Blinn College Faculty Council
Meeting
April 2005
Outlined below are the minutes from the Blinn College
Faculty Council meeting held on Friday April 8, 2005. The meeting was facilitated via Teleconference and recorded by
Linda Richardson, Faculty Council Secretary.
At 1:30pm the spring meeting of the Blinn College Faculty
Council was called to order by Faculty Council President Terry Honan.
There were 17 faculty members on the Bryan Campus and 4
faculty members on the Brenham Campus in attendance.
Agenda
·
Previous Business
·
Approval of Minutes
·
New Business
Previous Business – see previous minutes (http://www.blinn.edu/FacultyCouncil/Minutes-Jan05.doc)
o
Faculty Titles
§
Committee has
finished their report and it will be presented at next Wednesday’s Executive
Council Meeting. The committee’s proposal will be made available in the minutes
for today’s meeting and include use of the titles Professor, Assistant
Professor, and Instructor (see attachment).
o
Parking on the Bryan campus
§
Faculty requested some parking spaces near the
H-building and A-building.
§
This was put on the agenda for the March Administrative
Council meeting. It was rejected for
discussion with the comment: “… faculty parking needs are a matter more
appropriate for consideration by the Executive Council than the Administrative
Council.”
§
The issue now, however, is a more serious one. The new signage has designated the parking
lot near the G building as Student.
§
Barbara Pearson called a meeting to discuss this issue
based on the Faculty Council agenda item.
The G-building lot redesignation was an error and it will be corrected
but it may take some time. The other
parking spaces are still under consideration.
§
This means that students who continue to park there can
not be ticketed at this time.
o
Long-term substitute pay
§
The item was not brought forward because word was given
that the proposed change was already policy.
This was in error. The proposed
change is under consideration as a policy governing this is in the works. Once released, the Faculty Council will take
this to the Administrative Council to put our stamp on the change.
o
Sick Leave Policy
§
The committee work is almost complete and should be
ready for presentation at the April Administrative Council meeting.
o
Smoking Policy
§
Also discussed in meeting with Barbara Pearson. Will be revisited as new business (see
below).
o
Rotation of Division Chairs
§
Will be discussed as continued new business.
Approval of Previous Minutes
New Business
- Full-time
Work Load for Four Credit Lab Courses
- The
issue of teaching load for four credit classes is a longstanding
issue. Currently, the teaching
load is 4/3 or teaching 7 four credit classes over a nine month contract
year. The Faculty Council has
voted several times for a 3 course per semester load. It has been brought to the
Administrative Council many times as well. We need to keep it in the minds of the administration by
returning to it every few years.
- Last
time this was presented was 3 years ago.
- Suggestion:
bring forth the following motion:
Full-time work load for 4 hour courses should be 3/3.
- Need
to rework this to consider other 4 hour courses that do not have the
same contact time.
- Lab
hour/Credit hour problem – need a policy
- New
Motion Proposed
- Motion:
For purposes of determining full-time work load, ALL lab contact hours
should be considered ¾ of a lecture hour.
- Part-time
Pay
- Part-time
pay for four credit classes is another issue that needs to be
addressed. The contact time is
twice a three credit class but the pay is not even proportionate to the
credit hours; it is less than 4/3 the three credit course rate. Moreover, the maximum load for
part-timers is determined by contact hours. This makes it difficult to find and retain competent
part-time faculty.
- Motion:
The ¾ rule outlined above be applied to part time salaries.
- Faculty
Attendance of Graduation
- Motion: Only half of the full-time faculty
will be expected to go to each graduation. This will be handled at the division level and the half
should rotate equitably.
- Rotation
of Division Chairs –
- Report
from committee (Presented by Greg Philips)
- We
recommend that Division Chairs be elected to a 3 year renewable term.
- The
division faculty will vote on a division chair and submit their
recommendation to the academic dean.
- Only
1/3 of the divisions should implement the rotation during any one year,
to maximize continuity within the Council of Division Chairs.
- Similar
academic divisions on the Brenham and Bryan campuses should not undergo
the rotation in the same year in order to maintain experienced division
chair at all times.
- General
Info Obtained From Other Institutions
- Top
12 schools (8/12 have renewable chairs)
- >50%
have more than 10 years experience
- Blinn’s
HR clarified that the term “resignation” with respect to chair
positions does NOT infer resignation from faculty position
- Of
10 schools with renewable chair positions the rotational period were
variable, 1-3 years.
DISCUSSION
·
Concern, who will be involved in the election process?
·
Suggestion made that the position be renewable pending
input of the faculty on their performance.
Not that it is necessarily an election process.
·
Contracts are technically on a 2 year cycle. Wouldn’t this interfere with this proposed 3
year cycle.
·
Statement made that while there is the understanding
that there are a lot of issues associated with this proposal that need
addressing, there must be a mechanism to relieve chairs that are in place that
are holding back a division and/or are preventing other capable and willing
personnel from assuming these roles.
·
On behalf of the committee, Greg would like to send out
a survey to the faculty as a means of soliciting comments.
o Should
include an updated list of chair’s responsibilities.
o Agreed
that a survey will be sent out.
- Smoking
Policy
- This
was discussed in a meeting with Barbara Pearson, Ted Hajovsky, Carolyn
Massey and Bill May.
- Our
current policy of voluntary compliance is a total failure. Currently the police are unable to
enforce a City of Bryan ordinance.
The Blinn Board of Trustees must act on this for the police to
become involved; then it can be handled through the College’s internal
discipline policy.
- It
was suggested that the Faculty Council vote to help this along. The following motion was suggested.
- Motion:
Blinn College should declare all Blinn College Campuses smoke-free (or
tobacco-free).
- Seniority
Pay
- The
Faculty Salary Schedule states that: “Teaching experience at Blinn
College will be credited at $400.00 per year.” The issue is the attitude of the administration toward this
credit. The last two pay raises
reflect this.
- The
budget crisis preceding the 03-04 school year led to faculty salaries
staying flat, except for this $400 increase. The increase was announced as a pay raise and not the
experience/seniority credit that it was. Moreover, this announcement occurred as a tuition increase
for students was also announced.
This put the faculty in a bad position as it may have been
perceived that the tuition increase was being initiated to facilitate
the faculty pay raises.
- For
this school year (04-05) a 4% increase was given but this did not include
the $400 credit. The effect of
this is our pay did not increase relative to the base, which was also
increased by 4%. A 3% increase
with the $400 credit would have been preferable. Once again, these should have
reflected separate issues; experience credit, and inflationary increase.
- In
most professions there is regular job advancement. For full-time faculty members here
there is no advancement other than this $400 credit.
- Motion:
The Faculty Council wants the administration to appreciate the importance
of the seniority credit to the faculty and not include it in any reported
annual percentage increase.
- Floor
Open for Additional New Business
- MFA
is a terminal degree in fine arts.
It is used for visual arts, theater, and performance. It is equivalent to the PhD in other
careers and should be evaluated as such for salary schedule
determinations. The MFA requires
three years of study beyond the BFA, plus a solo exhibition and
dissertation which must be defended in front of a faculty committee just
as a PhD.
- Additional
documentation was requested for presentation to the faculty council in
August.