Faculty Council

Minutes – 1/19/06

Attending: Kathleen Perri, Rose Watson, Amy Bosley, Tom Byrnes, Graeme Lindbeck, Brian Macon, Debbie Garrison, James Leonard, Joel Berman, Marlene Temes (sub for Jackie DiMartino), Deidre Holmes Dubois, Chris Borglum, Marie McClendon, Terry Long, Lana Powell, Joan Alexander, and David Rogers (guest).

Jean Marie Fuhrman was absent because she had to teach a class.

Minutes

The December minutes were approved as read with one modification.

Tent Cards

The Faculty Council agreed on the principles stated on the back of the tent cards and will follow these rules in Council meetings accordingly.

Curriculum Committee - Three alternates were selected as follows:

· Paul Chapman (Humanities, Osceola)

· Marlene Temes (Humanities & Foreign Language, Osceola)

· Andrew Downey (Fine Arts, East)

Faculty Council Secretary

Debbie Garrison volunteered to be the Secretary for the spring term. All were in favor. This position will be elected at the same time as other officer positions in May.

Compensation

The Compensation Implementation task Force has been meeting monthly. They asked for direction from Faculty Council on two pending issues:

(1) Step 30 - Council members discussed how the Step 30 rules should be interpreted. A poll (by hand) was taken and 10 people indicated that their understanding of the plan was that it ended at 30 years, 3 people indicated that their understanding was that the plan would continue past 30 with additional steps.

(2) Credit for experience - The Council agreed that they are comfortable with reviewing the current policy with the possibility of allowing some credit for related experience although probably not on a one-to-one basis.

Faculty Representation

The Council agreed to accept a proposal to increase the total number of faculty represented on the College Learning Council to a total of six. There will now be an opportunity for a faculty representative from each campus. A call will go out in February for volunteers. The Council agreed that if they do not get any nominations from a campus, two representatives from another campus will be selected to keep the number at 6. The Council also requested that teleconferencing or another type of distance meeting take place.

Leadership Valencia

The Council agreed that they prefer that Leadership Valencia continue with faculty representation as they do currently.

Routine Governance Review

A routine governance review will take place in February. The Council agreed to participate in the review process. This will not affect the purpose of Faculty Council, but it may help us establish accomplishments and goals.

Insurance for Domestic Partners

Tom Byrnes distributed research. The Council unanimously agreed that the College should investigate this option.

Instructor Contracts

It is the consensus of all at the college that four month faculty contracts are overused. Dr. Shugart wishes to convert most 4 month positions to 12 month 6-6-0-0 contracts. 4 month positions should only be utilized on an emergency basis. The Council requested that Amy research whether 12 month 6-6-0-0 positions are a permanent or temporary solution.

Legal Issues Forums/Conference

Amy requested that anyone interested in attending the conference or pre-session email her. The conference runs January 29-31, 2006.

Forums are continuing as scheduled.

Strategic Budget Initiatives

Amy shared with the Council the purpose of these funds. Application are now being accepted. Training sessions have begun. The deadline for abstracts is February 24. The needed forms are posted online.

Endowed Chairs for Learning Leaders

Task force has recommended changes, some have been made. Three workshops are scheduled in February for anyone interested in applying.

Sabbaticals

Six applications were received. The schedule is behind. Amy alerted faculty that they will see a call for sabbaticals for next year in the near future.

Campus Reports

All campuses, except East, had no additional comments. East had two issues. 1. An overtly religious email, written by Paul Harvey, was forwarded college wide. This email offended non-Christian employees. Please remind all that Valencia e-mail should be work related. 2. The Honors Program student cap was raised to 20 students. Both faculty and the Honors Home Office were not aware of this policy change. The faculty asked for a response to the question, “How is this improving learning and how will we know?”

Hiring

Decision as to how many faculty positions we can expect were made on Tuesday. Look for announcement soon.

Sexual Harassment

Amy relayed that thesexual harassment policy will not be reviewed until the current issue is resolved. The Board of Trustees is hearing the case in February 2006.

Tom Byrnes distributed literature about the Weingarten Rule. This information applies to all faculty members.