Tri-County
Technical College
Faculty Senate
Minutes
Meeting Date:
February 14, 2020
Location:
SSC 205
Time: 12:30
p.m.
Members Present:
Renet Bender, Richard Burton, Susan
Curtis, Deborah DeMino, Roxanna Ezenekwe, Pam Goodman, Amanda Karaganov, Som
Linthicum, Malisa Looney, Gerald Maxie, Jeremy McCracken, Jennifer Porter,
Foster Sims, Doug Stephens, Rhonda Whitten
Members Absent:
Meredith Dickens, Corey Evans, Jan
Gibbs, Mia Tensley, James Walker, Sharon Yarborough
Special Guest: Penny Edwards
Pam called the meeting to
order at 12:32pm. Jennifer Porter (HE)
was introduced as the new faculty at-large representative, and Sharon Yarbrough
(A&CF) was introduced in absentia as the new adjunct representative.
The Minutes from January 24th
were reviewed with minor amendments. Som
will edit and forward to Pam to post in TEAMS.
American Association of Community Colleges
(AACC) -- Overview & Update: Penny offered a brief history of TCTC’s
involvement with AACC, including the emergence of the inaugural Faculty
Advisory Council (FAC). Penny had served
for the past three terms as our TCTC representative to the FAC and has continue
to work with the Council at their behest.
The TCTC representative has served in the past as an at-large member of
Faculty Senate and continues to provide periodic updates to Faculty Senate and
serve as a conduit to the AACC.
AACC has recently developed a
Faculty Ambassador Program that seeks to establish a liaison role for each
member institution. Pam will serve as
our inaugural ambassador (term-length TBD).
Penny also reminded the group
of the AACC’s Competencies for Community
College Leaders. The Competencies
are designed to assist members as they develop their organizational leadership
skills, helping them to identify both areas of strength and areas of potential
growth and opportunity. Penny invited
all interested parties to attend the Faculty Leadership Academy as part of the
pre-conference activities at the upcoming AACC convention in March. The session will be facilitated by members of
the Faculty Advisory Council, including Penny.
A question was raised about
possible funding support beyond internal TCTC resources. Penny advised that a member of the Faculty
Advisory Council, as well as the new ambassador position, typically receive
strong funding support from AACC. Also
of note for others interested in attending the conference would be the faculty
rate, which offers a discount from the basic conference registration fee.
Som asked if the Competencies
might be a worthwhile resource to help guide our own burgeoning discussions of
faculty competencies at TCTC. Penny felt
that they could be helpful and reminded the group that the AACC document should
be available in the Faculty Senate’s TEAMS folder.
Request for IT and Construction Updates: Following up our earlier conversation, Pam
has reached out to both Ken Kopera and Luke VanWingerden for further
clarification. Luke will visit with
Faculty Senate during our March 6th meeting and share IT
updates. We hope to schedule Ken at a
later date.
Constituent Concerns:
Preparedness of Dual-Enrollment Students: Renet raised
constituent concerns about the relative college-readiness of dual-enrollment
students. Constituents have observed
that dual enrollment students seem to have inconsistent understandings and
expectations of college-level work and their responsibilities as students. It was noted that dual-enrollment students,
as well as many other students across the college, have not yet acquired the
skills to become self-regulated learners and are often reticent to seek support
until it’s too late. Others noted that
students don’t seem familiar with course management tools, like Blackboard, and
aren’t yet able to navigate digital tools, like Starfish, with confidence. As a possible solution, Renet suggested that
all incoming students – dual-enrollment or otherwise – would benefit from a
required College Skills course. Som
offered that the Learning Commons is also a strong resource for students of all
walks who need to sure up their “learning how to learn” skillset, mentioning
that Skillshops address precisely the sorts of co-curricular skills designed to
make students more effective and self-empowered learners. Som also mentioned that the Learning Commons
has been working with Katie Beeson to provide digital navigation workshops for
students as an extension of their orientation experience, but that any student
can make an appointment with a tutor to better acquaint themselves with digital
learning tools, like Blackboard. Malisa
suggested that incorporating that sort of training more intentionally into the
orientation experience would be helpful, particularly for dual-enrollment
students. Pam will reach out to Katie
Beeson and invite her to share her insights on how we’re currently addressing
dual-enrollment students in the orientation process.
Parking Concerns: Rhonda shared constituent concerns about
diminishing parking spaces in the face of impending campus construction, as
well as the organization and visibility of those spaces. Potential challenges might include ample or
accessible parking for those with accommodations, the ability for faculty
moving between campuses to find timely parking before class, and low visibility
for some parking spaces. Pam will reach
out to Chief Guess and invite him to share his thoughts on those concerns.
Committee Updates:
Academic Calendar Committee continues to work
on semester schedules with deadlines pending.
Curriculum Committee recently
distributed updates to the campus community including final approval for the
new Logistics & Supply Chain Certificate, the Vet 290 Senior Learning
Integration course, PKS 102 Introduction to Packaging Science course, and the PHY
200 Applied Physics for pre-pharmacy course.
21st C Skills Committee will host a
session on PD Day focusing on oral communication and digital literacy. A&S is assessing those two skills during
this academic year, with the other divisions taken them up in 2020-21. 21st C Skills is also lending
support to the Academic Design Charrettes, as well as the forthcoming Tech
Talks (March 11th) which will focus on written communication in
workplace settings.
The Faculty Choice SOAR Award sub-group met last week with Tammy Fiske and Michelle
Jacobson to help chart their course forward after some modest successes
building up the fund during the recent ConTribute campaign. The sub-group recommended that the Senate
continue moving forward with planning for the Award, but aim for a Spring/Summer
2021 target date to make the first grant.
The sub-group felt that it would be in the best interest of the award
process to take additional time to determine appropriate criteria for the
award, solidify the logistical process of nomination and selection, and to
further bolster the fund through additional fundraising over the next year – in
essence to be purposeful, deliberate, and intentional about the process, and
not feel rushed by the rapidly moving semester.
The group also asked the Senate to begin to consider other fundraising
possibilities as we continue to grow the fund.
The Faculty Competencies sub-group are hoping to begin formal work very soon,
aiming to complete their efforts by August 2020.
PAC will be moving
forward along parallel tracks as they begin to chart our new strategic
directions. Pam will be working with the
team focusing on “Fostering Learning & Collaboration.”
ALT has been devising a new definition for how the
college conceptualizes and tracks student success. According to the working definition as
currently proposed…
TCTC’s definition of student success is
completing a meaningful, high quality credential that leads to a
family-sustaining wage.
The initiative further stipulates…
The TCTC student experience creates the learning
environment that fosters completion and ignites transformation. The credential
may be earned at the college or at a 4-year university, based on the student’s
goals and potential.
Jeremy noted that this new working definition
appears to touch on some of the concerns recently raised in Senate relating
both to student employment expectations and their understanding of the
relationship between their degree and their marketability/employability.
A&S reported that the
recent career fair had been a success with strong interest garnered. A similar effort is underway to organize a
fair focusing on potential transfer students.
BPS will be hosting
their own career fair on March 25th.
The Business Technology Advisory Committee will also be hosting
Steps-to-Success on April 1st from 9am 12pm. The schedule, which will be finalized
shortly, will include several concurrent student-oriented sessions. Faculty are advised that, if they are willing
to release interested students during class times to attend a session, a ticket
of verification will be provided.
EIT reminded the
group of its ongoing efforts to merge and streamline its programs.
Health
Education
will host its spring Health Fair on February 26th. The fair will run concurrently on several
campuses -- Pendleton (1pm – 5pm), Easley (9am – 12pm), and Anderson (9am –
12pm). The fair will include a
student-driven poster session, as well as health related benefits like
blood-pressure checks.
SSE
- Learning Commons faculty
librarians are working on the migration to a new library management system –
Alma/Primo. The migration is occurring
in concert with other PASCAL colleges and universities across the state and
will provide us with a more robust information discovery and management
system. The LC is also piloting possible
tutor-led workshops to addressed points of frequent technical difficulty in
writing mechanics for many students. A
beta workshop will focus on the exigencies of commas and the frequent and
fixable errors made by many, many students.
The LC, in partnership with Academic Development and journal editor
Stacey Frank, will submit a proposal to host the 2021 South Carolina Conference
on Innovation in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. If the proposal is accepted, there may be
multiple opportunities to contribute to the effort and gain valuable experience
in conference organizing.
Pam
has marshalled the essential takeaways and will be distributing them to the
Senate membership.
All business completed for
the day, the meeting was adjourned at 1:35pm.
Next meeting:
March 6, 2020
