Collin College Faculty Council

Meeting Minutes

March 27, 2009

 

1.       Call to order: Regular meeting of Faculty Council was called to order by President, Dr. Sonja Andrus, at 1: 20.

2.       Roll call: Absent: Sam Tullock; Kyle Wilkison; Lupita Tinnin-substitute, Frozina Goussak; Martha Chalhoub-substitute, Mike McConachie

3.       Minutes: Dr. Andrus asked secretary for minutes. Motion to dispense with the reading by Mary Weis and seconded by Doug Bolliver. One opposed. Motion passed.

4.       Treasurer’s Report: Marilyn Massey.

Commitment to Scholarship Fund is $1,250.00 per year with no rollover required. Appears Foundation does take the amount that is deposited in the account. Treasurer is awaiting clarification. Faculty pledged $2,500.00 for the Collin Cabaret, half of which went to Faculty Scholarship and half went to the General Fund. Checks for this should be made out to the Foundation with “Faculty Cabaret” in the memo. The scholarship name has been changed to “Faculty Scholarship,” but Business Office has these funds listed under two accounts under the current and former name. There was a suggestion to close the Faculty Council Scholarship account and move the funds to the Faculty Scholarship account.

                                                                 

5.       Vice President’s Report: No report

6.       Committee Reports

a.       College Policy-Mary Milford- Board passed several policies at the last meeting. Most were editorial changes, rather than substantive ones. Local policies were adopted for: six withdrawals total with eight exceptions for good reason; a reserve fund for insurance; individuals retired with TRS generally not eligible in TRS-eligible positions due to the pension surcharge to the college, but this does not affect part-time employment. The Board declined to adopt a local policy to require employees to submit outside employment information to administration to determine any conflict of interests.

b.       Faculty Council Procedures- no report

c.       Teaching and Learning-Mike McConachie-Brown bags talks being held at all campuses. Next presentation is April 16th talk on student expectations.

d.        Technology-Tebring Daly reported that prior and current committee chairs were invited to join the DLIT meeting with Sherry Schumann and Heather Webb-Losh. New Collin website to launch on March 31st. Faculty are advised to check anything they have linked. Next spring, Collin will have a new domain name, Collin.edu  .

e.       Collin Community-no report

f.        Academic Freedom-no report

7.       Council on Excellence- Martha Tolleson reported that elections will be held in the coming weeks. April 3rd is the deadline for Outstanding Professor nominations, and a reminder will be sent out this weekend. Email “blast” was also sent to students via Cougarmail. Changes made for Board Reports are as follows: no bullets saying “subscribe to/read” and museum or gallery visits must be stated specifically. Different interpretations on the time limit for including professional activities on the board report. Martha Tolleson requested a meeting to determine the purpose of the Board Report and the guidelines in writing. VPs will also be attending a workshop on this. If dean recommends a faculty member, but CoE doesn’t, the faculty member can receive raises. If the dean does not recommend, raises are not available.

8.       All College Council- -A. Steverson- Meeting held in December to discuss goals for 2009 and a survey is forthcoming to solicit ways to make ACC more visible. Suggestion was made to have a joint venture with Faculty Council for MLK day. Discussed ACC Scholarship criteria. Need $1,500.00, but have not yet met those funds. Question raised about student memorials and how faculty and staff are notified in the event of the death of a student. Dean of Students contacts faculty. Nominations being accepted for 2009-10.

9.       President’s Report:

a.       APT-John Glass and Cathy Donald-Whitney- Will exceptions to Testing Center policy be made for inclement weather? No changes, but faculty are advised to contact your dean to advocate for you in the event of extenuating circumstances.

b.       Retention and annual reviews-Retention is being looked at, but not considered in reviews. There may be disproportionate burden on faculty for retention because these data are available, but data related to other areas of the college are not. Retention defined as the number of students completing divided by the number enrolled at census. It was noted that faculty work very hard, one on one with students, and that retention is not an accurate reflection of faculty quality , as data suggest only five percent of drops are attributable to faculty. Suggestions to address the possibility of retention as a measurable indicator for faculty contracts include accessing IRO data, asking students to email when withdrawing to have record, and requiring students to obtain faculty signature to drop. If Faculty Council institutes a committee for retention, it should include CoE chair.

c.       Search committee grids-VPPs have indicated these should be guidelines, not hard and fast markers. They should be accurate and reflect the choice made.

d.       General plea to work together as a group for faculty and student success.

e.       Scheduling of load-Deans are in charge of scheduling, and faculty must negotiate one-on-one for schedules. Collaborate with colleagues in your department, so that united requests can be presented to deans.

f.        One nomination for President-Peggy Brown. Nominations for Vice President include Joan Kennedy, George Jackson and Mark Clark. Elections to be held in April.

10.   New business

a.       Adopt-A-Highway renewal upcoming, and a new lead person is needed. Volunteers will be solicited via email.

b.       Next meeting April 17th at PRC.   

11.   Adjournment: Motion to adjourn by Jon Hardesty and seconded by Mary Weis. None opposed. Motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 2:20 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          .