Bristol
Community College
Faculty
& Professional Staff Senate Meeting
Minutes
of Monday, April 20, 2017
Room
H 209 3:15 pm
Senators
in attendance: C. Almeida, J. Barry, D. Behuniak, J. Bjornson, J.
Boulay, J. Corven, J. Dekkers, L. Delano-Botelho, J. Emond, M. Geary, G. Hamel,
M. Hyde, J. Jodoin-Krauzyk, C. Kenney, J. Pelletier, K. Plante, D. Quenga, D.
St. George, H. Tinberg, R. Rebelo, L. Neubert, K. Hiller, J. Constantine, K.
Woldegiorgis
Absences:
A. Marden, S. Ferreira, M. K. Roberts, D. Avedikian
Excused
Absences: R. Worthington
Ten guests attended this meeting.
Meeting
called to order:
3:15 pm
Minutes: Minutes from March 6, 2017 were reviewed and
approved with 3 abstentions due to absences.
Division
Reports
●
1: LusoCentro is hosting its annual
Portuguese Language Day on May 4th from 9am-noon.
●
Advising: There are 2 new full-time
positions within Advising--one is at the Attleboro Campus and the other is in
New Bedford.
●
5: Bob Rak delivered this year’s
Grandchamp Lecture, which was recorded and will appear on the Senate blog .
●
Lash: Secretary Boulay served on a
Recognition Task Force and announced that beginning this year, all full- and
part-time employees will be recognized for their years of service at the annual
recognition breakfast in May.
2017
Jeanne Grandchamp Speaker
●
President Tinberg thanked this year’s
lecturer, Bob Rak, and members of the Grandchamp Committee--Vice President St.
George (chair), Senator Corven, and Ron Weisberger for their service.
●
President Tinberg requested
contributions from Senators to cover the cost of refreshments for this event.
Update
on Strategic Goals
A. Governance:
a. Preemptive
Cancellation of Courses
●
A discussion regarding preemptive
cancellations of Fall 2017 courses continued from the earlier professional
staff meeting.
●
Issues of transparency and shared
governance were raised--namely, who is part of the decision-making process,
what process is employed, and what is the rationale used when selecting one
course to cancel over another.
●
Suggestions were made that an official
written policy, which included the decision making process and considerations
taken, be requested from the administration regarding this topic.
●
Adjunct faculty and program chair
perspectives were shared by constituents.
●
A suggestion was made to establish a
Labor Management Committee to look at questions regarding declining enrollment
and the impact on budgets, including course assignments; however, this falls
outside of the scope of the Senate’s mission.
●
Questions were raised regarding the
College’s rationale for expanding to other campuses and adding new programs if
we were aware that enrollment would eventually go down, given the reduction in
high school enrollment and impact on peer institutions. How can we engage in a
dialogue that simultaneously focuses on panic and growth?
●
A discussion followed regarding
focusing energy on finding strategies for retaining our existing students.
b. Call
for Changes to By-Laws: Appointing a Small Task Force
●
President Tinberg suggested that a
small informal committee assist the incoming officers with proposing changes to
By-Laws so they may be voted upon in the fall. Interested Senators are
encouraged to contact the President Tinberg, Vice President St. George, or
Secretary Boulay.
B. Sustainability
a. Senate
Election Results and Thanks to Nominations Committee
●
President Tinberg congratulated all
newly elected Senators (listed below).
Terms
Ending in 2019
|
Terms
Ending in 2018
|
Livia Neubert, Division 1
|
Carlos Almeida, Division 1
Jacci Barry, Division 1
Ricardo Rebello, Division 1
|
Ron Weisberger, Division 2
|
Lisa Delano-Botelho, Division 2
Mary Hyde, Division 2
Marie Roberts, Division 2
|
Paul Robillard, Division 3
|
Jennifer Dekkers, Division 3
Jon Bjornson, Division 3
|
Debra Quenga, Division 4
Stephen Alves, Division 4
|
Geraldine Hamel, Division 4
Kathleen Plante, Division 4
|
Bob Rak, Division 5
Mike Sipala, Division 5
|
Dan Avedikian, Division 5
Jim Corven, Division 5
Kelemu Woldegiorgis, Division 5
|
Carolyn Kenney, Division 6
|
|
Jenn Boulay, Lash Division
|
Jim Emond, Lash Division
|
Julie Jodoin-Krauzyk, Student Services
|
|
Dana Behuniak, Advising
|
|
Amy Marden, Enrollment
|
b. Call
for Nominations for Senate Executive Council
●
President Tinberg announced that
nominations for members of the Senate Executive Council--for the roles of
president, vice president, and secretary-- are now open and will close on April
27th.
●
The election for the Executive
Committee is projected to run from April 28th to May 4th and results will be
announced at the final Senate meeting for the year on May 8th.
C. Curriculum
and Alignment
a. Update
on Joint Task Force for Curriculum Policy Development
●
Co-chair Shelly Murphy provided the
following update:
○
For new academic programs, they are
working on creating a process that is more parallel with the Board of Higher
Education (BHE) and a letter of intent would be distributed campus-wide in the
development stages to promote cross pollination between programs.
○
A fast-track policy is being created to
avoid bogging down the CWCC with minor changes (e.g., title change). This would
go to the division curriculum committee and would be approved at the division
level. The CWCC would be notified if additional changes are needed.
○
A large parking lot consists of items
the group would like to look at (e.g., courses changing from campus to campus
and by modality).
○
The group’s meeting minutes are of
public record and includes a draft of the fast track proposal.
●
Also reported: There is an incongruence
between program needs and faculty interest regarding offering courses online.
Some programs do not feel specific courses should be offered in this modality
despite faculty interest; whereas other programs are requiring faculty to teach
online regardless of faculty preference. President will solicit feedback
regarding this topic from constituents and will forward to Shelly. A
recommendation was made that the AI process and form be used to communicate
with stakeholders.
D. Academic
Support and Retention and Whole Student Initiative
a. Update
on Retention Summit and Follow Through
●
Senators were provided with a datasheet
that was used for the Meeting Basic Needs session at the Retention Summit. This
included data from the IR Hunger/Homeless Eradication Applied Research Tools
(HEART) survey. Senators were encouraged to think about what faculty can do to
help students experiencing these problems.
●
The Retention Summit planning group
will be meeting to discuss next steps in the coming weeks.
E. Collaboration
a. Vice
President’s Council Representative: Update on Process of Selection
●
The interview process for the Senate
representative to the Vice President’s Council is under way and at least one
Senator is serving on the committee. A couple of Senators have been interviewed
for this position.
●
Questions were raised as to whether
this individual will serve as an ex officio to the Senate or whether he or she
will have voting rights.
b. Representation
on Board of Trustees: Middlesex Model
●
Senators were reminded that one of the
recommendations in the Senate white paper in 2010 included adding a
faculty/staff member to the Board of Trustees.
●
President Tinberg was informed that
Massachusetts General Laws dictate the composition of the Board. However,
Middlesex Community College has a faculty representative on the board as part
of their Faculty and Staff Assembly within their committee system. A section of
their By Laws were sent to President Tinberg via email.
●
President Tinberg is on the agenda for
the BOT’s May meeting and will use his allocated time to inform trustees of the
Senate initiatives from the past year.
Other
Meeting Adjourned:
4:13 pm
Respectfully
submitted, Jennifer Boulay, BCC Faculty & Professional Staff Secretary
