Members Present: Susan Curtis, Deborah DeMino, Penny
Edwards, Stacey Frank, Pam Goodman, Som Linthicum, Jeremy McCracken, Robin
McFall, Michael Oates, Julia Seligson, James Walker, Gregg Westmoreland, Derek
Williams
Members Absent: Meredith Dickens, Mary Gibson, Justin
Herndon, Tracy Kilgore, Eleanor Leverette, Malisa Looney, Cynthia Swaney
Guests:
Presider: Mia Tensley
Welcome and Agenda: Mia called the meeting
to order at 12:30 pm and directed all in attendance to the agenda for the
meeting.
Standing Items:
1. Approval of minutes from March 119, 2019 – Robin
McFall
Robin referred everyone to the
minutes from the March 29 meeting and displayed the minutes for senators to review.
These minutes have been posted in the Teams folder for all to review. Robin
noted she had made the changes suggested by Penny Edwards and Pam Goodman and
had uploaded new documents in Teams to reflect those changes. She asked if
there were any changes other than those noted. There were no other changes. The
minutes were approved as posted.
Action to be taken as a result of
discussion, person(s) responsible, and timeline: Robin will submit the approved
minutes to the committee blogspot for posting and will upload the approved
minutes in the Faculty Senate Teams folder.
2.
Committee Updates – various senators
Mia asked for all senators who are members of other committees across
campus to give reports to keep everyone informed of happenings across the
College.
A.
AACC – Penny stated she had recently attended an AACC
meeting where certain issues were discussed that may apply here. However,
before she could say more, she needed to speak with Galen.
B.
Academic Calendar Committee – This committee has not
met since the last Faculty Senate meeting.
C.
Curriculum Committee – This committee has not met since
the last Faculty Senate meeting.
D.
Placement Committee – Julia Seligson reported the
committee has made changes to the placement chart. Specifically, the committee
added details about classes such as ENG 150 and MAT 150 for clarity.
E.
Service Excellence – No one from Faculty Senate is on
this group, so there is no one to report.
F.
21st Century Skills – Penny Edwards has
accepted the nomination as chair of this committee. The committee has
determined membership rotation for each division and is revising its project
charter. In addition, it is making plans for fall and spring professional
development activities. The committee is also working to add links in eTC to
the committee information and to the College-wide assessment rubrics.
G.
Physical Learning Environment Team—Stacey Frank and Som
Linthicum reported this team is looking at the possibility of having a
mechanism by which employees can review kind of technology and seating
possibilities are in a room before reserving it.
H.
Common Blackboard Shells – Arts and Sciences work is progressing
for summer implementation in online and hybrid sections taught by full-time
employees. Penny reiterated a statement from an earlier meeting that all shells
will be audited at some point.
I.
President's Advisory Council – Mia and Penny stated
that all members have now participated in consensus meetings, and each group
has received a summary of its work.
J.
Academic
Leadership – At the last meeting, KC Bryson presented the results of the
multiple measures pilot. The results were mixed. Another pilot will be held in
the fall 2019, but the wording will be different when the information is
presented to students. In addition, students will be invited to participate
before they create schedules, not after. Another issue addressed in ALT is the
Request to Exceed Maximum Credits form. Tasheka Johnson is pulling together a
group to revise the form and remove the need for department head and dean
signatures. The group will also look at revising the policy and procedure.
While Tasheka originally stated she wanted someone from Faculty Senate to serve
on this group, she has moved forward without a representative.
K.
Marianne Yohannan is putting together a faculty
development survey for faculty. This survey will allow faculty to give direct
input on offerings next year (speakers, sessions, book club, etc.).
Action to be taken as
a result of discussion, person(s) responsible, and timeline: All Senators
who are members of other committees will give updates at each Faculty Senate
meeting and will also share information from these committee reports with their
constituents.
3.
Division Updates – various senators
Mia asked senators from each division to provide any relevant updates for
Faculty Senate.
A.
Arts and Sciences – Stacey is the new Social Sciences
department head and will begin in that role on August 2.
B.
Business and Public Services – Pam reminded everyone of
the Jackye Kiser Murphy scholarship for Early Care and Education on Friday,
April 26 from 11-12. Everyone is invited. She also reminded everyone of the
information in the email Robin forwarded from Meredith concerning her students'
exit interviews.
C.
College Transitions – no updates
D.
Engineering and Industrial Technology – The new program
director for Industrial Engineering is Jason Poole.
E.
Health Education – Susan Curtis stated the division has
three finalists for the dean's position. Two are external candidates, and one
is internal. The division has been
invited to drop-in meetings with these candidates over the next week.
F.
Learning Commons – Som said there were no major updates.
He reminded everyone that as we near the end of the budget cycle, departments
will be contacted about needed materials. In addition, the LC is reviewing
evening hours for the summer semester.
Action
to be taken as a result of discussion, person(s) responsible, and timeline: Senators
from each division will give updates at each Faculty Senate meeting. Senators
should share the information from each division with constituents.
OLD BUSINESS:
1. Faculty Choice Scholarship
Mia
reminded everyone of the details she had shared information about this
scholarship via email and at the last meeting. The details are as follows:
·
First
donations to the scholarship date back to November of 2006. The first award of
$1,200 was made in October 2007.
·
Total
contributions to the scholarship since that time have amounted to $13,417. The
Foundation has awarded a total of $12,000 out of the fund, leaving a $1,417
balance.
·
Contributions
have all but halted. One faculty member is continuing to support this fund
through payroll deduction, which is $10 monthly.
·
The
Faculty Choice Award was funded by faculty, and in the past, it was an “elite”
type of award where students were “invited” to apply by a faculty member.
Once these students completed a paper application, Senate members (or a
subcommittee of Senate members) reviewed the applications and awarded the
scholarship using a rubric.
·
There
has not been a Faculty Choice Award made since FY2016. The reason for
this is, at that time, the balance in the scholarship was approximately $1,100,
and members of the Faculty Senate did not want to award this “elite”
scholarship until the fund balance reached $1,500, which is the maximum
scholarship award currently made through the Foundation.
Mia
then reminded Faculty Senate we need to decide what to do with this scholarship.
Possible options include the following:
1.
Establishing clear criteria that can be automated and continue with the current
levels of contribution
2.
Establishing clear criteria that can be automated and actively campaign to
increase contributions
3.
Establishing clear criteria that can be automated and award the scholarship one
final time.
Note:
The Foundation requires a minimum scholarship amount of $500. The maximum
amount is $1,500. The amount awarded was $1,200 for the Faculty Choice Award,
which, at that time, was the maximum award amount.
Senators
broke into small groups to discuss possibilities. After approximately 15
minutes, each group shared its results.
Group
1:
·
Keep
the scholarship
·
Have
a push every fall for advertising and fundraising (many faculty today know
nothing about this scholarship)
·
Faculty
Senate would determine the recipient. However, some of the criteria could be
automated to simplify selection process.
·
Criteria
o
Must have 3.5 GPA
minimum
o Must have completed a minimum of 12
hours at TCTC
o Must be enrolled in at least 6
hours to receive the scholarship
o Must submit letter or essay
concerning need (could be tied to FAFSA)
o Must participate in a face-to-face
or Skype interview
Group
2:
·
Keep
the scholarship
·
Focus
needs to be on student retention
·
Should
be awarded to a promising student, not an elite student
·
Faculty
will nominate promising students who have struggled and may need extra classes
to recover but is unable to pay for those classes
·
Each
division will submit one nominee. Then Faculty Senate decides which student.
Could possibly have several scholarships to award, not just one.
·
Offer
fund for summer term, but could also offer for spring
·
Market
heavily at the start of fall term through Senate President welcome newsletter,
LC 101, adjunct orientation, etc. Send reminders throughout the year. Include
link for making donations.
Group
3:
·
Keep
the scholarship
·
Advertise
in the fall at PD Day; have paper forms available for donations; have automated
deductions from payroll, lump sum payments, and more
·
Faculty
Senate would determine the recipient. However, some of the criteria could be
automated to simplify the selection process.
·
Criteria
o Must have 3.0 GPA minimum
o
Must have completed
a minimum of 24 hours at TCTC
o Must be a full-time student
o Must live in the tri-county areas
(Anderson, Pickens, Oconee counties)
o Must submit an essay stating
educational and career goals and how scholarship will be beneficial—more than
just "I need the money"
Mia
noted all three groups wanted to continue the scholarship and asked if everyone
agreed. Julia made a motion that we continue the scholarship. Robin seconded.
Jeremy asked what would happen if there is no money. Mia stated that is a real
concern, so we would need to change what is currently happening and determine a
way to raise the funds. Mia called for the vote. The motion passed unanimously.
Senators
had further discussion concerning the three options. Part of the discussion
involved what exactly we could do based on what the Foundation has asked of us
and how we can operate under the guidelines/processes the Foundation uses for
awarding scholarships. Robin suggested that we ask either Debbie Nelms or
Grayson Kelley to come to the next Senate meeting to speak with us. Many other
senators agreed. Mia stated she would ask, but it would all depend on their
availability.
Action
to be taken as a result of discussion, person(s) responsible, and timeline: Mia
will contact Debbie or Grayson to ask them to attend the meeting on May 2 and
include this item on the agenda for that meeting.
New
Business:
1.
Meeting dates for 2019-2020 - Mia
Mia presented tentative dates
for 2019-2020 Faculty Senate. Robin and Julia stated looked at the calendars
for fall 2019 and spring 2020 to try to avoid having a scheduled meeting before
a long weekend. After discussion, Senate voted to approve the following dates:
·
August 20
·
September 20
·
October 4
·
November 1
·
November 22
·
January 24
·
February 14
·
March 6
·
March 27
·
April 30 (Transition meeting, 10:30 am)
Action
to be taken as a result of discussion, person(s) responsible, and timeline: Mia
and Julia will share these dates with incoming senators and their department
heads to ensure senators will have teaching schedules that will accommodate the
meetings. NOTE: These dates will be reviewed once the official spring 2020
calendar is published.
2. Essential Takeaways
Pam Goodman reminded everyone
that the revised Constitution and Bylaws states one of the secretary's duties
is to create an "essential takeaways" list at the end of each
meeting, and this did not occur at the previous meeting. Robin stated she was
indeed correct and displayed a Word document to create the list. Senators
determined there were three keys items:
·
Agreement to
continue the Faculty Choice Scholarship
a. Created three possible recommendations
b. Will invite Debbie Nelms or Grayson Kelley come to May
2 meeting to discuss best solution
·
Determined
meeting dates for Faculty Senate for 2019-2020
·
Will receive a
faculty development survey to help shape content for workshops for 2019-2020.
This survey will come out in next two weeks or so.
Action
to be taken as a result of discussion, person(s) responsible, and timeline: Senators
will share these items with their constituents.
Adjournment
Jeremy made a motion to adjourn,
and Julia seconded. All approved. The meeting was adjourned at 1:56.
Respectfully submitted by Robin McFall
Next Meeting: Thursday,
May 2 at 10:30 in SSC 205
