March 28, 2006
East Campus
Attending: Joan Alexander, Linda Anthon, Joel Berman, Chris Borglum, Amy
Bosley, Tom Byrnes, Jackie DiMartino, Donna French, Debbie Garrison, James
Leonard, Terry Long, Sue Matthews (for Graeme Lindbeck), Brian Macon, Marie
McClendon, Kathleen Perri, Lana Powell, Bill Snider, Rose Watson
Minutes:
The February minutes were approved as read with minor grammatical
corrections to be e-mailed to Amy.
Appointments:
College Learning Council:
It was suggested that two alternates be appointed in addition to
the three faculty needed. The result was:
1. Susan Stone - 1 year representative - West Campus
2. Debbie Garrison - 2 year representative - East Campus
3. Melody Boeringer-Hartnup-2 year representative - Osceola
Campus
4. Alternates: Richard Gair (East Campus)
George Rausch (West Campus)
Curriculum Committee:
Carin Gordon was approved via email and has already attended one
meeting.
Common Course Outlines Planning Team:
The seven faculty who volunteered to serve were appointed to this
team. They are:
1. Philip Bishop, Humanities, East
2. Robert Gessner, Biology, West
3. Brian Macon, Math, West
4. Melody Boeringer-Hartnup, Science, Osceola
5. Shari Koopman, English, Osceola
6. Joe Bivins, Chemistry, East Campus
7. Kurt Ewen, Humanities, West Campus
Amy announced that a new timeline will be established and that
September will not be the deadline. Discussion took place about
the difficulty of having faculty vote on course outlines when criteria hasn't
been established. Faculty Council agreed that direction on what makes a
good course outline is needed. The Planning Team is charged with (1)
Setting a new time line, (2) Evaluating the tool, and (3) Setting
criteria.
Student Activity Budget Committee Appointments:
1. A. J. Quackenbush, Political Science, East Campus
2. Brian Macon, Math, West Campus
3. Chris Borglum, English, Winter Park Campus
Discussion Items:
Faculty Association President Elect and Secretary
Amy thanked Rose Watson who volunteered to serve as Faculty
Association President Elect.
The Secretary for Faculty Council will be elected in April.
Alternative Delivery Plan
Amy reported that the Learning Council has endorsed the
Alternative Delivery Plan. Angelique Smith's group is working on the
curriculum for training faculty to teach on-line courses.
Discussion followed concerning who would be required to take the
training. Would it be just faculty who are new to teaching on-line
courses or would all on-line faculty be required regardless of their experience
with on-line courses? Concerns expressed included whether there would be
definite requirements as to how one teaches an on-line course or if faculty
would be allowed to teach in a manner that works for their particular
course. It was agreed that there must be standards with respect to access
and support. It was mentioned that while Web CT is supported by the
college, there are other platforms that also work well. If another
platform is used, they could have a link to that platform within WebCT.
This could be helpful because so many students are already accustomed to using
WebCT and this would provide the comfort of going in through a familiar area.
It was mentioned that if a course is going to be called an
"on-line" course, that it must accommodate those students who cannot
come to campus. If on-campus orientation or testing is required, it
becomes a hybrid course. There was discussion about the requirement that
faculty respond to e-mails within 48 hours when they are only working five days
a week.
The final draft will come back to the Council for endorsement at
the April meeting.
Evaluation of Instruction Task Force
This has been a monumental task because each campus is handling
Evaluation of Instruction differently. Each campus also has different
scanners so it would be difficult to designate one particular scanner form
since each model scanner uses different forms. Fifty faculty members have
been invited to participate in a pilot of the new instrument. So far
about 25 have indicated an interest in participating. Gwen Davis,
Supervisor of the East Campus Word Processing Center, is working on making up
the Evaluation of Instruction packets to be distributed to the classes of those
instructors who are participating in this pilot.
Student Engagement Hours/Service to the Institution Report
Brian led this team and their report was sent to the
Council. The two main areas addressed were proper use of engagement hours
and documentation of missed work hours. Discussion took place concerning
Graduation Day and College Learning Day. These are termed
"in-service" days. When a non-teaching in-service day is missed
by a faculty member, does it count as seven hours or five hours? Chris
mentioned that auditing concerns impact this decision.
It was noted that different departments handle absences due to
illness differently. Some departments
count a seven-hour day that includes student engagement hours, and other
departments count only the number of classroom hours scheduled the day of absence.
The importance of consistency in handling absences from department to
department was mentioned. It was discussed that this could be
accomplished by adding a statement that if department meeting or virtual hours
are missed, an instructor may be docked for that number of hours.
The Council requested that Brian take it back to the committee for
minor additions and bring it back to the Council.
WF Grade
Renee Simpson has indicated that the WF grade is causing a
financial aid conflict and would like to eliminate that grade. Discussion
took place indicating that WF as a final grade means the student did not
complete the course and did not take the final exam. It appears that
enforcing the existing policy concerning F & WF grades should allow for
both grades to exist. If a student does not take the final exam,
they should not receive an F grade. If a student does take
the final they should not receive a WF. Amy will take this back to
Renee for further discussion.
Sabbatical Procedure Update
The Faculty Council recommended editing the procedure to include
that “the CLO's office will notify the applicant for a sabbatical that their
application has been received prior to the meeting of the committee.”
This would allow everyone to know that their application has, in fact, been
received in the CLO's office.
Academic Policy cluster review update
Bill Mullowney is in the process of reviewing the policy changes
recommended to determine that there are no conflicts. Amy asked for
suggestions on how to obtain faculty feedback on the changes. The idea of
Focus Groups was suggested. Amy expressed thanks to all who worked on
this project.
Alternative Contracts
Debbie Garrison suggested that a task force be named to look at
the possibility of alternative contracts to 5-5-2-0, 5-5-0-2, or 6-6-0-0.
The "5-5" requirement for fall and spring could be a problem for some
faculty, and the suggestion was made that the college look at a 4-4-2-2
option. It was suggested that it could be a good management tool that
could be used to help with retention of good experienced faculty and also would
help in creating a schedule that meets demand if enrollment is lower in the
fall or spring in a particular field. General consensus was that this
would be a good option. It was agreed that Faculty Council would take it
to the faculty to see who might be interested in working on this task
force.
6-6-0-0 Contracts
Amy shared the feedback she has received on this policy via
email. The group that is reviewing this policy has received the feedback
and will come back with a recommendation.
May Council Meeting Location
The May meeting will be at the Osceola Campus instead of the
Winter Park Campus. June's meeting will be at Winter Park.
Governance Review
Some on the College Learning Council expressed concern that
Faculty Council may be overlapping some of their work.
Compensation Implementation Team
The team met last Friday. Several decisions have been
made. The Plan was distributed to Council members, and Amy asked that the
Council look at the clarifications to be sure they approve of them.
Discussion took place on the revision of work experience for placement on the
salary schedule. The suggestion was made that adjunct teaching should be
incorporated in the 3 to 1 ratio. Further discussion included the
suggestion that high school teaching experience be counted as 2 to 1 experience
in order to be competitive in recruitment of faculty; however, consensus in the
discussion was agreeing to the 3 to 1 ratio.
Information Items:
District Board of Trustees:
Dr. Shugart updated the Board of Trustees at a financial workshop
and expressed to the Board that his priority is to give an average of 9% raise
to faculty. This is more than half of
what is needed to implement the faculty compensation plan. The reality,
however, is that the budget has not yet been set in Tallahassee. It was mentioned that the increase in utility
costs is hitting the college very hard.
West Campus Faculty Senate passed a resolution to send a letter to
Dr. Shugart and the Board of Trustees requesting that the compensation plan be
fully implemented this year. The West Campus Faculty Senate was seeking
Faculty Council's support in sending this to the President and the Board of
Trustees. Concern was expressed by Council members about sending it to
the Board of Trustees as it could be seen as faculty dictating to the
Board. The question was raised as to whether it should go to Dr. Shugart
since he has expressed his priority of a 9% raise. The feeling was that
the letter could backfire and not help at all. It appears that the
intention is that the Faculty Compensation Plan is going forward over the next
two years, and circumventing the President by going to the Board of Trustees
may upset some Board Members. Another major concern that was expressed
was that the West Campus Faculty Senate was sending this without West Campus
faculty seeing it. The College-wide Faculty Council agreed that they
would not endorse sending this letter. The feeling is that Dr. Shugart is
listening to faculty.
The Board of Trustees asked that Amy share their appreciation for
the work of Faculty Council.
Other
Question was raised about when the college will be having sexual
harassment training.
The meeting of the Faculty Council was adjourned at 5:02
p.m.