HCC FACULTY SENATE

March 8, 2019 @ 1:00 pm; Central College LH-100

 

 

  1. Call to Order: Darin Baskin
    1. Meeting is called to order at 1:03pm

 

  1. Guest: Norma Perez- VCIS and CAO
    1. Working on the current budget; there’s a need to grow, so we’re forecasting enrollment to see the sections that we can add in terms of budget.
    2. Conducting needs analysis for new faculty – needs call for replacing 39 faculty in various areas; while, the Council approved it, the Chancellor wants Perez to go back to check the numbers.
      1. Perez does want to keep some positions available for temporary full-time for further growth in areas or lost faculty
    3. Making the Master Schedule better
      1. Ad Astra still has issues: Instruction is not in charge of room assignments, though, so we are working with Facilities to address the issues caused by Ad Astra and miscommunication between District and Facilities– for example, faculty who don’t need a lab are being put in a science lab (wrong space) or faculty are assigned to campuses with back-to-back classes in different buildings.
    4. Collaboration of college presidents
      1. The presidents now report to the Chancellor—a new development: they no longer are in charge of Academics, but they still want to ensure that they have an adequate number of classes.
      2. Academics is a shared service, so the presidents will not be getting that back; however, Perez has developed a compromise to address their scheduling concerns.
        1. It’s likely each academic dean at a college will represent Academics on a council. This representation will allow issues to go to Steve Levey (and to Perez, if needed)
      3. Task Forces
        1. Master Schedule – will look at how we are scheduling throughout District. While Ad Astra Platinum will also have analytics for scheduling, we are not there yet // Platinum data should be included by Spring or Fall of 2020
        2. CE (Continuing Education) – CE has been decentralized and aligned with appropriate Center of Excellence; this is part of the Pathways Initiative to keep students on track
  • Enrollment – looking at enrollment // how do you forecast this? There will be a focus on high schools with P-SOAR.
  1. Registration – how can we make it a smoother process?
  2. Customer Service
  1. Hiring Authority (Vice-Chancellors and Presidents)
    1. Each VC or President has the authority to post up to three positions – these could be because of the hiring freeze or for another reason (reminder: Faculty are not affected by the freeze)
  2. Question & Answer
    1. Questions, David White: what is your stance of an instructional leader calling a meeting outside of business hours? And to that end, does HCC have standard operating hours?
      1. Answer: I can’t say I believe there’s a start and end time (8-5) because faculty are not always in an office; in reference to question, I think such a meeting time is insensitive to needs and not conducive for cohesive team-building
        1. Perez states she will use this as an example with Instructional Leaders of what not to do.
      2. Questions, Marion Alexander (re: faculty concern): do you feel the corequisite is watering down credit-level classes? And, what is the effect on overall enrollment in math?
        1. Answer, part one: the corequisite is a state mandate, so there is no way around this. Math implemented something in Fall 2018 that did not work and did not meet the state mandate (25%).
          1. For Spring 2019, Math is trying something different as the percentage of courses offered does need to go up each year. The state has not determined how they will evaluate, but the need for success with this is very real.
          2. Perez points to the English Department’s success and how they have already surpassed 50%; while she notes the ENGL model is not perfect, they are working out the details..
          3. San Jacinto College has an excellent corequisite model that works in English and Math; one reason it is successful is because of open lines of communication.
        2. Answer, part two: the corequisite has not affected enrollment in Math. The Dean is requesting many sections, so there is no indication that this will not work for Math; for Fall 2019, we also need to be at 50% for corequisite courses offered.
  • Observation/Question, Nathan Smith – the Aspen Institute has three Texas finalists for the 2019 Community College prize; HCC has been discussing things like this for years. Do you have a diagnostic as to why we are behind on things like this?
    1. Answer: we can’t seem to implement things; things don’t seem to move as quickly as they should // we have even lost some people in certain positions because of this frustration on implementation. As a team, we need to figure out how to make it real.
  1. Observation/Question, Davis Ross: this is not HCC-specific; there is turbulence overtaking developmental education in Texas and the US, but it affects English as a Second Language (ESOL) in a special way // 1-putting ESOL under the 27-hour rule it had been exempt from // 2- HB 2223 and the corequisite model – so far, our model has been working / but other community colleges don’t look at the 27-hour rule and HB 2223 in the same way. Do you have any sense that this is a problem for HCC morale?
    1. Answer: it all has to do with interpretation, so take this to your Deans, and it can go to me. While we need to meet the mandate, perhaps there are alternatives we can look at for the program.
  2. Question from the floor: the Tutoring Department under Betty Fortune is requesting an additional $300,000 in tutoring funds. Will this happen?
    1. Answer: we have limited resources this budget unless the Board decides to raise tuition and/or taxes, but this is an important need.
      1. There are no Board meetings in March, but we are going to put forward a proposal for a tuition/tax increase. We are also adding three early colleges in the Fort Bend area and are reaching out to the high schools.
    2. Question from the floor: are we going to have assigned officers at campuses? This week, we had no officers at a certain campus.
      1. Answer: we need this, yes, but I’m not sure what we can do; I will share this concern with Dr. Womack.
  • Question, Helen Graham: last semester, I had an absent professor and was able to get HCC police to do a welfare check. I was able to get this done because I was able to pull HR contact information. Why has our access to emergency contact information been removed on the HR Peoplesoft side?
    1. Answer: Let Janet May know when she gets here. (Janet May was scheduled to speak for Dr. Womack after Dr. Perez; however, May was unable to attend the meeting.)
  • Observation/Question, DaeJan Grigsby: is there a possibility of a dialogue with Student Services? Students are saying that advisors will tell them to look at things like RateMyProfessor for ratings; ADA counselors will come to me with student complaints about my faculty but counselors don’t get the faculty side
    1. Answer: 1- we do need to have a meeting if staff are referring students to RateMyProfessor; 2 – you can’t indict a faculty member on student story alone // I’ll work on figuring out the date for this dialogue.
  1. HB 2504
    1. We were to send a report on January 1, 2019, but this didn’t happen. One reason: we do not have program budgets and EGLS3 results posted for public view. This—along with syllabus/CV compliance (not an issue for the report)—is another part of 2504’s requirements. March 31st is my first goal. The last document said HCC was looking to put Faculty name and course and the four areas up, so that is what we will do for the time being.
      1. Comment, Alan Ainsworth: just to be clear, this is the ELGL3 and not the faculty PEP evaluation.
        1. Answer: Yes
      2. Comment from the floor: the EGLS3 is not statistically valid / because it is not mandatory for all students, you will always only get certain students to answer.
      3. Comment, Melissa Miller-Waters: we do have an EGLS3 steering/advisory committee that would be happy to assist [Dr. Perez] with this. If anyone has further ideas, please message Melissa Miller-Waters.

 

 

  1. Approval of February 2019 Minutes.
    1. David Ross makes a motion to approve the minutes. It is seconded, and the minutes are approved unanimously.

 

  1. Standing Committee Reports:
  2. Compensation, Benefits, & Workload: Tod Bisch
    1. Tod has a Workload question to pose to the floor from the CE committee, but as he is the only CE representative present, the question is tabled.
  3. Finance & Treasurer’s Report: James Battieste– NO REPORT
  4. Professional Development: Mia Taylor– NO REPORT
  5. Educational Affairs: Nikki Boutte-Heiniluoma– NO REPORT
  6. Policies and Procedures: Laurel Lacroix– NO REPORT
  7. Student Success: Kathy Najafi – NO REPORT
  8. Graduation Co-Chairs: Danielle Bachan and Mary Louis (with Darin’s assistance)
    1. Sign-up has gone live; there are only 312 registered so far. Please register. Registration closes on April 12th, and, no, there are no VAST spots left.
    2. Graduation Mace – our Arts and Design faculty are designing it and are very excited; they have started the mock-up and by next meeting, we should have something to show. The new one will be smaller (one-handed).
    3. Parking – still pay portion / bring cash to make the process easier
    4. No rehearsals
    5. “Faculty” marshals have been assigned, but the marshals are AVCs / this was a decision made at a meeting without Darin Baskin in the room. This was also Student Services’ idea.
    6. Speaker – has not been confirmed officially. Cory Booker has accepted on a contingent basis. By Monday of next week (3/18), we will go to the back-ups that have already accepted.
    7. Graduation Week – students will have a celebration with food, etc. Students will come to campus that week to pick up their materials at the main colleges – dates are being put together; it’s thought to be last week of April.
    8. Graduation committee needs assistance, so consider signing up / we want to have AM and PM shifts so the hours are not so long. If you do this, you do not need regalia.
  9. Instructional Technology: Stacey Higdon – NO REPORT
  10. Diversity and Inclusion: Melissa Miller-Waters
    1. March 22 – “Building a Sense of Belonging” summit with Margaret Price at West Houston Institute
    2. SafeZone: be on the lookout for an event in April
    3. Diversity and Inclusion Professional Development – Still in development. Helen Graham has been working on this, but each time it goes somewhere, the other person involved leaves HCC. David Diehl’s office is the current movement with it.
    4. David Cross’ discussion on prayer rooms will be in New Business

 

  1. Special Reports, Committees and Caucuses:
  2. Past Presidents: Mohamad Tlass– NO REPORT
  3. Chair Caucus: Nikky Boutte-Heiniluoma– NO REPORT
  4. Adjunct Caucus: Charles LaMendola
    1. Our survey closed at the end of February with 412 responses; we intend to give a full report in April to Compensation in April
    2. The 2nd Adjunct Appreciation Event will be immediately following Senate on April 12th.
      1. A system will be developed for RSVPs (Darin can assist with this).
      2. Freebies – if you have HCC-branded things in your department, please let Charles know. (Darin will also assist with this – he has connections to Communications department)
    3. Bedichek-Orman Auction: Linda Graham and Sheryl Ballard– NO REPORT
    4. Faculty Conference: Debra Schultz and Keitha Robinson
      1. March 23rd conference at the Westin Houston Memorial City – speaker is Roberta Anding of Baylor. 277 have registered. Darin will send out the registration link again.
        1. Proposals have come in / there are only 27 slots – emails have gone to the presenters
        2. We have sent letters to exhibitors and publishers and some have sent in reservations for space
  • There will be validation for parking.
  1. Pre-conference: Friday, we are looking for volunteers to help with preparations; we are also looking for volunteers for Saturday (on the day)
  2. We are going to number the tables, and provide a handout so it is easier to locate vendors.
  1. All-Faculty Retreat: Helen Graham
    1. May 14-17 at Tremont in Galveston – open application portal until March 22, close of business day
    2. Department chairs, please consider sponsoring one of your adjuncts to attend. To Adjuncts in my department, if you want to attend, please let me know. We will locate the funds.
  2. HCC Foundation: Antrece Baggett & Mary Lawson– NO REPORT

 

  1. President’s Report: Darin Baskin
    1. Complaints about parking – students parking in faculty spots (everywhere) and in fire lanes (at SJAC, Central). Cunningham has said that he’s towed more cars since January 2019 than all of last year
      1. Call HCC PD and they will tow; the penalty is 180 dollars once the car is towed and it goes up in price.
      2. With respect to parking – painting spots and lanes could be an option / better signage all around. There have been multiple complaints from the community about not being able to locate buildings.
    2. IDs – colleges have been released to print these once again / the problem was colleges were just printing employee IDs for people (students, too)
    3. Making up for deficit / Hiring Freeze
      1. Initial plans called for cutting department budgets by 2% or 4% // the plan is to go with 2% with the hope that the Board will raise tuition and/or taxes. No salary cuts, but there is a possibility of no raises.
        1. For the 2%, we are going to start looking to part-time staff. If we were to look for the 4%, it affects part-time and full-time positions. In terms of Faculty, it would affect who we could hire next year.
        2. Tod Bisch and Darin Baskin have a meeting with the Chancellor to present the goals of Compensation. Thanks to Gladys Bel for putting together the materials for the Compensation review.
      2. Laptop distribution
      3. Sent a list of all FT faculty to IT // IT is going to go in and put a date for when faculty will get a laptop, starting with the oldest computers.
        1. Our FT count went down. We are at 911. In August, we were at 942.

 

  1. Old (unfinished) Business:
    1. Faculty Conference- March 23rd
  2. New Business:
    1. Prayer rooms (Diversity and Inclusion)
      1. Last month, a Muslim student was looking for a place to say her daily prayers; she has been using faculty offices, but there’s a suggestion to establish non-denominational rooms for need. We invited David Cross to the last D&I meeting for this discussion / what are your thoughts?
    2. Express/Lactation rooms (Diversity and Inclusion)
      1. We are working to have the locations of these rooms posted directly on the Office of Institutional Equity site.
      2. HCC has a project under Gateways to Completion (G2C) to look at high-enrollment first-year courses // how can we promote success?
        1. As part of this, there is a survey galled Learning Gains – it’s a 3-year commitment to learn about these things; the survey is all about student perception. This group would like to connect this survey to the EGLS3.
          1. There is no formal vote, but based on the pressing need of the G2C data, everyone is in silent agreement that this will be done.

 

  1. Announcements:
    1. Application for Faculty Retreat- Located on the Faculty Senate webpage
    2. Keitha Robinson: this will be the first time I will miss HCC’s graduation; my daughter will be graduating from UT-Arlington!
    3. Consider donating your gently used items for Bedichek-Orman.
  2. Adjournment (no “second” required)
    1. Meeting is adjourned at 2:47pm.

 

 

NEXT MEETING: April 12, 2019

1PM at Central’s Learning Hub, Room 100