Faculty Senate Meeting February 9, 2012 1:05 PM – 2:15 PM Room 3-113 Attendees: Judi Addleston, Betty Byrd Bright, Marcelle Cohen, Carl Creasman, John Edwards, Margaret Gonzalez, Eric Lane, Jennifer Lawhon, Robert McCaffrey, Terry Miller, Jocelyn Morales, Erin O’Brien, Terry Pasfield, Yasmeen Qadri, Michael Shugg, Jolene Rhodes, Patti Smith, Olga Vazquez, Reneva Walker, Chris Wettstein, Jane Wiese Absent: David Brunick, John DiDonna, Regina Falconer, Eric Heintzelman, Shari Koopmann, Kristy Pennino, Sylvana Vester
I. Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 1:05pm.
II. Action Items A. The December and January minutes were approved. III. Discussion Items A. Discussion on double/triple sections 1. The discussion started by one of senator started by expressing his idea for these larger rooms that might not be utilized for single sessions in the new double/triple session’s policy. The idea was on the use of team teaching, which could lead to a good dynamic and professors can be paid using the same block of time for a class. It can create some interesting student-faculty dynamics. Consequently, team-teaching might be something that faculty in these disciplines can explore as a way to utilize these large rooms. 2. A clarification about these sections being offered at all was asked. a. The president replied that s professor could still choose and teach these sections but they will be paid for only 3 contact hours. A professor can have as many students as he/she chooses to have in the classroom but again being paid as 3 contact hours. b. When will this policy take effect? It will start in the summer for the East Campus. c. The same senator pointed out that LinC classes could actually utilize these larger classrooms. EC Senate_2012
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d. Another senator with the intention of clarifying the point at hand mentioned that she is teaching currently a double section and now with this policy she will be teaching a single class and the other class will be eliminated; however some adjuncts might be doing double sections as the president stated. In conclusion, she says that many double sections will be eliminated, and thus will eliminate class sections that have been currently offered to students. e. Rob McCaffrey explained that in theory a faculty member could schedule a double/triple section but must be willing to be paid as a single section. He continued to say that a class that was serving three sections would now be serving only one. f. The president replied that faculty would be paid for 3 contact hours doesn’t matter if the professor has 10 or 40 students. Summary a. Conversations with the Valencia legal department and the provost verified policy issues. A professor who would like to teach a combined class consisting of 2 different CRN’s (a double) or 6 credit hours for example can do so. However the professor will be paid for only 3 contact hours. Likewise a triple section will also be paid as only 3 contact hours. b. If professors were to be paid by the number of students per class instead of the contact hours then a new pay plan would need to be created. At this time the issue of teaching double or triple sections is concluded and no further action is required. Consequently, the discussion changed from the elimination of double/triple section to how we could use these large rooms. There are several classrooms on the east campus, which can accommodate more than 30 students (examples include 6-110, 1-347, and 1-257). A suggestion was made to review the possibility of using these classrooms for activities that would seat more than one typical class section. Some examples included Linc’d teaching, team teaching, and seminars. These classrooms could be made available to all departments for scheduling, not just specific departments. Senators were asked to discuss the use of these rooms at department meetings and with colleagues. A meeting will be held with the campus president to discuss the options for using these rooms also.
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IV. President’s Reports A. Dr. Shugart’s Reports 1. Valencia has been awarded the Aspen Award. There is a monetary award associated with this and a portion will be used to secure matching grants for scholarships for students with the remainder to be utilized for grants for faculty and staff to improve learning through team applications and long term projects. This is considered as a “Strategic Budget Initiative”. 2. The President is also instituting a policy for future growth of the college to be at 3%, to market the 25 – 35 year old students, and no tuition increase until 2015. The enrollment plan is to be revised to maintain a 90% capacity. For the summer term, if the need arises more classes will be offered to maintain supplemental contracts for full time faculty. 3. Professor workloads are to decrease to the 2008/2009 levels with up to 21 contact hours per fall and spring semester and 12 contact hours for the summer semester. There will be a minimum of classes held on reserve for future use. The enrollment and scheduling will be based on the number of students who have actually applied and gone through the orientation process. 4. The scheduling of classes should be reviewed to offer more classes on Friday as the campuses are currently not being utilized much on this day. B. East Campus President (provost) recruitment: 1. The application for the position has been posted nationwide. Interested persons from within the college are invited to apply also. The position should be filled by July 1, 2012. C. Faculty Council 1. Textbook Policy: a. The discussion includes the current policy of 2 books per course per department, which is the historic policy. Changes in the policy and the number of texts for each course are still under discussion. b. After discussion among the senators of the various issues involved in different departments with texts, the concept of modalities was used. A modality is a mode of delivery or type of teaching style to include either face-to-face, hybrid, or on-line. The senators voted that there should be a potential to have 2 different texts per modality, which would provide the potential to choose up to 6 texts per course. i. Voting: 2/modality – 14 votes ii. 2/primary modality – 1 vote EC Senate_2012
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iii. 1/modality – 2 votes c. Concerns regarding the textbook policy include: i. A clarification is needed to determine if this policy is for the number of texts selected per campus or to be able to use a limit of 6 texts college wide in a course. ii. Additional materials such as instructional materials assigned by the professor – are they considered as a text or ancillary materials? iii. Web based materials used in class – should these be included as texts? 2. “Assignment of classroom and lab professors” and “work hours procedure” a. The 15 contact hours come from Florida statue and the other 10 student engagement hours come from the Board of Trustees. b. A senator perceives that this policy is moving away from the “student engagement hours” back to “office hours”. The student engagement hours were seen as a way of faculty becoming more creative in becoming more creative in engaging students. c. Another senator pointed out the policy stated five days a week but did not stated which days. The senate president replied that it does include Saturday and Sunday. d. It was pointed out as well that 5 hours must be face-to-face and up to 5 hours could by email, blackboard, or some other type of virtual communication. e. Rob McCaffrey is part of the committee that developed this policy and asked senators to contact him, besides the president, about the policy. 3. SACS review: a. The college will undergo the accreditation review beginning in November of 2014. A QEP is being developed to analyze and make suggestions for improved learning conditions. b. The president sent a complete summary of the process by email to all senators.
V. Items from the Floor 1. A senator brought a concern from a peer faculty member to the senate president by email. Some courses already use 2 or 3 texts in the class. Does the classroom set count as one text or as separate books? a. The president asked the council president, Bob Gessner, and answered the senator during the meeting. If a course has two books, such as in the case of a composition class, he two books as seen as instructional material for the EC Senate_2012
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course. So far the new policy states 2 instructional materials per modality; consequently, the 2 books used in the composition class are counted as one. 2. James May is retiring from the senate and the council. We need a new alternate senator from Communications and a new At Large council representative. a. Marcelle Cohen has volunteered if her obligations allowed her.
VI. Adjournment Meeting adjourned at 2:15pm. The next Faculty Senate meeting is scheduled for March 1st, 2012 in room 8-123.
Minutes by Olga Vazquez (president) and Patti Smith (secretary).
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