Faculty Senate Minutes
Thursday, November 15, 2007
3:15 PM to 5:00 PM, Chesapeake 105
1. Attendance: Please check-in on the attendance roster.
2. Review the Agenda for the 11/15/07 meeting.
Sandy Dunnington would not be able to attend the day’s meeting, and this item was struck from the new
business. A discussion of opening Senate meetings to the campus community was added to the new
business. The agenda was approved with these changes.
3. Review the Minutes of the 11/1/07 meeting.
A comment attributed to Laura Ellsworth was edited, as she was not at the 11/1 meeting. The minutes
were approved with that correction.
4. Calendar
Heidi Elam noted by E-mail that there is no 12/19 CWF meeting.
Fall 2007 important dates
A. College closed or no classes
i) College Enrichment Day, no classes, Tue. 10/30
ii) Thanksgiving Break, no classes, Wed. 11/21
iii) Thanksgiving Break, college closed, Thu. 11/22—Sun. 11/25
iv) Winter Break, college closed, Sat. 12/22—Sun. 1/6
B. Other important dates
i) Last day to withdraw from 15-week classes, Tue. 11/20
ii) Final exam week, Tue. 12/11—Mon. 12/17
iii) Grades due, Wed. 12/19 by 4:00 PM
November/December important dates
E. Senate meetings
i) Thu. 11/1, 3:15—5:00 PM, Chesapeake 105
ii) Thu. 11/15, 3:15—5:00 PM, Chesapeake 105
iii) Thu. 12/6, 3:15—5:00 PM, Chesapeake 105
F. Board of Trustees meetings
i) Thu. 11/8, 7:00 PM, Kent 262
ii) Thu. 12/13, 7:00 PM, Kent 262
G. College-wide Forum
i) Wed. 11/7, 2:00—4:00 PM, LSC Community Room B
ii) Wed. 11/21, 2:00—4:00 PM, LSC Community Room B
iii) Wed. 12/5, 2:00—4:00 PM, LSC Community Room B
5. Attachments
A. Minutes from the 10/18/07 meeting of the Faculty Senate
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6. Reports
A. Senate President
Mark Hubley met with Sandy Dunnington to discuss the Academic Council proposal. They are trying to
set up a meeting with Charlene Dukes, but she will not available until Monday after Thanksgiving.
Dunnington agreed that the proposal should go directly to Dukes, rather than the CWF, as this is primarily
an Academic Affairs issue. Barbara Sanders asked how academic regulations and standards will be
covered by the Academic Council? Hubley said he addressed a similar concern with Verna Teasdale.
She was concerned about the Senate giving up this committee. Hubley said he was not very concerned.
Key members of the Senate will sit on the Council, and there should be effective communication between
the Council and the Senate. Eldon Baldwin agreed that we need to encourage a strong relationship
between the Council and the Senate. Nicholas Plants asked for some examples of issues addressed by
Academic Regulations & Standards? Sanders cited the late registration policy and the number of times a
student may take class.
Greg Weiss suggested that issues that are of direct concern to the faculty should be addressed by the
faculty. Faculty should say what they need, and the rest of the college should support us; the Senate
should be in charge of academic issues. Hubley said that under the current system proposals are most
likely to go to the CWF. Getting rid of the Academic Regulations & Standards Committee won’t keep the
Senate from dealing with issues it wants to deal with. Furthermore, he expressed hope that the Council
will carry more clout than the Academic Regulations & Standards committee. Baldwin noted that either
the Senate or the Council may create an ad-hoc committee to deal with a specific issue. Alvin Parrish
asked what are the standing committees of the Senate? Hubley and others mentioned the Nominating
Committee, the Academic Regulations & Standards Committee, the Salary & Benefits Committee, and the
Adjunct Faculty Committee. Also included (and added as the minutes were edited) are the Professional
Development Committee and the Faculty Handbook and Bylaws Committee.
B. Senate Vice President
Swazette Young said she planned to convene a meeting of the Salary & Benefits Committee on Nov 28th
at 1:00 PM.
C. Academic Regulations and Standards Committee
Sanders said the committee met and reviewed Quality Matters. Hubley asked her to report on the basics.
Sanders said they discussed assessment of online courses. The timetable for assessment is rather
elaborate, and they want to have courses assessed more frequently. One goal of the program is to make
sure courses can be easily navigated by students. Baldwin mentioned that any proposal that comes out
of Academic Regulations and Standards should come through the Senate.
D. Representative from President’s Leadership Team
Baldwin provided members of the Senate with copies of the agenda for the Nov. 14 meeting and minutes
from the October 10 meeting. He briefly addressed some of the highlights, including student issues.
Hubley raised concerns about the level of advising/guidance that our students receive. He described how
the Program Mentoring Committee had compiled a list of 70 first-year, full-time students who expressed
an interest in biology-related fields. Only seven of them are currently enrolled in BIO 113, the firstsemester biology course that these students will need. The Department of Biological Sciences contacted
these students and invited them to an information session to give them some basic guidance. Weiss
mentioned similar problems in Business Management. The goal of the Program Mentoring system is to
provide as many students as possible with faculty mentors. However, with such a high student:faculty
ratio, how much can we do? Also, how can we give students better guidance in picking their firstsemester classes? Many may not register until very shortly before classes start. Sanders said that
admissions talks to many students who have no clue of what the curriculum codes mean, and they may
just be picking one more-or-less at random. Baldwin suggested that the Colleague system may bring
some improvements. Parrish expressed concerns with the quality of student advising, citing examples of
students taking Developmental English and English 101 concurrently. Charlie Thomas asked if a student
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taking 12 hours of developmental courses is considered full-time and eligible for financial aid. Sanders
said yes.
Hubley mentioned that it is a goal of the Program Mentoring Committee to involve all full-time faculty in
the mentoring program starting with the fall ’09 semester. Someone asked how that was decided.
Hubley said the committee was convened under Peter Battaglia, and it has been moving ahead with the
mentoring system. Hubley knows of no written policy in place; faculty currently participate on a volunteer
basis. Parrish asked if the faculty will have a say in whether or not, or how Program Mentoring proceeds.
Hubley said he thinks the basic idea of faculty acting as mentors/advisors makes sense (this is done at
most colleges), but the details (e.g., student:faculty ratio) raise some hurdles. Baldwin made a motion
that (1) the Program Mentoring Committee put information about this program on the web site, and (2)
that we ask Dunnington to address this issue when she meets with the Senate. Thomas asked how
many mentees would be given to each member of the full-time faculty? Hubley said there are about 2000
first-year, full-time students. With about 250 full-time faculty that means just under ten mentees per
mentor. Given current mentoring experience, it appears that less than half of them would regularly meet
with their mentors. Weiss made the point that we all already act as mentors in advising our students, and
we need to focus on our primary mission, which is to teach. Various members of the Senate said that
students who had been contacted about mentoring did not respond or did not understand the point of the
program, this was frustrating. Baldwin suggested there is a generation-gap in terms of communication—
students don’t communicate with letters. Maybe we need to be more creative with communications.
Hubley mentioned that when he started working at Washington College in the fall of 1996, all of his
students had college E-mail accounts and he could communicate with them via E-mail. Baldwin’s motion
was brought to a vote, and it passed unanimously.
E. Representative from the Academic Team
Laura Ellsworth said that the Academic Affairs office can provide the Senate with clerical help in updating
the faculty handbook. However, we need faculty to work on the actual revisions. Baldwin said that the
Handbook and Bylaws Committee had begun this task a few years ago, and we may be able to pick up
on that work, rather than starting from scratch.
F. College-wide Forum
i) Representative from Faculty Organization
ii) Human Resources Committee
iii) Budget Advisory Committee
Weiss referred to a presentation by Tom Knapp. The college is returning $1.5 million to the county, and
the state is cutting its budget. The college is projecting a budget of $96 million, and will be asking the
county for about $27 million. This county has the highest foreclosure rate in the state, and this is hurting
revenue.
iv) Campus Culture Committee
v) Learning Committee
vi) Technology Steering Committee
vii) Strategic Planning Committee
viii) Assessment Committee
ix) Facilities Committee
G. Chairs’ Council
H. Adjunct Faculty
I. Representative from the Student Governance Board
7. Old Business
A. Update from committees on faculty evaluations, disability, domestic partner benefits
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8. New Business
A. Discussion with Dr. Sandra Dunnington, Vice President of Academic Affairs
B. Open faculty Senate meetings
Hubley noted that Senate meetings are officially open to the entire faculty. The question has been raised,
can we change this policy to allow open meetings. Baldwin mentioned that Elam, the college’s pointperson on governance, expressed an interested in attending Senate meetings. Hubley said that the
Senate previously discussed opening meetings to the “campus community,” and this was viewed
favorably. Weiss suggested a motion to make such a change to the bylaws. Baldwin responded that
there is a specific procedure for changing the bylaws. Mickelson asked if there would be times when we
would want closed meetings. Weiss mentioned that the President of the FO can always invite people to
attend the meetings. A motion was made to convene the Bylaws committee to address this (and other)
issues. The motion passed unanimously.
9. Agenda Items for Upcoming Meetings
A. Attendance by Mike Gavin and Barbara Gage to discuss assessment; December 6
B. Other items.
10. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 5:10 PM.
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