HCC FACULTY SENATE

July 12, 2019 @ 1:00 pm; Central College LH-100

  1. Call to Order: Darin Baskin
    1. The meeting is called to order at 1:06pm

 

  1. Guests:      Latonya Pate
    1. Expanded inclusive access pilot for Fall 2019
      1. 270 CRNs will run as compared to the 13-15 sections last semester; the amount of savings offered could be significant.
      2. Darin Baskin will send out a video about the student experience with inclusive access.
  • If anyone is interested in participating in Spring 2020, the internal deadline is September 9; all Pate needs are title and ISBNs and savings can vary from $20-250 depending on discipline, format, etc.
  1. Department chairs will need to identify and flag the course (similar to Z-degree sections)
    1. Question: what happens if a student opts out of this process?
      1. The HCC opt out date is the Census date; if students choose to do this, they will see the ISBN that would replace the inclusive access and be prompted to confirm the switch.
    2. Textbook adoptions
      1. There are still challenges – store managers are ordering the texts and Pate pushes out the information to other campuses.
      2. From a service standpoint, the electronic process works better than the manual one. If you are having any issues, though, with ordering, changes needed, etc., your campus bookstore manager should be your first line of contact.

 

  1. Approval of June 2019 Minutes
    1. David White moves for the approval of the minutes; Tod Bisch seconds. The minutes are approved as-is.

 

 

  1. Standing Committee Reports:
  2. Compensation, Benefits, & Workload: Tod Bisch
    1. The final meeting was June 28; the committee will meet again in September.
    2. Some goals have been met – ex. the 2% step for FT and the 2% increase for Adjuncts; salary tables are listed on the Senate website and on the MyHCC site; addition of step on the end of the scale
      1. Continue to push for explanation of step and grade and what degrees are germane for placement
      2. CE workload reduction should have a further report soon.

 

  1. Finance & Treasurer’s Report: James Battieste
    1. The overall state of our account is steady; there are some scholarship funds, though, that are no longer controlled by the Senate. Therefore, they are no longer listed in our totals.
      1. Tod Bisch requests we petition the Foundation for more transparency regarding these endowment funds. Many are in agreement, and Darin Baskin will look into this.

 

  1. Professional Development: Mia Taylor – NO REPORT
  2. Educational Affairs: Nikki Boutte-Heiniluoma – David White reporting
    1. A concern has been raised; Benny Ables will provide a full report about this issue under New Business.
  3. Policies and Procedures: Laurel Lacroix – NO REPORT
  4. Student Success: Kathy Najafi – NO REPORT
  5. Graduation Co-Chairs: Danielle Bachan and Mary Louis – NO REPORT
  6. Instructional Technology: Stacey Higdon
    1. Monitoring a PeopleSoft issue – nothing to report at this time
  7. Diversity and Inclusion: Melissa Miller-Waters
    1. Nursing / Express Rooms and Gender-Neutral bathrooms
      1. The committee is forming a workgroup to work with Student Services to get this information into the Student Handbook.
      2. Express rooms will also be used for general health concerns.
  • The committee will be doing an inventory of gender-neutral options on campuses.
  1. Meeting with college presidents for early adopters of prayer rooms
  2. Clothing drives
    1. Robin Raborn organized a drive for business clothing; moving forward, there will be vouchers available for this clothing through Career Services.
    2. There will also be campus drives to collect clothing for this need.
  3. Inventory for food pantries
  4. Posted signs in bathrooms about domestic violence
  5. Changing tables
  6. Universal Design Taskforce
    1. If anyone is interested in serving, this would last one semester.

 

  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. Draft for Phase II of the Adjunct Survey
      1. 15 questions that will focus on those looking for FT employment and / or long-term adjuncts
      2. The biggest day for collection will be at Adjunct Orientations. Please also advertise this survey to your Adjuncts.
  • The questions are still in process, so please note any revisions needed, and email them to Charles LaMendola
  1. Bedichek-Orman Auction: Linda Graham and Sheryl Ballard
    1. The suction will be November 1 at West Loop.
  2. Faculty Conference: Debra Schultz and Keitha Robinson – NO REPORT
  3. All-Faculty Retreat: Helen Graham – NO REPORT
  4. HCC Foundation: Antrece Baggett & Mary Lawson
    1. Antrece Baggett: we will ask for complete transparency with the accounts. (See Treasurer’s Report)
    2. The scholarship committee recently agreed to give Erica Hubbard $5100 in order to digitize costumes to be used for a PBS documentary in conjunction with BBC

 

  1. President’s Report: Darin Baskin
    1. 50th anniversary committee
      1. The committee met for the first time; the goal is to try and bring in $50 million from donors
    2. Scholarship changes for streamlining process
      1. There will be a change to the way that scholarships are handled; the writing justification will no longer be a part of the application.
      2. The Foundation is refining the process and ensuring that students apply to specific awards.
    3. Board meeting
      1. Thank you to those who attended the budget meeting. This was the earliest budget approval in the past 15 years.
    4. Employment
      1. There are a lot of interims in high-level positions right now; however, the hiring chill had been lifted, so it’s expected that this will be resolved soon.
      2. Three people turned down FT faculty jobs; these are still in process. The reason they declined was due to salary.
  • Four people in Student Services have been asked to retire; each person has accepted.
  1. Teaching Overloads
    1. This conversation has been renewed and is gaining traction. There is a renewed desire to change the policy from 12 hours to 6 hours – no rationale given at this time for the switch. Helen Graham raises a possible point: meeting with students for office hours is difficult when teaching so many hours. The Senate recognizes that this could be a factor.
      1. Tod Bisch: there was a historical discussion in Compensation about changing the overloads from 12 hours to 9 hours.
      2. David White: When Dr. Beatty wanted to change the overload rules, she was warned it would cause budgetary concerns. Re: it’s less expensive to have FT teaching the courses than to hire new adjuncts.
      3. Robin Raborn: this could affect our FT to Adjunct ratio for SACS accreditation.
    2. Course Redesign
      1. Not too much is known about this, but there is a discussion at higher levels about this possibility. Re: Ensuring the college meets the SACS review
    3. Deeper PeopleSoft integration
      1. There will be changes implemented soon to allow for a more seamless experience.
    4. Master Scheduling team
      1. Norma Perez and Darin Baskin are co-chairs.
    5. Board Meet-and-Greet
      1. We do not need a moderator since this will be off-campus; we are still working on dates, but this could offer an opportunity for us to meet candidates. Details will be forthcoming.

 

  1. Old (unfinished) Business:
    1. 2019-2020 Senate Elections Update- Antrece Baggett
      1. Darin Baskin has not yet sent the list of results via email; he will have it posted soon and has a list for distribution at the meeting.
      2. The results are better than anticipated; the Senate body only needs 8 more delegates to get to full strength.
  • Thank you to Antrece Baggett for all of her work with the election.
  1. New Business:
    1. Grade Justification, Benny Ables
      1. An email trickled down from the Chancellor. It provided a list of departments with faculty who had given “too many” Fs; the message asked for a rationale for the grades.
        1. This is offensive for two reasons.
          1. Someone is checking our grades like this, potentially violating our academic freedom
          2. Someone at a high-level does not know the difference between an FX / F.
        2. The HCC Faculty Senate needs to take a stand on this issue before this leads to something bigger.
          1. Jennifer Vacca agrees that we must take a stand; this administrative stance can lead to grade inflation and will only water down rigor. Everyone in attendance is in agreement that we need to act.
          2. David White discusses and reads the draft of a position paper that was written by Policy and Procedures and Educational Affairs. Laurel Lacroix projects this paper on-screen.
          3. David Ross moves for the adoption of this position paper. Melissa Miller-Waters seconds.
          4. Darin Baskin offers one change to the language. Rather than just directing it to college presidents, add “Associate Vice-Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors” to the paper.
          5. The revision is made; the question is called, and the slightly revised position paper unanimously passes. This will be delivered to the necessary people shortly.
        3. Instructional Leader Concern, Robin Raborn
          1. On July 9, an email was sent from the Associate Vice Chancellor of College Readiness to those reporting under Maria Straus, Dean of College Readiness. The email stated Straus had left HCC; however, another account stated she was fired for weak leadership and non-performance.
          2. Circumstances are still unclear, but there are two issues of note.
            1. Were procedures, in fact, followed here? Does the Senate have a mechanism for looking into this concern?
            2. Is there a 360-evaluation instrument?
              1. Melissa Miller-Waters worked on this evaluation piece; she can look back to it, and hand it over to Dr. Jerome Drain.
  • Alan Ainsworth: after Transformation, we discussed former deans be given the option to go back to former faculty; at the time, some took it, and others didn’t; we should look back to this, though.
  1. The AVC of College Readiness has been actively involved in 7 terminations over the last 2 years.
    1. In order to determine whether procedure was followed in the latest termination and others, David White requests an ad-hoc committee to investigate these dismissals.
    2. Daniel Dylla notes that ad-hoc committees are only valid for one year, so it will need to be renewed in August.
    3. Darin Baskin agrees to the committee and will talk to Desmond Lewis about renewing it for the next year.

 

  1. Announcements:
    1. Leslie Comfort asks Darin Baskin if there are more instructional materials for Ally.
    2. Long-term delegate, Daisy Ngo, is leaving HCC. On July 25, Keitha Robinson notes that there will be a gathering at Eastside Library from 1:30-3:30pm.

 

  1. Adjournment (no “second” required)
    1. The meeting is adjourned at 3:23pm.

 

 

NEXT MEETING: August 2019

1PM at Central’s Learning Hub, Room 100