FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Thursday, December 8, 2016, RH 245, 10:00AM
In attendance:
Meg Allan, Ann Barnes, Ed Eudy, Stacey Frank, Tonia Faulling, Tom Hiebel, Justin
Herndon, Bill Leverette, Timeko McFadden, Laura McClain, Mary Orem, Mourning
Pace, Richard Reeves, Julia B. Seligson,
Matthew Simon, Debbie Vance, Jonathan Warnock
Not in attendance. Gregg Corley, Penny Edwards, Paula Scales
Whitmire, Renee Turner,
Guests: Andrea Barnett, Melissa Blank, Amanda Blanton
Welcome and Agenda
Stacey Frank called the meeting to order at 10:01 AM.
Minutes of October 28, 2016
Minutes were distributed and approved via electronic
vote prior to this meeting.
Old Business
Meg reported that the issue related to required input
of the last date of attendance for online and hybrid students for the last week
of class has been resolved starting next semester (Spring 2017). After further research performed by Financial
Aid representatives, the government
indicated that the LDA for the last week of class could be the same as the last
scheduled class day for the semester. IT is working on a programming change
that will eliminate the need for manual input of the LDA during the final week
of class. These changes should be
reflected in the Attendance Memorandum that will distributed the first week of
classes for the spring semester.
New Business
Tom Hiebel reported on a
situation where a student was required to take a pre-requisite math course (MAT
102) due to posted test scores which the student had taken while in high school. The student in question had taken a higher
level math course while enrolled as dual enrollment student. When the student changed status to a full
time Bridge student, there was no requirement to retest and the student was
required to take MAT 102. There was
significant discussion about how this process works and whether or not additional
students could be effected. As a result,
three follow up items were proposed:
- Timeko McFadden, who is a member of an advising task force, will follow up with Bridge Program Director, Kristen Karasek, to determine if advising guidelines may need to be modified to address this situation.
- Andrea Barnett is heading up a “Multiple Measures” task force which is looking at additional measures that could be used for placement decisions outside of the actual test scores on placement tests. The dual enrollment situation will be added to the scope of this initiative.
- Tom Hiebel will determine if a report can be generated to identify former dual enrollment students who could also be impacted.
Committee Reports
- Strategic Initiatives-Classroom Design. Stacey is working on this project team and updated FS on its purpose and status. Stacey thinks that it is important to have as much faculty input as possible on how classrooms should be designed to best encourage student learning. Given the focus on HIP’s; classroom design and technology will need to adapt to accommodate collaborative learning. After discussing several alternatives that would encourage faculty to provide input, group consensus included two preferred methods; one, conduct focus group sessions (could be added to Professional Development schedule), and two, schedule a number of town hall meetings for faculty participation. Stacey thanked the group for their ideas and will follow up with scheduling.
- Calendar Committee. Meg reported that the committee has been working on documenting all of the considerations that influence our academic calendar. Committee members felt that it is important to communicate to all how this process works and why certain decisions are made. The committee finalized its recommended changes to the Academic Calendar Considerations document which will be updated and posted. Sharon Colcolough provided the TCTC holiday schedule for the years 2017 through 2020 which is also being added to the document. The committee further agreed that when scheduling decisions are made, such as moving a date on which a holiday will be recognized, the information will be communicated and highlighted. Meg will provide another update when the document is ready for posting. A committee meeting that was to be held in December was cancelled due to a conflict and will be rescheduled.
- Parking Committee: Tom Hiebel reported the long term parking committee will re-engage during the Spring semester
- Academic Leadership Team. Stacey reported that there were no updates from these team meetings but that there is a PAC meeting scheduled for Tuesday, December 13, 2016.
- New Portal Committee. Ann Barnes reported that IT organized a committee to find a replacement portal for eTC which will no longer be supported. There are a number of faculty and staff areas represented on the committee to ensure broad participation in identifying the best solution. IT has identified a possible replacement which the committee will assess. The goal is to have the new portal in place no later than fall 2017.
Next Meeting
The next meeting is
tentatively scheduled on Friday, January
27, 2017 at 1:00 PM. Stacey asked
senators to look at their schedules for the spring semester and let Meg know if
this conflicts with your schedules. If it does conflict be sure to provide Meg
with your availability.
With no further business
the meeting was adjourned at 11:14 AM.
Recorded by: Meg Allan, 12/8/2016
