Faculty Senate Minutes
Thursday, March 6, 2008
3:15 PM to 5:00 PM, Chesapeake 105
1. Attendance: Please check-in on the attendance roster.
2. Review the Agenda for the 3/6/08 meeting.
The agenda was approved as written.
3. Review the Minutes of the 2/21/08 meeting.
Alan Mickelson suggested a change under the section on the compensation study. The Committee in
question will recommend the vendor. The minutes were approved with this change. The 2/7 minutes
also were approved.
4. Calendar
Spring 2008 important dates
A. College closed or no classes
i) Presidents Day, no classes, Mon. 2/18
ii) Spring Break, college closed, Mon. 3/17—Sat. 3/22
B. Other important dates
i) Last day to withdraw from 15-week classes, Fri. 4/18
ii) Final exam week, Thu. 5/8—Wed. 5/14
iii) Grades due, Fri. 5/16 by 4:00 PM
iv) Commencement, Thu. 5/22
March/April important dates
E. Senate meetings
i) Thu. 3/6, 3:15—5:00 PM, Chesapeake 105
ii) Thu. 4/3, 3:15—5:00 PM, Chesapeake 105
iii) Thu. 4/17, 3:15—5:00 PM, Chesapeake 105
F. Board of Trustees meetings
i) Thu. 3/13, 7:00 PM, Kent 262
ii) Thu. 4/10, 7:00 PM, Kent 262
G. College-wide Forum
i) Wed. 3/5, 2:00—4:00 PM, LSC Community Room B
ii) Wed. 4/2, 2:00—4:00 PM, LSC Community Room B
iii) Wed. 4/16, 2:00—4:00 PM, LSC Community Room B
5. Attachments
A. Minutes from the 2/21 meeting.
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6. Reports
A. Senate President
Mark Hubley referred to the upcoming elections and asked if the representative to the President’s
Leadership Team should be on the ballot. The Senate agreed, but noted that this needs to be put into the
Bylaws.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Senate Vice President
Representative from President’s Leadership Team
Representative from the Academic Team
Enrollment Management Team
Cindy Gossage reported that a subcommittee is working on a plan to aggressively market some programs
that are showing strong potential for growth. These include public safety & law enforcement, hospitality,
emerging technologies, and teacher education. Marketing will push both credit and non-credit aspects.
This does not necessarily include “advertising.” Rather, this will include identifying “gatekeeper” high
school teachers, counselors, employers, etc. Funds will be used to create information packets, banners
for career fairs, etc. One goal of this plan is to develop a model that can easily be applied to other
programs in the future. The college has budgeted $30,000 for the current effort, and there will be
$60,000 available to market additional programs.
F. College-wide Forum
i) Representative from Faculty Organization
ii) Human Resources Committee
iii) Budget Advisory Committee
Mickelson reported on a PowerPoint presentation by Tom Knapp. After meeting with the county
executive, Knapp presented various budget scenarios. Recommendations include a tuition increase of $2
per credit hour. The proposed operating budget is $94 million, with approximately $34 million from the
county, $33 million from tuition, and $24 million from the state. However, there is considerable
uncertainty about the revenues. The committee seeks plans for reductions of up to $4 million.
Someone asked if the $2 tuition increase had been discussed and publicized. Eldon Baldwin said it was
voted on by the Board of Trustees. Hubley said he did not recall it being discussed at a Board meeting,
but this would not necessarily have caught his attention. Nicholas Plants suggested such a matter should
have been discussed at the CWF. Have people in Student Services been made aware of the change in
tuition? There was discussion of how to better disseminate information from Board meetings. Hubley
said that faculty already get e-mails about agendas, minutes, etc. and he didn’t think it would do much
good to send out more information. Those who want to know will read it. Barbara Sanders suggested
that the Board meeting minutes can be hard to find. Perhaps faculty can be sent a summary or list of
highlights.
iv) Campus Culture Committee
v) Learning Centered College Committee
The following report was submitted electronically:
The LCCC met this past February 14, 2008. (Co-Chairs: Dr. Yvette Snowden and Dr. Elaine Kass
Old Business:
Committee meetings are still down in attendance. This 2008, we have no student member; one of our
active members/co-secretaries has a teaching schedule during meeting times. Yvette and I are
determining which LCCC members are interested in and available to actively participate. During our
upcoming March meeting, we will discuss the possibility of rescheduling our meeting days to
accommodate our co-secretary’s teaching schedule.
Now that we have our LC goals and definition, we are planning to develop and communicate a strategy
for embedding Learning Centeredness into our college culture. We co-chairs are scheduled to meet with
Dr. Dunnington this Thursday to discuss the recent LC discussions all Instructional Area departments
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completed during the Faculty Professional Development Day, 1/22/08. Are similar LC discussions within
other constituency groups appropriate and beneficial?
Our committee is planning on modeling LC by communicating the adopted LC definition, and discussing
its relation to the various areas of our college community.
We plan to invite Tamela Hawley to a LCCC meeting to mentor and guide us with setting criteria for
measuring Learning Centeredness.
Two students are interested in joining our LCCC. Both gentlemen have completed the “Petition to Serve”
form. The LCCC has invited the students to attend our March meeting as guests, and our April meeting
as LCCC members.
New Business:
We plan to disseminate our working definition of LC in the upcoming Owl, and IQ. We’ll be review existing
college brochures and pamphlets for their inclusions of LC best practices. The first two areas will be the
Honors Program and the IEC.
vi) Technology Steering Committee
vii) Strategic Planning Committee
viii) Assessment Committee
ix) Facilities Committee
Rosanne Benn reported that the Beautification Subcommittee prepared a presentation on improving the
outdoor appearance of the college, including landscaping, entrances, and making the campus more
student friendly. Improving the entrances presents issues of money, but they suggested ideas that aren’t
expensive.
The committee plans to discuss the campus smoking policy and faculty/staff parking at the High Tech
building. At the meeting Jan Cort discussed hand sanitizers at the computing lab in Bladen Hall. They
are not getting much use. Hubley suggested that based on his knowledge of microbiology, they won’t do
much good unless everyone uses them and the policy is rigorously enforced.
There was discussion of the campus policy on food and drink in the classrooms. The current policy is
that food/drink are not allowed in classrooms. Facilities was considering signage at classrooms to this
effect. Hubley said he had already spoken with David Mosby to say that he would like faculty input on the
matter. Hubley presented the Senate with his opinion that the campus should have a very flexible policy
on food and drink. The problem is that this leads to messes in the classrooms. Hubley said that evening
students in particular might wish to have a snack or drink in class. Also, Hubley said that he thinks the
college should encourage seminars for staff and students and allow food and drink at these events.
However, it is certainly understandable that food and drink should be banned in certain classrooms, such
as science laboratories and computer labs. Mahbub Jamal said that he does not like students eating in
class, and that it can be distracting. He suggested that instructors should be able to make the call on
whether or not food/drink is allowed in class. Mickelson noted that Thompson makes a considerable
amount of money from the vending machines. Baldwin added that the only reason they run the cafeteria
is because they want the lucrative vending machine business. Hubley said he would attempt to attend
the next meeting of the Facilities Committee to discuss the points raised by the Senate. He would also
invite the chairs of the committee to attend a Senate meeting.
G. Chairs’ Council
H. Adjunct Faculty
I. Representative from the Student Governance Board
7. Old Business
A. Sabbatical leave proposal
Laura Ellsworth reported that the CWF discussed expanding the leave program to a broader range of
employees. Hubley noted that we certainly are not going to extend the program to all employees: Is the
college going to include adjunct faculty and custodial staff? Pam Caesar suggested that we should judge
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a leave application not according to the classification of the employee, but by the merit of the proposal.
This would be more in line with learning-centeredness.
B. Compensation study
Someone expressed concern about the inclusion of a request for a merit pay proposal in the statement of
work. What if the college has no money for raises? Does that mean that nobody has done meritorious
work? Sandy Dunnington said that she had been involved in three compensation studies, and the fact
that something is in the statement of work does not mean it will become college policy. Plants said it
would be more accurate for the statement of work to say that we want the consultant to “make
recommendations.”
C. Other old business?
Baldwin brought up a memo from Louis Renaud alerting STEM faculty to sign up for Colleague training
sessions. These sessions are to prepare us for printing rosters, submitting grades, etc. with the new
Colleague system. One concern was the limited options for training times, and there was also concern
about how this would work for adjunct faculty. Dunnington said she would look into the issue of times for
training sessions. Hubley wondered whether it was appropriate to do the training now, if this is meant to
prepare us to use the system in the fall semester. Wouldn’t it be more effective to teach closer to the time
when we would be putting the training into practice? Baldwin added that it appears we will not have
access to the necessary resources during the training sessions, which are scheduled shortly after spring
break.
8. New Business
A. Discussion with VP Dunnington
Dunnington said the Senior Team is looking at some reorganizations within the College, and they will
regroup on the matter after President Dukes’ return to campus.
B. Tuition benefits for retired faculty
C. Food, drink, and cell phones in classrooms
This matter was addressed previously.
D. Other new business?
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9. Agenda Items for Upcoming Meetings
A. Discussion with President Dukes?
B. Other items?
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10. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 5:30 PM.
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