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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Faculty Senate Minutes - 11/17/05


FACULTY SENATE MINUTES - November 17, 2005                                                                        

 

 

PRESENT:  E. Baxter, I. Benz, P. Bishop, F. Burger, S. Cable (Vice-President), B. Connell, R. DeFelice, K. Doyle, K. Eirich, J. Ekis, M. Ewanechko, S. Fess, S. Forsyth, M. Fugate, C.T. Gilbert, E. Grissing, R. Hamell, K. Huggins, A. Hughes, N. Karolinski, R. Kennedy, P. Keyes, D. Leach, A. Leopard, M. Marino, J. McKenna, D. Mueller, S. Murphy, J. Nelson, M. Rizzo, D. Shaw, D. Smith, B. Smithgall, J. Thompson, M. Timmons, V. Toth, T. Tugel (President), P. Wakem, H. Wheeler (Secretary), W. Willard, H. Wynn-Preische, W. Yanklowski

ABSENT: C. Boettrich, S. ElRayess, M. Pastorella, P. Peterson, S. Ruckert, , E. Stewart

GUESTS: S. Blacklaw, D. Cecero, B. Connolly, M. Fine, J. Hinkelman, D. Klein, J. Rao, F. Rinehart, R. Rodriguez, L. Silvers, J. Witherspoon

 

1.             Meeting called to order:   3:35 p.m.

 

2.             Announcements: T. Tugel

               

a.             Elizabeth Baxter has been elected to represent Counseling & Advising Center/EOP/Student Services-DCC. 

b.             The Executive Committee of Faculty Senate met with the Executive Council of the Faculty Association to discuss potential areas of overlap such as different aspects of hiring. A concern was communicated to the Senate asking it to look in to timing of authorizing searches. An ad hoc committee has been formed to do so. Their charge is to identify MCC’s current practice authorizing searches for teaching lines; compare those practices with appropriate institutions of higher education; if possible, identify the impact current practices have on recruitment and hiring of faculty; and, where appropriate, make recommendations for improvement in the current practices. Another issue discussed was academic freedom and the Student Bill of Rights.

c.             In response to concerns raised at last year’s All College Faculty Senate meeting, the December 15th All College meeting will begin with the concerns/issues of the faculty with the business part of the meeting at the end. Senators should ask their constituents about issues or concerns that people are interested in having as a focus for that meeting.

 

3.             FCCC Update: L. Silvers

 

a.             The October FCCC meeting provided an opportunity to meet with John Ryan, SUNY’s acting chancellor who had good things to say about community colleges including that they are the shining stars of the SUNY system; they account for 48% of total SUNY enrollment; and that they set an example to the whole SUNY system in terms of how to adapt programs, search for students, and serve the needs of students.

b.             The group discussed the Academic Bill of Rights (ABoR) and the fact that SUNY is the only university system in the country where this has been presented within the Board of Trustees; everywhere else it has been brought to legislatures. Ryan indicated that he’s not in favor of ABoR and that his main concern is academic integrity.

c.             The Board of Trustees hasn’t had ABoR on their agenda yet. It is on the agenda for the Board of Trustee’s Academic Policies Committee for their December meeting.

d.             Ryan also indicated that he has several directives he’s considering such as a proposal called "Rethinking SUNY," which includes revising  funding so that the county, state, and college would contribute equal amounts to the budget, and he also discussed initiatives which take SUNY to iInternational levels. Representatives have been sent to China and Russia to recruit students and/or investigate the opening up of campuses.

e.             MCC’s written position regarding ABoR has become the standard for several other colleges. The Ad Hoc Committee  established by the MCC Faculty Senate last April  determined that ABoR isn’t necessary as there are provisions in  the  student handbook and the contract. The United University Professions organization  has estimated the cost of implementation  of the ABoR would be approximately 7 million dollars.

f.             The FCCC is opposed to implementation of ABOR and has written a resolution urging the Board of Trustees not to adopt it.

g.             Assessment was also discussed at length. FCCC has given approval to that process to make it go forward and that the GEAR website has rubrics that can be used for assessment.

 

4.             Approval of Minutes: Minutes of the October 20, 2005 meeting were approved.

 

5.             Standing Committee Reports

 

                Academic Policies Committee -- E.Grissing

 

Senators should have received a questionnaire via e mail regarding the current withdrawal policy which Ed asked Senators to talk about with their constituents. The issues raised on it are the timing of withdrawal at 15 days before the end of the semester, whether it might be worthwhile to add descriptors to the W, and the newest issue--whether to retain the paper form for faculty to sign in light of Banner implementation which has the capacity for students to drop and add courses on line.

 

APC is working on other issues motivated by the change to Banner. The Banner system can only report cumulative averages term by term, so it would be time intensive to use the present system (waiting for an accumulation of 12 credits) to determine if part time students qualify for the Dean’s List.  The committee will discuss possible approaches that could maintain a part-time Dean's list without the need for labor-intensive work by Registration and Records. 

 

Banner tracking of attempted credit hours will be based on courses taken only at MCC, so it won’t include other types of credit from AP exams, transfer hours from other colleges, or credit by exam, for example.  The committee supports the proposal by the Banner Implementation Committee to recommend changes to the GPA levels for decisions on probation and suspension to correct a current hole in the process and to ensure that students can get through college with at least a 2.0 GPA so they can graduate. The amended levels of the policy will be voted on at the next full Senate meeting.

               

NEG - S. Murphy

NEG worked on filling the vacancy in Advising/Counseling/EOP/DCC Student Services and Sue welcomed Elizabeth Baxter to the Senate.

               

                Curriculum – A. Leopard

The Curriculum Committee has posted the following 11/7 – 11/21:

 

Two New Courses:

                NC11F   POS 234 Model United Nations (spring 2006)

                NC4F     CE 155 Cooperative Education - Orientation to the World of Disney

 

One Course Deactivation:

                CD1F     TAM 135 Drafting for Machinists I

 

Two Program Revisions:

                PR 15S Computer System Technology AAS

                PR4F     Precision Tooling Certificate – MT03

 

The Curriculum Committee has given final approval to the following: 

 

One Program Revision

                PR3F     Office Technology-Administrative Office Assistant AAS

Three Course Revisions

                CR48S  ATP 101 Integrated Automotive Systems

CR4F     SPT 121 The Great Directors-Comedy

CR5F     SPT 122 The Great Directors-Drama

 

Four New Courses:

                NC6F     SOC 209 Environmental Sociology

                NC7F     MTH 172 Technical Discrete Mathematics

                NC8F     SPT 221 The Movie Business

                NC9F     SPT 222 Topics in Cinema and Screen Studies

 

                SCAA --  T. Gilbert

SCAA is participating in the search for the new Director of Public Safety with Rich Hamell and Suzanne ElRayess  representing SCAA on the college’s search committee.

               

Planning – B. Connell

The Planning Committee met with Ed Martin and the classroom committee. They would like to have Ed come to the Senate and share what the committee does.  The  Strategic Planning Committee has been named and announced in the Tribune.

 

Professional Development – J. Thompson

NISOD nominations are due Wednesday, November 23rd at 3:00 P.M. and the Chancellor’s Award nominations are due to Valerie Avalone by Friday, December 9, 2005, by 4:00 p.m.

 

The Faculty Senate Professional Development Workshops will be held on January 17th, 2006. A financial planning session will be offered in the morning. After lunch, a session regarding the Academic Bill of Rights will be offered. The committee is working on the afternoon session  with the Faculty Association who is bringing in Craig Smith from the AFT Higher Ed Department as the speaker.

 

7.             Action Items:

 

Academic Policies Action Item: 2008-2009 Academic Calendar passes. There were 22 votes to pass, 4  votes not to pass, and 4 abstentions.

 

                Comments:

1.             Ginger Toth indicated that TESS needs to be deleted as a form of registration and withdrawal as the college no longer uses this.

2.              A. Leopard shared the following concerns from the Math Dept: Classes get squeezed in the fall so they suggest that when the fall semester is longer we extend classes to Monday of finals week to allow for either an additional instructional day or an October break. Then exams could be from Tuesday-Friday. Additionally, final grades are sometimes due at noon and other semester at 9 a.m. They suggest grades be due at noon every semester. 

 3.           Paul Wakem shared the following signed by seven members of the Biology department:

a.             When “older, returning students” comprised the majority of our student population tying the calendar to the public schools made sense. As MCC promotes itself to recent high school graduates as a “College of Choice,” it seems contradictory to present these students with a remake of their high school calendar. Even in adhering to the public school calendar, ours is contradictory. While “breaks” in the spring coincide with public schools, the fall does not. If the argument is such that parents can’t find day care options during school breaks, how can do they do it for Columbus Day and Veterans Day? Given a situation, [we] find our students are adaptable.

b.             By the time [Thanksgiving break] arrives faculty and students alike are exhausted. Students have yet to have a break to catch up nor have they had time to put things learned from their classes into perspective. As faculty member[s] [we] don’t need to tell you what we are feeling at this point in the semester. In the spring semester, the problem is just the opposite: a February break that comes much too early in the semester.

c.             From [our] observations, most institutions of higher education are recognizing at least one of the major Jewish holidays.

d.             While in theory the College would be willing to consider these observations and perhaps spend some time on the feasibility of incorporating them into an academic calendar, in reality the administration has made it clear the calendar will not change. In fact, [we] find it disturbing that even a pretense of listening to faculty on this issue isn’t shown. Having said that, [we] believe it is imperative our concerns continue to be voiced and on record.

e.             [We] are often told “sciences fight changing the calendar because it messes up labs.” As a group of intelligent and creative teachers, [we] are willing to bet we could find a way to work this by 2009!

4.             Mary Timmons indicated that the library also has problems with the current calendar structure as it is outmoded, and they have noticed the Fall semester is increasingly stressful for students as there are no breaks in which to catch up on work.  The fall and spring semesters do not parallel each other in scheduling; the library concurs with the Biology Department’s statement.

5.             Wanda Willard reminded Senators that a calendar with an October break without a pre-Labor Day start was developed by Academic Policies in fall 2003.  But due to strong criticism from a science faculty member, Vice President Glocker recommended that Academic Policies not pursue changes to the calendar.  Academic Policies had even developed an exact 15-week calendar with a pre-Labor Day start with one week off at Thanksgiving, but Academic Policies was told by administration to not put forth any calendar with a pre-Labor Day would not be considered.

6.             Mary Ann Marino indicated that there are too many Monday holidays and Labor Day limits Monday lab time. There are also clinical rotation concerns with the nursing department with that kind of calendar. 

 

Curriculum Action Item:   PR3F Office Technology – Administrative Office Assistant was unanimously approved.

 

8.             Old Business

 

none        

 

9.             New Business

 

Shelley Fess previously brought forth a concern that the Brighton room was supposed to be for only faculty but that the number of students there during peak lunch times makes it hard for faculty to get through the line and find somewhere to sit. In response to these concerns, the administration has placed a sign indicating that only faculty and staff are permitted between the hours of 11-2.

 

Meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Terri Tugel                             Holly Wheeler 

President                                Secretary

 

Minutes approved at the December 15, 2005 Faculty Senate meeting.

Faculty Senate
Faculty Senate Office
12/20/2005