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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Faculty Senate November Minutes


November 20, 2008
                                                                                                                               

PRESENT:  S. Adrion, J. Alas, D. Baxter, P. Bishop, A. Burns, J. Case, B. Connell, M. DiSano, J. Downer,
 M. Ernsthausen, S. Fess, M. Fine, K. Foley, C. Forde, S. Forsyth, M. Fugate, E. Grissing, A. John, N. Karolinski,
R. Kennedy, A. Morris, J. McKenna, M. Murphy, S. Murphy (Secretary), J. Nelson, M. Ofsowitz, P. Peterson,
H. Pierre-Philippe, M. Popovici, C. Powers, E. Ripton, T. Schichler, D. Shaw, D. Smith, R. Steven, T. Tugel (President), C. Wendtland, S. Wexler, H. Wheeler (Vice-President), A. Wilson.

ABSENT: L. Bartholome, S. Batistta-Provost, S. Hagreen, D. Leach, A. Leopard, P. Ornt, J. Striebich, J. Waasdorp, S. Weider, H. Wynn-Preische.

GUESTS:  S. Blacklaw, D. Cecero, K. Collins, M. McDonough.  
I. Meeting called to order:  3:39 p.m. II.                    Guests:
A. Michael Ofsowitz- On Saturday, March 21, 2009, MCC will host its first "Scholars’ Day".  MCC's Scholars’ Day will highlight the accomplished scholarly work of students, faculty and the collaborative work between faculty and students both in and outside the classroom.  Scholars’ Day will provide an opportunity to present and celebrate academic excellence and promote and encourage scholarship among MCC's faculty, staff, and students. The work can be made up of presentations, panel discussions, performances as well as poster sessions from departments and disciplines across the college.  There are many in-classroom assignments and/or projects already assigned to students that would be a perfect fit with MCC's Scholars’ Day event. The Scholars’ Day committee would like to invite faculty and staff to submit and strongly encourage students to submit to the Call for Participation as well as to mentor participating students as they prepare to experience what is likely to be their first academic conference.  In addition, the committee strongly encourages faculty and staff to present their own scholarly projects, participate in a panel discussion, or to co-present with a student. The Call for Participation and Call for Abstracts can be accessed through this website: https://www.monroecc.edu/go/scholarsday.   Online and hardcopy submissions will be accepted through the end of November, 2008.  Any submissions received after this deadline cannot be guaranteed but are still encouraged.

B. Margaret Murphy-The FCCC Fall Plenary meeting was held in October 2008. Here are some highlights of the meeting:

1. FCCC and UFS Committee on Transfer and Articulation
The resolution by this group (which includes our VP Janet Glocker and Chris Belle-Isle) provides for enforcement of current SUNY Board policy, transfer of first- and second-year courses (even for students without degrees), a transfer website https://www.suny.edu/student/cmpCreditEquality/courseEquiv.cfm, a faculty governance process for problems, and representation on all committees that are working to facilitate transfer. Although MCC enjoys many strong transfer and articulation agreement with SUNY four year colleges, it is in our best interest to maintain a voice in this action since any universal policy made could inadvertently effect MCC agreements with other schools. At present the resolution has been held up in being presented to the SUNY Board of Trustees. One consideration from some four-year colleges and from the Provost is to attach a provision to the resolution ensuring that all transfer students complete all  10 of the required SUNY General education courses before transfer. This would make an official commitment to completion of SUNY Gen Ed courses rather than the unofficial 7 of 10 MCC has been doing. There is also a concern in regard to this in that community college transfer students will be held to a different standard (10 of 10) than native four-year beginning juniors.  Although it is recognized that no single document can resolve such a large concern, the Joint Committee as well as Vice Chancellor Dr. Golladay encourage support for this resolution.

2. Search for SUNY Chancellor
The search is ongoing since the former interim chancellor, Admiral Ryan resigned. Some highly respected candidates left the pool of applicants due to length of time in decision making. It does not look promising that a new chancellor will be selected from this search. A new interim chancellor would be appointed if the search fails. The president of FCCC serves on the search committee. This committee started with 18 members and now has 8 left.

3. Review of Textbook cost
There is a review underway of New York State law in regard to education law and the textbook access act which promotes open transparent marketing, choice, pricing and purchasing of course materials. Federal government will require all colleges by 2010 to show compliance with textbook information by listing all textbook/s information with registration material.

4. General Education Assessment Review (GEAR) Committee
There is still interest in finding an appropriate standard mathematics test, but there is little progress. At this time, colleges are using a national-referenced and GEAR approved test in mathematics. The first round of Triennial Updates for General Education Assessment Plans and Closing-the-Loop Reports were sent to GEAR. Continued SUNY funding to colleges for assessment is still questionable.

5. SUNY Distinguished Teaching and Service Awards
The Community Relations Committee of FCCC, which acts on all awards, has suggested that those receiving the SUNY Distinguished Teaching and Service Awards be noted as Distinguished Faculty Rank and receive a $2,500 salary increase.

6. New York Community College Association of Presidents (NYCCAP)
President of Rockland Community College, Cliff Wood, represented this group.
He reiterated that community college students should not be held to any different standard than any native four-year college student. He feels that four-year colleges need to address the problem of capacity by putting systems in place to move students more quickly to degree. When asked if he would support a position for a community college representative as a non-voting member of the SUNY Board of Trustees as the Faculty Senate of four year colleges has, Woods said no he would not. He stated that community colleges are not paid salary and benefits by SUNY BOT, but rather by their local county, and therefore should not have a seat.

III. Announcements (T. Tugel):
A.  The presidential search consultant, Dr. Parilla, visited on November 3 and 4. He met with the SCAA ad hoc presidential search committee. He held a college hour information session and he also met with two faculty/staff focus groups. These groups represented a diverse population of faculty and provided Dr. Parilla information to better understand the culture of MCC. Dr. Parilla has stated he has never conducted a search that has had two search committees. MCC has a strong, participatory academic governance body that needs to remain present in the search.

B.  Angel Andreu will be at the December Faculty Senate meeting to discuss and answer questions regarding MCC’s participation in SUNY’s CCSSE (Community College Survey of Student Engagement). MCC will be conducting the survey in the spring 2009 semester. Classes will be selected randomly and the survey must be completed in class. Angel would like to make sure that those instructors involved have advance notice since the survey would take 35 minutes of classtime.

IV. Approval of Minutes: Minutes of October 23, 2008 Faculty Senate Meeting approved as written.


V.  Action items:
A.  Academic Policies action items:
1. Academic Policies action item-Student Opinion Survey resolution was tabled by the Committee to pursue more research on the topic.

2. Academic Policies action item-IRB resolution. A motion was passed to send this item back to the Committee for further review.

B.    Curriculum action items:
1. The Faculty Senate voted on the following programs:
PR3F 2007 Optical Systems Technology   Motion passed.
PR3F 2008 Health Studies, AS   Motion passed.
NP1S Paramedic, Certificate   Motion passed.


VI. Standing Committee Reports
Academic Policies Committee – C. Wendtland
No report. Curriculum – A. John
A.  The Curriculum Committee continues to meet every Thursday that Faculty Senate doesn’t meet, dividing their time between proposals and other projects, including the charge to establish definitions for MCC’s local general education areas and criteria for including courses on the approved list for each area. The committee is currently integrating feedback from departments and results from external sources. They are developing materials detailing this project for eventual inclusion on the Curriculum Committee web page. Look for it soon.

B. An ad hoc committee of the Curriculum Committee has been charged with reviewing section 2.5 of the Curriculum Resolutions: Departmental Review/Planning/Budgeting and Appendices A, B, and C. Committee members are Gloria Morgan, Chair of Office and Computer Programs; Brenda Embrey, Health Professions; Lori Judd, Mathematics; and Paul Seeburger, Mathematics. They will make a preliminary report of their findings to the committee in February.

C. The Curriculum Committee approved the following proposals: Two Program Revisions:
PR3F 2007 Optical Systems Technology
PR3F 2008 Health Studies, AS One New Program:
NP1S Paramedic, Certificate Three Course Deactivations:
CD1F MTH 205 Technical Mathematics III
CD1F HUM 260 Contemporary Urban Issues
CD1S PHY 231 Applied Physics III Thirteen Course Revisions:
CR1F EMS 239 Paramedic Clinical and Field Experience I
CR2F EMS 236 Advanced Cardiac Life Support
CR5F ACD 141 Alcoholism/Chemical Dependency Treatment Modalities
CR6FACD 142 Alcoholism/Chemical Dependency and the Family System
CR7F ACD 143 Alcoholism/Chemical Dependency Counseling Skills
CR8F ACD 144 Alcoholism/Chemical Dependency/Substance Abuse Group Counseling Skills
CR9F ACD 145 Alcoholism/Chemical Dependency/Substance Abuse
CR10F ACD 146 Alcoholism/Chemical Dependency Internship Seminar
CR12F EMS 240 Paramedic Clinical and Field Experience II
CR13F BUS 204 Management Theory and Practice
CR15F MTH 165 College Algebra
CR22F CIS 110 Building and Maintaining the PC
 
Four New Courses:
NC3F PSY 280 Mysteries of Sleep and Dreaming
NC4F SPT 119 Storytelling
NC5F NUR 160 Critical Thinking Utilizing the Nursing Process
NC6F JPN 104 Intermediate Japanese II D. The Curriculum Committee Posted the Following (11/13 – 12/4):             
Four Course Revisions:
CR29F IDE 101 Introduction to Interior Design I
CR30F IDE 102 Introduction to Interior Design II
CR32F IDE 122 Interior Design Communication II
CR33F IDE 201 Interior Design III One New Course:
NC7F PHO 140 History of Photography: Early NEG – H.Pierre-Philippe
No report.  SCAA – B. Connell


A.  The Committee met to discuss and rank candidates for the position of Dean of Academic Services at Damon. 

B. Connell met with Mike McDonough, chair of the Administrative Search Committee, to discuss the recommendations of the two committees. The committees are in agreement and they are working toward setting up interviews and Open Hearings. These are being planned for the weeks of January 26th and February 2nd.

B.  Two members of SCAA, Mark Ernsthausen and Patty Ornt, are representing SCAA on the Administrative Search Committee for the Assistant Vice President of Administrative Services. That committee has begun its work and will possibly be interviewing at the end of January.

C.  The SCAA ad hoc committee for the Presidential Search has been formed. Committee members are: Bonnie Connell, Chair, Chris Abbott, Chris Belle-Isle, Marlene Fine, Bob Kennedy, Ed Martin, Eileen Morris, Harry Pierre-Philippe, Renee Rigoni, Mary Timmons, Peggy VanKirk. The committee met with Dr. Parilla, the Search Consultant earlier this month.

Planning – E. Grissing
No report.  
Professional Development – C. Powers
 The deadline for submitting nominations for the Chancellor’s Award is December 8th.  The Committee will not be planning a professional development event in January 2009.  They will be supporting the TCC event in January. The Committee is planning an event for June 2009 and the topic under consideration is “Bullying in the Academic Environment”

VII. Student Announcements
None.


VIII. Old Business
None.

XI. New Business
S. Forsyth – attended the November 19 forum focusing on campus safety and security led by Public Safety Director Lee Struble and VP of Student Services, Dr. Susan M. Salvador.  The meeting included a de-briefing of the November 11 stabbing incident that occurred on the Brighton campus. S. Forsyth’s suggestion is to ask faculty, staff and students to wear their MCC identification cards. The response given to her at the meeting was that it was too difficult to implement this type of policy. She would like to see the Faculty Senate pursue this policy. This would help identify people who belong on campus and also helps to create pride

M. Popovici-It would be worthwhile to discuss as the Faculty Senate, our role in a crisis. What can we do as faculty? What should we do? Many faculty don’t really know what to do in a crisis.

T. Tugel- In June 2007 there was a Faculty Senate professional development workshop on the “Active Shooter” in response to the Virginia Tech. shootings. Often these workshops are not well attended.  So we as faculty have to do our part to attend the sessions made available. This is something that all of us have a shared interest and a common goal but how can we work together and how can we keep communications open. Perhaps we need Lee Struble to come to the Faculty Senate or to sponsor a wider event. The perception that MCC is a safe place to work and get an education is important. Regarding ID badges, it would be difficult to keep the ID’s validated each year at the Brighton campus.

S. Forsyth-When the student incident was reviewed, it was discovered that the College should have used the IP phone system. It was agreed that the SUNY alert system was not needed.

S. Fess-When CSEA employees have a day off, it impacts the faculty. It would help if we knew who they were so that the lack of services could be anticipated and minimize the classroom impact. We need more communication on this.
                     
Meeting adjourned at 4:49 p.m.  
Respectfully submitted,  

Terri Tugel                                         Susan Murphy
President                                            Secretary  
Minutes approved at the December 11, 2008 Faculty Senate meeting.    
     
 
 Please open the attached Minutes from the November 20th Faculty Senate Meeting.      
 

Sandy Wynne
Faculty Senate
12/17/2008


Attachments:
icon Minutes 2008-11-20.pdf