The minutes of the Council meeting of May 28, 2004, were approved as submitted.

Announcements.
Mary Brau: The second draft of the accreditation self study is available for comment through June 16.

Bob Barber: The launching of the new governance system may include an initial training meeting for governance council members in July. Yet to be determined is whether the training will include all potential members or only those appointed to governance councils by virtue of their position.

Certain council members have offered to serve as interim representatives on the governance councils if need for over-the-summer meetings. These include: Mason Davis (facilities Council), Mark Harris (Student Affairs Council), Judy McKenzie (Learning Council), Alice Whitenack (Diversity Council). Larry Scott indicated he was working during the summer and could also be available if needed.

In the fall the Faculty Council will make its full appointments to the governance councils.

Jim Salt: The LCCEA is ready to conclude the necessary agreements with the Administration that will clear the way for launching the new system.

Bob Barber: Special thanks on behalf of the Faculty Council will be forwarded to individuals who assisted our work in important ways this year, including Council ex-officio members Sonya Christian (OISS), Jeffrey Davis (Community Education), Ray Smith (Classified Council), Jim Salt (LCCEA), and Mary Bolton (President’s Office),
Lori Brenden and Jim Grandstaff (college web staff), and Joe Escobar (faculty webmaster).

Sonya Christian: The Unit Planning process is being review by a small team for improvements to be incorporated next year and will also be more thoroughly reviewed next year when the new College Council undertakes a review of all college planning processes and systems.

Introduction of new Co-chairs.
Sheila Broderick of Social Science and Bert Pooth of Science have been elected co-chairs of Faculty Council for 2004-2006. Approximately 60 ballots were cast, about the same number as were cast to approve the new Council charter.

Report from the Faculty Council Task Force on Portal Software.
Mark Williams reported that the task force was recommending the college not purchase the Luminus portal product. The recommendation will be spelled out in detail in a written report now being finalized by the group, but the main reasons for the recommendation to not purchase are: (1) concerns over the decision making process on this issue; (2) lack of a full and appropriate needs analysis on the part of the Information Technology Department; (3) specific issues relating to the Luminus product itself; (4) user fatigue among staff in the wake of the Banner implementation; and (5) resource prioritization issues, for example between administrative technology needs and instructional technology needs.

The Task Force does recommend moving ahead with some of the underlying technologies but not the Luminus product directly.

With these concerns on the record, the task force recommends Faculty Council take up the issue again in the fall.

Approval of 3-year Faculty Appointments to the Curriculum Approval Committee.
Based on statements submitted to the Council, and by unanimous vote, Linda Loft, Annie Paschall, and Michael Samano were reappointed and Stacey Kiser was appointed to the CAC. One key division, Family and Health Careers, is not currently represented on the CAC and the Faculty Council in conjunction with the new governance system may need to consider revising the number of members on the committee, in the fall, to address that concern.

Dialogue on the central challenges facing the College and the Council next year.
The issues put on the table by Council members included the following:

Issues relating to diversity received the most extended discussion. The number of minority faculty and managers is small and there is high turnover. A hostile work environment is experienced by many faculty of color and women faculty members, either from other staff or from students, or both. Students experience a variety of forms of “toxicity” relating to age, class, race, and other factors. The new governance system will likely amplify issues of power, privilege, and difference. In making the “rules’ care must be taken to ensure the “rules” don’t have discriminatory effects even if unintended. Discussion of these kinds of problems is too often limited to small friendship or co-worker circles and doesn’t impact the broad community.

The Council decided to continue the overall discussion in the fall voted unanimously to invite the ESL faculty to participate in the first Faculty Council meeting of the fall term, in order for the Council to inquire how we can assist those faculty and students in their transition from the Downtown Center to the main campus.