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April 17, 2009

Call to order:  F. van Hartesveldt called the meeting to order to 6:35 a.m., Multipurpose Room 234 SCC.

Present:  W. Acevedo-Ferrer, R. Barnhart, J. Berlin, C. Bristol (for Music), L. Burris, D. Cope, M. DeVivo, K. Danko, J. Doane, D. Folkert, B. Foster, J. Greer, H. Hoare, D. Huisman, S. Knoppers, P. Laureto, J. Neumann, M. Parsons, R. Ralya, A. Saldivar, J. Spoelman, D. Terhune, F. van Hartesveldt, D. Wabeke, G. Zeeff, F. Zomer. 

Absent:  N. Alexander, J. Hesse, M. Campo, B. Garlough, A. Lussky, B. Manker, R. Montes-Sutton, J. Russell. 

Approval of agenda:  Approved as written. 

Approval of minutes of April 3, 2009:  Approved as written.

Presentations from the floor:  B. Elve, former Department Head in Physical Sciences, passed away; S. Abid lost his father; B. McMillian, recent retiree, passed away; N. Alexander will be back during exam week; J. Bezile broke her femur after falling in the classroom. 

President’s report (including Academic Summit):

• Institutional Research is still putting together data and doing a thematic analysis of the information from the Academic Summit.  Budget related suggestions were released. 
• Faculty workload (contact hours per faculty member) from Winter 2009 have not yet been released.  Release and equated overload time total 525 hours for full time faculty.
• K. St. Clair and K. Miller will join the joint evaluation team which recommends the faculty evaluation process.  The team is considering changes in the process.
• Adjunct faculty can teach up to 26 hours in the summer, but this does not make them full time, permanent faculty.
• If things don’t seem right during the overload selection process, inform the negotiating team.  Examples:  (1) work done in a semester should be paid in that semester, not in a different semester to avoid overload limits.  (2) equated overload assigned before overload selection should take the place of a faculty member’s first round selection. 
• Administration has minimized the issue of faculty being dispersed about campus rather than near their department. 
• Many students have called to apply for the Association student worker position.  A. Cook, Association archivist, will be back in May.  D. Huisman will be working on the history project over the summer.

Discussion items:

1.  RCC membership.  B. Foster recommended we do not continue membership in the Retirement Coordinating Counsel.  The group has lost many members, and it has become loosely organized and not effective.  M. DeVivo made a motion that we end our involvement with RCC.  A. Saldivar seconded.  Motion passes.
   
   
2. BOT election
1. A candidate forum was recently held.  All candidates attended except R. Schilo.  Discussion included candidate pros and cons.
2. M. DeVivo made a motion to endorse two candidates.  A. Saldivar seconded.  Motion passes.  The discussion that followed led to internal ranking of the candidates, endorsing three candidates, E. James, R. Verburg, and M. Ysasi, and finding R. Bennett and N. Klein acceptable candidates.
3. The political action committee can get up and running if need be. To keep costs low, the PAC can print and distribute single pages of the endorsements and requests that faculty distribute the pages to others to vote for those endorsed.
4. A press release will also be given to the G.R. Press.

Grievance report (including grievance history):

• L. Burris has prepared the grievance history and it is ready to be submitted via email.  This contains a summary of all past grievances and is up to date.
• There are no new grievances.
• A settlement has been reached on grievances 181 and 182 regarding a faculty member who was suspended without pay.  They have been resolved to the satisfaction of all involved; the faculty member will retire. 
• Grievance 180, in which a faculty member was not allowed to have a particular course as part of base load, will be filed soon. 
• A meeting has been held with HR to deal with the issue half-day absences.   The contract allows us to call in for half-days, but it doesn’t define a half day.  The issue is complicated because our roles and responsibilities go beyond classroom attendance.
• An issue has come up regarding the job performance and work load of a non-teaching faculty member.  A job study will be conducted by an outside agency. 

New Business:  Submit items for the next Faculty Council meeting to F. van Hartesveldt. 

Next Meeting:  Association meeting Friday, May 1, 2009 at 10:30 a.m., Ford Fieldhouse.

Adjournment:  Motion to adjourn M. DeVivo; seconded W. Acevedo-Ferrer.  Adjourned 8:19 a.m.