Barbara Herzog gave an update to Council. She reported that after reviewing the minutes of the CEC, she found that CEC had received the full final report from the Ad-Hoc Quality Committee. The problem was still that the members of the Quality Committee did not see the report before it was submitted to CEC. Barbara stated that the letter expressing concerns about this issue should be sent to Council. Then, Council could decide what to do regarding the concerns stated in the letter. Council received copies of two drafted letters by Barbara; one from the faculty members of the Ad-Hoc Dual Enrollment Quality Committee to Council and the other that could be used by the Council to Dr. Solley and Dr. Gaskin. Council discussed the two drafted letters. Council heard of current Dual Enrollment concerns from different campuses. Barbara Herzog will bring back a final letter to Council. Sandra Stuebner and Joanna Chamberlain will draft a letter referring to faculty representation on District Committees for Council.
Business Meeting
I. General
A. Call to Order
Rosemary Kesler called the meeting to order at 2:40 p.m.
Members Present: Carmela Arnoldt, Joanna Chamberlain, Hazel Davis, Bob Galloway, Amy Goff, Karen Hardin, Rosemary Kesler, Rosemary Leary, Ann Lindner, Jane Marks, Larry Miller, John Nelson, Jim Reed, Janice Reilly, Laura Ruiz-Scott, Dennis Shaw, Gail Shay, Denny Sheehan, Linda Smith, Vernon Smith, and Sandra Stuebner.
Minutes were taken by Carrie Taylor.
B. Approval of Agenda
Laura Ruiz-Scott deleted Meet and Confer Request under New Business. Jim Reed added Buy Back Time under Information. Joanna Chamberlain added Common Pages under Information. Rosemary Leary added Barbara Herzog as a Guest to speak about Dual Enrollment. The agenda was approved as amended.
C. Approval of the November 14, 2000, Minutes
The November 14, 2000, minutes were approved as written.
D. Committee Reports
1. Meet and Confer
The Meet and Confer proposals will be discussed under Old Business.
2. Professional Growth
No report. Rosemary Kesler reminded Council that last year the Council had voted to pay the Professional Growth secretary for taking minutes at the Professional Growth Committee meetings. Rosemary said that the secretary’s hours had been increased and asked if Council wanted to continue paying the secretary for taking the minutes. Rosemary stated that Council needed to discuss this and decide what to do.
3. EBAC (Employee Benefits Advisory Committee)
No report.
4. FAC (Financial Advisory Committee)
Karen Hardin stated that FAC was reviewing the process of evaluating campus proposals. January 9-10, 2001,are the dates that campuses will have the opportunity to present their proposals to the Governing Board. Rosemary Kesler stated that FAC still needed one more faculty representative and asked that all names be sent to her.
5. Legislative
No report.
II. Old Business
A. Faculty Association Legislative Committee
Rosemary Kesler again asked for volunteers to serve on the legislative committee.
B. Peerpoint
Carmela Arnoldt reviewed the topics for articles in the December issue of Peerpoint. She stated that the December issue should be going to press shortly. Carmela stated that Council needed to decide what it wanted to do with the Peerpoint for the rest of the year. Council discussed ideas for articles for the February issue of Peerpoint. It was suggested that the Peerpoint focus on the work of the Faculty Association and the different committees on which faculty serve such as the Financial Advisory Committee for the District. Carmela stated that an article on Meet and Confer would be included in the next issue. Council discussed the concerns regarding the request for campus reporters. Council was informed that there had been little response to the request. Council discussed various ideas to gain more response from faculty to write articles for the Peerpoint. Council also discussed various issues that could generate articles for the Peerpoint. Council discussed incentives for faculty to write articles. A motion was made stating that faculty who write an in-depth article that is published in the Peerpoint will receive a $100 honorarium. This will be a pilot program for the rest of the 2000-2001 academic year. The motion passed with one no vote and one abstention. Carmela was asked if there would be a limit on the number of paid articles per issue. She stated that there should be a minimum and a maximum per issue.
C. Meet and Confer Proposals
Council received copies of the updated salary proposal, the Indemnification proposal and the proposal to correct dates in the Professional Growth Unpaid Leave section of the RFP. Bob Galloway stated that the next meeting with the Board Team is on Wednesday, November 29th. He discussed the agenda for that meeting with Council. He reviewed the proposals with Council. Bob asked that Karen Hardin take the salary proposal to FAC and share it with the other FAC members. Bob Galloway received a suggestion that the number 2000-2001 be taken out the salary proposals to eliminate any confusion. He responded that the number would be deleted. Council was informed that Jim Daugherty will send out a negotiation brief to faculty shortly. Council agreed with the three proposals presented and the Meet and Confer Team will submit them to the Meet and Confer process.
III. New Business
There was no new business.
IV. Information
A. Breakfasts with Fred
Rosemary Kesler stated that the first of the four breakfasts with Dr. Gaskin would be Friday, December 1st. She said that more faculty could attend the breakfasts and asked that all names of interested faculty be sent to Carrie Taylor. The faculty would receive invitations from the Chancellor’s office. Council discussed the purpose of the breakfast meetings. Rosemary stated that the Chancellor wanted to meet with faculty to get their vision for Maricopa’s future and so that he could incorporate the discussions into his “State of the District” speech and his plans for the future of the district at the All Faculty Convocation on January 12, 2001.
B. 2000-2001 Official Membership Count
Rosemary Kesler informed Council that membership in the Faculty Association was the highest it has even been with 841 members. She congratulations all the colleges for their strong membership drives and also those who had one hundred percent membership in the Faculty Association.
C. Generic Faculty Job Description
Rosemary Kesler shared information regarding a generic job description updated by the Faculty Recruitment Commission. The general job description needed to be updated since there are no more faculty pools. Council discussed the generic job description. A suggestion was made to include a statement regarding the leadership positions filled by faculty at the colleges. Rosemary Kesler responded that the leadership information would be stated in the promotional items generated for recruiting faculty. She continued that the job description was just a basic description. Council discussed some FEC members’ comments via MEMO regarding the job description. Council discussed concerns about the job description.
One Council member asked if he could still write his own job descriptions. It was stated that at one campus faculty could not write the job descriptions for faculty positions. Council discussed the concern of Human Resources rewriting the job descriptions and screening applications based on the changed job description. Council discussed the problem of Human Resources disqualifying an application if the application is missing even one piece of information that is included in the job description. Then, Human Resources would think that the job description includes the minimum qualifications and would hire the applicant at Step One (1) only.
Discussion returned to the generic job description developed by the Faculty Recruitment Commission. It was stated that care should be taken in what is included in the job description and what is used in the promotions for faculty positions. Rosemary suggested that Council work on a recommendation over MEMO for the generic job description to give to the Faculty Recruitment Commission. Joanna Chamberlain volunteered to be the point person for the project.
D. Braille Textbooks
Rosemary Kesler told Council about a state law that requires all textbooks be also printed in Braille. This portion of the law had not been strictly enforced, but now there is an ADA group working to enforce that textbooks are printed in Braille. The publishing companies state that printing all textbooks in Braille is too costly. Council discussed the possible outcomes of this matter. One Council member shared a situation with one student who was blind and had a difficult time getting textbooks in Braille. She agreed that some funding source needed to be identified for books for blind students. Another Council member shared a situation where a blind student received textbooks with no cost to the student.
E. Distance Learning Courses
Sandra Stuebner asked Council if they knew of any standard way to load distance learning courses or was the loading left to the discretion of the college. Vernon Smith responded that the loading is left to the discretion of the college. Sandra stated that the distance learning courses loading issue should be addressed in the RFP and that the Meet and Confer Team should handle this issue to get a standard for loading those courses. Bob Galloway shared that the Meet and Confer team had studied this issue when the concept of Distance Learning courses was still new, and found that much time and effort was put into the courses with few student taking the courses. Bob stated that the situation may have changed since then. Council discussed this issue and the concerns brought forth at the meeting. Council was informed that the Intellectual Property Rights Committee was looking at distance learning courses with respect to intellectual property rights and will soon present a proposal.
Council discussed forming a committee to look at this issue as well as other issues that may need updating in the RFP. One suggestion was to have an MOU to look at all of the RFP to see what needs updating.
Council was told that now there is no incentive for different colleges to share information about distance learning programs even thought the District wants the colleges to collaborate. It was suggested that this issue be brought up at one of the breakfast meeting with the Chancellor. Council discussed this idea. A request for clarification was made regarding the Distance Learning courses and collaboration. It was stated that different people at different campuses have ideas to share. However, there would be a problem with which college would get the FTSE if two or more colleges shared information and distance learning programs. The point was made that colleges are competing for students and FTSE, and if the colleges work together, the students and FTSE could not be split between the different colleges. Therefore, a college needs to “reinvent the wheel” so to speak in order to keep its students and FTSE. Janice Reilly stated that the RFP review and update process will start with the Distance Learning issue.
F. Buy Back Time
Jim Reed reminded Council of the state retirement program presentation given to Council. He stated that he took the information back to his faculty. He stated that one faculty member had a question about how much money could be contributed to a TSA and also how to calculate against the pretax to buy back time for retirement. The faculty member received several answers to the question and wanted Council to pay for a tax attorney to answer his question. Council discussed the situation. It was stated that a retirement presentation would be given soon at the college that would answer the faculty member’s question. The faculty member will be referred back to Jim Reed.
G. Common Pages
Joanna Chamberlain stated that she wanted a wide distribution of the proposals for the Common Pages so that nothing would slip through such as the “Y” grade matter of last year. She stated that she would take any recommendations from Council to the Common Pages Committee. One suggestion was for the District to have a single start time since some colleges started at different times this year. Another suggestion was to review the holidays. Joanna was asked if the committee was reviewing the issue of student complaints and the differences between the student handbook and the RFP. Joanna replied yes and stated that different colleges have different student handbooks that should all be reviewed and information be compiled to develop a District-wide student handbook. A suggestion was made to invite Mike Rooney to Council and discuss concerns with him so that he could relay concerns and issues from Council to the group of Deans of Students. Council discussed the various issues in the student handbooks.
H. Other
Faculty Pools
Rosemary Kesler was asked when the faculty pools had been eliminated. Rosemary responded that the pools were stopped in October 2000. Council discussed this issue and it was suggested that Christine Hall be asked to write an article in the Peerpoint to inform faculty about the disbanding of faculty pools.
Maricopa Room
Council agreed to the suggestion for returning to the Maricopa Room for its meetings.
State AAUP
Council was informed by one member that all he saw from the State AAUP was the same one issue, the Whistleblower issue. Rosemary Kesler was asked if Council could put some parameters on the dues sent to the State AAUP. Rosemary Kesler stated that Marie Fenske of GWCC may be running for the State AAUP President’s position but she did not know when the election would be.
V. Significant Happenings/Presidents’ Reports
CGCC
All is well.
EMCC
EMCC has a new position, Associate Dean of Occupation Programs, since
EMCC
acquired the new skills center. The new position will be an OYO
position and filled from within EMCC.
GWCC
Gail Shay will be assuming the GWCC Faculty Senate President’s duties
while
Mark Richard is on leave.
GCC
The GCC Faculty Senate has two new members, Carnella Hardin and Bruce
Thomas.
On Saturday, the GCC Football Team will be playing a team from Kansas
in the playoffs for the national championship. GCC is carrying out
both a climate survey and an ethics study.
MCC
Jeff Andelora and Mark Gooding are attending a League of Innovation
meeting in
Washington State. The MCC Faculty Senate is funding a major part
of a social for all employees at MCC at the Mesa Hilton Pavilions.
The purpose of the social is to help MCC employees connect with other MCC
employees.
PC
A screening committee at PC will hold its first meeting to search for
an Associate Dean
of Instruction.
PVCC
The PVCC cross-country teams finished well at the Nationals.
The men’s team finished
second and the women’s team finished fourth. Pat Keller was the
overall winner taking first place nationally. PVCC continues to offer
a wide variety of Learning Communities for the Spring Semester. A
few of the offerings are: Learning in Living Color: Transcending Cultural
Barriers; Business By Numbers; Improving Math Success; Got Culture?; First
Year Experience 102: “Making a Difference in a Diverse World”; and First
Year Experience 102; “Leadership for Change in the 21st Century”. The First
Year Experience at PVCC is an academic program for any student entering
college for the first time as a full-time student. The program provides
an integrated experience for students and serves as a starting point to
help students make choices leading to academic success.
RIO
The Rio Faculty will hold its annual holiday party on Saturday, December
2nd and have a
learning activity as part of the gathering.
SCC
All is well.
SMCC
The SMCC President’s search committee at SMCC will send forth a recommendation
for
the position soon.
VI. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 5:10 p.m.
VII. Executive Session
The Executive Committee met to discuss a personnel issue.
* * Next meeting, December 12, 2000, will be a Business Meeting * *