HCC FACULTY SENATE

March 12, 2021 @ 1 pm; Virtual Meeting

  1. Call to Order: Daniel Dylla
    1. Meeting begins at 1pm
  2. Approval of February 2021 Minutes
    1. Mia Taylor makes a motion to approve the minutes. Seconded by Nikky Boutte-Heiniluoma. The minutes are approved as presented.  
  3. Standing Committee Reports:
  4. Compensation, Benefits, & Workload: Tod Bisch
    1. Compensation Presentation – package to go forward.
      1. Sophie Haci and subcommittee to give this year’s compensation study and recommendations.  
        1. Recommendations from last year were not implemented due to budget.
        1. Goals for 2021
          1. Improve competitiveness with other large urban community colleges and protect against loss of income due to inflation by raising salaries. (Full-time Faculty)
          1. Reward experience, institutional knowledge, and engagement by adding steps at the top of the pay scale. (Full-time Faculty)
          1. Improve competitiveness with other large urban community colleges by raising pay. (Adjunct Faculty) 
            1. HCC is the lowest in the TUCC8 and is below the other two major Houston-area community colleges. 
            1. When accounting for inflation, there has been no real change over the past 5 years.
            1. Cost estimate is about 600K or about .4% of Instructional Services budget; this cost includes overloads, too.
        1. Recommendations
          1. Option 1: overall cost estimate – about $5 million or 3.4% of Instructional Services budget / 1% of total operating expenses.
            1. Add 6 steps to raise top salary and make salary scale more competitive. 
              1. Cost estimate: Max. $1.5 million 
            1. Add 2 steps for all FT faculty to avoid falling further behind, widen the pool of candidates for a more diverse faculty cadre.
              1. Cost estimate: $3.5 million
            1. Increase pay rate for adjunct faculty by 2%. 
              1. Cost estimate: $0.6 million
          1. Option 2: very similar to Option 1 but addresses pay compression. 
            1. Add 6 steps to raise top salary and make salary scale more competitive. 
            1. Add 1 step for all FT faculty to avoid falling further behind.
            1. Raise entire pay scale by 2% to raise entry-level salary, widen the pool of candidates, and achieve a more diverse faculty cadre without pay compression. 
            1. Increase pay rate for adjunct faculty by 2%. 
        1. Next step (after voting) would be to present this package to Chancellor and Marshall Heins. 
          1. Will take a vote in New Business. 
        1. MFA did not make it on to the list of recommendations. Still gathering information.
        1. Will discuss ORP differential with Marshall Heins.  
        1. Letters of Reasonable Assurance will be discussed in Adjunct Caucus report. 
  5. Finance & Treasurer’s Report: Mary Lawson
    1. Discusses the Adjunct Emergency Fund, its process, and future donations.  
  6. Professional Development: Jennifer Vacca
    1. Met on March 9.
      1. Discussed ongoing initiatives.
      1. Still working on professional development data. 
      1. Moving forward with Teaching Excellence Awards. Henry Garcia will co-chair. Planning for Fall 2020 roll-out. 
      1. Reminder about the $2000 professional development funds in Concur. 
    1. Next meeting: April 6 at 4pm
    1. Question
      1. Karen Overton: Concur funding for office supplies not in professional development toolkit – supplies not given by department. Initial answer for Concur funding was no, but could this discussion be revisited?  
        1. This will be discussed with IIED and CTLE. 
  7. Educational Affairs: Nikky Boutte-Heiniluoma
    1. No report
  8. Policies and Procedures: Laurel Lacroix
    1. No report
  9. Student Success: Kathy Najafi
    1. Since the start of the year, the committee has been working on promoting equity. This is still ongoing.
    1. Today, there was an open discussion about student success. Many great things came out of this. 
      1. Definition of Staculty: Stac -ul – ty / an amalgamation of staff and faculty that make up the frontline academic first responders there to provide guidance, institutional knowledge, student engagement, encouragement, guidance to the academic stakeholders of an academic institution.
  10. Graduation: Darin Baskin
    1. No report
  11. Instructional Technology: Stacey Higdon
    1. No report
  12. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Nikky Boutte-Heiniluoma and Mary Lawson
    1. No report
  13. Special Reports, Committees and Caucuses:         
  14. Past Presidents Caucus: David White
    1. No report
  15. Chair Caucus: Nikky Boutte-Heiniluoma
    1. Chair Caucus has been working on summer schedules. In Phase 1 of fall schedules.
    1. Overload policy – questions and comments: send to NBH by March 22
      1. Reminder that nothing has been approved. 
  16. Adjunct Caucus: Charles LaMendola
    1. Letters of Reasonable Assurance
      1. Delayed in Talent Engagement due to Winter Storm Uri. Waiting on formal response from Rodney Nathan about letters – pending 
    1. Thanks to Mary Lawson for discussion about Adjunct Emergency Fund. 
    1. Thanks to Erica Stevens for discussion about Bedichek-Orman. 
    1. Thanks to Jennifer Vacca.
    1. Adjunct Caucus Essay Contest. 
      1. Email will be shared out to department chairs.  
      1. Open call for reviewers – contact Charles LaMendola or Carlos Bohorquez 
      1. Mary Lawson suggested a gift card drive for prize options. If you have unused gift cards, consider donating those to the Caucus.
  17. Bedichek-Orman Auction: Marcelo Gonzalez and Erica Stevens
    1. Working to further promote the event and the fund.  
      1. To apply for funds, go to https://hccsfacultysenate.com/grants/
      1. Max award is $500. Multiple applications are allowed to reach that sum. 
    1. November 6 auction. Hope is for in-person, but there will also be a virtual component. 
    1. Next meeting: April 2 at 4pm. 
  18. Faculty Senate Conference: Keitha Robinson and Debra Schultz
    1. The conference was successful with sessions March 1 – 4 from 7 – 8pm each night. 
    1. Recordings will be available soon.
  19. HCC Foundation: Antrece Baggett & Mary Lawson
    1. No report. Foundation scholarship applications are still ongoing: 
      1. https://www.hccsfoundation.org/annualscholarship
  20. Concourse Update: Karen Saenz
    1. F8B pilot is moving forward. Thanks to all who are participating and who assisted on the planning team. About 100 sections overall. 
      1. Surveys will go out at the end of the first week to instructional leaders / faculty to determine what improvements need to happen. 
      1. Will also provide a survey link to faculty for students. 
  21. President’s Report: Daniel Dylla
    1. Board updates
      1. Dual Credit maintains the status quo.
      1. Budget Update – proposal in April.    
      1. Special Meeting today at 3pm.
        1. “Approve Engagement of Firm to Investigate Complaint Against Board Member.” 
    1. Chancellor Updates 
      1. Transfer credit to 4-year-schools
        1. Area for improvement
      1. Grade distributions vs rigor
    1. President Updates
      1. Chair Elections
        1. Two items: CV and Letter of Intent (350 words)
      1. Overload Workgroup 
      1. Presented the resolution about faculty protection
        1. One proposed change: Maxient report filed by student is currently addressed by Student Services Dean. Working to move this to the relevant Instructional Services Dean (more familiar with protocol).
  22. Old (unfinished) Business:
    1. None
  23. New Business:
    1. Compensation package vote (no second needed)
      1. Point of Privilege, Daniel Dylla: Senate should vote Yea or Nay for one of the two options.
        1. Tod Bisch prefers presenting both options to administration. 
      1. The Senate thanks Sophie Haci and the subcommittee for all the work on this presentation.
      1. The Compensation package passes to move forward to administration. 
    1. Resolution, Mary Lawson 
      1. M. Lawson presents a resolution that acknowledges the work of Talent Engagement and IT in setting up the Joyce Roberta “JR” Miller-Alper Emergency Fund for Adjunct Faculty.
      1. Seconded by Mia Taylor and others.
      1. There is some discussion on the floor. 
        1. Alan Ainsworth moves to close discussion. The motion carries.       
  24. Announcements
    1. Nikky Boutte-Heiniluoma: Faculty Senate Elections – call for nominations begins on Monday 22. Continues to April 9.
      1. Two rounds of voting will take place after that.  
    1. Karen Overton: which committee is working on the Faculty Bill of Rights? Who is the chair? 
      1. Laurel Lacroix is the chair, and Policies and Procedures will meet the Thursday after Spring Break to investigate the viability of a Bill of Rights and an ad-hoc for it. 
    1. David White: Deborah Hardwick has passed away and will be missed.
      1. Anna Koshy reports the passing of another colleague.
    1. Advanced Colloquium meets at 7:30pm via Zoom. 
    1. Jennifer Vacca: Adjunct Academy Graduation will be virtual on April 29 at 6pm virtual. Email J. Vacca if you would like to offer words of encouragement or a video. 
    1. West Houston Institute applications are forthcoming. 
    1. Laurel Lacroix: HCC faculty qualify as teachers for the vaccine because of embedded dual credit and Early College  
  25. Adjournment (no “second” required)
    1. Mia Taylor moves to adjourn at 2:26pm.

NEXT MEETING: April 9, 2021

1 pm – Virtual