http://www2.ohlone.edu/org/facultysenate/

Minutes

September 7 - 3:00 PM

Bldg 25 Conference Room

Senate Representatives: Lottie Bain, Richard Grotegut, Kay Harrison, Alan Kirshner, Bunny Klopping, Victoria Loukianoff, Susan Myers, Nancy Pauliukonis, Tim Roberts, Marge Segraves, Heidi Story, Carolyn Strickler, Teresa Sutowski, and Barbara Tull.

Others Present:  Bob Bradshaw, Chris Guptill, Mark Lieu, Deb Parziale, Rob Smedfjeld,

Jeff Villano, Deanna Walston, Jim Wright.

1. Announcements

1. Ohlone College will hold a Hurricane Relief car wash fundraiser this Saturday, September 10.  Volunteers and supplies are needed.  Faculty should contact Elaine Nagel or Paul Mueller to help out. 

2. Officer Elections - (A) Tull

a.    The Senate needs to elect a new Secretary.  It is necessary that this position be filled, as minutes need to be taken at the meetings.  Barbara Tull called for volunteers from the Senate.  Susan Myers volunteered to step into Secretary position, and to step down from Vice Presidency.  Susan will serve a one-year term as Secretary, to complete a two-year term as an Officer.  Barbara Tull will assume the Vice President's responsibility to attend College Council meetings.  The Senate will need to elect a new Vice President and a President-Elect.

3. Minutes of August 24,  2005 meeting - (A) Klopping

Alan Kirshner made clarifications to minutes of August 24 meeting.  Motion: to approve minutes as amended (M) Kirshner (S) Strickler.  Approved with one abstention.

4. Parking & Evacuation Procedures– (I) Fajardo

1. There have been many complaints about people parking where they should not, specifically in handicapped or reserved spaces.  Parking rules will be enforced for faculty and students.  Steve Fajardo would like to give us fair warning that we will be ticketed if we park in an unauthorized space.
2. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Steve is encouraging Faculty to become involved in emergency preparedness.  Steve is suggesting that faculty take the Community Emergency Response Training through FEMA.  This training can be done online.  It is a 8 hour course that leads to a  certificate of completion.  The training can be done in one-hour segments.  Steve will also be holding brown-bag seminars to discuss the role of faculty in the event of an emergency.  One topic could be "PEP" or "Personalized Emergency Preparedness". This means preparing our homes so that our families are safe in the event we (faculty) must stay on campus.  The question was asked if there is food and water stored on campus.  Steve confirmed that the cafeteria has sufficient food and water for two days for around 2,000 people.  The Health Center has some medicine, such as antibiotics.  The Tool Shed has emergency blankets, flashlights, and water containers.  The guideline for emergency preparedness is to be prepared to survive 72 hours.   We should prepare our homes with emergency supplies for this amount of time.  In the event of a major emergency, faculty may be required to stay on campus.  Our first priority is the safety of our students.  Ohlone College can also serve as a community shelter if there is room.  With any problems of questions email safety@ohlone.edu.

5. Staff Development Update – (I) Parziale

a. Deb Parziale is requesting that the committees for Staff Development and Technology be reinstated.  Deb distributed the Staff Development Committee Charter from November, 2000.  As the Staff Development Coordinator, Deb is proposing that we go back to this format. 

b. Deb also reviewed the Staff Development Goals 2005-2006 (handout).  Some of the goals discussed included to review Staff Development guidelines and to reinstate the Staff Development Committee, to review and clarify contract and district language related to faculty and staff development (especially as related to flex obligations), to review the  guidelines for use of Staff Development funds, to work with faculty and staff in creating a professional development plan.  Clarification was asked concerning Staff Development Goal #6 regarding assessment.  Deb explained that this goal describes the need to assess the training needs of faculty and staff, and to ensure that Staff Development funds are distributed fairly among faculty and staff.  With a limited budget (25K), this will be a primary question.  There may be additional funds for Staff Development from other sources, such as Title III, however these funds are not available until October 1, 2005.

6. Strategies for Growing enrollment, particularly in Engineering - (I) Tull

a. Gary Mishra was not present to discuss Engineering.  Barbara Tull suggested we reschedule this item for a future meeting.

b. Heidi Story discussed recruitment strategies used by RT.  Faculty in the RT program went to different colleges and spoke to Science classes about the RT program.  They also spoke to Counselors at other community colleges, and attended the Career Day at Newark Memorial High School. 

c. Chris Warden mentioned the High School Theater Festival, which brings around 700 high school students to Ohlone campus, but this may not be leading to the enrollment the Theater Department would like.

d. Question was raised where are students going, particularly those students who apply and do not attend Ohlone, and those who drop out?  The high cost of textbooks was mentioned as a possible reason students are not attending classes.  Ron Travenick mentioned that he is conducting a survey through Survey Monkey to find the answers to these very questions.  He has had a good response so far.

e. Jim Wright mentioned that all colleges are experiencing a decrease in enrollment.  He mentioned long-term strategies for enrollment growth at Ohlone, including the condensed calendar, the Alliant partnership, and an Ohlone "high school" in which high school seniors attend Ohlone College to complete their senior year.  All of these can be implemented as soon as 2006-2007.  Short-term strategies to grow enrollment could include recruiting our own students.  For example, faculty in disciplines with low-enrollment could visit Ohlone English classes to discuss their program.  Jim encouraged faculty to form cohorts such as University Express.

f. Alan mentioned that low enrollment is a natural result of a strong economy, which is what we are currently seeing. 

7. President's Report - (I) Tull

a.   Barbara Tull and Jim Wright are setting up a meeting with Alliant University on Tuesday, September 27 at 3:30 p.m..  The meeting will be to discuss how our classes will work together to offer a four-year degree.  Alliant University will be offering years 3 & 4 of a baccalaureate program on our campus.  This program could be a good magnet, particularly for international students, as Alliant has campuses worldwide.  Senators are encouraged to attend this meeting. 

b.   WASC needs faculty to serve on accreditation teams.  If interested, faculty need to send in an application letter by September 30, 2005.  If interested, contact Barbara Tull.

c.   Barbara Tull is on the Statewide Academic Senate Committee on the Statewide Senate and will be attending an all day meeting on September 17, 2005.

8. Compressed Calendar (I/A) Tull

a.   Senators shared constituency responses re: three items presented at the last meeting, including Finals Week, Spring Break, and 15- vs. 16-week calendar.  The responses were as follows:

Bain - constituents prefer 15-week, split on Finals Week, no on Spring Break but have an extended weekend.

Guptill - constituents prefer 15-week, split on Finals Week, split on Spring Break.

Kirshner - constituents prefer 16-week, yes on Finals Week, yes on Spring Break

Roberts - constituents prefer 15-week, tend toward yes on Finals Week, no on Spring Break but have an extended weekend

Pauliukonis - constituents prefer 16-week, yes on Finals Week, yes on Spring Break

Myers - constituents prefer 16-week, yes on Finals Week, yes on Spring Break

Grotegut - constituents prefer 15-week, split on Finals Week, yes on Spring Break

Strickler - constituents prefer 15-week, yes on Finals Week, split on Spring Break

Klopping - Librarians concerned about keeping10-month contract if we go to compressed calendar, Finals should be up to Faculty, yes on Spring Break

Loukianoff - constituents split on 15- or 16-week, yes on Finals Week, yes on Spring Break

Sutowski - constituents prefer 15-week, no on Finals Week, split on Spring Break

Story - constituents prefer 16-week, yes on Finals Week, yes on Spring Break

Segraves - constituents split between 15- and 16-week, yes on Finals Week, yes on Spring Break

Tull - constituents split between 15- and 16-week, split on Finals Week, yes on Spring Break

b.  The responses of constituents are inconclusive.  The suggestion was made that faculty need actually to see a draft of the proposed calendars to understand the implications of what we are discussing. 

c.  Question was raised about whether actually holding a Final during Finals week is optional.  It is not optional.  Finals week counts as instructional time, and faculty are obligated to hold a final during this time if scheduled.  There seems to be a discrepancy among faculty about how finals are conducted at Ohlone College.  It was mentioned that faculty who do not want to hold a final during Finals Week could simply teach during that time.  Bunny mentioned that she would rather have an additional week of instruction with her students than teach during Finals Week, as during Finals Week she only gets two hours of class time, whereas in an instructional week she has five hours of class time.   It was suggested that this issue be discussed separately from the discussion regarding the compressed calendar.

d.  Although there were differences in opinion, since enough faculty seem to want to keep Spring Break and Finals Week, perhaps it would be best to keep these two features in the new calendar.

Motion:  1) To send faculty a 15-week and a 16-week calendar including Spring Break and 2) To send faculty a 15-week and a 16-week calendar including Finals Week (M) Kirshner (S) Bain.  Approved with one opposition.

d.  Trimester schedule was mentioned as being the preferred schedule by students.  We could have three 15-week trimesters at some point in the future if we adopted the 15-week schedule.

e.  Faculty need to have another information forum before we can vote on the two calendars as described in the motion above.  At the information forum, we should present pros and cons for each option, then faculty will vote.  Pros and cons should also be made available after the information forum.

Meeting adjourned at 4:50  p.m. (M) Kirshner.

Senators for 2005 - 2006

Building 1 & 5                                                Bunny Klopping

Building 2 & Hyman Hall                               Kay Harrison - Committees Chair                 

Building 4 & Smith Center                             Teresa Sutowski                     

Building 6 & 7                                                Marge Segraves

Building 8                                                       Carolyn Strickler         Rep to CCLC

Building 9 & NOC                                         vacant                                     

Counseling and LR&IT                                  Susan Myers                Secretary

Deaf Studies & Special Services                    Nancy Pauliukonis     

Exercise Science & Wellness                          Lottie Bain                  Treasurer

Fine Arts, Business, & Broadcasting              Janel Tomblin-Brown (Fall)/Tim Roberts (Spring)

Health Sciences                                               Heidi Story

Lang. Arts & Soc. Sci. (English & ESL)        Barbara Tull                President

Lang. Arts & Soc. Sci. (other depts.)             Alan Kirshner

Math, Sci., & Tech. (ASTR, BIOL, BIOT,

            CAOT, CHEM, CS, & PHYS)           Richard Grotegut

Math, Sci., & Tech. (other depts.)                  Victoria Loukianoff