Faculty Senate Meeting

October 9, 2000

Minutes

 

The meeting was called to order by Richard Wheet, President of the Faculty Senate.  Senators from all programs except Aircraft Pilot Training, Business Management, Dental Assistants, Digital Media Design, Electronics, Laser Electro Optics, Manufacturing Engineering, Semiconductor Mfg., Social and Behavioral Sciences, Welding, Software Engineering, and Supplemental Educational Services were present.

 

1.                  Mr. Wheet went over the agenda.

2.                  Mr. Wheet introduced Dr. Martha Ellis, President, TSTC, Waco.

 

Dr. Ellis addressed the Attendance Policy.  She indicated that the College’s Attendance Policy is that each instructor must establish his/her own policy and be sure the policy appears in the Syllabus for the class.  We will be doing Benchmark PARTICIPATION data collecting at the 12th day and at the end of  approximately 60% of the semester.  She said that the VA attendance records must follow the VA rules and regs.  A good idea would be to have each student sign a form saying they have read the syllabus and have had the attendance policy for that class explained to them.  This will give the instructor documentation in case the student violates the policy and is failed in the class.

 

Dr. Ellis addressed the Faculty Workload Policy.  She said that we are evaluating everything...18-24 contact hours, recording extra duties, coop and placement hours, etc.  This is being continually evaluated, but, especially now with the change over to semesters.

 

Dr. Ellis address small classes.  She said that we are being somewhat loose on the small class sizes because of some of the new initiatives...ie...Saturday classes, night classes in some areas, etc.  Classes should have 10 to run, but, we are running as them with as few as 7 right now.

 

Dr. Ellis asked if we had any questions and thanked us for inviting her.

 

Richard Wheet

 

The senators introduced themselves.

 

Senators had received packets when they entered the meeting.  The packets contained 1)  A List of all of the Senators, 2) The agenda for the first meeting of the Senators, 3) A list of the Executive Board and the Committee Chairs for the Senate, 4) A draft of the FY2001 Faculty Ranking proposal, 5) A copy of the Senate Constitution, and 6) A copy of the Senate by-Laws.

 

Richard Wheet

 

We need to elect a Senate Secretary at the next meeting.  Richard will appoint the Scholarship Chair.  Richard believes, and the present Executive Board agrees, the we should eliminate the Budget Chair position and the Budget Committee.  We will vote on this at the next Senators Meeting.

 

We went over the goals for this year and asked for input from the Departments through the senators.

 

Went over the duties of the Senators.  Meet the 2nd Monday of the Month, and take information back to their Departments.

 

Bob Larsen

 

Requested input from the departments regarding a Newsletter by, for, and of faculty.  To vote on this next meeting.

 

Ed Price

 

Went over the duties of the Faculty Senate Officers and the Committee Chairs.

 

Richard Wheet

 

Asked for a vote on whether we should invite Jim Dunham to our next meeting.  The motion was made and seconded that we should invite him.  The motion passed with no discussion.

 

Talked about Faculty Schedules:

 

Yes, we can get flex time.

We are working on the 8-5 mentality.

Contact hour loads do not always work, nor does 18-24 hours always work.

Looked briefly at the Faculty Ranking Proposal.