Senate Meeting Highlights

Highlights and action items on this page, detailed minutes below.

• The Senate elected Niccole Villa Cerveny as a Senator At-large.
• Senators approved a $4,500 expense budget for the academic year 2003-04.
• Naomi Story agreed to retransmit the completed passages on Senate practices and procedures to Charles Lewis (CC: Janice Reilly and David Nachman) for inclusion in the best-practices manual.
• An ad hoc committee will consider the establishment of a Senate award for distinguished teaching at MCC. Philip Carrillo, Harold Cranswick, Ann Stine, and Naomi Story (who will call the first meeting) plan to bring recommendations to our 10/2 meeting.
• Senators should forward strategic issues by 9/11 for consideration at our 9/18 meeting. Please note the change in deadline.
• Janice Reilly reported on important issues before the Faculty Executive Council.
• Harold Cranswick reported on the recent Department Chair Association retreat and the chances for continued joint efforts of the Senate and DCA.
• Lyn Dutson alerted us to a traffic-control problem on the Southern & Dobson campus.
• Maureen Zimmerman offered kudos to Bill DeHaan and the IT group.

Mesa Community College Faculty Senate

DRAFT MINUTES

Date: 9/4/2003

Time: 3:00 p.m.

Location: CTL Conference Room

I. Call to Order

In the absence of President Charles Lewis, President-elect Janice Reilly called the Senate to order at 3:08 p.m., the following members being present:

Members:	Representing/Office	Present:	Absent:
Philip Carrillo	At-large	X
Harold Cranswick	Zone 5, DCA liaison	X
Lyn Dutson	Zone 1	X
Mehrzad Khorsandi	At-large	X
Charles Lewis	President		X
David Nachman	Zone 8, Secretary	X
Gregg Pratt	At-large		X
Erin Rawson	At-large	X
Janice Reilly	President-elect	X
Mona Scott	At-large	X
John Seims	Zone 4	X
Ann Stine	At-large	X
Naomi Story	Zone 7	X
Barry Vaughan	Zone 3	X
Phillip Waclawski	Zone 2, Treasurer	X
Maureen Zimmerman	Zone 6	X
Charles Horn	49% liaison		X

II. Agenda Approval

The agenda was approved as presented by unanimous vote.

III. Minutes Approval

A. The minutes of the last meeting of the 2002-03 Senate, held 5/1/2003, were approved without correction, with one past member abstaining.

B. The minutes of the first meeting of the 2003-04 Senate, held 5/1/2003, were approved without correction, with two current members abstaining.

IV. IV. Treasurerπs report

Phillip Waclawski, Treasurer, reported that the only financial transaction since the previous meeting was the payment of a $20-$30 charge to our account for printing/copying in the spring 2003 semester.

V. Committees & Project Reports

No committee or project reports were heard at todayπs meeting. A senator noted that the committee chairs need to be included in the draft agenda distribution so that they can request time in our future meetings.

VI. Old Business

A. Election of At-Large Member

A ballot of the voting members resulted in the election of Niccole Villa Cerveny as a Senator At-large. This election rounds out the Senate membership at 8 zone senators, 7 senators at-large, and 2 officers.

B. Proposed Budget 2003-04

The Treasurer proposed a faculty association budget that essentially rolls over the amounts approved for last yearπs budget, adjusted for the anticipated growth in membership numbers.

Mesa Community College Faculty Association
Budget: 2003-2004
INCOME:
	Membership dues			$5,000
EXPENSE:
	Honoraria			$1,500
		President	500
		President-elect	400
		Secretary	300
		Treasurer	300
	Social Committee			1,500
	Retirement Plaques			500
	Secretarial Support			200
	Photocopying/Business Expenses			200
	Flowers/Donations			400
	Presidentπs Discretionary Fund			200
TOTAL EXPENSE				$4,500

Discussion of the budget focused on the adequacy of the proposed $200 amount for Secretarial Support. We had insufficient information about the nature, amount, and cost of the support the Secretary might require, so senators agreed to accept the proposed amount for the present, with the understanding that the Secretary could bring a budget amendment proposal at a later time, if needed.

The proposed budget was approved unanimously.

C. Best Practices Manual

At present, many of the standard practices and procedures that govern the Senate are detailed in the Faculty Association Constitution. This means that adoption of any new practice requires a constitutional amendment, a time-consuming and cumbersome process. In order to streamline our constitution, and make it more truly constitutive, we intend to separate the practical details of Senate operations into a ≥Best Practices Manual≤. The manual should outline the responsibilities of senators (at-large and zone representatives) and officers, give timelines and specific procedures for our typical activities, and list general policies agreed by the Senate.

Several Senators remarked that they had parts of the manual already written. Naomi Story agreed to retransmit her file of these previously prepared paragraphs to Charles Lewis, with copies to Janice Reilly and David Nachman. After compilation and editing, the manual will be presented to the Senate for approval.

D. Revised Senate Constitution

An ad hoc committee worked through the summer to revise and simplify the constitution. The revisions move most of the procedural details out of the constitution and into the best practices manual (see item VI. C above). We will postpone consideration of the revised constitution until the approval of a best practices manual.

VII. New Business

A. Distinguished Teaching Award

Faculty at some of our sister colleges make an annual award for distinguished teaching. The Faculty Executive Council has suggested that other colleges also consider implementing an award program. Janice Reilly and David Nachman presented some of the features of one such program to see if our Senate would be interested in establishing a teaching award program at MCC.

Discussion brought forth the following questions:

How will this award be kept distinct from service awards already conferred by the administration and the ≥Teacher of the Year≤ recognition conferred by the student government?

Can probationary faculty (not yet tenured) also be recognized for teaching excellence?

Does the Faculty Executive Council anticipate that the campus-level award winners will compete for a district-level distinguished teaching award, similar to the ≥Innovator of the Year≤ program?

Phil Carrillo, Harold Cranswick, Ann Stine, and Naomi Story agreed to serve on an ad hoc committee to consider the establishment of a distinguished teaching award program at MCC. Naomi will convene the first meeting, and the committee is charged to bring recommendations to our scheduled meting on 10/2/2003.

B. Strategic Issues Discussion

President Lewis would like the Senate to schedule a discussion of strategic issues for our next meeting (9/18). He proposed the following as examples:

∑ Developing an information technology plan for MCC

∑ Improving communication pathways between MCC Senate and Administration

∑ Strengthening the Senateπs working relationship with the Department Chair Association

∑ Planning for Senate input to the accreditation self-study report and NCA visiting team

Senate members generated additional strategic issues during discussion, including:

∑ The workability of a ≥multi-campus/one-college≤ model

∑ Preparing for the capital bond election

∑ The District human resources office bottleneck

∑ Fostering respectful, professional treatment of faculty and staff by administrators

Senators should forward other issues to <david.nachman@mcmail.maricopa.edu> by noon on 9/11 for consideration as 9/18 agenda items.

VIII. Info & Announcements

A. President-elect Janice Reilly reported three issues from the Faculty Executive Council (FEC):

1. The FEC supports the continuation of Dr. Rufus Glasper (currently acting Chancellor) as the Chancellor of the Maricopa Community College District. Individual faculty members are encouraged to attend the scheduled community forum in their area to speak in support of Dr. Glasperπs selection as Chancellor.

2. Zone Senators should plan to be involved in a Faculty Association membership drive. More information will follow with a list of eligible faculty in each zone.

3. In response to many recent complaints about alterations and inconsistencies in the handling of the faculty hiring process, the FEC is working to clarify the Districtπs actual policies and procedures.

B. DCA Liaison Harold Cranswick reported on this summerπs retreat. The college financed a weekend retreat at a Tucson resort for Department Chairs, where they heard updates on a variety of issues. Chairs generally felt pleased with the pilot project creating assistant department chairs to handle administrative tasks at the Red Mountain campus. Clarification is still sought on the permanent administrative structure at Red Mountain.

Wynn Call, the newly chosen DCA Chairman, presented three focus areas for the coming year: academic clustering; the future development, programs and staffing at Red Mountain; preparing for the NCS site visit. He made no mention of continuing to work in collaboration with the Senate. Senators asked Harold to introduce a proposal for joint Senate/DCA sessions at the next DCA meeting, and agreed to do so.

C. Zone 1 Senator Lyn Dutson reported that despite repeated requests (and a car-pedestrian collision) the college has not yet installed speed bumps in the parking lot near the Child Care Center and Theatre Outback. She called our attention to a new $35,000 ≥Campus Police≤ patrol car being kept parked in the same lot.

D. Zone 6 Senator Maureen Zimmerman reported that the Information Technology group (directed by Bill DeHaan) gave excellent response to requests for help from her area at the start of this semester. Faculty are pleased with the improvement.

IX. Adjournment

President-elect Janice Reilly called for adjournment at 4:45 pm. The next Senate meeting, for consideration of strategic issues, is scheduled for 3 p.m. in the CTL on 9/18/2003.

David Nachman, Senate Secretary