Faculty Council Minutes
May 27, 2005

In attendance:

Bert Pooth	Alice Whitenack	Jim Bailey
Sheila Broderick	Patrick Lanning (OISS)	Mary Brau
Dennis Gilbert	Jim Salt (LCCEA)	Susan Redoor (Student Affairs Council)
Stephen Selph	Daphne Gabrieli	Bob Barber (Emeritus)
Mark Harris	Sue Thompson	Sonya Christian (OISS)
Ray Smith (Classified)	Karen Krumrey-Fulks	Sharon Kimble
Chris Siefert	Peggy Oberstaller

Approval of the minutes of the Council meeting of May 13 2005:
Approved with minor changes, including changing Alice’s statement about the Diversity Council: it will be releasing a policy, not “the Diversity Plan”, which has been in existence since before the governance system took effect.

Introductions and Announcements
Jim Salt noted that the association is looking into the recently announced policy from Disability Services.

Bert announced that there is an opening for a Faculty Council representative on the Student Affairs Council.

Sheila announced that the issues concerning access to wireless networking are being discussed, especially with ASLCC, presumably because the student tech fee paid for the access now available to students.

Sonya noted that the Disability Services policy arose from a ruling in a California case and that OISS is discussing how to address the issue with Disability Services.
She also announced that LCC has its first endowed chair in American Indian Languages.
Finally, she announced that a discussion on sustainability will be held June 2.

Harassment Survey
A number of suggestions were made for improving the survey instrument:

a. Arrange the survey so that people could report multiple incidents on the same form.
b. Provide definitions of harassment, etc.
c. Ask only for incidents of which the respondent has first hand knowledge.
d. Have completed forms sent to Judy McKenzie instead of Bert.

The council agreed to let the workgroup make those changes and then distribute the survey.
An initial review of the results will be made this spring and a more thorough examination in the fall.
Jim Salt noted that there was no way to know if more than one person was reporting the same incident.
Dennis will submit the survey to Craig Taylor for authorization to conduct research with human subjects.

Assessment Project
Mary Brau reviewed a proposal recently submitted to NSF to fund a program level assessment program. The initial focus will be in STEM course areas with the Biobonds and FSA people leading the way. Eventually, the program will be extended across campus.
There is an emphasis on under-represented and non-traditional groups.
The assessment process will have a flexible framework, not a “one size fits all” character.
Some additional points discussed were:
An assessment team will be working on a charter, and we need to consider what the relationship will be between the team and the Faculty Council.
What will be the relationship between the team and other academic committees (which are also in need of review)?
Although the proposal names some people that will be involved in the project, these are not assessment team members. The faculty Council will appoint some of the team members.
The project may provide faculty professional development opportunities.

Student Affairs Council Plan
Susan Redoor led the discussion of the plan. She noted that the council had the familiar struggle with trying to determine the proper level of specificity. The following points on the issue were raised:
The level of specificity depends on the issue being considered: in some cases more is needed, in other cases less.
Neither this plan nor the learning plan are really plans. They don’t give direction.
The plans need to list priorities.
For implementation to be possible, the item must be in the plan.
The time span covered by the plan may also affect the level of specificity required.

Future Agenda Items
Learning Plan (June 10)
Review Student Affairs Plan
Instructional Technology Plan
Faculty Evaluations
Faculty Decision-Making Grid
Faculty Certification (After Bargaining)
Unit Planning
Classroom Availability