PVCC FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
Disclaimer

Members Present:   Tom Butler, Muriel Coil, Marilyn Cristiano, Mitzi Ferrell, Jeanne Franco, Abby Hemingway, Lynn Lalko, Sherry Loch, Carmen Marquez, Gary Quick, Steve Platte, Sally Rings, Lois Roma-Deeley

Guests:  Bob Bendotti, Ron Brooker, Donna Mosher

Members Absent: Fred Wieck

1.   Call To Order/Approval of Agenda
  The Senate meeting was called to order at 3:04pm
 
  Agenda additions to
    Campus Reports:  Committee Redesign/Employee Renewal - Bob Bendotti
    New Business:  Senate Meeting - Sally Rings
                            Division Chair and Senate Elections - Sally Rings
                            Scholarship - Sally Rings
    Information:  Technology Training Announcement - Jeanne Franco/Bob Bendotti

  The Agenda was approved as amended.

2. Approval of Minutes 12/4/97
 
    The 12/4/97 minutes were approved as submitted.
 
3. Campus Reports

3.1.  Enrollment Management/Committee Redesign/Employee Renewal- Bob Bendotti
        The results from the Noel Levitz survey are in and the analysis of the results is being completed by the Small Victory Team.  The team's report will be presented to the Enrollment Management Committee, President's Cabinet and the Senate within the next month.  The survey had a good response rate of 700 participants out of approx. 968 surveys.

        The next step in the Committee Redesign Project will be the open enrollment period.  In late March or early April faculty will be given an opportunity to select the committees on which they would like to serve.  President Cardenas and Sally Rings will then finalize the committee membership by the end of the spring semester for fall start-up.  There has been some concern regarding the format of the reporting forms to be used by the committees to report their progress.  The purpose of  listing absent members at a committee meeting is for committee management so the chairs knows who needs to be brought up to speed on the activities of a committee.  The design of the forms is open to change.

         After much discussion and input from all campuses regarding the Employee Renewal Project, it was decided that a pilot project would begin this year whereby each campus would be allocated funds and allowed to administer the use of the funds at the campus level.  Bob gave an early alert that PVCC has been allocated $10,000 for employee renewal activities.  Communication as to what kind of activities qualify as employee renewal will be forthcoming, and applications for renewal projects will go through the President's office for this pilot.  Bob also informed the Senate that the $10,000 allocation for this year must be spent by June 3 or we will lose it.
 
 3.2.  Curriculum - Marilyn Cristiano
        Marilyn reported that after months of work by the General Studies subcommittee, "scenario D-revised", which PVCC supported, was not selected.  Instead, scenario "A", which is in direct alignment to ASU's Gen. Ed., was selected.  After spending several months working on this project at the district, Marilyn voiced her concerns regarding who is making the curriculum decisions for Maricopa, and the role that faculty play in the curriculum process.  Marilyn suggested that we take this issue to the District Faculty Association to be studied and for the purpose of making a recommendation to Dr. de los Santos for increased, meaningful faculty input into the process.

Motion:  Marilyn moved that Sally discuss with the Executive Council the possibility of forming a district-wide faculty committee to study the faculty role in making curriculum decisions.  Motion carried unanimously.
 
 3.3.  Faculty Development - Ned Miner
         No Report
 
 

4.1.  Treasurer/Membership - Mitzi Ferrell
        Mitzi reported that the combined balances in the Association checking and saving accounts are $6,496.57.  This represents an addition of $980.00 from Association Dues for PVCC's 49 members, and $20.92 from interest.  Of the total dollars in the account, $241.50 are encumbered, $2,230.50 are in the Faculty Association Scholarship Fund and $4,024.57 are in the Association General Fund.  The Treasurer's Report was approved as written.
 
 4.2.  Secretary - Jeanne Franco
         No report.
 

4.3.  President-Elect - Steve Platte
        Steve asked that all PVCC Faculty Association members begin thinking about becoming the next Senate President-Elect.  If this is a position you feel you would like to hold, you will need to run for the Senate in April to be eligible. Steve pointed out that the bonus for next year's President-Elect is the fact that there will be no division chair elections to run.
        The Faculty Executive Council sent a resolution to the Governing Board to grant District Emeritus Status to retiring faculty who have served the district for 15 years.  It is expected that the resolution will be passed.
 
 
4.4.  President - Sally Rings

From President's Cabinet:
1.  The technology training that is being offered at PVCC is having a good response externally from Learning Connections people.

2.  First annual President's Retreat will be held March 27.  Strategic Planning council and President's Cabinet will participate.  The theme for the retreat will be "Becoming a Learning College in the 21st Century."  (The title is from a book by Terry O'Banion.)  The purpose of the retreat is to examine PVCC's core values and to begin to develop action items based on those values.

3.  Currently FTSE is down approximately 4.8% over last spring.  The numbers will increase when Choices courses are added in, but the President is concerned that we will not show the growth that we did last year.

4.  PVCC has applied to the District for funding for an International House, but there has been no word to date.

5.  PVCC will have a Performing Arts Center. Design and construction are scheduled to take place in 2001.

From Strategic Planning:
Budget:  Budget requests were prioritized to address the impact of M Building.  Additional dollars were added to PVCC's base budget to compensate for the new and remodel construction.  Three or four supplemental packages will be submitted to district for prospective funding.

There were more requests for capital equipment than dollars available.  There is not enough money in ITEC or Occupational capital allocations to equip M and E buildings with computers.  Computers cannot be purchased from construction funds; it will cost approximately $100,000 to equip each lab.

The Budget subcommittee met with the Staffing committee and decided on several new faculty positions.

The Budget subcommittee will be fine tuning the budgeting process over the next few months.

The bids for remodeling B and E buildings came in 1/2 million dollars over budget, without any add alternates.  Part of the increase was due to steel and electrical material coming in double the bid.  The one add alternate that was chosen was another elevator for B building.  The new receiving building will be coming online February 14.  Bids are out for the increase in electrical power to K building for the computer labs moving there during E building remodel.
 
From Faculty Executive Council:
1.  CFAC  (Chancellor's Financial Advisory Council) called into question whether the chancellor actually created 40 new faculty positions for the 97-98 academic year since several of the positions were filled with OYO's or had been derived from OYO positions from the preceding year.

2.  Meet and Confer:  This year's faculty compensation package proposal includes:  making the temporary raises received last year permanent, making the one percent at the top include everyone, giving a 4-5% COLA, and giving additional money for professional growth.  The Employee Alliance compensation group presented its proposal to CFAC on Jan. 20.  Because the Administration has concerns about the amount of new language that the FEP would add to the RFP, a work study session with the Board will be scheduled to discuss the FEP.

3.  EBAC (Employee Benefits Advisory Council) recommended to FEC that it accept the Leave of Absence proposal that has been developed jointly with other policy groups.  No benefits would be taken away from faculty in this proposal; in fact, faculty would receive more benefits than it currently has.  FEC rejected the proposal because accepting it would violate the process set up in the RFP.  Since FEC, Vice-Cr. Waechter has suggested that the LOA proposal include language that retains rights of grievance contained in the policy manuals.
 
 

5.1.  Professional Growth - John Nelson
        No report.
 

6.1.  Book Loan Fund - Fred Wieck
        In Fred's absence this was tabled to the next meeting.

6.2   Faculty Hiring Procedures - Sally Rings
        Sally received a response from Dr. Cardenas regarding the Senate request for revisions to the faculty hiring procedures.  Originally faculty asked Dr. Cardenas to consider the following procedural changes:
        1.  The President participates with the faculty committee in establishing the hiring criteria.
        2.  The President participates in the interviewing of candidates.
        3.  If the President does not endorse the finalists presented to him by the committee, he explains to the committee his rationale.
        4.  Before the committee sends the names of finalists forward, they meet with the President and give their rationale for the finalists.

        Dr. Cardenas' response to this request is the following procedural changes:
        1.  The President and Dean of Instruction meet with screening committees to review job descriptions and job requirements and to discuss other areas of concern.
        2.  The President and Dean of Instruction interview the 3 final candidates in unranked order.
        3.  If candidates are not  acceptable, the President will have the Dean of Instruction meet with the chair of the screening committee and determine whether the next 3 candidates will be interviewed or whether the position should be closed and re-advertised.
If there is an urgency to fill the  position, the President will select a candidate on a one-year-only basis.  The President, through the Dean of Instruction, will notify the chair of the particular discipline prior to the hiring.

After discussing the President's response it was decided that though there were still some concerns, these new procedures were a good first step in improving the faculty hiring process.  Sally will convey to the President our concerns, and any faculty member with concerns was urged to meet with the President individually to dialog.

6.2.  Committee Re-Design - Travel & PR&R - Sally Rings
        Currently the Travel, Professional Rights and Responsibilities and Staffing committees are being treated as standing Senate committees.  The Senate constitution, however, specifically states that there are to be no standing committees of the Senate.  Further, participation in any of these three committees is currently considered a campus committee assignment.  After much discussion it was decided that there is no advantage to leaving the "no standing committees" clause in the Senate Constitution, and the Travel and Staffing committees are correctly being considered as campus committees, but because the PR&R committee has never met, it should no longer be considered as one of the choices for campus committee assignments.  However, the PR&R committee should be maintained each year with the appropriate number of members in case an issue arises that would require that it be convened.
Motion: Sally will initiate the procedure to amend the Senate Constitution to remove the "no standing committees" clause.
Motion passed unanimously.

6.3.  Office Space in M Building - Jeanne Franco
         Discussion of how the office space in M building is going to be occupied continues in several different arenas campus-wide.  To ensure that faculty have the opportunity to give input into this decision, it was suggested that Sally contact Fred Stahl and ask that a meeting be called where faculty can discuss this issue.  Bob pointed out that if we are concerned as a faculty about the culture of our institution as it relates to teaching and learning, the issue of where we live in relation to one another will have a far-reaching, long-lasting impact.

7. New Business
 

7.1. Student Withdrawal Policy - Ron Brooker
       There seems to be a discrepancy between the official student withdrawal  policy as it is published in several official publications and the student withdrawal policy that is being practiced at PVCC.  The official policy states that, "After the 7th week, a student may initiate a withdrawal.  The instructor will sign the form and assign a grade of W or Y.  The form is then to be returned to the Office of Admissions and Records."  At PVCC, students are permitted to visit A & R to request that they be dropped from a class after the 7th week without obtaining an instructor's signature.  A & R then sends the instructor a form that requests that if they are going to assign a grade of Y instead of W, they  return the signed for to A&R.  As the policy is administered now, students are not required to have direct contact with the instructor prior to withdrawing from a class after the 7th week.  There were several arguments given as to why the official policy should be adhered to at PVCC, one of which was that this policy is an official District policy published in the common pages of the catalog, the student handbook and the class schedule; therefore, it should be adhered to or changed.
Motion:  Sally will talk with Gina Kranitz about this issue and request that the official policy be adhered to at PVCC.
The motion carried with a vote of 11 in favor, 1 no (Sherry Loch), and 1 abstention (Abby Hemingway).

7.2.  May Senate Meeting - Sally Rings
       Because of the shortened semester, the May meeting of the Faculty Senate will be held on  Thursday, April 23, at 3:00pm.  This meeting will be a short, "changing of the guard" meeting.

7.3.  Division Chair and Senate Elections - Sally Rings
        An election committee was formed to conduct this year's division chair election.  This year the Science/Math, and Human Development divisions will be electing their chairs for a three-year term.
        Members of the election committee are:  Muriel Coil and Jeanne Franco, co-chairs; Lois Roma-Deeley; Marilyn Cristiano; and Sally Rings.

        An election committee was formed to conduct the elections of next year's senators and president-elect.  Members of this committee are:  Carmen Marquez, chair; Gary Quick, and Tom Butler.

7.4.  Faculty Senate Scholarship - Sally Rings
        The Senate voted to grant one $500 scholarship this year and to use the same criteria as was created last year.  Sally will contact Spencer Johnson to arrange for this scholarship opportunity.
 
 

8.1.  Technology Training Announcement - Bob Bendotti/Jeanne Franco
        The PVCC employee enrollment in the Spring Technology Training opportunities is considerably less than expected.  Faculty were reminded that in response to a college-wide employee outcry for technology training, the Training  Project Team sent out an assessment instrument to identify the specific need.  In response to the reply from the assessment, the team has spent many hours creating a comprehensive technology training package and received considerable funds to conduct this training.  Faculty were also asked to consider the possibility that future training opportunities may not be made available if the ones currently being offered are not successful.  Division Senators were asked to carry this message back to their division members.  The web page containing all of the technology training opportunities is located at http://www.pvc.maricopa.edu/empdev/   and click on "Technology Training."

Respectfully Submitted by
  Jeanne Franco
  Senate Secretary