RSCC Faculty Senate Minutes
Friday,
September 22, 2006, 2:30 p.m.
1.
Attendance:
President: Bruce Fisher
Sub Council Rep: Betty Denison
Business/Technology: George Meghabghab, Dave Rath
Health Science: Jeremy
Keough, Marianna Mabry, Marty Young
Nursing: Juliana
Powers,
Humanities: Joette Waddle, Curtis Currie, Sarah Thomason, Jesse
Williams
Math Science: Pat
Bailey, Pat Brown, Jill Denton, Saeed Rahanian,
Lauri Sammartano
Social/ Behavioral Science: John
Thomas, Val Herd, Dan Hyder
2. Approval of Minutes: The minutes of the meeting of April 28, 2006, were
approved with
some minor spelling and grammatical corrections.
3. Election of Vice President:
Pat Wurth was nominated and elected by
acclamation.
4. Election of Secretary: No
one was nominated during the meeting. It
had been reported during the
meeting that Don Windham would serve as
secretary if no one wanted to do it.
After the meeting Lauri Sammartano
volunteered to be considered for the
job of secretary. Bruce Fisher will
circulate a ballot by e-mail asking
for the selection of Lauri Sammartano
as the new Secretary of
Faculty Senate. The results of this ballet will be
published by e-mail.
5. Comments by Dave Rath: Dave expressed his appreciation to the Senate
for being
selected as the Benroth Award winner for last year.
6. Report from Faculty Sub
Council: Betty Denison reported about the July
Sub Council Meeting.
She reported that a Task Force had been appointed
to look into
problems with publishers and book stores. The problem is
that publishers
are marketing new editions of texts too quickly with only
minor changes to
the book. This causes problems for students who need
to purchase used
texts and some other problems. The task Force will look
into this
problem.
Another Task Force has been appointed to
look into Faculty workload
with respect to
lab teaching and the workload credit given for labs.
A Developmental Studies Task Force was
appointed to look at that curriculum.
The issue of Software Licensing was
discussed. It was reported to the
committee that
faculty who install software on their office computers or
any computers
that they use may be liable for any problems the software
might cause to
the computer or the system. There was discussion of who
at the college
or university should be responsible for approving the
installation of
software onto a computer.
The next item came from the Chancellor as
a “heads up.” He said
that a
change is coming in the way classes will be taught. It
will differ from the
existing method
we use now. In fact there is a pilot project going on at
Austin Peay and 2 other universities. The Austin Peay project involves
Developmental Math.
The instructors now are assigned to times in
developmental
math lab. They are responsible for teaching any student
who comes into
the lab during that time, instead of having a separate
class in which
they are responsible for only those students in that section.
It is a “Modular Approach.” More
information will follow in time.
7. Discussion of the
President’s White Paper: The Senate was Asked by Dr.
Goff to review the White Paper that he
presented during our professional
development this
Fall. He wanted us to discuss it and consider endorsing
it. The senate
members will revisit this document and discuss it next
meeting. At that
time they will consider endorsing it. Or, if need be,
invite the
President to the meeting to discuss it with the Senate.
8. Appointment of members to
Academic and Curriculum Council: The
following members
were appointed to the Council: Math/Science, Bruce
Fisher; Nursing, Juliana Powers;
Humanities, Curtis Currie; Business,
Jean Trentham;
Health Sciences, Janet Neely; Scott Teeter respectfully
declined serving
on the Council. Bruce Fisher will ask Chris Whaley to
select someone
from Social/Behavioral Science to serve on the Council.
9. Appointment of members to
the Promotion and Tenure Committee
Social/Behavioral Science, John Thomas;
Humanities, Sarah Thomason;
Math/Science, Pat Brown; Business, George Meghabghab; Health
Science, Marty Young; Nursing, Bill West.
10. IDEA Evaluation and Process:
Since the Senate approved the pilot
project using the
IDEA evaluation process, the Senate felt that they
should keep track
of the process and how it proceeds. There was some
concern about the
need for large numbers of students responding to make
the evaluation
statistically valid. There was also some concern about
every division
being forced to select only three criteria upon which to be
evaluated and no
more. These criteria will apply to all faculty members
teaching a
course. There was some worry about doing the evaluation this
way as it might
lead to negative comparisons between faculty members in
a division. Betty
Denison will asked Dr. Roberson-Scott about the
statistics. Bruce
Fisher will check with Dr. King about the
rationale for
selecting just three criteria and the use of those three for all
faculty in a
division. Reports will be made to the Senate at the next
meeting.
11. The topics of quality
control for web classes, Saturday and night class
exam times, and
adjunct faculty salaries were tabled till next meeting.
12. The next Faculty Senate
meeting will be Friday, October 20, 2006, 2:30
p.m. at the
Senators by e-mail.
13.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 p.m.