Tuesday, December 12, 2017

FACULTY SENATE MEETING MINUTES (11/17/17)

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.