COLLEGE COUNCIL
Meeting Minutes
September 16, 2013
Page 1
CALL TO ORDER:
Dr. Granados called the meeting to session at 2:02 pm
ATTENDEES
Present: Dr. Patricia Granados, Maria Correa, Doris Davenport, Dr. Michael Flaherty, Michael Garrity,
Pamela Perry, Donna Stadermann, Sam Tolia, Pat Zinga, Andrea Blaylock
Absent: Bill Justiz, Kay Frey, Virginia Cabasa-Hess, Dr. Quincy Martin
Functional Committee Chairs: Garry Abezetian, Dr. Michael Flaherty, Dr. Luisa Hernandez, Joe
Klinger
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The Minutes of the August 19, 2013 meeting were approved by unanimous voice vote.
REPORTS
JOINT FUNCTIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRS
Chair, Dr. Michael Flaherty informed the council that the committee chairs had not met but that
there had been some email exchanges. A lot of the chairs have changed and Dr. Flaherty informed
them that if there was any news that they needed to bring before the academic senate, it must be
submitted at least a week prior to the academic senate meeting.
FUNCTIONAL COMMITTEES
Student Affairs Functional Committee – Dr. Debbie Baness King addressed the Council on behalf of
Chair, Dr. Quincy Martin and announced that the committee met on September 5, 2013. The
committee committed to looking at enrollment task force initiatives, talking more about the
registration process and the ongoing discussion of student policies.
Human Resources Functional Committee – Chair, Joe Klinger, reported that the committee would be
meeting Thursday, September 19, 2013. The agenda consisted of discussing the New Employee
Orientation, that Human Resources has been working on in collaboration with Mary Jeans of the
Professional Development Center to make the information most beneficial. In addition the
committee planed to continue discussion on the Affordable Care Act as well as the continued
discussion and work on the succession plan.
Diversity Affairs Functional Committee – Chair, Dr. Luisa Hernandez, reported to the Council that
the committee held a meeting on September 12, 2013 and welcomed Allison Healy from CAAS as
the newest member. Attendance has been low at these meetings so the committee discussed
changing dates and times, specifically days of the week for these meetings. The decision was that the
meetings are held too close to College Council dates. In addition the committee discussed the Title V
Grant and how the institution can get some diversity training for faculty. We are also looking at
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Meeting Minutes
September 16, 2013
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using Triton resources and advice from staff and faculty to accomplish some of the College Council
FY 14 goals.
Business Services Functional Committee – Chair, Garry Abezetian, informed the Council that the
committee had met and has gained some new members. The discussion at the committee meeting
included various issues around campus such as parking and moving people around. We talked about
the new Ventra card for the CTA because the current transit pass cards sold at the institution are
going to be obsolete. Possible scenarios discussed included having the on-campus bookstore or bank
sell the Ventra card.
Dr. Granados urged the Council to communicate regarding the Return to Work Act. Joe Klinger
stated that there is a form regarding SURS that he has been working to update with the Vice
President of Business Services, and this form that gives information about earning limitations, etc.
Garry Abezetian stated that during the meeting held by Brenda Watkins, Public Relations Associate
in the Office of the President, there was confusion around when the Return to Work Act was
effective; Joe Klinger stated that he understood that the act to be effective now.
Academic Senate – Chair, Dr. Michael Flaherty, informed the Council that the committee had held
their first meeting of the academic year with nearly perfect attendance. Discussion included basic
duties of the senate and then went to the committee reports; the majority of the committees hadn’t
held meetings at this point but there was still some significant information shared. Also discussed
were degree requirements, training for faculty on picking textbooks appropriate for course
requirements, the development of a writing rubric sample that could be utilized across disciplines for
faculty who are having difficulty assigning and grading papers, guests coming to the Professional
Development Center in upcoming weeks, the new, more aggressive Retention Alert as a replacement
to the previously implemented Early Alert system, and finally the faculty workshop, which was
voted as outstanding.
OLD BUSINESS
ERP UPDATE
AVP Kevin Kennedy presented a brief ERP update that fall registration was done entirely through
Colleague and WebAdvisor. The institution didn’t fair very well in terms of enrollment numbers, but
there were some good aspects including the fact that the system never crashed and the institution
never experienced any “down” time. AVP Kennedy acknowledged that there were still a fair amount
of issues that need to be resolved before spring registration and stated that he hoped to do a little
debriefing with the Council. He asked if there was anything the Council saw as needing to be
resolved with a sense of urgency, prior to Spring registration. He added that he hoped to work with
Doris Davenport, TCSA President, to get a student-only cross session for debriefing, but also wanted
to specifically open this up to the Council.
Dr. Flaherty shared that through his experiences he observed a general feeling that the portal needs
to be easier to navigate so people don’t get so discouraged during their first time working with the
new system. He stated that he felt the portal wasn’t user friendly, with not enough text and relying
too heavily on clickable images. Other concerns Dr. Flaherty discussed included restriction classes
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Meeting Minutes
September 16, 2013
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not being clearly labeled; classroom location being described as a building letter, building name, and
then room number and students never seeing the building letter due to formatting; the withdrawal
process for students is actually taking longer than it did with the old system – about a week and a
half; the inability to send attachments to students through the system; and, currently there are too
many various logins required at the institution for all the separate systems such as Blackboard,
Colleague, etc.
Pat Zinga voiced great concerns about the automatic drop for nonpayment policy currently in use
with the new system. She thinks that registration would benefit from looking closely at the rules for
criteria that is currently used, and stated that the deferred payment plan for students who don’t have
the resources to play for class needs to be tested for Spring. She also informed the Council and AVP
Kennedy that if a student was enrolled before the initial drop for non-payment and then they reenroll, they are protected from ever getting dropped again, whether the pay or not, which doesn’t
seem to make sense. In addition, Pat stated that everyone needs to get on the same page regarding
communication to students and staff about cancelled classes. She did note that one positive aspect to
the new system in the financial aid department is that in the old system, a student would do a FAFSA
application, and then financial aid would do an import that could be extremely lengthy and then
manually enter that into our system and it could take up to 3 weeks; Whereas now with the new
system, financial aid is able to retrieve the import in a couple days and then send an email to
hundreds of students the day the import is received.
Sam Tolia shared that a positive aspect to the fall registration process with the new system was when
staff helped students they were extremely grateful and the process proved to be an awesome learning
experience for both staff and students.
Sandra Hughes shared that while it was wonderful to be able to enter midterms in just one shot, she
is hoping there will be a way to go to one list of students for labs, instead of four separate lists since
there may be four lab sections for one class, which would require four different screens.
Garry Abezetian informed the Council that as he was helping a parent with the FACTS program and
they stated that FACTS wasn’t accepting VISA, so he checked and VISA confirmed. As a result, he
will be filling out some paperwork to ensure that VISA is now accepted through this program.
Doris Davenport suggested that for the student debriefing session, it would be helpful to have
computers in the meeting so students can actually login show their problems and then troubleshoot
with the staff on hand.
Michael Flaherty added one final comment, stating that students feel like email is the way old people
communicate with each other. Kevin Kennedy announced that there is a module for mobile
capabilities, that the institution hasn’t even touched yet, but perhaps that is something that should be
pursued for the near future.
Kevin Kennedy thanked all for their participation in this brief debriefing session and reassured the
Council that the focus would be on making strong improvements for spring registration.
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NEW BUSINESS
ASSIGNMENT OF CLASSROOMS (Michael Flaherty)
Dr. Michael Flaherty introduced this topic as what may be considered a hot topic and is not
something that he is asking the Council to take direct action on. He presented a handout that
itemized room assignment complaints from both faculty and students in addition to including
proposed solutions. Please reference the attached document.
President Granados stated that this topic was important for the entire council to hear, having just
finished up the Adjunct Faculty Workshop after classes already started, and hearing how many had
issues with coming into a classroom that was double booked. She added that having problems
securing rooms is really not speaking well of what we are trying to achieve as an institution. The
institutions priorities and resources must be aligned in order to positively impact the quality of this
institution. It is important to ask the question, since enrollment is down significantly, how is it that
there are no classrooms? There has always been the peak class time of 8:00am-1:00pm, but still it
should not be that there are no classrooms available.
Mike Garrity informed the Council that the software R25, which the institution has, gives a great
number of reporting possibilities for room assignments and availabilities, however it is harder to
look up then it was in Ralph. At the very least, we can look at availabilities, peak times, etc. to help
us plan this better for the spring.
Dr Granados added that she was also made aware that there is some concern that the Spring schedule
is not yet up on the system. She asked how the institution can begin to market enrollment if this
information is not accessible. Mike Garrity responded that as far as he knows they are still entering
this information in the scheduling area.
Maria Correa stated that, in regards to the computer labs, there have been numerous issues with
scheduling, such as a lab having 23 students but allowing 30 kids to enroll. She also mentioned that
there are classes that require particular software programs and then they are placed in labs that are
unable to support that specific software.
INSTITUTIONAL PLANNING
HLC
Higher Learning Commission – Pamela Perry, Director of Planning and Accreditation, informed the
Council that the HLC Celebration is scheduled for September 17, 2013, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m., B-204 and
that she has lanyards for everyone to pick up. There will be appetizers and drinks, following the
Oktoberfest theme. The video idea previously discussed was abandoned because of demanding
logistics. In terms of activities, Pamela Perry shared that she had been waivering on whether or not
there should be games or icebreakers. She stated that there will be posters with information on
results of strengths, weaknesses, criteria, etc. in addition to having music. She asked for the
Council’s feedback on whether or not there should be a trivia game or some sort of activity at this
celebration.
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Dr. Flaherty stated that he doesn’t think people will stay for two full hours, which could interfere
with the idea of one trivia game Mike Garrity suggested having a fun sheet at the tables that could
act as an ice breaker. Dr. Granados stated there should be some way to impart some learning on the
good things that have come out of the entire HLC process. Pat Zinga added that even if the trivia
isn’t organized as teams, if its ongoing with just random questions that people can raise their hand or
write on the board, that could still be successful. Something that isn’t so structured would probably
be the best solution. Pamela Perry suggested every 10-15 minutes having a College Council member
do a brief introduction and then ask a question on a card with the answer being on the back. Mike
Garrity suggested flip charts so that the questions can be posted around the room.
Pamela Perry encouraged the Council to use this as an opportunity to engage the campus community
around the College Council and invite them to the meetings. She added that she will be assigning
tasks for the celebration and sending out an email later that afternoon.
Dr. Flaherty commended Perry on a job well done at the Faculty Workshop and shared that faculty
members appreciated her presentation. He also reassured the Council that the campus community is
understanding the importance of this and supportive.
STRATEGIC PLAN
Pamela Perry informed the Council that there was a final revision that needed to be approved, due to
some concern that was voiced over language used in the strategic directions. The original language
read, “…Collaborate across disciplines to develop and implement curricula that is agile, accelerated
and, where appropriate, includes a competency-based approach.” She proposed that the new
language read, “…Collaborate across disciplines to design and implement agile, accelerated
curriculum development that includes a competency-based approach, where appropriate.” This
revision was approved by the Council.
Pamela Perry updated the Council on the Status of Maher + Maher deliverables, stating that they
promised to deliver the timeline/road map for plan completion by September 20th and the additional
data that the Council requested should be in early on the week of September 23rd.
President Granados clarified that once those deliverables are received, Pamela Perry will be sending
that out to the Council so that planning and aligning tasks can begin. Pamela Perry confirmed that
this is correct and stated that the Council will begin to see the development of the strategic plan
really take off after the following week.
HOT TOPICS
Mike Garrity informed the Council that he sent an all staff email regarding email migration,
announcing that the institution is switching to Microsoft 365 and will be able to open and edit
Microsoft documents while in the mail browser window. He stated that his team will need to go
desktop to desktop to setup the new email system and there will be a new web interface that will
replace Pronto but you will still be able to access remotely. Dr. Flaherty asked if contacts and groups
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will migrate automatically to the remote access or if it will need to be manually set up. Mike Garrity
stated that on the back end all they can do is transfer the email accounts and messages; For users that
do want their calendars moved he will be able to do that.
Doris Davenport announced that TCSA has elections coming up are faced with the need to heavily
recruit due to low enrollment. She stated that TCSA would like to partner with faculty and staff to
assist in recruitment and current officers may ask to make announcement in classrooms, and requests
the support of the Council. Elections will be taking place between September 24th and 25th from
9am-7pm.
MEETINGS
Next meeting is October 14th, right before HLC visit.
OTHER
President Granados reminds the Council of FY 14 Goals and asks if the group is moving in the right
direction. In an effort to create and support a strong culture of evidence, it is important for us to
revisit as individuals and as a collective body, the goals and whether we contributing and fulfilling
our purpose. She reminded the Council to encourage people to submit agenda items, and states that
Council members can present these agenda items on their behalf. This opportunity should be
emphasized and made clear that it available for everyone in the campus community.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 3:40 p.m.