West Campus Faculty Senate Minutes

June 12, 2003

Present:  Gene Adams, Tom Byrnes (presiding), Susie Forehand, George Dow, Fran Frierson, Nesser Heydat, Jeri, Jean Henderson, Gloria Hines, Jim Johnson, Dan Kimble, Maryke Lee, Terry Long, Sue Mathews, Stan Melnick, Diane Orsini, Louise Pitts, Marilyn Santos, Susan Stone, Mary Sugeir, Russell Takashima

Guests:  Dan Dutkovski, Paul Licata

Call to Order

President Tom Byrnes called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m.

Approval of Minutes

Correction: Shannon Heller was present at the May meeting.

June minutes were approved as read.

Action Items:

     Concerns were expressed that faculty credentials are checked too late in the hiring process.  Faculty positions are being lost because the person recommended for a position does not have the proper credentials, but this fact was unknown until the finalist had been selected.

Stan Melnick moved that Human Resources conduct a credential check for anyone selected for a phone interview and a background check for anyone who has an onsite interview prior to the interviews.  The motion was seconded by Sue Matthews. Motion passed with one negative vote.

There was a discussion on the 6-6-0-0 practice.  Maryke Lee made a motion recommending that faculty would have the option of taking a 6-6-0-0 every year as long as the dean agreed that it could be granted without adversely affecting the learning outcomes of the department.  It was also recommended the procedure or policy state that faculty could have this contract at least every three years. 

The motion was seconded by George Dow and passed.

West campus is covered by the City of Orlando’s policy of discrimination regarding sexual preference.  The rest of the college is not covered by the same policy.  Valencia also has a policy which states that all campuses will have the same discrimination policy.  It was determined that we would leave this matter to the campuses who are not currently covered. 

Bob Kearfott

Bob gave a presentation on the new smart classrooms being rolled out across campus.  The first one will be ready on East Campus the first of July.  That will be the prototype.  We will be invited to an open house when it is ready.  The rooms will have uniform control boards, but there will be special options available for different majors.  Every room will have a phone and there will be a staff of people available to help.  Before you get to use the room you will need to go through training.  Nine rooms will be available on East campus in the fall West campus will be next.  It was explained that a swipe card and key would be required to access the room.  Concern was expressed about having to keep track of the keys.  Bob said he can do anything faculty want.  There will be a meeting in July to determine the next set of rooms.

Tom asked Bob to give some options of different classrooms, so departments can choose the features they need.

President’s report:

Jean Henderson will put a basket together for the new provost.  The Valencia Faculty Association Constitution did not pass.  Some of the issues are: that each campus currently has an equal number of representatives on the board, which makes the number of representatives per faculty members very different for different campuses; the president is currently nominated from the members of the current board.

Standing reports:

     Maryke Lee:  The results of the CUPA survey will be shared at the next      compensation taskforce meeting which is July 1 from 2-4.   

Departmental Reports:

The science department is concerned that having one faculty member on a committee does not mean much when it is one faculty member out of 20 committee members.  There is concern over how faculty are chosen for these committees.  Some committees have never met.

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 3:02 p.m.