Meeting Date: September 21, 2018, Location: SSC 205, Time: 12:30 p.m.
Members Present: Deborah DeMino, Meredith Dickens, Penny
Edwards, Stacey Frank, Mary Gibson, Pam Goodman, Justin Herndon, Tracy Kilgore,
Eleanor Leverette, Som Linthicum, Laura McClain, Jeremy McCracken, Robin
McFall, Richard Reeves, Julia Seligson, James Walker, Greg Westmoreland
Members Absent: Michael Oates, Cynthia Swaney, Derek
Williams
Guests: Scott Jaeschke, Luke VanWingerden
Presider: Mia Tensley
Welcome and Agenda: Mia called the meeting
to order at 12:35 pm and directed all in attendance to the agenda for the
meeting. She also stated that the minutes from the August 31 meeting had been
approved and sent to IT to post in the TCTC College Committees Blogspot which
can be accessed via the eTC portal, Employee tab.
New Business:
1. Introduction
of New Senators – Mia Tensley
Mia presented the
names of the new Senators and welcomed them to Faculty Senate. In addition, she
explained that a few candidates had not yet confirmed acceptance and she will
keep us up-to-date.
Action to be taken as a result of
discussion, person(s) responsible, and timeline: Mia Tensley will contact
those who have not yet confirmed and update Senate at the next meeting.
2.
Robert’s Rules of Order – Scott Jaeschke
Scott Jaeschke stated that he is
willing to serve as a temporary liaison for helping Faculty Senate understand
and follow Robert’s Rules of Order. He will simply be a resource on how to move
forward since the current Constitution and By-laws states that business will be
conducted following Robert’s Rules. He directed us to the information in
Article 6 and to the primer in our notebooks. He explained Robert’s Rules will
allow time to be used productively. For example, when a motion is on the table,
that is when discussion on the motion takes place, not at other times during
the meeting. He stressed the importance of time limits and said the presider
can set limits such as stating each speaker may have the floor for one minute.
If anyone feels we are not following Robert’s Rules, we should say, “Point of
Order, Madame President” and explain where we see a violation. In addition, if
someone is giving a presentation, we can ask questions and have “low-level
debate” before a motion occurs.
In response to being asked if he
is willing to stay on to serve in the role of Parliamentarian for Faculty
Senate, Scott stated while he will not serve in that role, he is willing to
assist through the fall semester and during that time train a senator for that
role. He stated we do not have to have that role delineated in the Constitution
and By-laws since we say we follow Robert’s Rules, which allows for such a
position.
After more discussion, Som
Linthicum made a motion that we add the role of Parliamentarian to Faculty
Senate. Jeremy McCracken seconded. Mia Tensley allotted five minutes for
further discussion. Pam Goodman asked if the floor was open for nominations or
for volunteers, and Mia responded it was for either. After further discussion,
Robin McFall asked Jeremy if he would be willing to serve in the role, and he
responded he would be.
Penny Edwards then asked if the
version of Robert’s Rules in our Faculty Senate notebook was a modified or
abridged version or just a shortened version. Scott stated there are two
versions of Robert’s Rules: the full version and a modified (shortened)
version. The chart in our notebooks is from the full version. For clarity, he
stated while that chart does not exist in that form in the book, the statements
are excerpted/extracted from the book in order to provide Senate with a quick,
at-a-glance overview. NOTE: The document in the notebook is the same one
Stacey Frank had previously disseminated to Faculty Senate at the end of the
spring 2018 semester.
Mia then called for the vote on Som’s motion
and stated it as follows: We will add the role of Parliamentarian to Faculty
Senate and have Scott Jaeschke train the person who serves in that role. By a
unanimous show of hands, the motion passed. A second vote was then held to
approve Jeremy McCracken as Parliamentarian. By a unanimous show of hands,
Jeremey was approved for the position.
Action to be taken as a result of discussion, person(s) responsible,
and timeline: Scott Jaeschke will work with Jeremy McCracken throughout the
fall semester to train in Robert’s Rules. Jeremy will begin to serve in the
role of Parliamentarian to help Senate stay on task during meetings.
New Business:
3.
Motion from April 20, 2018, meeting concerning the
proposed changes to the Constitution and By-Laws and Motion from August 31,
2018 meeting concerning review of recommended changes by current Senators – Mia
Tensley
Mia reviewed the meeting notes
from the April 20, 2018, meeting where a motion was made to postpone the vote
on the proposed changes until the fall semester in order to provide ample time
for review and faculty input. In addition, she reviewed the motion from the
August 31, 2018, meeting for current Senators to review the proposed changes to
the Constitution and By-Laws and bring any questions concerning the changes to
the full Senate where members of the previous ad-hoc committee will provide
responses so that the full Senate can come to a consensus about gathering
faculty input on the document.
Mia asked Laura McClain and Justin
Herndon, as members of that ad-hoc committee, if they would give an overview
and answer questions. Both stated they did not feel comfortable doing so since
it had been several months and were not confident they could provide a
full-fledged overview, they did not think they could handle rapid-fire
questions, but they were willing to take questions and then provide responses
to Senators via email. Laura also stated that many of the comments providing
justification for their recommendations were included in the document in the
comment balloons in the right-hand margin of the document.
Pam Goodman stated she noticed several
grammatical errors or places where words were missing. Justin responded Senators
could send him those corrections via email and he would make the changes.
Meredith Dickens made a motion
that we proceed in an orderly fashion with the questions, going page-by-page
and section-by-section. Som Linthicum seconded. By a show of hands, the motion
passed.
Questions posed to the ad-hoc group:
1.
What specifically was the assigned task of the ad-hoc
group in revising the Constitution and By-laws?
2.
When looking at “educational goals and related
challenges” in Article II, Section 1, can we not broaden that wording since
Faculty Senate looks at issues other than educational goals?
3.
Can we rewrite and include a preamble?
4.
Concerning Faculty Senate Eligibility, why must
full-time faculty have served at least one year of probationary status before
being eligible yet brand-new adjuncts and lecturers are immediately eligible?
5.
Why are elected terms now for two years?
6.
Why are term limits being changed?
7.
Why is a year defined differently at various places in
the document? In some places, it is listed as Jun1-May 31, yet in other places
it states “the academic year.” Why is there no consistency?
8.
Why do we have a distinction between lecturers and
adjuncts?
9.
Will adjuncts and lecturers report to their divisions
or to other adjuncts and lecturers?
10. What
is the specific hierarchy for adjuncts and lecturers on Faculty Senate?
11. What
specifically is the role of the past chair and the past vice chair and why do
both remain on Faculty Senate? Is the role simply to provide historical
context?
12. At
a time when we already have issues with getting faculty to serve, aren’t we
creating more limits by the statements under Duration of Service? We may be
creating internal conflicts and would limit access to Faculty Senate.
13. In
the By-laws, please clarify/sum up how Article I came about as this section
previously created much debate in the spring meetings.
14. How
was it determined what information goes in the Constitution and what
information goes in the By-laws?
At this point, we reached our time limit for this agenda item. We were
directed to send other questions directly to Justin and Laura. Laura made a
motion to use the Chat/Comments feature in Teams 365 so that everything can be
as transparent as possible. Justin seconded.
By a show of hands, the motion passed unanimously.
Action to be taken as a result of discussion, person(s) responsible,
and timeline: Laura McClain and Justin Herndon will answer questions posed
during the meeting and those added in Teams 365 before the next Faculty Senate
meeting. All Senators will be responsible for posting additional questions in
Teams 365.
Faculty Senate took a five-minute break from 1:27-1:32
4.
Motion Resolution Planning – Mia Tensley
Mia asked the Senate to break into
small groups based on divisions to discuss plans to gather input from
constituents. She stated she wanted divisions to determine how they planned to
share information and gather input to bring back to the full Senate. She
provided several questions to guide the discussion:
a.
What will be shared with/presented to constituents?
b.
How will it be shared?
c.
Will we create standardized questions/discussion items?
d.
What kinds of delivery formats should be used for
question/ discussion items?
The Senators from each division
met in small groups for approximately 10 minutes. Then, Mia asked each division
to present after discussion.
Arts and Sciences – will use a
multi-modal approach. For example, in disseminating and gathering input for the proposed
Constitution and By-laws, the representatives plan to email the two documents
(current and proposed C&B), attend department head meeting to share
information about overall plan, attend department meetings to answer
questions/gather input, use Survey Monkey to collect input/questions, hold
forums where faculty can drop in to discuss, etc. The division plans to have a
standardized message with specific questions to help facilitate discussion.
Business and Public Services –
since this division is smaller and consists of three departments, each
full-time representative will ask to be placed on the agenda for department
meetings which all full-time faculty are required to attend. Adjuncts are
always welcome at those meetings and are informed of date/time/location. Senators
will share the documents and answer questions/gather input. Meredith will work
with Public Services, and Pam will work with Business and with Computer
Technology. Meredith also discussed having electronic badges on email.
Note: During discussion about
their department meetings, Meredith asked when Senators could add items to the
Faculty Senate agenda because she has several issues from her department. She
also asked if we could make “Divisional Updates” a permanent agenda item,
similar to Committee Updates. Mia responded that all Senators can send her
items to place on the agenda, and we can indeed consider adding Divisional
Updates with Committee Updates so that we can keep everyone informed.
Comprehensive Studies – will have
Elizabeth Cox share documents via email. Then, Senators will post fliers with
statements such as “Have you checked your email? We need your input!” Mia stated she would see if Senate budget
could pay for such fliers.
Engineering and Industrial
Technology – one issue is that both Justin and Michael are on the Industrial
side of this division. However, they plan to send out an email with all
documents and ask for input via email as well. Because of teaching schedules,
various campuses, etc., it is difficult to have face-to-face department
meetings. However, faculty do tend to
“congregate to talk,” so they can gather information at that time.
Health Education – Laura was the sole
representative from this division. She plans to send the documents via email.
Then, the departments in the division hold meetings every two weeks, so she
will be able to collect input on issues at those meetings. She is hopeful a
senator to represent nursing will soon be in place. She also stated she feels
the perception of Senate has changed in the five years she has been a Senator.
Action to be taken as a result of discussion, person(s) responsible,
and timeline: 1. Senators from each division will determine the best
methods for disseminating Senate information and gathering input from
constituents. Senators are responsible for communicating with their respective
divisions. 2. Mia will add Divisional Updates to Committee Updates on the
agenda for future meetings. 3. Mia will find out if Faculty Senate has funds
that can pay for posters and let Senators know.
5.
FS Supported Initiatives Brainstorm – Mia Tensley
As the discussion on this item began, Penny Edwards began to make a
motion to have division representatives reconvene to discuss the topic.
However, Mia indicated she was not entertaining motions at this point since we
were out of time and had gone beyond the scope of the agenda for time limits.
Mia stated we would table this item to address at the next Faculty Senate
meeting in October.
At that point all agreed to extend time for discussion by 5 minutes
because there were still questions concerning Motion Resolution Planning. Pam
asked what division Senators needed to accomplish in order to meet the November
deadline to vote on the proposed changes to the Constitution. After some
discussion concerning whether the Constitution and By-laws should be in a
“final” form before taking to constituents, Laura made a motion to amend the
deadline and extend it to as long as needed for Senators to come to a consensus
on the “final” form and then meet with constituents. Pam seconded. By a
unanimous show of hands, the motion passed.
Mia then stated other items on the agenda would be tabled until the next
Faculty Senate Meeting.
She reminded everyone that the minutes would be posted in the Teams 365
portal by September 28 and asked everyone to review and recommend changes so
that Senate can vote to approve the minutes no later than October 5.
Action to be taken as a result of discussion, person(s) responsible,
and timeline: Mia will move agenda items not covered during this meeting to
the next regularly scheduled Faculty Senate meeting
6. Pam
made a motion to adjourn, and Julia seconded. The meeting was adjourned at
2:14.
Respectfully submitted by Robin McFall
Next Meeting: Friday,
October 12 at 12:30 in SSC 205
