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Faculty Senate Meeting

May 16, 2007

3:30-5:00 pm

Room 5301

 

 

Senate Representatives Present: Susan Myers, Barbara Tull, Nancy Pauliukonis, Bunny Klopping

 

Others Present: Rob Smedfjeld, Terri Taskey, Yvette Nichols, Jeffrey Dean, Lenore Landavazo; Steve Osawa

 

1.      Announcements

 

Welcome Day will take place on August 21, 2007. The organizers have enough counselors helping, but are looking for instructional faculty to present information to new students. Faculty will be given a free T-shirt. This will be the week of Flex activities, and faculty will earn double flex credit.

 

2.      Approval of Minutes

 

Minutes approved as written.

 

 

3.      Program Discontinuance Procedures - Myers, Tull

 

Senators reviewed the revisions to the proposed Administrative Procedures in response to feedback from Carole McNamee-Cole (May 2nd meeting). Barbara Tull revised the procedures as per Carole’s recommendations, adding language regarding steps that the College and faculty should take to revitalize a program, indicating the need to differentiate between programs with declining enrollment and those that admit students only once a year, and adding the Curriculum Committee Chair to the task force.

 

Motion- Senate accepts the Proposed Administrative Procedures for Program Discontinuance with changes. (Tull)

Second: (Klopping)

Motion passed. (Loukianoff and Rodgers voting in absentia)

 

 

 

4.      News Media Policy – Myers

 

The News Media Policy will go to the Board on May 23. The Television and Radio broadcasts, and the Monitor Newspaper are instructional labs for instructional programs with content decided by faculty. The News Media Policy was written in response to the Board’s insistence that the TV station in particular is a public service and should respond to needs of the community. The three faculty members involved have been open and willing to respond to some requests, but developed this policy to clarify the roles of these instructional programs.

 

It is anticipated that there will be some resistance on the part of the Board to adopt this policy. Susan urges faculty to go to this board meeting, believing that more faculty in attendance may help Board understand that these programs are protected by academic freedom. Mark Lieu is unaware of this issue arising at other colleges. Barbara believes it is written in Ed. Code that content cannot be dictated by faculty, and is also unaware of other precedent.

 

Alan Kirshner (via Susan Myers) suggested that the policy should reference both the 1st and 14th amendments.

 

Motion: The Faculty Senate accepts the News Media Policy as amended. (Tull)

Second: (Klopping)

Motion Passed. (Loukianoff and Rodgers voting in absentia)

 

Motion: The Faculty Senate declares that it strongly supports this policy and urges the Board to approve it. (Tull)

Second: (Klopping)

Motion Passed. (Loukianoff and Rodgers voting in absentia)

 

 

5.      Proposed revisions to Faculty Handbook, section II.C. Myers

 

Proposed revisions to the faculty handbook were reviewed.

 

With the increasing number of items faculty are expected to include in their syllabi, the syllabi are becoming lengthy. It was suggested that wording be changed to encourage faculty to include these items and notify students how to access the information on the College website. Other changes included the removal of the term, “greensheet.”

 

There is precedent for faculty making changes to the faculty handbook. (Faculty altered the policy on final exams, stating that faculty could either give an exam or hold class during the final exam period.)

 

Motion: Faculty Senate accepts the changes to the Faculty Handbook (Klopping)

Second: (Tull)

Motion Passed. (Loukianoff and Rodgers voting in absentia)

6.      Campus police update– Steve Osawa

 

Chief Osawa spoke about several issues:

 

·         emergency evacuation maps will be re-installed and updated with an evacuation plan for each building; faculty are asked to go over the procedures with students during the first week of classes.

·         Chief Osawa has approached the administration regarding a means of alerting the campus of emergencies; he is asking the College to purchase a hotel/motel system whereby all phones on campus can be called at the same time. Digital sign boards will be used to alert deaf students and staff. The cafeteria and building one lobby will have large sign boards or LCD monitors. They will be instructed to, when light flashes, look at the sign board. The monitors would be specifically for the alert system, not other instructional purposes.

·         Currently the only warning system is fire alarms; depending upon the situation, they may not want the campus to evacuate, but to shelter in place.

 

There was discussion regarding the recent incident involving threats by a student. Jeff Dean expressed concern about the apparent lack of protection for faculty and students. Campus police was not present at the opening of a class in which the student was enrolled despite the request by faculty; the faculty member and students feared that the student would pose a danger if he were to appear at the class. When the Senate reconvenes in the fall, it will consider issuing a resolution asking to increase size of the campus police force. Perhaps the College should revisit the issue of arming campus police officers.

 

7.      Discussion of changes to Senate By-Laws -- Myers

 

  • Changes to by-laws and how this will affect faculty representation on the Governing Council in 2007-2008 were discussed. Faculty representation will be by discipline.
  • George Rodgers will leave the Senate next year. Bunny may also leave. Senators should put the word out to constituents, inviting faculty to volunteer to fill vacancies.
  • Barbara Tull- Senate president should not represent a particular division because she/he is representing the entire senate.

8.      Faculty Committee Assignments –Myers

 

  • Discussion of Senate role in committee assignments for 2007-2008
  • Unofficial committees should not be making policy according to ed. code. It is the Senate’s role to assign faculty to committees; administrators cannot hand-pick the faculty and form a committee that makes policy. The ed. code is strong about that.
  • Need a committee on committees to work on this-- to find out what committees are operating, who is on them, whose terms are continuing or expiring, make- up of the membership, and description of duties/role. It was suggested that the Student Learning Outcomes and Assessment Committee be added to the structure.
  • Susan will put together committee on committees in fall.