Collin College Faculty Council

Meeting Minutes

February 13, 2009

 

1.       Call to order: Regular meeting of Faculty Council was called to order by President, Dr. Sonja Andrus, at 1:35.

2.       Roll call: Absent: Paula Miller, substitute-Peggy Breedlove; Loren Miller, substitute-Peggy Brown; David Garrison

3.       Minutes: Dr. Andrus asked secretary for minutes. Motion to dispense with the reading by Mary Weis and seconded by Jon Hardesty. Motion passed

4.       Treasurer’s Report: Marilyn Massey   

                                                                 

Treasurer’s Report

5.       Vice President’s Report: No report

6.       Committee Reports

a.       College Policy-Mary Milford-no report

b.       Faculty Council Procedures-no report

c.       Teaching and Learning-Martha Chaloub-Successful SOBI workshop held in Jan.

d.       Technology-Tebring Daly-Issues with Blackboard being studied by committee and tech committee is soliciting faculty involvement? Can we have announcement on CougarWeb to show when Blackboard is down? (Brierly) There are significant concerns with level of technology and outages. Also what can be done to move announcements to first page and add a system announcements section? Committee meeting with Heath Webb-Losh and meeting with Pres. Andrus at close of meeting. Suggestion to work with online advisory board.

e.       Collin Community-no report

f.        Academic Freedom-Kyle Wilkison-No activity other than last semester’s outreach. Here if needed.

7.       Council on Excellence- Martha Tolleson- Email going out next week soliciting nominations for outstanding professor. Multi-year contract review process is complete and contract will be approved by board at March meeting.

8.       All College Council- no report

9.       President’s Report-

a.       Master Calendar approved and next term drop date will change to the end of week eight. Drop date did not change for mini-terms or summer.

b.      Fall discipline meetings to be held after All College Day. Departments can schedule at an alternative time.

c.       APT update- The six withdraw policy tracking was supposed to be implemented this spring, but will not begin until May.  Add/drops that had been extended through first class week are returning to third class hour. Must get instructor face-to-face approval to add and online access is cut off. Exception for online students to get approval via email.  New registration or adds to a new section occurs in the registration office. Difficulties for non-traditional format courses, e.g, 5 hour courses.

d.      PTK needs another faculty member to serve as co-advisor. Contact your dean if interested.

e.       Hiring freeze does not apply to faculty, and open search will continue. Freeze applies to new staff and administrators. Replacements will be reviewed.

f.        Fall Faculty Development Week-Volunteers needed to work with Mary McRae to develop solid, engaging faculty-oriented opportunities.

g.      Retention Committee- looking at models from comparable institutions and working to produce implementable action plans.

h.      Core Curriculum Review Committee-Move to add in a “World Experience” option, Could still be computer literacy, but also other options like Mexican-American Literature.

i.        Community College Day-Thursday, Feb. 19th in Austin. George Jackson will attend. If attending TCCTA, there will  be buses running from conference hotle hotel to capital. Good opportunity to let legislators know we appreciate their support.  

j.        Who will be the next Faculty Council President? A suggestion by George Jackson for Sonja Andrus to continue in this capacity was politely declined. Nominations will be accepted until March 31st.

10.   Old Business- Collin Cabaret is to be held Feb. 28th.  The price per person at the faculty table is $70.00. The table sponsorship is $2,500.00, which is $1818.00 plus $70.00 per ticket to cover Cabaret costs. Half of the $1,818.00 goes to the designated faculty scholarship student and the other half goes to the General Fund. The money solicited for student scholarships does go directly to the Foundation Office and is in fact used for scholarships. The tickets cover the cost of the Cabaret event. If we can solicit a total of $2,500.00 in donations, $1,250.00 will go to student recipient and $1,250.00 to General Fund. Question of whether or not faculty contribution to the General Fund would be acknowledged to show faculty support visible to community.

11.   New business

a.       Faculty Adopt-A-Highway early renewal notice received and good through Sept. 2009. Cost is $40.00 to the City of Plano. Need new leader and maybe a small committee to continue this project.

b.       Because a day of instruction was lost to weather, can there be an exception to Testing Center policy to recover that day? Sonja Andrus to check and report back.

c.       If faculty can now teach three courses online, leaving two face-to-face courses, do faculty have say in which sections they teach face-to-face? Are there any restrictions on when they can be? Is there a procedure for placement of courses? Sonja Andrus will address at next APT meeting. Clarification of teaching days and load needed not only for online, but also for face-to-face courses. Need to ensure that administration understands that faculty choices are made in the best interests of students.

d.       Next meeting-SCC Conference Center on March 27, 2009.

12.   Adjournment: Motion to adjourn by Greg Sherman and seconded by Jon Hardesty. Motion passed with none opposed. Meeting adjourned at 2:15 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          .