Minutes of September 16, 2004 Meeting
MSC Faculty Senate

SENATORS: Rich Cowden, Phil Kavanagh, Jill Cordova, Gayla Jo Slauson, Cindy Thomas, Chad Grabow, Tim Hatten, Larry Madsen, Allen Learst (for Tom Acker), Bill McCracken, Ellie Baldwin, Tim Casey, Jane Arledge

MINUTES SECRETARY: Jessica Cowden

GUESTS: John Sluder, Erik Groves, Brenda Wilhelm, Clare Boulanger, Anne Spaulding, Duane Hrncir, Gary Looft, Hassom Tavossi, Ken Davis, Norah Fisher, Kathleen Dresler

I. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Anna Wagner of the New Voters Project briefed the Faculty Senate on the goals of her organization including their on-campus plans, which include registering 1,000 students to vote by September 24, 2004. Anna asked the Senate how her organization might best go about seeking permission to enter individual classrooms to give presentations to the students. Kavanagh suggested she contact individual faculty members via e-mail.

Erik Groves of the ASG gave a brief statement concerning their plans for the upcoming elections including bringing in candidates to speak about the issues, especially on how they relate to Mesa State College on October 12, 21, 26, and 27. Campus-wide e-mails concerning the events will be sent out shortly.

Myra Heinrich will attend the next Faculty Senate meeting to report on the Assessment Committee.

There is some concern that, due to changes in travel procedures and funding, fewer faculty members are able to go to important meetings including this year’s Faculty to Faculty Conference, which only two people attended. Faculty were required to share hotel rooms.

Cowden announced vacancies that need to be filled on the following administrative committees: Athletic Council (two vacancies), Media Board (one vacancy), Human Relations Council, and Facilities Committee. Vacancies may be filled by faculty from any department. Those interested should contact Cowden.

II. MINUTES

A motion was made, seconded and passed that the Curriculum Committee minutes of the August 26, 2004 meeting be received. (Cowden/Grabow)

A motion was made, seconded and passed that the Faculty Senate minutes of the September 2, 2004 meeting be received and approved. (Thomas/Cowden)

III. REPORTS

Casey reported on the events and results of the September 15, 2004 Board of Trustees meeting. The Handbook was approved by the Board with a few amendments.

The status of tenure-track faculty, vis-à-vis their temporary “at-will” employment, was amended. During the year tenure-track faculty will be on contract and not be considered “at-will” employees, meaning they cannot be terminated without cause unless there is a reduction of force. Between contracts, however, they are “at-will” until such time as a new contract is established. Notification dates were not set for contract non-renewal.

The issue of “proficient” status leading to post-tenure review was also amended. A rating of “proficient” will only result in post-tenure review if it is given in the area of teaching.

The faculty will be allowed to keep jury duty pay.

Faculty can abstain from voting on tenure committees.

Faculty members may not have amorous relations with certain students including the ones they teach or advise, etc.

The proposal to change the wording in the section on search committees from “may be formed” to “shall be formed” was not discussed. The issue of minimum degree requirements for instructors was also not discussed.

The wording of the Academic Bill of Rights section was changed to say that subjects must be taught in a “balanced manner consistent with the standards of that discipline.”

Sixth year contracts are not guaranteed in the Handbook as the Board would like to leave the option open for quality faculty to be kept on for more than six years without tenure. Pay for the sixth year, however, will now be kept at the same rate as it was during the fifth year of employment (prior to being denied tenure).

Tenure and faculty status can be granted to administrators in an open process.

No guarantee of raises either for promotions or for cost-of-living.

A 1% non-base building pay raise was approved during the Board meeting to help off-set rising health care costs.

Concern was expressed over the issue of minimum instructor qualifications. Kavanagh suggested making it a full agenda item for a future meeting at which point strategies for approaching the Board with those concerns can also be discussed. Cowden proposed that accessibility and communication between the Board and the Senate also be addressed.

The Strategic Planning Committee’s proposal to make a clearer distinction between the Associate’s program and the Baccalaureate program by creating a division of MSC called the Western Slope Community College was also discussed at the Board meeting. The move would not affect the overall operations of the college, but would resolve the problem of offering separate admissions standards to two-year students vs. four-year students as is required by the state.

The next Board meeting will be held on October 21, 2004 in Montrose.

Ken Davis then asked the Senate to make or reaffirm the following policies on behalf of the Academic Policies Committee:

That there be a Master’s degree minimum hiring requirement for all instructors except in certain departments as determined by that department.
That the department holds primary responsibility for hiring and/or evaluation of their faculty members.

The committee is concerned that unless the faculty and the curriculum are primarily the responsibility of the faculty, there is no longer a need for an Academic Policies Committee.

Cowden suggested that the committee that will be formed to write the Policies and Procedures Manual, for issues such as these that are not in the Handbook, should address this and that the Senate should start seeking out interested, qualified people to serve on that committee.

Kavanagh suggested that this be made an agenda item for a future meeting.

IV. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ISSUES

John Sluder, the Acting IT Director, gave a presentation. First, he discussed the academic focus of IT. Decisions will now be coordinated through Department Heads and the Administration and be based foremost on how they affect the students and their academic success.

In terms of customer service focus: the Macintosh computers on campus are now supported and backed up, IT is working on implementing a universal tracking system for all work orders so that repairs will be requested and followed up on-line, and funds have been reallocated to more aggressively train the technicians including the student technicians.

In the long-term view, among other things, IT plans to explore more wireless options including wireless notebooks that can be checked out and used in the Tomlinson library. They also plan to be more flexible in terms of software implementation so that computers may support other programs besides what had traditionally been standard campus-wide.

IT is also forming an advisory committee made up of faculty, staff, students and community members.

Sluder also brought up the issue broadcast e-mails and asked for suggestions from the Senate as well as their constituents. It is recognized that there is a need for open discussion between faculty, however, the mass e-mails clog up the system and max-out storage capabilities. It was suggested that a separate “Forums” folder be created where such discussions could take place outside of the normal e-mail folders. Kavanagh agreed to make it an agenda item for discussion at a future meeting.

V. SALARIES AND BENEFITS

Grabow sought a motion to request that the Salaries and Benefits Committee conduct the following four studies, not in terms of how MSC compares with other schools, but how we compare to ourselves:

Faculty salary averages since 2001.
Benefits and where we stand on the 50/50 proposal.
The lack of pay raises for adjunct faculty over the past 15 years.
Evaluate equity within departments.

Grabow suggested that the study be conducted and presented to the administration before the first of the year. This study is important considering the number of faculty members MSC is losing because of the difficult financial situation over the past four years.

Learst suggested that the committee ask for clarifications on budgets as they had done in the past.

Arledge asked that the committee factor into their report the increased workload simultaneous to the decreased pay rate.

A motion was made, seconded and passed that the Faculty Senate charge the committee with conducting the proposed study. (Grabow/Thomas)

A motion was made, seconded and passed to continue the meeting past 5:00 pm. (Grabow/Thomas)

VI. ISSUES ARISING FROM THE FACULTY TO FACULTY CONFERENCE

Jane Arledge and Brenda Wilhelm gave a brief presentation on the conference. Arledge discussed the Transfer Guides, which are basically on-line program sheets detailing the 60 hours required to complete an AA or AS in each subject area. They also indicate what courses a student should take prior to transferring to MSC and should be looked over by each department for accuracy. Kavanagh suggested that this also be taken up with the Curriculum Committee.

Pre-collegiate courses were also addressed at the conference; what courses should be taken prior to being admitted into college. These requirements are not the case for community colleges.

Wilhelm reported on the section of the conference delivered by Rick O’Donnell of the CCHE. He discussed increasing accessibility and affordability to save higher education, a public relations campaign aimed at encouraging Hispanic males to attend higher education, the Opportunity Fund, and Quality-Performance Contracts, which would hold institutions accountable for maintaining state-wide goals determined with faculty involvement at the institutional level.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:08 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Jessica Cowden, Minutes Secretary