutes
from the
E. Treasurer Daugherty reported a balance
of $18,749.29 for all accounts. There
was no change in any account since the February meeting.
F. President Arnoldt reported:
·
GCC President
·
GCC committee assignment sheets will be distributed to
Faculty in the near future; Faculty should complete these request sheets
promptly.
·
The Legislative Committee is following several bills. Two of note include one that eliminates
certain types of personal tax payments (which would affect state education
funding) and the continuing debate about funding dual enrollment. To be informed of legislative activity,
Arnoldt encouraged Senators and Faculty to send their home (non-GCC) E-mail address
to Doyle Burke (doyleburke@cox.net)
·
The revised College Plan, which was approved at the February
2004 Senate meeting, has been sent to GCC President Randolph.
·
Faculty and Staff are encouraged to attend the GCC Campus
Conversation on March 30th at
G. FEC Report
President Arnoldt, Vice-President Griggs, Councilor Reed and Senate Representative Dwyer reported:
·
New Board Member Scott Crowley visited with FEC and conveyed
his understanding about the necessity of a Bond and a tuition increase; he
explained that he is encountering a steep learning curve as he transitions into
his new position.
·
Twelve-month pay has been examined, and a list of potential
difficulties in creating the new formula will be discussed with the
Chancellor. It’s possible that this
option may not be offered until next year.
·
The design of the Faculty Association web page has been
completed; the revised page provides links to the ten college Senate pages.
·
FEC discussed the 2005 Faculty Convocation and requested it
be returned to a faculty-driven program.
·
FEC has suggested that the current FIPP (Faculty in Progress
Program) be terminated. Vice-Chancellor
Solley will visit with FEC to discuss the request. The program has had a budget of 2 million
dollars over the past few years.
·
FEC examined the issue of whether or not Faculty have a
right to expect to a transfer from one college to another. FEC discussed the autonomy of hiring
committees and that persons applying for internal positions must be the best
qualified for that position. The RFP
establishes that RFP Faculty be given first consideration for transfer
positions but does not guarantee their hire.
FEC will continue the discussion.
·
The state retirement DROP program was discussed. In this program, a person who guarantees
retirement for a specific date will get double the credit for the remaining
years of employment (i.e., one who promises to retire in 3 years gets 6 years
of credit in the program).
H. Governing Board Report. President Arnoldt reported:
·
Three proposed tuition increase motions ($4, $2, $0) failed;
the tuition increase was tabled until the April 27 business mtg.
·
The termination of a member at another college was discussed
and tabled. Every MCCD employee should
know that the possession of alcohol or weapons on any MCCD property or event is
forbidden.
·
The Board is contemplating a Bond, but cannot announce it
until June 8th.
II. Old Business
A. Retirement & Health Insurance
·
No report; no change.
Will be dropped from future agendas.
B. College Plan Review Committee –
·
Deleted from agenda during amendments to agenda.
·
(As above) Revised document has been sent to President
Randolph.
C. Constitution Review Committee – Jim Reed
·
Senators received the latest draft of the
Constitution.
·
The question was raised as to whether Senate
should include a Mission Statement at the beginning of the Constitution. Although many Senators agreed that the
addition of a Mission Statement would benefit the Senate, there was concern
that Senate could not complete this task in time for the document to go out to
a full Faculty vote in less than a week.
·
Senators decided to postpone the design of a
Mission Statement for the time being.
·
Senators were informed that a few minor edits to
the Constitution for consistency and clarity, proposed by Senator Bohlender,
had not been included in the recent draft.
Senate considered these changes.
·
The following motion was made and seconded “Move that the amended Constitution,
including those changes proposed by Senator Bohlender, be accepted and
forwarded to the Faculty for their approval.”
The motion passed unanimously.
D. Scholarship Committee Report - Griggs
·
Trini Sandoval visited with Senate regarding the
recently designed GCC Faculty Senate scholarships that are to be awarded to
Mentoring Program students. She
expressed thanks to the Senate for their empowerment of students who have been
courageous enough to step forward and become involved with the Mentoring
Program.
·
Trini Sandoval reported on the progress of the
program thus far, including (but not limited to): (1) over 260 student are
involved in the Mentoring Program as well as 110 mentors (76 of which are
faculty), (2) the Program will be increasing its visibility at GCC by way of
web sites, brochures, flyers, and newly designed marketing videos, (3) further work will be done on the Early
Alert/Retention programs, and (4) the Focus Groups will be expanded.
·
Trini Sandoval informed Senate that this will be
the first year that the Mentoring Program will be formally evaluated by
mentees.
E. Election Committee - Ottenberg
·
Senator Ottenberg informed Senate that there were nine (9)
candidates for the six (6) open Senate seats.
·
Senator Ottenberg expressed regret that there was little
interest in Senate leadership positions.
President, Vice-President, and FEC Representative-at-Large have one
candidate. Faculty will have the option
of write-in candidates.
·
Ballots will go out to Faculty on March 30th with
a voting deadline of April 6th.
·
Senate discussed the election method and the voting
procedures outlined in Robert’s Rules of
Order. Senator Daugherty informed
Senate that according to Robert’s Rules, standard balloting is preferred, and
preferential voting is used only in unusual circumstances when time does not
permit a run-off election.
·
The following motion was made and seconded: “Move that the counting of ballots for the
upcoming Senate election take place by standard balloting.” The motion passed with 12 yeas and 1
abstention (Ottenberg).
F.
Recognition/Employee Picnic - Reed
·
Planning is underway and on schedule for the event to be
held Friday, May 7th.
·
President Arnoldt reminded Senators to seek Faculty
assistance for set-up, serving, and take-down.
III.
New Business
A.
Committees Review - Arnoldt
·
President Arnoldt will begin a project to review
the time commitment and nature of the non-paid Faculty committees as required
by the RFP.
·
The purpose of the review is to improve
committee service equity.
·
The review will take place in June with the
assistance of Student Life.
·
Representative Reed encouraged Senate to
consider including service on hiring committees within the committee structure,
especially since there seems to be a small number of Faculty serving on a great
number of hiring committees. Senator
Nelson suggested that departments seeking a member from outside their own
departments publicize the need so that interested Faculty might volunteer.
·
The current process will be used to select 04-05
committee assignments.
·
Senators and
Faculty are encouraged to send ideas and suggestions about committee structures
and reorganization to President Arnoldt.
B.
Retired Faculty Recognition Plaques - Dwyer
·
Several plaques that list retired Faculty and
those who passed away while serving as active Faculty members need to be
updated significantly.
·
Senate requested that President Arnoldt inquire
if the updated plaques could be housed in the new Administration building.
·
Senator Dwyer agreed to direct the completion of
updating the plaques.
·
Senator Garcia inquired about whether a campus
sign commemorating Bonnie Nelson existed.
President Arnoldt agreed to find out.
C.
Student Recognition Day – Rene Diaz-Lefebvre
·
This
year’s Student Recognition Day will be held on Sunday, April 25th at
·
Approximately 150 students will be receiving
awards during the reception; 270-300 people are expected to attend the event.
·
This year’s award will be a star shaped memo
holder with the inscription “GCC Star Performer” and the new GCC logo.
·
The following motion was made and seconded: “Move to award $1500 from the Senate
Treasury to the Student Recognition Committee to defray the cost for student
recognition gifts.” The motion passed
unanimously.
IV.
Information
A.
GCC (Web) Directory - Bohlender
·
Bobby Sample and the Web Steering Committee have
developed a template for Faculty web pages.
·
Senator Bohlender distributed a copy of the
input page and the resulting output for a sample page.
·
Faculty will be allowed to enter a forwarding
URL if they do not wish to used the standardized layout. Otherwise, Faculty will complete a simple
input page which will display the information in a standardized sequence with
the GCC frame on the left side for easy access to GCC links.
·
The web information will eventually include
links to courses the instructor teaches, and Faculty can add additional links
to course tools.
·
Senator Bohlender stated that this will be an
especially helpful tool for keeping track of and allowing students access to
information about Adjunct Faculty.
B.
Outstanding Faculty Award - Arnoldt
·
President Arnoldt asked Senate to consider
instituting a Faculty Excellence Award (in a similar vein to the announcements
made by
·
Senate discussed the award and its possible
benefits: recognizing Faculty who serve above and beyond expectations,
rewarding Faculty for accomplishments and/or research, the opportunity to
reward our own, etc.
·
The question was raised as to whether an award
like this had existed in the past and whether that same set of criteria should
be resurrected.
Meeting
was adjourned at 4:40 pm.
Next meeting of the GCC Faculty Senate will be held on
April 22nd at 2:30 pm.