Tuesday, March 13, 2012
3:00 PM
Faculty Resource Center Training Room, L116
Members: Nancy Schur, Tony Anderson, Sunita Lanka,Janet Pessagno,Millicent
Madrigal,Carol Kimbrough, Steven Triano, Elsa Brisson ,MohammedHussain
Absentees:MarkWeber,JenniferFellguth,Chriss Moss,Bob Barminski.
Guests:CorolBogueFeinor,Jim Riley.
1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to orderat 3:04 pm by Sunita Lanka since
Tony and Nancy were on their way to the meeting.
2. Adopt Agenda: M/S/A
3. Approval of minutes 2/28/2012 : This was postponed to the next meeting .
4. Public Comments (non-Senators )Steven Triano read out the following
message from Liz Estrella and Hermelinda (non senators).
Considering this is an Administrative Support issue, and that we are currently under the 50%
rule (which means we are spending too much money outside of the classroom instead of inside
the classroom), and given the fact that we are currently very top heavy in administration, and
that sections must be cut the equivalent sections of 10-11 FT Faculty for the coming academic
year, I recommend that we do not write a resolution in support of the current structure.
Instead, we must leave it open to considering decreasing the number of administrators.
If the dean structure isn't decreased at this time it will mean that we will be further under the
50% rule then before or many CSEA members will be cut to balance our past problems and our
current cutting of sections.
Liz Estrella
Liz and Hermelinda were firm about not supporting the Dean structure.There were several
comments from the senators.Melissa sought clarification whether the reservations were against
the individuals or the dean structure -if the faculty were unhappy with the people holding the
positions or the structure.Carol Kimbrough felt the structure was working well. Millicent stated
that the senate should support faculty, and pass a resolution to have more counselors – she
was speaking not as a senator, but it was her public comment. It was decided to put this issue
up as a discussion item.
5. President’s Report: Deferred
6. Reports: Committees
7. Action items:
A. Appointments: Mohammed Hussain’spoint as a senate member
was M/S/A unanimously. (He Replaces Bob B. for his division)
B. College Catalog Board Policy: In Chris Moss’s absence Larry Adams
came forward to make the presentation. The recommendation to
delete this policy from the college catalogue was M/S/A unanimously
(Steve , Carol).
B. College Board Policy: Nancy said that she believed that one of the
senate’s goals was to move policies forward. What can the senate do
to achieve this? There were questions as to what was the status of
Shared governance. Clarity on this seemed to lacking with the
administrators too. The PPA committee ( now combined with the
SLOs committee) was performing well, so was the Emergency
Preparedness committee. It was necessary to have the FIS
representative be part of the committee. Jim Riley felt that clarity
was needed on who the members were and what constitutes a policy,
not merely the procedures to formulate it.The Senate should take the
lead to clarify this. Conversations on how we communicate were
needed. Carol’s suggestion to update information on the college
website – an overview of committees and the names of memberswas welcomed by the members.
1.Larry suggested that the senate could revisit delineation of
credit/noncredit courses.The motion was M/S/A (Carol, Tony).
2. Auditing and fees
5. Grade Change – These two policies (2 and 5) would stay as
discussion items.
3. Technical Vocational Education Class projects – tabled to the next
meeting.
4. Grading Symbols – BP 4230 – motion to move this to an action item
was M/S/A unanimously (Melissa ,Nancy).
C. Part- Time Faculty Evaluation Procedures:Elsa informed the senate
that the committee examined the existing policy , and also policies
followed by other colleges.Nancy wanted the Senate to recommend a
process.. Suggestions were made to maintain a uniform quality
control for larger as well as smaller departments.Full time faculty
evaluation process was already in motion.Elsa welcomed the
members to email her any suggestions they had, and this would be of
great help in formulating a policy.
D. Campus Stability by maintaining current deans: Melissa Staves’s
presentation at the Board meeting regarding this issue was
commended. The permanent positions for Deans that was supported
last year ended as Interim positions. Because of budget cuts, there are
concerns of elimination of the structure once again, as in 07/08 This
is because the budget cuts of 520 million planned for, may end up as
560 million in cuts. There has been much work done to recover from
the years of lack of personal resources, and structure over divisions.
One example is the back log of evaluations of faculty.
Revisiting the issue of replacing deans,Nancy questioned the
members as to where they desired to expend their energies. The
central concern was to help maintain stability in structure and the
deans were doing a remarkable job. Melissa commented that at this
point , the college needed things to calm down, and hold steady. For
example, did the faculty have the time to spare to function on hiring
committees for new deans especially since we will seat a new
President soon, who may, yet again, have a different vission. One year
was not sufficient to evaluate the impact of present dean structure.
The members believed that it would be wise to continue with the
present structure .The Academy would address any concerns, as
responsibility was also under the purview of the President.
8. Announcements: Elsa Brisson announced that the following day, between
10:30 and 12:30, at the student center, her nutrition students were celebrating
pie day, and the math club was having a pie throwing party.
9. Adjournment: 5:05 pm