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Minutes

Faculty Council Meeting

January 20    2:30 – 5:00 p.m.

Osceola 2-108

Present:  Ray Enger, Suzette Dohany, George Dow, Chris Borglum, Michael Shugg, Tom Byrnes, Dan Gutierrez, Kathleen Perri, Rose Watson, Amy Bosley, Sue Matthews, Joan Alexander, Geoffrey C. Fortunato, Tim Williams, Louise Pitts, Deidre Holmes DuBois, Marie McClendon, Debbie Garrison.

 

Action Items

A. Welcome and Introductions

Meeting started at 2:30 p.m.

Approval of December Minutes

Minutes approved with minor changes.

 

            Bookstore Work Group Appointments

                        East:     Joel Berman

                        Osc:      Deidre Holmes DuBois

                        West:   Terry Long

                        WPC:  Trudy McNair

A motion was made to accept all four candidates. The candidates were accepted.

 

            2+2/Distinguished Graduate Committee Appointments

                        East:    Alma Telleria

                        Osc:     Paul Chapman

                        West:   Marilyn Curall

                        WPC:  Selena Menchan

A motion was made to accept the full slate of candidates. Motion carried.

 

            Learning Day Planning Committee Appointments

                        East:    Debbie Garrison; Ed Szymanski

                        Osc:     Ray Enger

                        West:   Suzanne Lynch;

                        WPC:  Erin O’Brien; Jean Marie Fuhrman

A motion was made to accept the full slate of candidates. Motion carried.

 

            Calendar and Scheduling Committee Appointments

                        Mimi Sanderlin (Health-Related, West)

                        Neil Sebacher (Communications, West)

                        Laura Pollard (Mathematics, East)

                        Julia Ribley (Counseling,  West)

                        Abdul Zainulabdeen (Mathematics, East)

                        Scott Krise (Mathematics, West)

Jovan Trpovski (Political Science, East)

A motion was made to accept Professor Sebacher, Motion carried. It was brought up that we might need to have the second person be from East to balance it out. Also, it was brought up that discipline is very important as well.

 

Also, communication back to faculty is imperative. We need to know what is going on with the calendar and scheduling. Chris said he would make sure that the representatives understand that they must report back to us.

 

A motion was made to accept Professor Zainulabdeen. Motion carried.

                       

            Curriculum Committee Appointments

            Communications Alternate:  Marilyn Curall (West), Noelle Geiger

(West), Maiken  Murphy (East),

Clay Holliday (East)

                        Math Alternate:  Sylvana Vester (East)

                        Business Alternate:

A motion was made to accept Noelle Geiger. Motion carried.

Chris will ask again for volunteers for Math and Business alternates as Sylvana is not tenured yet.

 

Discussion Items

            Compensation Day

Final count was in low eighties for participation. There was good feedback, and the faculty made clear what issues were most important to them as the groups finalize their recommendations. The task forces have the feedback and will be meeting and crafting another iteration of their plans and then sending that out for more feedback.

 

            Faculty Council Retreat

On February 4th, you are all invited to come to the Sand Lake Center for the retreat. Let Amy know what you want for lunch and that you are coming.

 

Information Items

            Bookstore Improvements Memo

Todd Hunt is following up with ideas they had last fall. It was sent to the Provosts as well as us. Take a look at it

Question: are some students at all campuses waiting to get textbooks until after first class? There is rumor that this idea started at the bookstore. The committee can address this issue.

 

            SACS Follow-Up Report

Just oral information item. We have gotten letter from SACS saying that they are happy with our follow-up. That means we can relax for five years now.

            Adjunct Pay Delay

Adjuncts are not getting paid until Feb. 4th. A memo was sent out to adjunct faculty. We are not happy about it, and have been told that this won’t happen in the future. We have been told that a new electronic system should take of this problem. However, the faculty are not happy with how this is being handled.

 

            Zero-Step Adjustment

Right now, incoming people who have zero experience are being put at the step 1 and so are people with one year of experience. So now there is a step zero for new people. No one loses money, they are just being moved around to the newly named steps. So now we have a 31 step system.

 

            Work Team for Labs and Student Support Centers

The idea is to look at what works best and then to share it. The work team will have college-wide representation. Bill White will also be part of it. This is not an attempt to revise curriculum, but to take a look at improving support services.

 

A concern was noted that we must carefully be involved with and monitor this work to ensure that the curriculum or basic lab processes are not changed without faculty guidance/input.

 

Nick wrote a white paper and Chris will send it out to us, and also get Nick to come to our meeting.  And let’s get faculty included in the list of stakeholders.

           

Reports

Professional Development/Institutional Effectiveness Task Forces

 

Professional Development has meeting tomorrow. They will have to respond to Dr. Shugart’s comments and compensation day feedback.

 

Adjuncts are not part of this initial draft, but eventually they will be covered by later drafts. So despite the fact that people wanted their inclusion, this will not occur in the first draft. The first draft is for tenured and tenure-track people. Adjuncts will be handled in next go around. Perhaps plan could make sure that professional development opportunities would be open to adjuncts, so that they can move forward at least in that aspect? Yes the committee is looking at that.

 

It was brought up that the CLC does have a professional development proposal in the works for adjuncts; we just don’t know the details right now.

Campus Reports

            East     Testing center is requiring Valencia IDs. The concern is that the process for getting a Valencia ID is not secure. If it is being used in this fashion, it should be made more secure. Campus presidents should ask their testing center about their policy and then bring back feedback to next meeting.

 

                        Are we intending the IDs to become smartcards? If so, process needs to be made more secure and reliable.

 

Osceola  HR Web site, salary statement doesn’t clearly state that it is being implemented and is not actual yet. Why is HR still using social security numbers on forms instead of Valencia IDs? Chris will ask Stan about this. Blue Cross has now started using a number other than ssn, so why can’t we do that.

 

                        West   There were a number of concerns. Question and letter: were any faculty involved in the change in

                         procedures for the selection of the new VP of Institutional Research? Answer: to get qualified candidates

                         to apply, they changed the process only on contacting qualified people and asking  them to apply.

                        No procedure was changed. A new committee will be formed for the interview process. Tracy Edwards is \                   

                         directly going out to  find candidates as a part of “active recruitment”.

 

Also, Dr. Shugart has been asked to speak with the West senators and will be at the Feb. meeting to discuss the issue of the definition of “primus.” If you are interested, contact Sue. Does primus have veto power over committee’s work? The concern is that the primus may have such power.

 

                        Concern was expressed over low enrollment. Reasons were given that some West faculty did not believe.

                       Chris will look into this and get us actual numbers.

 

                        Also, the discrepancy of GPA calculation was brought up again. Chris will ask Tracy about it again.

                        Valencia calculates GPA differently from other institutions by including prep courses. This can work for

                        or against students depending on how you look at it.

 

 

            Winter Park  There was nothing to report.

 

 

Adjournment                       

Meeting adjourned at 4:31 p.m.

 

Next Meeting:  February 17 at East Campus in 3-113