Collin College Faculty Council

Meeting Minutes

November 21, 2008

 

1.       Call to order: Regular meeting of Faculty Council was called to order by President, Dr. Sonja Andrus, at 1: 15.

2.       Roll call:

a.       Present: Valerie Smith, John Hardesty, Paula Miller, Greg Sherman, Bill Ardis, John Glass, Joan Kennedy, Doug Boliver, Mary Weis.

b.       Absent: Martha Chalhoub-substitute: Michael McConachie; Marilyn Massey-substitute: George Jackson; Dawn Richardson-substitute: Donna White; Sam Tullock-substitute: Elaine Wilkinson; David Garrison-substitute: AmyTrombley; Dan Lipscomb-substitute: Cathy Donald-Whitney; Lupita Tinnen-substitute: Amina El-Ashmawy; Kyle Wilkison..

3.       Minutes: Dr. Andrus asked secretary for minutes. Motion to dispense with the reading by Joan Kennedy and seconded by John Glass. None opposed. Motion passed.

4.       Treasurer’s Report: Sonja Andrus for Marilyn Massey. A $20.00 deposit was made to the Scholarship Fund.

                                                                 

5.       Vice President’s Report: George Jackson reported the following from the TCCTA Leadership Conference.

a.       New faculty senate information on TCCTA website.

b.       Valuable presentation by Harrison Keller, Director of Research for Texas House of Representatives entitled “Current Trends in Texas Education Policy.” Issues of concern presented:

1.       Developmental Education courses are taken by 60% of first-time college students, and 80% of these graduated high school with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Of developmental math students in Fall 2003, 89% never completed a credit course in math.

2.       Textbook costs-Legislature is aware that text costs exceed the cost of a community college education and that the cost of texts is often three times that of equivalent books in local bookstores. Concern among some legislators about faculty incentives from publishers to use their books.

3.       Course completion is also expected to be an issue for the 81st legislature, as funding will be based on completion. Practices that increase retention, but are of concern to faculty in general are decreasing rigor, liberal make-up and incomplete policies.

6.       Committee Reports

a.       College Policy-no report

b.       Faculty Council Procedures- no report

c.       Teaching and Learning-no report

d.        Technology-no report

e.       Collin Community-no report

f.        Academic Freedom-no report

7.       Council on Excellence- Martha Tolleson- report next meeting

8.       All College Council- -report next meeting

9.       President’s Report:

a.       There will be no change to the summer start date or 5 week format.

b.       Sonja Andrus will meet with Mary McRae next week concerning the ad hoc committee report.

c.       APT-Honor Code is available. Email Sonja for a copy. It is not approved for district use or inclusion in the Student Handbook, but can be used by individual faculty. How can you enforce it if included in your syllabus? (Donna White) Go through the Dean of Students Office.

d.       Retention Council being formed. Deadline is today to submit your name. Contact your dean and division office if interested.

e.       Syllabus changes and CAB-When changes occur late, faculty are not required to post to syllabus with changes until the following term. There are changes for Wintermester and Spring that require items be included, but following format specifically is optional. A request to reemphasize these instructions to deans was made by Cathy Donald-Whitney. Sonja Andrus advised she would contact Gary Hodge to send out a clarification.

f.        Associate Faculty Academy meeting moved to January. Goal is to take positive outcomes from previous program and make some modifications.

10.   New business

a.       Foundation office requested that faculty sponsor a table at the Collin Cabaret fundraiser. The $1,800.00 currently in the scholarship account could be applied to the cost of a $2,500.00 table. For Foundation recordkeeping, they asked that we split the current funds to have half go to the general fund and half go the faculty scholarship. Sonja Andrus will ask the Foundation Director to come to the next FC meeting to explain and answer any questions. Faculty should poll constituents prior to next meeting.

b.       Community College Day at the Capitol on Feb. 19, 2009 from 10AM -3PM. TCCTA would like a large showing. George Jackson suggested representatives register their support with local legislator.

c.       David Garrison asked if someone would step forward for the Adopt a Highway program. Donna White will follow up.

d.       Doug Boliver advised that a recommendation is being forward to the Leadership Team to move the drop date to the sixth week of classes.   

11.   Announcements

a.       Richard Moore of TCCTA visited a previous meeting and attendance was low. Is there a way to schedule so that post-meeting visitors have better attendance? (George Jackson)

b.       The Core Curriculum Assessment Group has met and was supplied with data on success and retention rates for FT and PT faculty. (Amina El-Ashmawy) Query on Collin’s status of 50/50 FT:PT. It was noted that this was an arbitrary minimum set by the college in previous years that may be too low a figure for FT faculty presently. (Cathy Donald-Whitney)

c.       Status report on the CHEC? (John Glass) Sonja Andrus advised that the maximum projected cost was presented at the last Board of Trustees meeting.

d.       Reception to be given by St. Vincent DePaul Society at SCC on Monday in appreciation for assistance with needs for Hurricane Ike victims and evacuees. (Donna White)

e.       Next meeting Dec. 5th at PRC Event Center.    

12.   Adjournment: Motion to adjourn by Amy Trombley and seconded by John Glass. Motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.

 

Minutes submitted by:  Val Smith
Preliminary approval of the minutes by: Sonja Andrus
Final approval of the minutes by:  The Collin Faculty Council Representatives on          .