I.
Call to order
President
Amina El-Ashmawy called to order the regular meeting of the CCCCD
Faculty Council at 1:32 pm on February 9th, 2007 held in the LC104
Events Center at PRC.
II.
Approval of
minutes from last meeting
A)
Secretary Mary Weis began to read the minutes from the January 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 Bill Slater.
C) Motion
passed and the minutes were approved as distributed.
III.
Approval of
Treasurer’s report
·
Today’s meal
from Jason’s Deli will be ~$375.00 out of the FC presidents account.
·
Last month a
collection was held for the scholarship fund to raise money in order to
donate a total of $1000.00 for a FC sponsored student scholarship. A
total of $120 was added to the old FC account (now a Foundation account)
for a total of $1004.26.
·
In the fall
this account balance will be essentially at zero. There is a need to
have more organized and sophisticated way of collecting money if we wish
to continue to have a FC sponsored scholarship. The Collin Community
Subcommittee is charged with soliciting ideas and suggestions for ways
to raise scholarship money.
·
Sunshine Fun
balance is currently at $288.22. This fund is used for items that can
not be charged to agency accounts, such as flowers or cards.
IV.
Vice
President’s Report
A)
Nothing to report at
this time
V.
President’s
Report
·
The 2007 – 2008
Master Calendar follow up on the issue of the start date change in the
public school schedule due to the legislature ruling. Stephanie
Meinhardt said that these concerns have been taken into account,
especially for the summer session. Dual enrollment question: how will
the start date affect dual enrollment classes if the high schools start
later than the college? Amina El-Ashmawy will check with Stephanie
again.
·
Follow up
regarding the Professional Travel Money (workman’s comp) issues from
last year. A college wide email was sent regarding the Business Office
changes and additional concerns about language. No further changes will
be made at this time.
·
Round-table
discussions will be presented by Joan Kennedy later in this meeting
·
The Community
College Day at the capitol will be February 22nd, the day before TCCTA.
A bus will leave at 9:30am from the hotel to take faculty interested in
attending to the capitol steps. The Collin students will be traveling by
bus, down and back on that the same day.
·
Monopoly will
be on February 24th at Willowbend Country Club. There is a
table of 6 which will be sponsored by F.C and available for interested
faculty, as the FC executive committee will be unable to attend. The
scholarship money will be used for this event and the set up will be
different than in years past. The FC VP is coordinating the sign up for
this event. If you are interested in going please contact Donna White.
VI.
Committee
Reports
·
Teaching and
Learning: Joan Kennedy. There are 2 upcoming meetings scheduled as
follows:
o
Friday, March 2nd
from 1:30-2:30pm in the PRC event center. The meeting will focus on the
report from the college textbook taskforce. This document will be sent
out via email prior to the meeting once it has been presented to the
Board of Trustees.
o
Friday, March
30th from 1:30-2:30 pm at PRC event center. An academic
freedom discussion will take place and its focus will be to collaborate
and generate ideas to form a faculty position on Academic Freedom. The
current policy will be sent out prior to the meeting as a starting point
and frame of reference for the discussion. Topics will focus on what is
in the current policy, should it change, and what isn’t being addressed.
The subcommittee chaired by Levi will take the input from this meeting
and formulate the position document and address related issues such as
retention.
o
Retention
subcommittee report. The subcommittee chair Sonja Andrus met with VPAA
this fall. The VPAA has identified 5 areas (spokes) for further
discussion and research. The 5 spokes are as follows: instruction,
advising, student services, academic services, and financial aid. A
district wide task force is being formed. Another meeting with the VPAA
Thom Chesney, will take place this spring to determine the make-up of
this district wide committee on retention.
·
College Policy:
Mary Milford. Nothing to report
·
Technology:
Barbara Taylor. The committee met today and focused on the concern with
retention and log on issues. The committee has researched the various
areas login for registration, library, open lab, WebCT, and Cougarmail.
The committee will request a central place to look for help and to have
this information posted and easily accessible. There is a security
problem with releasing formats for password, so that will need to be
addressed. There is a news release about on line degrees and hiring
issues that is available from Barbara.
·
Collin
Community: John Glass. The committee will be focusing on how to raise
money for student scholarships. A brown bag lunch series is in the
works.
·
Council
Procedures: Donna White. A rough draft is being finalized and will be
sent out next week via email. Comments/concerns are to be sent to David
Garrison or Donna White by March 2nd. The committee will meet to
formulate the final document. This document will then become effective
at the March 9th FC meeting. The FC nominations for elections
will also be taking place in March.
·
Honor Code:
Mary Weis. The College Honor code committee would like a motion from
the FC in support of the honor code draft document and any grammatical
changes that have been made to this document.
A motion for FC
support reflecting the substance of the honor code was made by Mary
Milford; second by Bill Slater. Motion carried unanimously.
VII.
Updates
·
COE: Dan
Lipscomb
o
COE Travel
funds are out of money at present. Small amounts will be added as
unencumbered funds are returned during the spring.
o
There will be
an upcoming COE election in March/April. Paper ballots will be sent
out. Faculty names on the ballot will vary pending COE status or if they
have chosen to opt out of this election process.
o
The outstanding
professor nomination due date is March 1st. A cougar news
article was published in order to encourage student nominations. Since
the nomination forms do require detail, the students will be encouraged
to include information to the best of their knowledge. This is not a
division based recommendation process, it is now college wide. A link
was placed for easier access by students and staff outside of the
original COE intranet link.
·
ACC: Kemal
Moula
o
Bake sale next
week, table F-110, starts at 2pm. ACC still needs volunteers to run the
bake sale.
o
Smoking policy
of the college is being considered, although city policies may be in
effect.
o
Collin Habitat
for Humanity has 2 groups from the college that participate, so they may
merge into one group. Volunteers are still needed. Perhaps a joint task
force between FC and ACC for Habitat for Humanity? Since the FC
structure is changing it currently could be addressed by the Committee
on the Collin Community which could then make a report at a later date.
o
ACC has a $1000
scholarship available for students.
VIII.
New Business
·
Question
regarding the status of upward evaluations. This issue was pursued in
the past; the administration showed no interest or backing for such
evaluations to be reimplemented in the near future.
·
The recent
handling of WebCT crash was inappropriate. One email gave the impression
that it was the faculty’s fault if the course was not restored by 5pm on
Thursday. The FC Committee on Technology has this under discussion.
·
Question
regarding retention data concerns and why students do not return. The
district retention committee will most likely look at this issue.
IX.
Announcements
Please remember to sign or check your name on the RSVP list for lunch
today. A list of participants is required by the Business Office for
payment.
X.
Adjournment
George Jackson
motioned to adjourn; Second by Fr. Tony Howard
Amina El-Ashmawy
adjourned the meeting at 2:24 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 April 13.