Fullerton College

Faculty Senate

 

Approved Minutes

October 21, 2004

 

 

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Present

 

 

Academic Services.............................

Doris Wright

 

Business...........................................

Jeff Courchaine, Dale Craig

 

Counseling........................................

Karyn Nguyen

 

Fine Arts...........................................

Bill Hayner

 

Humanities........................................

Renee Bangerter, Kathleen Engstrom,

John Ison, Miguel Powers, Jeff Rodine

 

Library...............................................

Michele Fitzsimmons

 

Math/Computer Science.....................

Kelly Klassen, Deborah McQueen

 

Natural Sciences................................

Ken Collins, Jeff Feaster

 

Part-Time Faculty...............................

Jim Book, Brenda Terry

 

Physical Education............................

Jim Kiefer, Pete Snyder

 

Social Sciences.................................

Callista Lee, Arienne Turner

 

Student Services................................

 

 

Technology/Engineering......................

Dennis Howey,  Kevin Sampson

 

At-large.............................................

Elise Donley, Ken Lewis, Adela Lopez, Tanomo Taguchi,

Marcus Wilson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Associated Students..........................

Araz Pourmorad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

President...........................................

Rolando Sanabria

 

President-elect...................................

Joumana McGowan

 

Secretary..........................................

Jane Troop

 

Treasurer...........................................

Behnoosh Armani

 

At-large, Curriculum Chair...................

Doug Eisner

 

 

 

Absent

 

 

At-large.............................................

Paul Farnham

 

Natural Sciences................................

Brad Dawson, Karen Robinson

 

Social Sciences.................................

Susan Grabiel

 

 

 

 

           I.   Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at
3 p.m. by President Rolando Sanabria.

 

 

          II.   Approval of Minutes for the October 7, 2004 Meeting

The Minutes of the
October 7, 2004 meeting were approved by consensus.

        III.   Approval of Agenda

The agenda for this meeting was approved by consensus.

 

      IV.   Public Comments

The Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) will be observed in the Art Gallery next Thursday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

        V.   Executive Committee Reports

President’s Report


DPC— All faculty and classified groups represented at DPC agreed that spending priorities were not going to be discussed until salary negotiations are settled. The only group at DPC that failed to support this resolution was the District Management Group. It was pointed out that such an agreement among nearly all constituent groups is a significant event that should not be ignored.

A proposal was made at DPC to complete negotiations in the spring in future years, prior to the start of the academic year. The Chancellor is open to this idea, and it will be discussed. 

The Unlawful Discrimination Policy, which has been rewritten with legal assistance, was brought up for a first reading.  Rolando urged anyone having any recommendations to send them to him or directly to Lisa Campbell.

The Academic Freedom Policy is being rewritten by the Senate presidents. Kevin Sampson is serving as a resource.

 

Treasurer’s Report

No report.

       VI.   Curriculum Committee Report

Doug Eisner advised the Senators that, when they are proposing curriculum that will affect other divisions, they contact the corresponding people in the other divisions. The Curriculum Committee will soon be working on course repeatability. It will publish a document explaining which courses can be repeatable and how they can be made repeatable.  Math and English requirements for an A.A. were discussed, and the Curriculum Committee felt that this issue was important enough to refer to Rolando Sanabria. A motion followed relative to this issue.

M/S/U (Wilson/Book) to instruct Rolando to vote no on this issue at the State Academic Senate.

   VII.      Elections

A statement was read by Joumana McGowan on behalf of Dana Clahane.  Jim Kiefer and Pete Snyder spoke on behalf of Lewin.


 VIII.      The following are the results of the two elections that were held in the Senate:


Constitution Committee, 2004-2006............................................    Jeff Courchaine
Constitution Committee, 2004-2006............................................    Miguel Powers
Constitution Committee, 2004-2006............................................    Joumana McGowan
Constitution Committee, 2004-2006............................................    Ken Collins
Student Services At-Large Representative, 2004-2005..................    Pamela Lewin


      IX.   Unfinished Business

Adam O’Connor addressed the Senate about campus finances and distributed a four-page budget information handout including a recap of the CCFS-311 report filed by the District with the State. This report also presented a summary of local Fullerton College expenditures. Highlights include:

 

·         All FC operational allocations are given a one-time 10% add-back on top of current allocations

·         An additional $500,000 was allocated for instructional equipment, which will be allocated by the Deans’ Council. With the carryover of $40,000 and the materials amount of $342,000, the total to be allocated is $882,000

·         $250,000 was set aside for the creation of a new auxiliary foundation

·         $75,000, budget for 20% reassigned time, and $100,000 TTIP carryover money is now available for staff development and technology training activities.

·         $1,000 was allocated to the office of Equity and Diversity to bring a distinguished speaker to campus for this year’s Festival of Diversity

·         A capital outlay fund was given $3,000,000 to augment the carryover of $1,000,000 for unspecified capital projects

·         In addition to this money, the college has $3,500,000 in unallocated money and $374,000 in unspent PfE money

 

A question was raised about how many employees are being covered by PfE money. Adam indicated that approximately 60 non-faculty positions are funded from PfE monies throughout the District, about 30 at Fullerton. 

 

Adam reminded the Senate that the District’s entire 67-page budget is on the District Web site.

Bond Projects Update—Dr. Hunter addressed the Senate regarding the bond project and the findings of an independent oversight committee hired to review the bond process. This report has just been published and indicates several areas of concern. These are primarily in the project management and reporting areas.

 

Dr. Hunter indicated that the District is using the report and the recommendations from the report to fix some problems with bond management. Dr. Hunter felt confident that the problems highlighted in this report can and will be fixed.  He felt that, since it is early enough in the bond process (about halfway), these problems will not endanger the projects.

 


Dr. Hunter then took questions.  He was asked to list his top concerns from this report. He gave the four recommendations indicated in a memo he had sent to the Senate President:

 

·         Distinguish the role of the Program Managers, who oversees the entire Facilities Program, from the Construction Managers, who individually oversee projects at the college campuses

·         Establish a higher level of oversight throughout the program

·         Improve management processes and procedures throughout the program

·         Integrate the roles of District facilities staff and program management staff

His top concerns to come out of the report were lack of communication between project manager and construction manager and lack of necessary oversight because of this lack of communication.

 

Dr. Hunter was then asked if he felt enough people on the Fullerton campus were interviewed by the investigating team. It was pointed out that only the Vice President of Facilities was interviewed. Dr. Hunter replied that enough people had been talked to. 

 

Another question was raised about the lack of an RFP (request for proposal) process. Dr. Hunter replied that an RFP process was not legally mandated. However, in response to the report findings, such a process will be used.

 

A number of issues were raised about the bond projects. It was pointed out that the cost increases have been exclusively blamed on the increase in material costs. However, the bond oversight report indicated a significant problem with management. Dr. Hunter indicated that cost increases have played a major factor in various bond project overruns. He indicated that there were likely too many projects and they were likely not planned carefully enough. Dr. Hunter indicated that the master plan, which was done in 1999 and prior to his arrival in the District, has lead to many of the planned projects.

 

It was pointed out that the report suggested that the primary reason for cost overruns at the Fullerton campus was because of reprioritization of local bond projects. This interpretation was rejected by the Senate. Many Senators indicated that they felt the current campus administration is not to blame for the cost overruns since it was not in place when the initial planning was done. They felt that the lack of planning controls and realistic cost analysis led, in part, to the current bond project overruns.

 

A question was raised about reexamining the local campus bond management processes in light of this report and in light of the $4.5 million cost overrun. Dr. Hunter indicated that such a reevaluation would be part of the local campus processes and depended on what the campus groups wanted to do. He indicated that, in light of the bond oversight report, the District is changing its practices, technology, and personnel.  Some changes have already been made. The District will not commit to assisting the campuses in redressing cost overruns.

 

Dr. Hodge then addressed the Senate. She indicated that she started in January of 2004. By February, 2004 there was a $20 million deficit. The President then said that she has prioritized the bond projects to add the most value to the campus. She will continue to abide by this goal, and she felt that the current deficit gives us the opportunity to reevaluate the projects. Dr. Hodge stated that we will meet the challenges not by just cutting features from existing projects but by evaluating all projects with the goal of getting the best value for the money. This will result in a classroom building with 15 new classrooms, a remodeled gym, a campus commons, one-stop center, and a new parking structure. Not all the requested remodeling will be done, and some divisions will be unhappy, but the buildings put up today will be a legacy for years to come. We have an important responsibility not only to our current students and colleagues but to those in the future.

 

M/S/U (Courchaine/Wilson) that the Senate direct its president to inform the Board of Trustees at its next meeting that the current reprioritization of the Fullerton College bond projects by Dr. Hodge agrees more closely with the bond projects adopted by the Fullerton College Faculty Senate than any previous bond project prioritizations and that the current bond priorities have the full support of Fullerton College Faculty Senate. Furthermore, the current bond problems are due to problems in initial planning.

 

Campus Safety would like to create an ad hoc committee to develop standards for dealing with students with psychological disabilities. Callista Lee volunteered for this committee. 

 

Program Discontinuance Policy Update— The program discontinuance process is continuing. Jeff Courchaine has resigned as the Program Discontinuance Committee Chairperson. It was announced that, despite the belief that the three Academic Senates had reached a tentative agreement, the Cypress Senate and School of Continuing Education expressed a desire to include management from the beginning of the process. The Fullerton College Senate did not like this idea. Talks are continuing.

Staff Development Coordinator Update—A single application for the Staff Development position was received and, since there were not others, this applicant was accepted without a formal interview. This position entails 20 percent reassigned time. 

 

Student Equity Plan—It will be up for approved at the next PCC meeting, and the Senate President was seeking direction on how to vote. Rolando indicated that this report was done in a slightly different way since one person wrote the basic report and then sent it out for review. Normally it would have been written by a committee. This was not a completely successful procedure, and it will not be used as a model in the future. Faculty can still send comments to Cindy Vyskocil. 

 

M/S/U (Courchaine/Keifer) to direct President Sanabria to accept the Student Equity Plan.

 

           I.   Old Business

None.

         II.   New Business

Restructuring of PCC—To help make a decision, various prior PCC members were invited to address the Senate. A prior member of PCC expressed concern that membership in PCC requires sufficient knowledge of campus events to make informed decisions and that such membership should be open to all members of the campus, not just Senate members. It was pointed out that PCC was originally formed to mesh the various talents, viewpoints, and concerns found among the campus groups. This discussion will continue at the next Senate meeting.


Teacher Education Program Advisory Committee – It was proposed at the previous Senate meeting (first read) to create a Teacher Education Advisory Committee to advise on the new Teacher Education program we have received grant money to develop. This committee would invite faculty from all divisions to participate.

 

M/S/U (Book/Eisner) to develop a Teacher Education Advisory Committee.

Room/Office Allocation—A concern was raised about the way that rooms are allocated. It was mentioned that currently no overall plan for room allocation exists. Department coordinators and office managers use Banner to “grab” rooms as needed rather than rely on a well planned process. The example was given of a room where classes are held for four weeks, one day a week, that is not reassigned when the class is finished. Another issue is how technology-equipped rooms are allocated in the face of a growing number of classes that can make use of them.  It was requested that the Senate attempt to deal with this issue.

 

It was pointed out that room allocation is the responsibility of the Academic Vice President’s office and the individual Deans, and that there may be a plan. Although faculty can ask questions, such plans are the responsibility of these campus entities.

 

A question was raised about faculty office availability in light of expected faculty positions being filled in the next two years. A question was raised about this issue falling under the purview of United Faculty because it involved working conditions. The union president was asked about this issue, but there was no clear answer.

 

It was the sense of the Senate that the Senate Exec. investigate this issue and come back to the Senate with more information.

 

ACT and Banner—Due to lack of time, this will be discussed at the next meeting. An e-mail will be sent to Senators outlining the issues.

       III.   Liaison Reports

 

Associated Students

Araz Pourmorad thanked the Senate for donating to the Care Bank program as well as for giving blood during the Associated Students blood drive.  He announced Hornet Madness to be held tonight. 

 

United Faculty

United Faculty is working on revised tenure reviews, phase-in retirement, and finishing some major pieces of the contract for next month.

 

Adjunct Faculty United

No report.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 5 p.m.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

/s/

 

Jane Troop, Secretary