Draft Faculty Senate Minutes
Thursday, February 4, 2011
3:15 PM to 5:00 PM, Gwynn Room, A 221
In attendance: (President) Mike Gavin, (Vice President) Rosanne Benn; (delegates) Scott Huxel
– Math; Kathi Linville – Nursing; Danny Jones – At-large; Sadra Thomas – Learning
Foundations; Len Sekelick – Liberal Arts; Laura Ellsworth – Public Safety and Law; Sherry
Kinslow – Social Sciences; Janet Carlson – Learning Foundations; Michelle Klein –
STEM/Sciences and Engineering; Darlene Antezana – Liberal Arts; Eldon Baldwin – At-large;
Beth Adkins – Student Development Services; Alan Mickelson – At-large. Also in attendance:
Gamit Ciarbon – Learning Foundations.

The meeting was called to order at 3:21 pm.

The agenda was approved along with the Minutes of the 12/2/10 meeting.

Darlene Antezana requested a list of the openings for the Faculty Senate Elections. Mike
Gavin said that he would send the openings to Antezana.

Reports:
A. Senate President
Gavin spoke about having attended several meetings in recent weeks. As an information item,
Gavin said that we do have emergency procedures in place and that this emergency information
is on the College’s portal.
Gavin also spoke about an e-mail related to snow closings and indicated that a number of faculty
were charged leave for an entire day of absence if they missed any class at all when the College
was open for only part of the day. Gavin noted that Dr. Sandy Dunnington has been very helpful
about issues related to leave. Janet Carlson mentioned that some adjunct faculty are not going to
be paid for when the College was closed. Sherry Kinslow expressed concerns about
inconsistencies related to the need to make up missed classes or not to do so. This is especially
difficult when a missed class is only a once-a-week class. Kinslow called for the creation of a
policy. Kathi Linville pointed out that it would be important to talk to faculty about how to
approach this issue. Kinslow noted that she used BlackBoard as a means to be in touch with
students about work/assignments when her class did not meet. Rosanne Benn and Antezena
clarified that the extended semester from last year’s snow closings had to do with MHEC. Laura
Ellsworth pointed out that there should be options available such as making up a class using
BlackBoard, etc. Carlson noted that facilities were ready to open at noon during the recent
school closing. Gavin spoke of an inability of some students who rely on public transportation to
get to and from campus. Gavin noted that some students were forced to wait outside in the cold
and not allowed to enter buildings on campus. Gavin asked what he should convey to Drs.
Dukes and Dunnington about weather delays and closings. Ellsworth said that any policy for a
late arrival should make clear what time faculty will be allowed admittance, noting that campus
police denied entry into the College to a faculty member who showed up prior to the official
opening time. Kinslow and Carlson said that the parking lot and sidewalks need to be clear
before an official opening time. Ellsworth said that she spoke with Chief Walker, who pointed
out that safety and accountability issues are at play in making decisions about weather.
Alan Mickelson and Beth Adkins spoke about disruptive students. Adkins noted that she is on a
committee that allows for a database to be used for reporting and tracking disruptive students and
Andristine Robinson is doing a training related to this matter. The Senate expressed interest in
having a presentation on the topic, and Gavin said that he would make arrangements for such a
presentation to occur.
B. Senate Vice President
Rosanne Benn reported that the Salary and Benefits Committee met on Tuesday. The
Committee has obtained from Tom Knapp a list of 144 entries for rank, salary, and length of
service for faculty. The Hendricks report was done on the basis of 220 individuals. Benn said
that she wants to obtain a more complete list and expects to be in touch with Knapp to indicate
that the faculty believes that any salary increment should be distributed according to the control
points established.
Carlson spoke of the erosion of benefits. Danny Jones spoke of some possibilities that have
come up such as the doubling of premiums to maintain the same benefits. Jones talked about the
impact of the lower stock market on retirement and benefits issues.
Benn also indicated that it is difficult to get straight answers related to state retirement, such as
what will benefits be if someone takes survivor benefits. Benn noted that the answer was “it
depends.” There are a lot of “I don’t knows” on this issue and related to others such as sick
leave. Gavin asked if the committee talked about hiring issues. Benn referred to having spoken
to Laurie Cunningham related to using a new software application for the hiring process. At this
point, no changes have been made as yet.
C. College-wide Forum
Ellsworth noted that the CWF met on Tuesday and that this was the first meeting of the year.
There were some information items. The social media/networking policy should be on the
portal. Ellsworth noted that Joe Rossmeier said that comments could be sent to him. The Board
is to vote on the policy at their meeting next month. Dr. Dukes signed the smoking policy that
did not choose a non-smoking campus. Ellsworth said that Dukes has asked for a short-term
committee to decide how to put the policy into effect, such as distances related to smoking areas,
locations, etc. Ellsworth indicated that Dukes also spoke on the concept of “completion,” much
the same as she did during the academic affairs meeting. The next meeting will be 3/1/2011.
Alan Mickelson asked if “completion” means only degrees. Ellsworth said that this is currently
the case. Gavin said that there is an interest in changing this and that it is being worked on.
Gavin pointed out that the Undersecretary of Education of the United States believes that transfer
and certificate completion should also for students to be grouped under the “completion”
category.
Scott Huxle noted that the completion revision committee, of which he is a member, is under the
impression that successful transfer and certificate completion will count as “completion.”
Winslow asked whose definition is being used. Gavin and Ellsworth pointed out that MHEC’s
definition is being used at present, and that this is not good for the College.
G. Chairs’ Council
Ellsworth noted that Scott Sinex called for the need to have a policy for exam week cancellations
since the Thursday cancellation of exams from this past semester causing the exam makeup day
to be on Saturday did not work so well. Ellsworth also indicated that Dunnington spoke of
having a “C” in prerequisite courses. For future discussion, the number of hours of required
instruction will come up. Huxle asked if there was any discussion of prerequisite courses and
how they are handled by Colleague. Huxle added that this has caused some problems with
needing to remove students that have not met their prerequisites. Gavin expressed that there are
problems with Colleague. Ellsworth said that information on grading timelines has also been
released. It is necessary to enter grades for weekender classes within two weeks of the last class
meeting, and for classes that meet and end before the semester ends. Mickelson made a motion
that Gavin write a letter to Dr. Dukes related to problems with prerequisites and Colleague. The
motion passed unanimously. Kinslow asked if we have a running total of how much Colleague
is actually costing us. Huxel replied that it is certainly costing more than 10 million dollars,
[which was the amount forecast]. Eldon Baldwin indicated that Colleague was chosen at the
College and that frustration with any technology of this sort is to be expected. Baldwin noted
that if you do something in the way Colleague does it, it works fine. Colleague is very inflexible
in ways that we have chosen to be flexible. If we used specific dates for everything, Colleague
would work better for the College. Also, some fixes create new problems.
H. Adjunct Faculty
Carlson announced that the adjunct dinner will be on 3/31/2011. There will be one adjunct in
attendance from each department. “Guide on the Side” will be the topic. The speaker has not
been confirmed yet, but Carlson and Mickelson will send out invitations for about 25 to attend.

Old Business
Mickelson asked whether the comments about allowing a faculty member who takes an
administration position to retain tenure can be put in writing. Gavin said that he is
awaiting a written policy from Dr. Dunnington.
Benn spoke about the travel reimbursement of $0.51 a mile for traveling at the College’s
behest from one College campus to another such, as between Largo and UTC, on the
same day. A discussion ensued about getting reimbursed for travel between campuses.

Agenda Items for Upcoming Meetings
Regarding Promotion and Tenure, the proposed changes note that a Promotion or Tenure
portfolio that is rejected at the Division-wide Committee will not go to the vice president.
Mark Hubley and Sandy Dunnington are working on this policy. This has to be on the
Board’s agenda in March, 2011 in order for it to be approved in April, 2011. Baldwin
asked if this would go through a referendum. Gavin said that the rest of the motion was
voted on last year and that the only sticking point was this change. Baldwin asked if this
one issue is the only one that would be up for consideration, and Gavin replied that this is
his impression.
Related to assessment, Gavin noted that the new assessment process would be a lot of
work for faculty. After grading, a second grading would need to be done with rubrics and
entered into a database in BlackBoard. This will be a lot of work. Gavin encouraged
faculty to reply to Allen Richman when the e-mail goes out with information on this
assessment information. Richman will be at a Faculty Senate meeting to discuss this
matter. Antezana pointed out that departments should be coming up with rubrics and
ways of assessing. Gavin underscored that once this process in underway, it will be the
law of the land. Gavin encouraged faculty to become engaged in this process.

The meeting adjourned at 4:28 pm.