HCC FACULTY SENATE

June 9 @ 1:00 pm

 

  1. Call to Order – Melissa Miller-Waters
    1. Meeting called to order at 1:04pm

 

  1. Conversation with Chancellor Maldonado and Dr. Kurt Ewan
    1. Chancellor Maldonado (CM)
      1. Thanks for allowing me to brief you on transformation in terms of metrics. We started this trek in December of 2014. As I travel to other institutions, I see the term “transformation” commonly. I see it as more than just reorganization. Transformation requires cultural change. Certainly there are small changes that can be made initially, but transformation requires a deep change in how we view ourselves. The underlying alignment shifts, particularly when you are working with an institution this size, takes years. Along the way we should be able to measure the incremental improvements. We want to see what the trend is.
        1. Culture of Quality – how did we interpret quality? How many of you have been at a restaurant and you notice a lipstick imprint on a cup? Its not deliberate but it is a common occurrence. I stopped by Black Walnut Café and the cashier grabbed a cup, saw the lipstick, and then took the initiative to get a clean cup. That’s an example of taking responsibility for quality. When a student comes in the door, its quality responsiveness that is important. Dr. Ewan has described students as investors and they expect a return. We are not giving degrees away; they have to earn them. There might be some students that come for just a piece of paper; but those people didn’t learn so they will probably not be successful. We want to create educated learners and completers.
        2. Solid foundation (aka planning)
          1. Primacy of purpose
          2. Organizational alignment
        3. Priorities – what we are doing now we want to work for 25 years
          1. Finances
          2. Operations
          3. Policies
          4. Structure
        4. Knowns and unknowns
          1. Donald Rumsfeld developed the idea of “knowns and unknowns”
            1. (Showed video about knowns and unknowns)
            2. “We know what we know and we don’t know what we don’t know.” But the most interesting part of this matrix are unknown knowns – that is: information that we didn’t know we knew.
          2. When I started in 2014, I knew that enrollment was trending down, dual credit was trending down, and 2/10 faculty would not recommend HCC to their families.
          3. Known unknowns – how good were we on our bond? Quickly learned at we were over budget on bond projects, we had a budget shortfall, and we were dropping too many calls at the call center.
          4. Performance barriers
            1. Very few people thought that money was an issue at HCC, but in my first meetings everyone wanted to talk about this.
          5. Unknown knowns
            1. No culture of trust, not consistent, little collaboration, little accountability, innovation, passion (This is what we said about ourselves)
            2. In the first 12 months, 9 top administrators left HCC. This was a leadership team in distress. At the same time, I was trying to get to know faculty and staff. When I reflect on this, it was stressful just to remember what the days were like. I lived here for seven months before my wife moved here. I had a mattress on the floor, a nice TV, a speaker, and some basic necessities. I spent almost every waking moment engrossed in HCC and learning as much as I could.
          6. The Case for Transformation – establishing a sense of urgency
            1. Employee morale
            2. Equity and fairness
            3. Financial risk management
            4. Budgeting
            5. Cost consciousness
            6. Product positioning
            7. Customer relations
          7. Clear vision
            1. Important to have a clear vision, leverage our scale, align priorities across system, and to create opportunities to be more innovative.
          8. Strategic plan – we want every faculty and staff member to know the pillars of this plan. If you ride in the elevator at 3100 Main with me, I will ask you to name one! Use your own stories and experience to tell others about what HCC is about.
            1. Student success
            2. Organizational stewardship
            3. Performance excellence
            4. Innovation
          9. The HCC Vision – narrowed down to the phrase “The Ultimate Student Experience”. This was misunderstood by some; they thought that this was a call to reduce rigor. That’s not true. The piece of paper you get when you leave HCC is the least important thing; the important thing is the set of skills that students get. We are moving in the direction of helping the student succeed across multiple institutions.
          10. Organizational alignment – functional view
            1. In order to deliver value in the classroom, there needs to be an empowerment zone that allows managers to make decisions without having to ask the people at the very top every time. (The value zone is supported by the empowerment zone)
            2. I like this system because it is not a typical organizational chart. Instead people can collaborate between divisions and departments within the college to help students succeed.
            3. We are working to get to a cybernetic system model where we are all working together simultaneously. If I put my hand on a hot plate while I am talking, my body will not wait for me to stop talking before it signals the hand to move. Instead, different parts of the body work independently to reach a single goal
          11. Progress
            1. We no longer have major budget overruns. We will probably be a little over budget for next year, but nothing like other institutions around the area. We are working to ensure that the third year of the faculty compensation improvement plan enacted. This is our number one priority.
            2. Our overall graduate trend is upward. We are placing students in jobs and transfer schools
            3. There is an uptick in Fall enrollments (downward trend has stopped)
            4. Dual credit enrollment is up significantly.
            5. More faculty and staff recommend HCC to friends and family (90%).
            6. Forty percent of calls were being dropped at the call center in 2014; today we are dropping only 10% of the calls. We have empowered employees
            7. Technical placement rate – 63% of technical graduates are employed (compared to 74% in previous year). However, the percentage of students who are employed and enrolled concurrently has gone up. So we are doing well at placing and educating students
          12. Challenge persistence
            1. Out of every 10 students who start 8th grade in Texas, only 2 finish college. These numbers cannot sustain our economy. We need to improve college graduation to for ourselves and our community.
            2. In 2013, 81% of Hispanics surveyed in Kinder survey believed that higher education was important. That number has dropped to 58% in the most recent survey. This downward trend has been seen in all racial groups. Half of our community does not think that higher ed is necessary. Over 60% of jobs require a college degree, however.
            3. “The refinery business has gone from being about pumps and values to being about knowledge and technology” – Todd Monett, plant manager, Lyondell Basell.
            4. Our rigor cannot be at peak efficiency without faculty. Whatever tools you need, please let us know so that we can support you.
  • Thank you and I look forward to giving more updates in the Fall
  1. Kurt Ewan (KE) – Making decisions with data
    1. Is there data that gives us a glimpse into how our students are doing under transformation?
    2. Descriptive visual analytics – helps for us to do some data analysis on total populations. We are looking into developing predictive analytic tools to help us forecast potential problems that students might face. This changes the way that we use data
      1. Typically, in discussions about data, it takes weeks to collate and then it can’t be manipulated easily. We want to move beyond this so that we can have more dynamic conversations.
  • The story begins with where our students are coming from. Data from 2011 to 2016 shows that 74% of students are college ready when they come in.
  1. The success rate for students in their first fall semester at HCC has remained fairly stable, but when you break it down by Pell status, you see that recipients tend to be less successful. First fall success is not widely different by gender, even accounting for racial differences. These numbers are fairly stable
  2. In the top 15 courses with highest enrollment at HCC, the success rates have been increasing since 2012. In my opinion, this is the result of broad transformational reform. Students seem to know better why they are in the classes that they are in.
    1. Phillip Tussing: have you looked at a baseline for how rigorous courses are and whether that has impacted student success and how well students are actually making gains in learning? Answer: I tend to take it as a given that faculty make classes rigorous. We need better data on student knowledge. This is more of a question for faculty.
    2. Phillip Tussing – the institution needs to determine answers to these questions to support faculty.
    3. KE: if a student is successful in their first 5 classes, then their success/completion rate is significantly higher.
    4. Wendy Alexander- where can we access this data? Good question; we are working on making this available to everyone.
    5. Shawn Anderson – do these numbers include dual enrollment? No.
  3. When looking at “gateway math success” it seems that our numbers are pretty good (the only downward trend is African American students success in gateway math classes).
  • Persistence – Fall-Spring and Fall-Fall persistence is strong and increasing slightly over time. There is general improvement across the board. I think that we are approaching a tipping point.
  • Rates of awards in 2 years and 4 year: percentage of students who receive awards in 2 years is low (9%) and in 4 years (22%) is low and there is a lot of work to do, but data is suggesting that there are positive signs and there will be more to come.
  1. In the Fall, I am going to do data explorations at different campuses that are interactive. Thank you for your time.
  1. Questions for the Chancellor
    1. Melissa Miller Waters – can you give an update on the process of getting a new VCIS? The position will be posted within a week; it will be a national search that will take about 6 months. I have not appointed an interim VCIS yet. It is important to focus on our alignment success. We might delay a few of the new initiatives.
    2. Darin Baskin – Can we get a more diverse body of faculty and staff on the selection committee for the VCIS? Answer: I will take that into consideration. We won’t form a committee until we are much farther along in the process. The type of person that we are looking for probably won’t be looking for a job, so we will have to work with consultants to find good people. People like Dr. Ewan have come here because of the positive press we have been getting for transformation. So we will attract top talent. It might be as late as the end of the spring 2018 before we have a new VCIS. We don’t want to rush it and choose the wrong person. The process that brought in Dr. Beatty was lengthy and required going deep into the pool of applicants.
  • Nathan Smith – Our Talent Engagement (TE) department recently underwent a name change; I asked if there were any substantive changes that went along with that, and was told no. I was surprised by that; since there are little issues (faculty are still assigned to a campus, chairs are assigned to the campus of their deans, mail is routed to the wrong place). Why has Talent Engagement not seen substantial change? I think that we are not making the kinds of offers necessary to bring in the best talent. Answer: Changes in Talent Engagement are ongoing; there are changes that are being discussed that have not been rolled out yet. TE exists to support the success of students. We are not yet at the place where we are going with TE. There are still some procedures grounded in the old way. We are gradually changing it. Thing like just changing the signage costs lots of money, so it takes a while. The problem of mail being incorrectly routed should not exist in 2017. I should be able to sign documents from my phone. These issues are on the radar screen, but we are not there yet. You should feel confident that TE will get to where we want it to. Please keep letting me know about these issues. I understand the issues that you are going through; although some of these changes seems simple, they are often not and cost lots of money and take time to implement.
    1. Charlotte Hamilton – With regards to TE, part of the problem is a lack of clarity of communication. Moving forward I hope that we can work on clarification. CM: I hope to do it sooner rather than later. A lot of that is training.
  1. David White – I was very heartened when you talked about some things having a sense of urgency. We hit on that in talking about success rates and rigor. I have been the self-appointed champion of rigor. There are some issues that many of senate feel need to be moved forward, even while we search for a new VCIS. A thorough search is good, but we are worried that some of these initiatives will be indefinitely delayed. Referring specifically to: academic integrity reporting system to ensure rigor. CM: It’s a bandwidth issue. We are not going to stop developing initiatives (we have 180 right now). Priorities are not going to stop. The “nice to have” initiatives might be delayed.
    1. We are working on starting a Project Management department to make sure that projects get done and to manage the process. We need structure to ensure that goals are set and met. For example, when you look at the challenges to the travel process, there is no structure for timelines or goals. Without a deadline, things don’t get done. If we knew what the priorities were for the entire organization, we would be better at scheduling our time. We need reports to give us information. All of things we are talking about are getting done; we just need a system to keep us updated on dates and results. This will allow us to be supporting of people working on those projects. Regarding rigor, I have already volunteered to have some of our faculty work with the THECB to work on the problem. If we can fix the rigor, common course numbering systems will come into play.
    2. MMW – The educational affairs committee has a new definition of rigor for the senate to consider today.
  2. Observation: thank you for the positive advertising regarding HCC. CM: we are playing the long game. It will take us a while to get back on top. When I first started, it was hard to get anyone in the legislature to talk to us. Today it is significantly different. I will wear an HCC shirt or cap anywhere I can. When I get stopped and someone asks about it, I try to recruit everywhere I go. That luster is starting to return to our logo. Faculty are my engineers; but we have to be able to sell regardless of how good we are. I’m sad to see that Dr. Beatty is leaving; the literature shows that high performing teams only stick together for about 3 years. She is going to do great things in Kansas City.
  3. David Ross – I wanted to provide a little feedback on one initiative that possibly may be underappreciated. $2000 professional development allowance; it is hard to express how different this makes professional development. I can’t think of a single change that has changed the status quo at HCC. It used to be that money was distributed in many different pots that put up obstacles to development. We now have a system that encourages professional development. Thank you for doing this; please pass that on to Dr. Beatty. I hope that her successor follows this precedent. CM: Everything that happens around here has champions. I will let her know.

 

  • Approval of May 2017 Minutes – Scotty Moore
    1. Approved at written

 

  1. Treasurer’s Report – Melissa Miller-Waters
    1. Numbers are the same from last month. The person at the Foundation who gives us numbers is currently out of town. Part of the expense for David Wilcox’s reception have been reimbursed.
    2. Planning to close out our BO travel accounts at the end of next week. Please let people know about this.

 

  1. Standing Committee Reports
  2. Compensation, Benefits, Workload – no meeting
    1. Adjunct Affairs—no meeting
  3. Finance –no report
  4. Professional Development –Helen Graham
    1. Faculty Retreat was a huge success. We had many skeptics, but there was wide praise from attendees. One of attendees has run in the Boston Marathon and really enjoyed the experience.
      1. Testimony – it was a great experience; we learned about what each other did. We had several faculty members from different content areas. Everything was positive.
    2. The Faculty Excellence Awards – top three professors have been selected; letters will go out soon.
    3. Procedural manuals are being developed for all departments
    4. Cruise conference proposal – just started talking about this. Considering a 5-day cruise to Cozumel. We have a shell of an agenda. More information will be forthcoming.
  5. Educational Affairs – MMW
    1. Definition of rigor: A set of common standards that promotes critical thinking while providing knowledge and skills which will allow students to explore and analyze course content and challenge themselves in their learning process.
      1. David Ross – there is not much in that definition that meets my criteria for rigor?
      2. Shawn Anderson – this is just talking about existing standards
  • Dan Flores – this seems overly vague.
  1. Wendy Alexander – this has no teeth to it. At a departmental meeting, we talked about how we assess rigor. We need something with teeth.
  2. Any rigor should ensure that students be prepared for classes. MMW – you can have a very rigorous developmental course and a rigorous honors college course
  1. MMW – I will contact co-chairs and we will revisit it. Let’s all work to make a stronger version. They have done a lot of work.
    1. Tod Bisch – send this as a Word Document so that we can track changes.
  2. Policies and Procedures—MMW
    1. Still hoping to finish the comprehensive handbook that will be ready by the Fall
    2. They will help Mohammad Tlass in coming up with a syllabus statement regarding campus carry
  3. Student Success – no report
  4. Graduation – Darin Baskin
    1. Thank you to all those who showed up to graduation. All four were a success. The only hiccup were those colleagues who came, signed in, and left. Some faculty didn’t register for any graduation but showed up anyway. This affected the AM graduation because we had more faculty than chairs. Please encourage your colleagues to register for graduation and attend the one your register.
      1. David White – I note that our employment agreement still does not say that we must come to graduation. Are we going to have to deal with this next year? Darin: I don’t think that this is going to change. The people on the executive graduation committee will probably be the same, so I don’t expect any change.
        1. Tod Bisch – its not on the contract, but it is in the documents that are linked by the letter. Regarding registration; that process was broken and did not work for all faculty.
      2. Pamela Norwood-Todd: were the faculty who showed up and left immediately stopped or questioned in any way? There were people who showed up without regalia who clearly had no intention to stay. DB: hopefully this will change.
  • How is it known that people aren’t staying? Some people came after graduation started, signed in, and then immediately left.
  1. David Ross: one solution would be to have them sign in while they are waiting in line rather than when they first show up. Darin Baskin: the other possibility would be to have people sign in as they leave.
  2. David Ross: there was discussion in the past about whether we should have one or two graduations. I am now a firm believer in the two-graduation system. There are too many graduates to cram them into one graduation.
  1. GED is going to re-merged with regular Saturday graduation.
    1. David Ross: let’s not do that.
    2. Darin Baskin: the GED graduation is going to outgrow Central’s facilities by next year. There are logistical issues because that graduation requires a significant number of rooms in the Learning Hub and San Jac building and blocks off parking spaces at Central. It would just be easier to integrate it into regular graduations.
  • Melba Martin – its an excellent opportunity for GED students to see the other HCC graduates. It provides motivation.
  1. Tod Bisch – what is the seating capacity estimate for the next GED graduation? Darin Baskin: probably about 800. This includes GED students from school districts in the area who receive invitations.
  1. Comment about speakers at graduation: they were all well-timed. Darin Baskin: we worked until 11:30 the night before to make the event work smoothly.
  2. MMW – next year if you are senator, please consider working with Darin. He needs two key partners. We also need people to train to replace him if he should choose not to continue.
  3. MMW – We had 640 faculty members attend one of the graduations. This was the most faculty involvement ever in a graduation.
  4. MMW – after grades are due, the Registrar runs reports on which sections have not turned in completed grades (there were 88 late sections [less than 1% of sections]). Some administrators think this is unacceptable; we think that it is pretty amazing. This is going to be a conversation every semester.
    1. Charles Newton – there used to be a 1 step approval process, but now it is 2. Rod McBane – If you approve grades, they will automatically post
    2. David White – electronic gradebooks might be a solution. There is no reason why it takes so long for faculty to go through the grade process.
  • Do late section submissions affect graduation? No
  1. Instructional Technology –Stacey Higdon
    1. No meeting this summer but I hope to have an update on Phase 2 of grade change by next month.

 

  1. Special Committees and Caucuses
  2. Past Presidents – David White
    1. We agreed that we would like to have lunch with Mohammad later in the summer.
  3. Chair Caucus—Nathan Smith
    1. We have elected a new chair: Nikki Boutte-HeinIluoma. We will meet next week.
    2. MMW – Thank you Nathan for your tireless service.
  4. Faculty Conference—no report

 

  • Delegation Reports
  1. Central Locations – Leslie Comfort and Genny Stevens
    1. Delegation met on June 2 and had a presentation from HCC Central Librarians Marlinda Karo, Rumela Bose, and Len Cazares who provided information about library services
      1. “One Button Studios” at Spring Branch (and soon to be at Central) that will allow faculty to record presentations. Charlotte Hamilton: Correction: There is also one at NE.
      2. They are developing a “maker space” for building and creating
  • Live webinars this summer – career research, finding library databases, finding books/eBooks
  1. Over 175,000 eBooks
  2. Online library tutorials
  3. Skills Workshops for students on different facets of the library and APA /MLA formatting
  • At Central, the SGA and Honors College have worked through the Library Advisory Council to set up a textbook lending library fo students. These texts can be checked out for the entire semester
  • Libguides – designed specifically for classes
  1. Canvas links – streaming videos, How-to-Videos, instruction on how to link
  2. Library orientations are not just for freshman classes. You can arrange a library tour for a class or you can have a librarian visit you in your classroom.
  3. Each department now has a library liaison. That librarian can help make sure that you have the library books, databases, and other resources available for your students.
  • Librarians are available to attend departmental meetings.
  1. Coleman – no report
  2. Southeast Locations – no report
  3. Southwest Locations–Stafford Rep: Helen Graham
  4. June 16th – Juneteeth Celebration at new Missouri City campus.
  5. Remember to edit your syllabi to include information on campus carry
  6. P-Card training must be completed by end of July or you will lose access
  7. Blue Cross/ Blue Shield will be our new healthcare provider.
  8. Northeast Locations
  9. Northwest Locations – no report

 

  • President’s Report – Melissa Miller-Waters
  1. Updates from Chancellor and Board
  2. Updates from VC Dr. Beatty
  3. No word on interim VCIS.
  4. When is Dr. Beatty’s last day? July 30
  5. Travel procedures should be in place by September 1. David White: the big thing is that we don’t want to roll out anything that isn’t complete. We are still revising the rules on who approves travel.
  6. Mohamad Tlass – there should be a hotline to call if SuTac cards don’t work. MMW: under the new system this should go away.
  7. Misc

Barnes and Noble is working on a widget to go in Canvas shells that will allow them to order books directly from B&N. Hope is that it will be available in Fall

. Kick off meeting – Tuesday 2:00pm in San Jac building Dean’s Office 243 for Diversity and Inclusion meeting

  1. My hope is that we will get some training in developing apps for phones. More information at the beginning of the fall
  2. Alan and Ritu in their work with the finance committee are working to create wording to create funds for emergencies
  3. July 14th is our scheduled next meeting (also a quarterly strategic planning meeting at West Loop on that day). The senate has been invited. Are you interested? (Widespread agreement). I will let them know that we will participate. Tod Bisch: is there a room we can use there for the senate meeting immediately after.
  4. Other updates
    1. Still no way to get ID badges at NW

 

  1. Unfinished Business
    1. none

 

  1. New Business
    1. none

 

  1. Announcements
    1. David White – grab a tomato
    2. Shawn Anderson – The Reading Cultures committee have chosen “Like Water for Chocolate” for the fall. There will be film showings, readings, etc. If you have any ideas for Mexican cultural presentations, please let us know. This is a scholarship opportunity for students.
      1. There are 3 scholarships that are given out by this group.

 

  • Adjournment
    1. 3:21 pm.

 

NEXT MEETING:  July 14, 2017 at WEST LOOP CAMPUS