Bristol
Community College
Faculty
& Professional Staff Senate Meeting
Minutes
of Monday, November 21, 2016
Room
H209 3:15pm
Senators in attendance: Worthington, C. Almeida, J.
Corven, D. Behuniak, R. Rebelo, H. Tinberg, J. Boulay, D. Avedikian, R D.
Quenga, J. Jodoin, K. Fassbender, K. Plante, D. St. George, M. Hyde, L.
Neubert, M. Geary, J. Pelletier, K. Hiller, J. Jodoin-Krauzyk, S. Ferreira, J.
Emond, L. Delano-Botelho, G. Hamel, M. K. Roberts, D. Avedikian, J.
Constantine, J. J. Bjornson
Absences: J. Dekkers-Mitchell, A. Marden, K.
Woldegiorgis
Excused Absences: J. Barry,
Five guests attended this meeting.
Special guests included Dean Suzanne Buglione and
Vice President Kathy Torpey-Garganta.
Meeting
called to order: 3:17
pm
Minutes: Minutes from October 24 were reviewed and
approved with no abstentions.
Division
Reports
·
Division 4: Health information
management and psychology courses worked on a collaborative Service-Learning
project and will host a holiday wellness fair and bone marrow drive on December
5th
·
Division 5: Should the classroom moves
and new space fall under the AI process?
·
Lash: Dr. Sacco Onebook presentation was
well attended and was streamed on Facebook Live; the Multistate Collaborative
artifact collection begins soon; the Writing Center delivered 48 classroom
presentations, reaching 700+ students
Update
on Strategic Goals
A.
Academic Support and Retention
·
VP
Kathy Garganta on the Enrollment and Retention Council:
o
Audit findings on withdrawals,
enrollment verifications:
§ The
college received findings from auditors when the last date of attendance is not
accurate; the college has 60 days to submit to the national clearinghouse in
order to be compliant—this translates to 21-30 days internally. A lack of compliance
can lead to monetary implications for the college. The college has had 4-5
years of findings.
§ Enrollment
is requesting a change to the withdrawal policy where after 10th
week, faculty cannot withdraw (mimicking the student policy).
§ Questions
were raised on how to reach adjunct faculty. The following considerations were
offered:
·
Could this use the AI form and receive
support from MACER and the Senate?
·
If the date entered exceeds the number
of day window, could an error message pop up?
·
Could there be reminders on campus monitors?
·
Senators were asked to send questions or
comments to Vice President Garganta.
o
Enrollment Retention Council
§ Co-chaired
by 3 vice presidents (Kathy Torpey-Garganta, Steve Ozug, and Greg Sethares) and
started with 4 subcommittees:
1. Academic strategies
2. Expand outreach to at risk-students
3. Building a culture of data
4. Expanding student engagement
5. Hunger team was later added to the
ER Council
§ The
Council meets monthly and is open to everyone.
§ Next
meeting: December 1 in J111
·
Dean
Suzanne Buglione on Joint Task Force on Academic Support and Retention and the
Spring Summit on Support and Retention:
o
Retention Summit (from Senate Task Force
on Academic Support and Retention recommendations) will be the theme for the March
Professional Day.
o
It will serve as an opportunity to bring
all members of college community to focus on retention; not everyone can attend
the Enrollment/Retention Council meetings.
o
The Lash Division had a preliminary
conversation about a possible structure for the Summit.
o
The Senate offered the following
suggestions:
§ look
at programs, majors, departments that are successful with retention
§ explore
when retention is not best option for student
§ how
to promote creativity and innovation in the classroom
§ identify
pitfalls of intrusive advising (long-term expectations)
§ un-conference
models: lecture, poster board, voting, planning
§ culmination
of day should be an action plan
§ consider
incorporation of adjunct faculty (adjunct faculty needs); could Adjunct PD Day
replicate Retention Summit
§ explore
campus equity
§ explore
student self-efficacy and motivation
§ explore
systemic problem of too few full-time faculty
B.
Curricular Alignment and Integration
·
An additional volunteer for joint task force
is needed, and across campuses. Senators should consider joining this committee
to advocate for FT and PT faculty.
·
Some faculty feel there is pressure to
create online courses without faculty consultation; there is pressure to design
online courses within general education without faculty approval or discussion.
This allows students from all campuses to access courses and programs online,
but some courses may not have faculty input which becomes an academic freedom
issue. Some students may benefit more from face-to-face courses.
C.
Whole Student Initiative
·
The goal is to form a joint task force—perhaps
this could be a subgroup in Enrollment Retention Council. The goals include:
o
Work to acquire, and aggregate current,
data on the economic challenges facing our students that affect academic
performance.
·
The charge will include the following:
o
design and distribute a survey of
students on their economic needs as those needs affect academic work
o
conduct focus groups on students’
economic well-being
o
consolidate current data on student
needs
o
distribute data acquired to ALL
instructional staff, full and part-time
o
offer data-driven recommendations that
will enhance students’ opportunity to succeed academically
·
Senators are encouraged to contact Jenn
to join.
Other
Campus Business
A. Interviews of Presidential
Finalists:
·
While the Senate’s role may not be
clear, Senators were encouraged to participate in the meetings with the
finalists.
·
Senators were asked to share potential
questions with Howard or Jenn to create a repository of questions that could be
used.
B. Susan
Ledoux v. Bristol
·
The Senate’s role in this matter was
discussed. While the results of this court case impacts the culture conditions
on campus and integrity of the academic mission of the college, the union will
play the lead role on this matter. The Senate yields to the union on matters of
working conditions and a line between the union and Senate concerns are clearly
delineated. However, there are concerns over whether there will be an appeal
made by the college, where the $2.45 million dollars will come from, how this
will impact college in terms of services offered.
Meeting
Adjourned: 4:22 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Boulay, BCC Faculty & Professional Staff Secretary
