Meeting of
Approved Minutes
(Please note: General interest issues or meetings & notifications are listed below in bold to allow them to be located more easily.)
Also note: Original minutes were taken by Treasurer Jim Daugherty (THANK YOU!) due to illness of Secretary. Minutes were edited and formatted by Secretary Pam Nelson prior to distribution.
I.
General
A.
Call to Order: A
quorum being present, President Carmela Arnoldt called the meeting to order at
B. Introduction of Guests – including, but not limited to: Ruth Callahan, Gay Garesché, Frank González, Lyle Walcott, Susan High, Carlos Núñez, Joseph Bednorz, Edgar Johnson, Gabriel Cruz, (MeCHa). Jim Hamilton (President Adjunct Faculty)
Guest
Interim: Gabriel Cruz: Discussion of Walter Kehowski’s e-mails and
web content related to the improper use of MCCCD resources. Item to be addressed under Information item B,
today’s agenda.
C. The
proposed meeting agenda was adopted as amended.
Course-level
assessment as an information item requested by Gay Garesché.
D. Approval of minutes suspended until next meeting due to illness of Secretary.
E. Jim Daugherty reported a balance of
$13,953.78 for all accounts.
F. President Arnoldt reported:
·
Requirement Of Certification of Mental Health Professionals
will be discussed with FA attorney Mike Napier.
·
First Right of Refusal; First Consideration is
being considered for those faculty who prefer teaching all day sections, vs day
and evening or just evening sections.
·
Administrative Dean interviews will take place next Friday
October 31and the following Monday Nov. 3.
·
Equality of Pay for Department Secretaries statement was
forwarded to GCC President Phil Randolph and MCCCD Chancellor Rufus Glasper.
·
Board Retreat: Dr.
Randolph has been instrumental in capturing another $3 million, ear-marked for
GCC North, and the revision of the formula for distribution of funds.
G. FEC Report – Vice-President Griggs reported:
·
Meet and Confer and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
efforts are underway.
·
A “common look” is in the process of being designed for
Faculty Association documents.
·
Lobbyist, Public Relations, and Legal consultants are
working closely together.
·
FEC seeks additional home e-mail addresses of Faculty
Association members to enable contact about legislative issues.
·
Instructional Councils:
Curriculum issues need to be generated by the faculty process and not by
District.
·
Though not necessarily objecting to the individual selected,
concern from some in the Hispanic community has been voiced about process used
for selection of new Chancellor; FEC will try to meet with concerned groups.
·
49% still under discussion, with attempts to keep the
program at campus level but have it guaranteed to some extent, perhaps tiered
according to number of years of service.
H. Governing Board Report. President Arnoldt reported:
· A Board decision for Bond Action must be made by May 2004.
II. Old Business
A. Retirement & Health Insurance –Arnoldt for Doug Dawson
Given that ASRS may require school
districts to continue to provide insurance benefits for retirees, a District
decision has not be made--this item will remain on agenda until some resolution
is determined.
B. College Plan:
Department Chairs Evaluation - Carl Samuels.
·
Senate discussed potential problems with current process.
·
Vice-President
John Griggs moved “to form an ad hoc
committee to examine the text of the College Plan.” Motion was seconded.
·
Discussion followed. Motion passed unanimously.
·
Senate members of the Committee will be Fernando García, Bob
Hubbard, and Jim Reed. Jim Daugherty
will chair the committee. Additional
members may be added at a later date at the committee’s will.
C. GCC Standing Committees/ Committee Assignment Review Subcommittee – Hubbard
· Senate members discussed continuing inequality in committee assignments and the difficulties in determining or considering term-limits for membership on certain committees. This lead to a broader discussion of the need to review and revise the Senate Constitution, as well as revisiting other GCC documents that contain descriptions of committee selection processes.
·
Senator
Hubbard moved that an ad hoc committee
be formed to revisit the Senate Constitution for the purpose of updating it and
making it internally consistent.
Motion was seconded and discussion followed.
·
Topics of particular interest, in addition to committee
selection, that necessitate examination include electronic voting, whether
Officers are Senators, etc.
·
Motion passed
unanimously.
·
Committee is charged with revisiting, updating, and making
the Faculty Senate Constitution both internally and externally consistent,
especially as related to Committee Assignments.
·
Senate members on the committee will be Jim Reed (Chair),
Jim Daugherty, Dianna Dwyer, and Fernando García. Additional members may be added at a later
date at the committee’s will.
D. 12-Month Pay for Faculty - Dwyer
·
Discussion between FEC President Willie Minor and Dr.
Glasper has made it possible that the District should be able to implement this
option by July 1, 2004.
E. Selection Process for future PBAC for 2003—Arnoldt
·
History of process thus far:
Original list consisted of 10 people, plus three Senate Nominees. The list was developed by Senate President
Arnoldt in consultation with GCC President Randolph, mainly to answer questions
about faculty he may not have known well.
·
Explanation of new PBAC Committee: PBAC is a “think tank;”
it will not re-order priorities submitted to it by the other committees.
·
Discussion followed about selection process and how Senate
should be involved in that process. The motion was made “that the Senate approve the
list of 10 potential candidates and that President Arnoldt forward 5 names to
President Randolph.” The motion was
seconded. During discussion, Jim
Daugherty withdrew his name from consideration.
Motion passed with Senator
Samuels voting Nay, all other Senators present voting yea, and no Abstentions.
·
President Arnoldt will submit 5 of the 10 approved names to
Dr. Randolph for final PBAC representatives; four will serve on PBAC.
F. Scholarship Committee Report - Griggs
·
Scholarship Committee will reconvene and prepare a report
before the end of the fall semester.
III.
New Business
A. GCC Senate Constitution Committee – As above in II. C.
B.
Selection Process for future PBAC representation – Arnoldt
·
President Arnoldt requested that Senators submit a one or
two sentence recommendation for selecting members of this committee so that a
process could be developed.
C.
Senate Resignation - Samuels
·
President Arnoldt informed Senate that Cate McNamara has
tendered her resignation due to time constraints.
·
Senator Samuels distributed “Senate Resignation and other
issues.”
·
Senator
Samuels moved:
“that the GCC Faculty Senate affirm and make a solemn
commitment to:
i.
Read,
understand, uphold and abide by the GCC Faculty Senate Constitution,
ii.
Acknowledge
that an orderly process for change exists in the GCC Faculty Senate
Constitution,
iii.
Acknowledge
that the GCC Faculty Senate is the fundamental, basic, primary and most
important legitimate source of advice and suggestions for the President of the
GCC faculty Senate,
iv.
Rely on the
Senate’s established precedents, practices, procedures and policies.”
·
Motion was seconded for discussion purposes.
·
Discussion followed.
Several senators expressed dismay at the tone and innuendo in the
motion, and asserted that they didn’t need “a loyalty oath” to continue to
perform their Senatorial duties faithfully. Senator Daugherty noted that the motion was
internally inconsistent in that many of the Senates “established precedents,
practices, procedures and policies” are in conflict with the Constitution;
therefore part iv of the motion was in conflict with part i.
·
Motion was
defeated with Senator Samuels voting yea, nine nays and two abstentions.
·
Upon defeat of the motion, Senator Samuels made his
resignation official and left the meeting.
·
With this action, the Senate declared two vacancies. An
election committee was established to run a special election to fill the two
empty seats. Senator Dwyer will
chair the committee. Senator Wingersky
will be the 2nd official Senate representative. Non-Senate members of the committee will be
Lyle Walcott, Susan High and Ruth Callahan.
D.
PSA services on Faculty hiring - Arnoldt
·
By consensus, topic was moved from Information C. to New
Business D. Question: Does allowing a
PSA employee to sit on a Faculty Hiring Committee violate GCC precedent?
·
Senator Hubbard made the following motion: “Move
that hiring committees for residential Faculty should consist of only
residential faculty and the appropriate dean.” Motion seconded. Motion
passed unanimously.
IV.
Information
A.
October Holiday Weekend—Reavis
Faculty member has requested consideration of establishing an October holiday. Topic will be moved to New Business for next meeting.
B.
Memo Usage –Arnoldt.
Senate reaffirmed our commitment to diversity as stated in both President Randolph’s and Chancellor Glasper’s recent public statements on diversity.
C.
PSA services on Faculty hiring – Arnoldt
-- See III. D. above
D. Course Assessment - Garesché
·
Garesché raised the possibility of inconsistent application
of course-level assessment at different MCCCD colleges.
Jim Hamilton, Adjunct Faculty Association President, spoke briefly to thank Senate for the opportunity to attend the meeting. Senators thanked our adjunct colleagues for their good work on Adjunct Faculty issues.
Meeting was adjourned at 5:15pm.
Next meeting of the GCC Faculty Senate will be held on
December 4th at 2:30 pm (scheduled time falls on Thanksgiving).