Minutes

Faculty Council Steering Committee Meeting

April 30, 2003

Members Present: Cindy Alexander, Brenda Ammons, Becky Blackwell, Lisa Bogaty, Rick Bower, Bill Brewer, Sharon Burlingame, Kathy Byrd, George Cox, Ely Driver, Rasey Feezell, Jonathan Fowler, Cata Folks, Marilyn Hosker, Jean Jackson, Rick Patton, Dave Vinson

I. The meeting was called to order by Business Officer Ely Driver at 3 p.m.

II. The minutes posted to the F.C. Website were approved.

III. Officer Reports

Communications Officer Rick Bower

Rick reported that he will archive old docs on FC Website before turning it over to Cindy Alexander. Also, as requested by a SC member, the current documents will be posted in reverse chronological order.

TBR Representative Dave Vinson

Long-Term Care: Open enrollment deadline is June 15, payment schedule based solely on age.

Dave elected Vice Chair of TBR Faculty SC. Report of last meeting will be sent.

Secretary Cata Folks No report

President Elect Kathy Bird

Kathy thanked Lisa for the time she has spent serving as FC President.

Information about next year's FC & SC meeting schedule: Kathy will be e-mailing documents with this information & would appreciate your questions and comments.

Proposed meeting schedule & location:

In response to the idea of holding FCSC meetings at all four campuses, the following questions were raised:

Problems with using overheads and viewgraphs were raised by R. Feezell, as were the issue of whether faculty from site campuses would actually reduce their driving mileage, while faculty from main campus would experience an increase.

Kathy responded that the primary purpose of having the SC meetings on all four campuses was not to save mileage, but to unify the college in some small way, given the divisiveness of the debate this year about summer classes at Division Street. There are faculty from the main campus who have never even set foot on some of the other campuses, and this isolation needs to be addressed.

The following motion was proposed by Rasey Feezell:

Motion 1

Proposed that all Faculty Council and Faculty Council Steering Committee meetings be held in the TWAV room unless the room is not available because of prior scheduling for a class.

Motion failed for lack of a second.

Several of next year's S.C. members reported that they would have difficulty attending meetings on a different campus: Rick Patton, being legally blind and unable to drive, needs to be able to attend via TWAV at his home campus. Dave Vinson has a class at 2:00, which would make it impossible to attend meetings at site campuses. Kathy pointed out that it would not be essential that every member attend every meeting since that is not the case even when they are held at the main campus.

Roster of next academic year's officers and reps:

Kathy is sending a corrected roster; please send any corrections or additions after checking.

Faculty Council Committees:

Kathy proposed reducing the overall number of F. C. committees, which now consist of five standing committees and 3 created committees. This could be accomplished by combining the High Performance Teaching and Faculty Forum committees, which are ad hoc committees.

Faculty After Hours could be reduced to an unofficial body and report social activities as announcements at meetings, rather than as official committee reports.

July meeting:

Constitutional questions about the adjunct rep need to be resolved at the July meeting (which is planned for Dave's birthday).

President Lisa Bogaty

Events: Design Showcase & Spring Choral Concert

PSTCC Logo: Anything sent out by any college personnel that includes the college logo requires approval of PR.

Summer enrollment: Looks good on paper, but much is enrollment in web classes. Last year, many of those who signed up for web classes did not actually attend. This needs to be monitored.

Library Survey: Needs good response.

Textbooks at library:

Library no longer has the funding to purchase copies of every course textbook to put on reserve. Faculty who wish to place their personal copies on reserve may still do so, following standard procedures.

ERC hours: Hours for the library will be reduced, but not for the Testing Center.

New gen. ed. list: E-mail Lisa if you want to see.

Mercer study:

Additional salary increases were granted for the 20 faculty and staff below the minimum level for their categories.

IV. Standing Committee Reports

Adjunct Faculty Sellers, Feezell

Rasey Feezell reported that his salary study, due to controversy over data, was not sent to the F. C. lists, but was given to college administrators (Kesterson, Edwards, and Bruns).

Promo/Tenure Jean Jackson/Toni McDaniel No report

High Performance Teaching Elaine Oswald No report

Faculty Forum Paul Baxter No report

Booksale/Scholarship Kinggard, Maddox No report

Faculty After Hours Anita Maddox No report

Rules Committee Chuck Wright No report

V. Unfinished Business

Vl. New Business

The following motion was proposed by Jonathan Fowler:

Motion 2

Steering Committee recommends that the Self-Evaluation of faculty be amended as follows:

The ratings of Excellent, Good, Needs Improvement and Unsatisfactory be replaced with the ratings of Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, Unsatisfactory. This change would take effect for the evaluation year ending 31 December 2003.

This is an issue of fairness, prompted by complaints that department heads' ratings were too high and by dissatisfaction with ratings received by some faculty.

Discussion included the suggestion that Faculty Council hold this issue until it went through the normal process for making changes in the evaluation procedures.

Motion carried.

VII. Announcements

VIII. The meeting was adjourned at 4 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Cata Folks

Recording Secretary