I.CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 3 p.m. by President Rolando Sanabria.
II.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
The
Minutes of the February 3, 2005 meeting were approved by consensus.
III.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
The
agenda for this meeting was approved with one change by consensus.
IV.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Renee Bangerter mentioned that
in the Dean’s Council most of the Deans were on track with turnitin.com (a web
site designed to prevent plagiarism).
The instructors at Cypress College
have already been trained on it.
Vince Tinto will be presenting Learning Communities: Reshaping the Environment for Student Success,
in Room 1018, from 9 to 10:30 a.m., on Friday, February 25.
Lillian Roybal-Ross
will be conducting a workshop entitled Understanding
and Being Understood and Cross Cultural Communications, Wednesday and
Thursday, March 1 and 2, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., in the Faculty Dining
Room.
Behnoosh Armani announced that
Counseling and Guidance would be holding its annual Senior and Parent night
April 21, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the campus theater. She felt that this occasion presented a good
opportunity for departments to advertise their programs. She will be sending out an e-mail to
determine who wants to set up a table.
Adela Lopez distributed flyers
from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities regarding the
2005-2006 scholarship program criteria.
The criteria can be viewed at scholarships.hacu.net.
Bill Hayner announced that he
will be giving a presentation on his art via a slide show entitled The Art of my Life. It will be held March 3, from 11 a.m. to
12:30 in Room 1018. This event is
sponsored by the Cadena
Center.
He also mentioned the Artist in
Residence Program. The week of March 7,
artist Justin Sweet will be on campus doing public demonstrations as well as
giving a public exhibition of his work in the gallery.
V.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORTS
President’s
Report
DPC—
The District FTES model is being finalized at DPC. This model, which benefits Fullerton
College, would allocate FTES-related
funds to individual colleges based on their own growth.
DPC
also discussed the policy on the minimum number of units students are required
to take in order to qualify for the Student Trustee position. Apparently, the
current policy is five units, but the Fullerton Associated Students
organization feels it should be nine. Cypress
is supporting the current 5 unit minimum. Rolando praised the professionalism
demonstrated by the Fullerton College
students at DPC.
The Unlawful
Discrimination board policy is still being discussed at DPC. The current
policy, as written, would allow secret investigations of Faculty accused of
discriminatory practices. Faculty would not be informed if they were being
investigated until the investigation was concluded. The various Faculty groups
on DPC oppose this policy. (Historical note: this policy was originally passed
to meet a state mandated date with the understanding that it would be
revisited. The District is insisting the policy remain in effect with no
changes.)
The
Academic Freedom policy, which is being proposed by the various Faculty groups,
has been tied to the Unlawful Discrimination policy because they overlap at
several points. Because the Unlawful Discrimination policy is being challenged
by the faculty groups, the Academic Freedom policy has also been delayed.
PCC—Four
new committees have been formed in PCC. They are the Parking Committee, the ACT
Oversight Committee, the Campus Bond Project Resources Committee, and the
Student Equity Committee.
It
was also announced at PCC that there was a desire to institutionalize the
Directorship of the International Students Program. Rolando expressed concern
at PCC about the institutionalization of that Directorship because Fullerton
College has approximately 12 soft
money directors already. He questioned
why this particular position was being considered now and expressed the need
for guidelines.
A
question was raised about the status of such “institutionalized” directors and
what happens if their funding is eliminated. Traditionally, such employees have
remained on campus and become regular employees.
Dr.
Hodge visited the Senate at this point to discuss filling the Vice President of
Student Services position on an interim basis. This position was approved, but
the hiring process has not been completed. Dr. Hodge wants to find an interim
for this position to speed the reorganization of the campus, help share the
large amount of work currently being done by the Vice Presidents, and because
the current Interim Executive Vice President will be retiring at the end of
this semester. Dr. Hodge would like to have someone in place soon because she
(Dr. Hodge) is devoting a lot of time to the bond projects.
The
other major reason for hiring an Interim Vice President of Student Services is
to assist with the remodeling of the 2000 Building. This building is primarily
devoted to Student Services and needs someone to make decisions about and
“champion” the extensive remodeling that must be done.
A
question was asked about the timing of this interim hiring. Although the
position was approved and was supported by the Senate, the decision to hire an interim
was not presented at PCC. This apparently violated the spirit of PCC. Rolando
indicated that he will bring this issue up as an item at the next PCC meeting.
The Senate
did not express any concerns about this interim position.
Dr.
Hodge also announced that she met with the chair of the Accreditation team who
will be visiting the campus in March. The early observation by the team, after
reading the self-study report, was that the survey included in the report
indicated a high level of distrust about processes and leadership on campus. At
the request of the team chair, she is writing a letter to the Accreditation
team on the significant activities, updates, and changes since the publication
of the self-study. These include the reorganization of college administration
and the development of committees, such as the Bond Oversight Committee and the
Academic Technology Oversight committee, that will include faculty.
Another
issue brought up by the Accreditation team was our planning agendas. The
criticism is that the planning agendas and guidelines are too vague. The
current guidelines used for planning lack specificity and do not tie back to
the core values. In short, the planning and budget processes on campus are
guided by criteria that are not specific enough to be useful. This results in
plans and budgets that don’t represent the requirements of the campus. Dr.
Hodge expressed a desire to work through PCC with the various groups on campus
to reexamine and revise the planning and budgeting guidelines to make them more
useful by including specific activities and completion dates.
It
was announced at PCC that the child care center is having major financial
problems. Personnel there have requested support from PCC, but, as yet, no
action has been taken.
PCC
is discussing the criteria for allocating carry-over one-time money. The
criteria developed were (in order) 1) safety, 2) compliance, 3) direct
Instruction, and 4) restoration of previously cut PFE projects. Proposals to
spend this money will be presented to PCC and communicated to the Senate.
The
PCC will be discussing the issue of public comments. The problem is that,
because of the large number of resource people on PCC, it is often difficult to
tell who is a member and who is not. A restriction on public comments in PCC will
be considered.
The
Study Abroad Program was discussed in PCC, and it was pointed out that we have
one of the most expensive programs in the State. Dr. Hodge will meet with the
current Director of the program, Paul St. John, and John Ayala. She will then bring a proposal to PCC. Dr.
Hodge indicated that she wants to keep the program but wants to make it more
efficient.
Treasurer’s
Report
No
report.
VI.
CURRICULUM COMMITTEE REPORT
Curriculum
Committee Chair Doug Eisner reported that, at
the DCCC meeting, the committee agreed to begin enforcing prerequisites for all
English classes during the summer. If all goes well, classes from other departments
will be added after that. Cypress College
is examining all prerequisites and co-requisites to determine if they are really
wanted.
The
Curriculum Committee is putting together a subcommittee to examine distance
education courses for appropriate content. This committee should be made up of
faculty teaching online. It was suggested that the ETC Committee might be able
to supply assistance in creating or advising this new online class committee.
The
Senators should talk to their divisions about Curricunet. This program will save time for people
preparing curriculum as well as those sitting on the Curriculum Committee. Cypress College
will be buying Curricunet with or without Fullerton
College.
The University
of California transfer course
agreement was finalized. All five courses proposed this year were accepted. This
is the sixth year in a row that UC has accepted everything sent to it.
The
deadline for IGETC courses was changed to November.
VII. ELECTIONS
Although no formal elections were
held today, an issue was raised about a hiring committee for the Dean of
Academic Services. This Dean currently supervises the Cosmetology Department.
It was proposed that the hiring committee for this position be made up of four
faculty from that department. A question was raised about whether the Dean of
Academic Services was a “faculty” Dean (dealing primarily with classes and
scheduling) or a “college” Dean (dealing primarily with college-wide issues
such as Curriculum, and so on). If this Dean is a “college” Dean, then the members
of the hiring committee should be selected from the college at large. It was
the sense of the Senate that the Academic Services Dean is a “faculty” dean and
that the hiring committee members should be selected by the department.
Another election issue was
related to the position of Humanities Dean. Since the Humanities Division has five
departments but only four faculty members on the hiring committee, it was
requested that the Senate support the idea of expanding the hiring committee to
five. Roland pointed out that the other groups on this committee,
Administration in particular, would request an additional position. Dr. Hodge had
mentioned that a diversity representative could be a faculty member. This individual would have no vote; however,
that person can participate. The sense
of the Senate was to maintain the past practice.
VII.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
The
restructuring of PCC is still unfinished.
The comments that Rolando received noted that we had had this
conversation before. The Senate has taken its recommendations forward, and how
it needs to act on the result of this. Senators from each division were
individually poled about the feedback that they have received from their
divisional colleagues. Some divisions had feedback and some did not. There was
no clear consensus. It was proposed that Senators go back to their divisions
and get a better response for the next meeting when the Senate will take formal
action.
XI.
OLD BUSINESS
The state
mandated Student Equity Plan for the campus has been approved by the District,
and it has been submitted. Part of this plan is a series of recommendations.
The plan for implementing these recommendations was given to the Senate. The
Senate needs to develop an Equity Committee. The question was raised about the
makeup of that committee.
The former
chair of this committee, said that including one representative from each
division is a bad idea. Since most of the recommendations deal with the Humanities,
Math, and Counseling Divisions, faculty from these areas should be the only ones
on it.
Another
idea was to include as many people as want to participate. If the Senate wants
to implement the proposals, it needs campus-wide participation. It was also
suggested that some of the Title V grant funds could be used to implement the
recommendations.
M/S/U
(Powers/Eisner) that the composition
for the Student Equity Committee will consist of three faculty at-large, and
one faculty each from Counseling, Math, and Humanities.
NEW
BUSINESS
A
question was raised about the decision of the Senate, in its last meeting, to
conduct elections of Senate Exec members earlier than the date specified in the
Senate Constitution. It was pointed out that the Senate cannot “ignore” the
Constitution. However, it was also pointed out that, in light of a judicial
body to judge the legality of Senate actions, it was appropriate for the Senate
to interpret its own Constitution.
It
was also pointed out that since the Constitution did not prevent early
nominations of faculty for these positions, the Senate could “vote” these
candidates into office early and then, on the date mandated by the
Constitution, “affirm” the vote. No decision was made about this issue.
XII.
LIAISON REPORTS
United
Faculty
The
United Faculty representative announced that the salary negotiations are still
continuing. The District is still offering 5.41 percent. It has said that there
is no more money for raises. United Faculty, and a large majority of faculty,
have rejected this argument and feel that 5.41 percent is not adequate. Faculty
were urged to contact the members of the Board through letters or e-mails to
let their views be known. It order to get a fair raise, it will take individual
faculty members communicating with the Board of Trustees members.
As
per a request from the previous meeting, it was found that CALPERS and CALSTRS
do invest in companies that directly and indirectly do business with the
government of the Sudan.
This issue is being brought forward by several organizations and members of Congress.
Anyone interested can e-mail dcraig@fullcoll.edu
for more information about this issue.
Associated
Students
The AS
President announced the Red Cross blood drive.
Adjunct
Faculty United
No
report.
The meeting was adjourned
at 4:45 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
/s/
Jane Troop
Secretary
