In Attendance: Stacey
Frank, Mia Tensley, Mourning Pace, Andrea Barnett, Penny Edwards, Steve Gibson,
Justin Herndon, Mary Orem, Matt Simon, Deborah Vance, Jonathan Warnock, and
Sandra Williams
Not in Attendance:
Ashley Alvarez, Gregg Corely, Bruce Kalley, Bill Leverette, Laura
McClain, Meredith McClure, Rickey Morgan, and Julia Seligson
Guests: Galen Dehay
and Linda Jameison
Welcome and Agenda:
Stacey called the meeting to order at 12:02 pm.
Minutes of the October 27, 2017 meeting were distributed and
approved electronically prior to this meeting and have been posted to eTC.
Old Business:
Stacey Frank – The use of Office 365 is working well for
minutes but there will be a cutoff for corrections before the minutes are
approved, so everyone will see the corrections before approving. If there are any changes that are questioned
the matter will be brought back before the Senate at the next meeting.
Galen Dehay: Galen
brought back answers to several questions from Faculty Senate.
Placement
- Students are contacted multiple times
before and during the admission process and are told of developmental program
status and are encouraged to retest.
This is done at least 8 times before admission.
Tuition
reimbursement – School and state policy gives employees the ability to take
course work at Tri-County but not family members. Galen will be checking more into this.
Pay
distribution – Technical College system is not a lump sum agency. Not being a lump sum institution comes with
the benefit of not needing a state auditor to look at the dispersing of
funds. The institution is not allowed
(it is illegal) to withhold pay, we are a reimbursement agency. The solution is to use a banking institution
to do the same thing by setting aside a percentage of funds for future
use. Human resources will help with
setting this up. This would help with
the insurance concerns.
Academic
misconduct – Looking at eTC, there is a direct link to the Academic Integrity
Incident Report (AIIR) that runs in a program called Maxient(?). There is no reference to student
development. The Student Conduct and
Incident Report (SCIR) is a form that represents the State’s Student Code of
Conduct. There is no way to remove
anything from this code of conduct. If
someone were to choose this instead of the AIIR, the report would go to Scott
Jaeschke who would forward it to Anne Bryan, who would in turn go to the
faculty member that initiated the report. She would then inform them that it
was reported on the wrong form so they could resubmit the problem on the
correct form. The SCIR is used by the
technical divisions to report both academic and behavioral issues, in
particular health education. Linda
stated that the SCIR is on the message link in eTC so that anyone could use it,
including students. Reporting on the
wrong form has not been an issue so far.
To clarify the problem, Matt Simon stated his constituents were
concerned that reporting on the wrong form would conflate the behavioral issues
in student affairs with the academic issues in academic affairs. There was a concern that Scott would be
dealing with student academic concerns and that students may be confused by the
process. Galen stated that because this
has not been a problem in the past then there isn’t really a problem now. Only three people have access to the SCIR
form – Scott, Linda, and Galen. Anne is the only other one to see the AIIR.
There are 4 more issues that Galen is tackling in the coming
weeks; concerns about calendar committee, curriculum committee, adjunct
faculty, and tuition.
Penny Edwards: Asked a question about the circulated
professional development days survey. The questionnaire was confusing and maybe
misleading. No explanation was given
about what the purpose of the questionnaire was and it seems to separate
faculty and staff; which was not the intention. Additional discussion took
place and Senators agreed that Faculty Senate will send out a statement that
clarifies the purpose of the survey and to address staff concerns. Galen recommended that (1) future surveys be
sent to everyone, college wide, to avoid miscommunication, (2) talk to
individuals in charge of PD to determine the goal of the PD day, and (3) send a
statement explaining the last survey and to send out another. Steven’s constituency suggested that there be
a consecutive 2-day PD instead of one in fall and one in spring.
Stacey Frank:
Blackboard access for adjuncts - Adjuncts are given access
the first day of contract, which could be the first day of class. To get access earlier is a Human Resources
question; is there a procedure change?
Some instructors need to be able to access before the first day of
class.
Changes
to Bylaws and Constitution – Senate needs to be longer than 1 year, the time
frame is too short to make a difference.
Could possibly lose all Senators at one time. Every department has two members on Senate,
along with an adjunct and lecturer.
Curriculum
committee - A member of Senate needs to be
on the committee but the charter will have to be rewritten to include a
Senator. Also, it is a possible thought
that the Chair of the committee could be that Senator. Julie Seligson was
recommended for this position.
Placement
committee – Come up with questions to be compiled together by the December
1st. Email these directly to Andrea, as
they have a meeting on December 3rd that she can bring them to.
Calendar
committee – Calendar cycles every 7 years and Fall 2019 is the worst for
planning and coordinating all sessions, especially I and J. An Ad Hoc group from ALT (Academic Leadership
Team) is going to explore the calendar to find a solution.
New Business:
Mia
Tensley:
Online attendance:
There needs to be clarification of the online attendance policy. Right
now, it can be based on one assignment uploaded to Blackboard. Are students
understanding the policy that governs their attendance? Are the online attendance policies being
explained at advising and orientation? Can there be a disclaimer pop up during
registration that asks the students to click on a link that will explain the
policies/processes for online classes.
Stacey will ask Scott about this pop up. There are groups on campus
looking at the idea of technology orientation and proficiency. This problem could be solved there. College policy could be clarified to
recognize different terms and online.
Stacey is also taking this to ALT.
Committees:
ALT/PAC: They are
looking at strategic initiatives, what’s out there and what is needed to
complete them. Working with PAC to
finish those initiatives and creating the next 10-year vision. PAC and ALT are not working on new things for
the college to work on, but are finishing up what has been started in the last
3 years. Went from 6 or 7 broad
initiatives at the beginning of the 10-year process to now there are 4 with
very specific details. The 4 initiatives
are being completed by the people in those jobs and not by administration
telling someone to complete them. There
is a clear and identifiable culture shift where the standards and values match
across the college.
Room Design and Technology Standards strategic initiative is
having a meeting with furniture and technology people soon. Also, some went to Dell to look at
technology. The project is on track to have the sandbox class rooms up and
running for Fall 2018, one in Oconee Hall in OH116, one on Easley campus and
one on Anderson campus.
AACC: Penny will be attending a Future Leaders Institute in
December in Washington, DC. Webinars are
on hold.
TEE: They are in the
process of reviewing the past 3 years of the Noel Levitz Employee Data Survey
to find the areas with largest gaps between what employee's think is important
and those that they are dissatisfied.
Those areas will be the focus of their study first.
Our meeting dates for the next month will be December 13th,
from 9:30 to 11:30 am.
The motion to end the meeting was made at 1:51 by Deborah
Vance and seconded by Mary Orem.
