Faculty Senate Minutes
Meeting –
I.
Meeting was called to order by Mark Fuentes at
Move to suspend the rules was passed. Motion was made by Anne Kinggard to approve the slate of officers, seconded by Kathy Byrd. Motion was unanimously passed.
II. Minutes of April 25 meeting were approved.
III. Officer Reports:
a. Secretary: no report
b. Communications Officer: no report
c. TBR Representative:
-
Meeting
- Subcouncil report will be sent soon via email
d. President: Met with Dr. Wise, notes below
- Discussed recognition of JD degree as a terminal degree, which affects faculty in the Paralegal Studies program; President Edwards agrees with the recognition; issue will be on the TBR July meeting agenda; question was raised about whether appropriate faculty with the JD degree who teach in a program other than Paralegal Studies will have the same recognition of the terminal degree. President will follow-up with Dr. Wise about that type of situation
- Discussed possibility of giving
pay raises to adjunct faculty; money would have to
come from
- Discussed the idea of retired faculty who teach part time being
compensated at the full time overload rate as opposed to the adjunct rate. Dr. Edward is amenable to the idea, and it
will be discussed further. The other part about post-retirement contracts where faculty work
half time at half salary will not happen due to budget constraints.
- Discussed possibility of rolling back course enrollment numbers to previous numbers; course enrollments were increased 5 to 7 students a couple of years ago, answer was that no plan exists to change the course enrollment limit back at this time.
- Discussed faculty concerns about faculty credentials required to teach dual enrollment courses; college requires same educational background (masters plus at least 18 hours in teaching field); Kathy Byrd added that the college preference is that a Pellissippi State faculty teach the course so that the students will have a college experience and so that the students will perceive it as a college experience but that there are a few (less than five) where a high school teacher teaches the class; Kathy added that this is becoming difficult to the growth of the dual enrollment classes; Kathy also added that there will be a session on dual enrollment classes during faculty inservice this fall
IV. Committee Reports:
a. Adjunct Faculty: Trish Roller said that this will be her last meeting because she has been hired as a full time English faculty; Jesse Wilkerson will replace her but she was unable to attend this meeting
b. Student Scholarships: No report
c. Rules: Don had no report but he will be recruiting members
d. Nominating Committee: Nina had no report but will be recruiting members
e. Promotion/Tenure: Anne had no report but did announce that this will be her last year
f. Faculty Emeritus Committee: Mark Fuentes met with Dr. Edwards on Friday, April 27, 2007; President was not opposed but wants more time to consider
V. Unfinished Business:
a.
Faculty Senate had second vote on the proposed
constitution changes concerning terms of senate office and title of the
President; constitutional changes passed with a simple majority which was what
the Constitution required;
Constitution Changes passed:
The Rules Committee proposed the following changes to the Faculty Senate Constitution.
Article IV, Section 1
C. Term of Office: The term of office for an elected member of the Senate will be two (2) years. Terms will begin in April and continue through July 1, two years hence.
1. Upon establishment of the Faculty Senate: Initial elections of the academic department representatives will include one representative who will serve a one-year term and two representatives who will serve two-year terms. Terms will be determined by drawing lots. Library Services will elect one representative for a two-year term. Following the initial term limits, all Senate Representatives elected in the future will serve two-year terms, rotating off after the two-year term is completed. Thereafter, one or two department representatives will be elected each year at the annual election.
Resolved that the sentence in boldfaced type be removed
ARTICLE
VII - OFFICERS
Section 1. Eligibility
A. Any member of the tenured full-time faculty is eligible for the office of the President of the Faculty. However, the President and the President Elect may not represent the same department.
Resolved that the words in bold type be
added and that all references in this document to the Senate President be
changed to Faculty President.
b.
“Teacher of the Year” nomination concerns about the
nomination form being too difficult to
fill out, nominator may not know all of the required information; Jane
Stribling is on a committee to review the nominating process and
questions/suggestions should be forwarded to her
c. Faculty
offices – President Scarbro discussed the issue with Dr. Wise; 3 or 4 portable
office buildings are being purchased but won’t be available before fall
semester starts; the offices will have lockable doors; bathrooms will also be
in the buildings; will provide office space for 12 or 16 faculty; adjunct
faculty will be able to use some of the faculty office space in the ERC
building sometime during the fall semester.
VI. New Business:
a. Summer issues: President Scarbro met with Dr. Wise to discuss the following issues:
- 5 week vs. 4 week sessions – President Scarbro will try to secure enrollment data for the past 10 years to study the impact of the different length sessions on enrollment at all of the college campus locations; Dr.
Wise would like to broaden course
offerings at the sites
- Allotment of summer courses – There is not a college wide guideline, each department decides how classes are assigned to faculty (some faculty get 2, some faculty get 1, some faculty get 3)
- 21 student rule full time faculty assignment – President Scarbro requested that Dr. Wise research the college guidelines on how the 21 student rule was established originally and provide justification for it to faculty
-
Re-opening of
- Summer advising load and availability of support staff in the early evening– Cheryl Slayden said that summer advising hours will remain at 2 hours per teaching load hour and support staff will be available in the early evening for advising. (questions and answers attached)
b. Support services such as counseling, especially for site campus – President Scarbro requested assistance; Dr. Wise said that a session will be scheduled on this topic at fall inservice
c. New Blount County Campus – $17.2 million dollars was appropriated by the legislature for a new one building campus; Kathy Byrd reported that six sites are being considered and a decision on the location will be decided soon; plans are to begin construction spring or summer of 2008 and to begin using the new building fall of 2010
d. Faculty Concerns:
- Evaluation each semester – Faculty would like to choose between fall or
spring semester;
Dr. Wise said that evaluations are routinely completed in the fall semester,
but faculty can request evaluations for spring in addition to fall. However, the fall ones are considered to be
the official ones. President Scarbro
will discuss with him again the possibility of either semester.
- Lead teacher and program coordinator responsibilities – Faculty asked if
There were guidelines for how often they are supposed to meet and what their responsibilities are; there are not defined guidelines, each department established its own guidelines; Dr. Wise will revisit this issue if faculty want more defined guidelines
- Advisor training – Faculty were dissatisfied with the tone of the Spring
2008 advisor training sessions, they felt they were too juvenile; Dr. Wise said they will continue to be required but that they will be updated/changed as needed; faculty would like to see different options available for the training, new faculty need more intensive training, more senior faculty only need the changes made available to them through emails or tutorials; President Scarbro will follow-up on the possibility of using various avenues of dissemination of advising information
VII. Announcements:
The next Senate meeting will be September
19th at
VIII.
The meeting was adjourned at