I.
Call to order
President
Amina El-Ashmawy called to order the regular meeting of the CCCCD
Faculty Council at 1:31 pm on December 8th, 2006 in the
Conference Center AB section at SCC.
II.
Approval of
minutes from last meeting
A)
Secretary Mary Weis began to read the minutes from the November 17th
meeting.
B) George
Jackson moved to dispense the reading of the minutes and accept the
minutes as distributed. A second to the motion was made by Mary
Milford.
C) Motion
passed and the minutes were approved as distributed.
III.
Approval of
Treasurer’s report
A) Treasurer
John Glass was absent due to a Learning Community meeting at PRC.
B) Secretary
Mary Weis presented the accounting of the FC Sunshine Fund.
Amount
collected at the last meeting totaled $ 85.75. There are no current or
outstanding expenses leaving a balance of $271.22. Another voluntary
Sunshine Fund collection was conducted and those wishing to make
donations were directed to place money in the holiday box.
IV.
Vice
President’s Report
A)
Nothing to report at this time.
V.
President’s
Report
A)
The FC extends
congratulations to Jennifer Brooks for receiving the Outstanding
Professor Award for Texas
B)
Congratulations to
Lisa Roy Davis and Joyce Swegle for their Endowed Chair appointments.
C)
Board Report Summary
1)
CPC ground breaking
in May 2007. Construction will occur over a 15-18 months. Please see
the plans for this construction. There will be a parking garage and
Cathy Whitney is gathering faculty input to give to Rex Parcels, CPC
provost.
2)
Land has been
purchased in Farmersville.
D)
WebCT login
information was sent out via email in order to access the FC WebCT
folders and chat rooms. All FT faculty should now have access.
E)
Textbook Committee
update with additional input from Joan Kennedy.
1)
A student website
textbook exchange is being addressed.
2)
A survey was sent out
by Brenda Kihl in order to gather information about the faculty’s work
to help with lowering textbook costs. This current documentation and
information will be shared at the North Texas Consortium meeting to help
in further research on the feasibility of lowering textbook costs on a
regional basis.
3)
UNT and UTD have
in-house publishing that could be of use for any common textbooks we
share or they could possibly publish any of our faculty developed books,
such as lab manuals.
4)
The ISBN should be
included on all course syllabi and websites to help students find
cheaper alternative sources for required texts.
F)
Professional
Development. Last year COE sent a proposal to the administration that
would allow a faculty member to audit Collin courses free of tuition.
VPAA Thom Chesney wants a sense of the faculty response regarding this
option.
1)
A show of hands from
the members present indicated an overwhelming majority voting in favor
of such a policy.
2)
Details need to be
worked out regarding available space and attendance only with the
permission of the instructor. The auditing faculty member would have to
pay for any related course fees, for example, lab fees.
3)
Additional questions
were asked regarding specifics of the proposal and when to enroll. The
intent now is to see if there is an interest to this type of
professional development option. The details can be worked out at a
later date.
G)
During the summer,
the FC executive committee met with the VPAA regarding the per diem
policy as a follow up to this open agenda item. The per diem language
was vague in referring to actual time of departure and return.
1)
Barbara Lusk
clarified the issues and concerns further with regards to workman
compensation coverage when you leave the house on college business but
for purposes of reimbursement, the flight times are used for actual
departure and arrival instead of when you leave or arrive at your house.
The business office has a different viewpoint on this issue.
2)
FC president
Amina El-Ashmawy has followed up with the VPAA and VP Ralph Hall. A
recent email from Linda Vaughn was sent out clarifying the details of
per diem claims. This was helpful; however, the FC president will follow
up to see if further clarification is possible.
H)
TCCTA 2007 Annual
Convention will be held in Austin. Feb 22nd, the Thursday
prior to the meeting, is community college day at the Capitol. There is
a 10 am scheduled meeting time after which we will visit with senators
and representatives. We need strong showing. The FC president and FC
VP will be going. All faculty members are encouraged to join in this
visit.
I)
The 2007-2008 Master
Calendar. The scheduled times in August for FC will be in conflict with
division meetings since division meetings were scheduled for two days in
August rather than one.
1)
The Academic Affairs
Deans have indicated that they will work around the FC meetings.
2)
The dates for FC
meetings will be August 17, 2007 and August 14, 2008.
3)
There were questions
regarding the college’s master calendar vs. the high school (H.S.)
schedules in August and January since H.S. graduates and Collin
enrollment may be affected.
4)
Barbara Taylor also
mentioned that dual enrollment may be affected.
5)
The Collin master
calendar was approved by the board in November for 2007-2008.
6)
President El-Ashmawy
needs faculty comments and concerns regarding this situation sent to her
via email so she can forward the concerns to the administration. The
main impact will be in summer 2008.
J)
VPAA Thom Chesney has
been invited and will attend the FC Jan 12, 2008 meeting at SCC to
update us on the Academic Affairs Division as well as answer questions.
VI.
Committee
Reports
A)
Committee on Teaching
and Learning Report: Joan Kennedy, Chair.
1)
Textbook and
Academic Freedom issues are being discussed.
2)
There is a need to
define academic freedom.
3)
Looking into saving
money on textbooks as well. Levi Bryant is chairing the Academic
Freedom Subcommittee.
4)
Sonya Anderson chairs
the Retention Subcommittee, which compiled a long list to address with
the VPAA regarding implementation.
5)
The committee
addressed the lateral change policy. The committee’s response is that
the current policy needs to change.
B)
Committee on College
Policy Report: Mary Milford, Chair, has nothing to report.
C)
Committee on
Technology: Barbara Taylor, Chair, reported that the committee will meet
on Jan 8, 2008 at 10 am, PRC.
1)
The VPAA met with the
technology co-chairs, Mindi and Barbara.
2)
They will share the
discussion results from the VPAA meeting with the rest of the committee
at the January meeting.
D)
Committee on the
Collin Community: John Glass informed the FC president prior to the
meeting that there is nothing to report.
E)
Honor Code ad hoc
Committee: Cathy Donald Whitney, Co-Chair. The committee met yesterday
at SCC. The following items were presented.
1)
A final draft of the
Honor Code will be sent to Amina to forward to the faculty once the
edits are completed by Janet Stice.
2)
Cheri Jack shared the
results of the student focus groups held in November. The committee
made appropriate changes as needed based on the student responses.
3)
The next step is to
get faculty comments once the draft is sent via email. There will be
time to answer questions at the January FC meeting.
4)
The FC needs to vote
on recommending the final version of the Honor Code in February.
5)
Currently, this
committee is working on the logistics for the XF grades. The thought is
that XF should work like the Oasis W grade.
F)
COE update from Dan
Lipscomb, Chair.
1)
The council has
reviewed 62 faculty multi-year contract packets, and the recommendations
have been sent to the VPAA.
2)
Travel funds are
currently at $28,252. Those wishing COE monies for travel should get
their completed documentation submitted soon. As a reminder, there is
no separate account for TCCTA money. Faculty wishing to attend TCCTA
must apply as any other conference.
3)
A change to the UTD
faculty scholarship was made and will be in affect for this year.
Faculty can now be approved for summer as well as the fall and spring.
The deadline for application is April 15th. As a reminder,
the applicant must also be accepted at UTD first before applying for
this scholarship.
4)
The nominations for
Outstanding Professor will be due by Feb 15th instead of
February 1st. The due date was extended to allow student
participation in the nomination process this year. Collin students will
be notified via brochure and an announcement in the cougar news about
the process and they will have to write a nomination essay.
G)
Committee on Policies
and Procedure: David Garrison, Chair.
1)
Two organizational
proposals and a ballot were sent via email by Loren Miller on Dec 7th.
The proposed plans have also been posted on FC website.
2)
The electronic
ballots are due December 14th at 5pm. As of 10 AM on Dec
8th, election judge Loren Miller reported to Amina that 42 ballots have
been received.
VII.
Announcements
1)
Donna White has won 1st place in the Ginger Bread House
competition.
2) Dr. Amina
El-Ashmawy will receive her doctorate diploma and hood in a graduation
ceremony on December 15th in Denton.
3) Please read
the email from Stephanie Meinhart regarding the restaurant gift cards
available after January 2, 2007. There are limited supplies to each of
the various restaurants. An email was sent to Stephanie regarding the
possibility of picking up additional cards for other faculty. She is
out of town at present and will return on Monday.
4) Make sure
you stop by the Humanities Ubuntu displays in the SCC atrium.
5) Please
attend the Study Grant presentation by Kemal Moula today.
6) The next FC
luncheon and meeting will be on Jan 12, 2007 at SCC in C104.
VIII.
New business
A)
No new business
IX.
Adjournment
Barbara Lusk
motioned to adjourn; Second by David Garrison.
Amina El Ashmawy adjourned the meeting at 2:05
pm.
Minutes
submitted by: Mary Weis
Preliminary approval of the minutes by: Amina K. El-Ashmawy
Final approval of the minutes by Faculty Council on January 12, 2007