Bristol
Community College
Faculty
& Professional Staff Senate Meeting
Minutes
of Monday, April 11, 2016
Room
H209 3:15pm
Senators in attendance: J. Pelletier, R. Benya-Soderbom, D. St.
George, S. Pero, S. McCourt, J. Boulay, J. Flanigan, L. Neubert, H. Tinberg, ,
T. Grady, L. Delano-Botelho, J. Corven, B. French, J. Constantine, J. Jodoin, S.
Ferreira, B. McGuire, J. Bjornson, G. Leeman
Absences: J. Mbugua, K. Hiller
Excused Absences: R. Worthington, M. Geary
Eight guests attended this meeting.
Meeting
called to order:
3:15 pm
Minutes: Minutes from January 19, 2016 were
electronically reviewed and passed with no abstentions, but an amendment
regarding the metamajor discussion.
Division
Reports
·
Division 1:
o
The English Department’s portfolio
assessment project is being reviewed by the administration
§ The
initiative has run for the past 19 years and includes faculty stipends and the
chair receives reassigned time to norm and score student writing
§ Division
1 received an email from the division secretary indicated that this program has
not been approved for the 2016-2017 academic year
§ Vice
President Sethares has a different intention for the program, specifically
around assessment, and met with the dean and the faculty chair of the
initiative
§ Senators
expressed concern over the lack of transparency and limited input from
stakeholders with regard to these decisions and questions were raised as to how
this may impact other portfolio projects at the college (e.g., ESL portfolios)
o
The English Department has been requested
to standardize English 101 offerings
§ Dean
Ryder indicated there is inconsistency in the delivery of the course,
specifically regarding the amount of writing
o
A Writing Center task force has been set
up by Vice President Sethares to explore the future of this support service
§ The
current coordinator is now full-time faculty only and she is no longer
coordinator for the Writing Center
§ This
message has not gone out campus-wide, only to the English Department
·
Division 5: Faculty are apprised of
what’s happening in STEM (noninstructional); philosophical discussion; academic
instructional group involvement (e.g., portfolio project)
·
Lash Division:
o
There is an AMCOA conference scheduled
for April 22nd and a regional workshop will be held on May 17th;
both events are free and Peggy Maki will serve as the keynote
o
Senators were reminded to participate
in the strategic planning meetings scheduled for April 25th
Draft
Report from Senate Task Force on Academic Support and Retention
·
The task force consisted of 5 members:
Jean-Paul Nadeau, Deborah Palumbo, Debra St.George, Ron Weisberger, and Julie
Jodoin-Krauzyk (Chair)
·
Charge was to gather qualitative and
quantitative data as it relates to the allocation of resources for academic
support across campuses and the impact of such allocations on student retention
·
In defining academic support, they
identified 13 areas related to classroom success:
o
Learning Commons, Advising (including
Advising Center, Connections and Guided Pathways), Office of Disability
Services, QUEST Program, faculty office hours, library/technical support,
supplemental instruction (SI), College Success Seminar (CSS), learning
communities, ESL program, support for student taking online courses (CITE Lab
and SmartThinking online tutoring)
·
Their research questions included:
o
How are we currently doing?
o
What is working?
o
What do we need to do better?
o
How do we know?
o
How do we share this information?
·
Challenged with a short timeline and
coupled with WTR, the group engaged a small amount of stakeholders and
administrators; findings included:
o
decisions about allocations about
support was not always data driven in past, but are looking for more systematic
approach to disbursement of funding
o
the Retention Council is currently run
by administrators; Senators should join subgroups
o
availability of information among
depts. varied
o
availability and equity across
campuses with outcomes (retention, graduation rates) varied
·
Recommendations include:
a) Create
a systematic, holistic approach to data collection/analysis—both qualitative
& quantitative
b) Implement
systematic holistic approach toward measuring the relationship between academic
support and student retention utilizing pre-existing tools
c) Create
an academic support advisory board
d) Institute
Learning Communities for first-semester students connected to the College
Success Seminar (CSS) or equivalent
e) Consider
mechanics for examining student usage of faculty office hours and consider
offerings part-time faculty incentives for providing office hours
f) The
college should continue to discuss next steps related to recommendation at
campus wide Retention Summit
·
The following discussion points were
raised by the Senate:
o
CAS reviews from IE committee—could
they be used for data collection?
o
Accredited programs need analysis,
action, and ongoing data; consistent and should be fed into larger; sharing of
this information (e.g., health sciences)
o
Faculty involvement as front line
workers is missing info from retention discussion
§ Approach
faculty for data on why students leave as they may have a unique insight (e.g.,
absences/grades/transportation issues)
§ Ask
faculty to use MapWorks more often
o
Tutoring is also available within
instructional area (outside of TASC)
o
What is the standard formula for the
current retention rate: what counts and what doesn’t?
·
The entire report may be viewed on the
Senate blog
·
Senators were asked to reflect on the
report and provide feedback within the week; constituents will be able to leave
anonymous responses on the Senate blog after May 2nd
·
Final changes will be made, and voted
on at the last Senate meeting; subsequently the final report will be presented
to the administration
Update
on Nomination and Timeline for Elections
·
The Senate thanked members of the
Nomination Committee for their service: Ron Weisberger, Paul Robillard, Jill
Flanigan, Robyn Worthington (Chair)
·
The Senate has a complete slate with
no contested seats
·
Voting will be conducted
electronically and will run for a full week in April (date TBA)
The
Academic Initiative (AI) Process:
President Tinberg indicated a fuller draft of the
protocol for submission of AI proposals will be available for the May 2nd
Senate meeting and he asked Senators to provide feedback on the Senate’s blog.
The following questions were raised about the AI process:
·
Draft
Senate Protocol for Submission of AI Proposals:
·
How should Senate respond to new AI
(aside from signing); what type of protocol should exist?
·
What type of notification/feedback can
the Senate provide?
·
What role should the Senate play in
monitoring?
i. What
happens after the initiative begins?
ii. Should
we evaluate the process itself?
·
What role should the Senate play in
the pilot process?
·
What happens to the initiative after
it leaves the Senate?
·
Civic
Learning/Engagement Initiative
o
Rebecca Clark has begun using AI for
the civic learning initiative
o
Concerns raised by the Senate included
the initiative’s nomenclature and possible credit creep
§ If
the college uses different terms to define civic learning with engagement than
the state does, will it have a negative impact on transferability?
§ If
civic learning with engagement is assigned more than three credits, what impact
will adding to the credit load have in the long run?
Grandchamp
Lecture
·
The Senate thanked the Grandchamp
Lecture Committee for their service: Jim
Corven, Ron Weisberger, and Deb St. George (Chair)
·
This event provides a venue for
faculty to share work that is not immediately obvious to their colleagues and
it honors the Senate’s first president, Jeanne Grandchamp
·
The Committee was pleased to announce
that this year’s Grandchamp Lecturer will be Senator Tom Grady; his lecture,
“Jiggle the Handle: How to Plumb One’s Integrity to Flush Out a Life in the
Arts and Education,” will be held in H210 on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 at 3pm
Other
·
President Tinberg requested Senators
to volunteer to serve on the College’s presidential search committee; he underscored
how important it will be for Senators to be at the table post-WTR
·
The Executive Committee will explore
the role faculty play in orientation
Meeting
Adjourned: 4:04 pm
Respectfully
submitted, Jennifer Boulay, BCC Faculty & Professional Staff Secretary
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