Faculty Senate Meeting
December 9, 1998
2:30 - 4:00 p.m.
Library Board Room

Senate Members in Attendance:

Phil Sell, Helen Burn, Jack Harton, Lea Ann Pratt, Barbara Hunter, Patricia Haggerty, Eric Baer, Vickie Ropp, Robin Buchan, Toni Castro, Keith Paton, Michael Allen

Observers:

Nashonne Watkins, Santana Villa

  1. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by the Chair, Phil Sell, at 2:34 p.m.
  1. Approval of the Minutes

Minutes of the November 1998 meeting were approved as read. Jack moved; Robin seconded. Motion passed.
  1. Agenda Review

The agenda was approved.
  1. Reports
  1. Chair—Phil Sell

Phil stated that Ed Command requested a faculty meeting to present a couple of faculty awards from Boeing. He also noted the e-mail message received by the faculty from Christina Taylor regarding student behavior. Several members stated that they would also like to see student behavior addressed at a faculty forum. Jack commented that it would also be good to recognize the technological advances on campus at a faculty meeting. Phil stated the Executive Committee would in January plan a faculty meeting, a split meeting for awards, student behavior and technological advances on campus.
  1. President—Ed Command

No report 
  1. Senators-At-Large

No report
  1. HCEA

Helen announced that tomorrow, December 10, is the first negotiations advisory committee meeting. Ten people are on the team and information will probably be disseminated to HCEA members only when feedback is needed. Negotiations will start at the end of January.
  1. FACTC

Phil commented that he went to the meeting last Friday, December 4. FACTC is an official state organization put in place by the state board. He noted that he is unclear as to purpose of the FACTC. Phil handed out information to be delivered to the faculty in each senators' area.
  1. ASHCC

No report
  1. Curriculum Committee

Vickie stated they had sent out proposals to various committees to spearhead or lead to tie together CO 2020 report and what Instructional Cabinet stated about the graduation requirements. She noted the example of Coordinated Studies.

Robin, who was assigned the American Institutions portion, stated that he approached members of the Social Science division, since it had originated with them. He noted that they are not quite as ready to back it as they were before. Therefore, it will be on the agenda for the Social Science division and will be discussed further at that time.
  1. Action Items
  1. Withdrawal Policies (Instructor-Initiated)

    T    he discussion of withdrawal policies continued from the November 18 meeting. Phil commented that Item #3 is essentially the same as the one in the catalog currently. He remarked that he was not sure if it needed to be here due to the differences being so slim. He referenced the current policy on page 32 of the catalog. Phil clarified that the policies that we are currently working on are instructor-initiated and are not to be confused with student-initiated withdrawals.

    Michael Allen made a motion to remove the words "with whom they have not had contact" from the rewording of Item #2. Eric Baer seconded. Motion passed.

    Helen made a motion to strike Item #3 because it is already in the catalog. Barbara Hunter seconded. Motion passed.

    Phil asked if there was a motion on Item #1 and #2. Discussion to clarify the items followed. Vickie Ropp made a motion to approve Item #1 as written and #2 as reworded. Michael seconded. Motion passed.

WITHDRAWAL POLICY

(Instructor-Initiated)

 

(1) Instructors have the discretion to initiate a retroactive withdrawal in cases where the student, due to a documented emergency or extenuating circumstances, left Highline without withdrawing from a course, causing a failing grade to be posted for failed attendance. In the event the instructor is no longer at Highline, or is otherwise unavailable, the Vice-President of Academic Affairs can initiate the retroactive withdrawal in the instructor’s stead.

And

(2) In order to accommodate students waiting to register for a course, instructors have the discretion to initiate a withdrawal at the end of the second week of the academic quarter (an equivalent date will be listed in the schedule for summer) for students who have not attended at least 60 percent of the class time during the first 14 days of the academic quarter. For courses that do not meet on a continuing basis such as telecourses, independent studies, cooperative work experience, ONLINE CLASSES etc., instructors have the discretion to initiate withdrawal AFTER THE INITIAL ORIENTATION CLASS SESSION(S) AND BEFORE the end of the second week of the academic quarter for any student with whom suitable arrangements have not been negotiated.

 
  1. Academic Standards

Phil noted that we have a rewording of the suspension status and an addendum to the original standards. Ruth commented via e-mail that she did not support the new addendum, and that also suggested rewording of the Suspension Status. Discussion followed and the rewording was not agreed upon. Phil suggested forming an ad hoc committee to work on the rewording. Michael stated that he will take the academic standards and apply the same wording to the other two and bring them back to the Senate in January.

In regards to the addendum, there was discussion as to whether a student should be able to graduate while on suspended status. The question arose as to the legalities of this addendum. Phil noted that Laura Saunders checked with the Attorney General and we are empowered to set degree requirements and that there are no recourses for students. Barbara moved to table the academic standards until the January meeting to allow members to get feedback from the faculty. Jack seconded. Motion to table passed.
  1. Approval of Committee Appointments

The list of the 1998-99 committee appointments was distributed to senate members. The question was raised as to the large number of people appointed to the Professional Rights and Responsibilities Committee. Phil stated that if the PR&R committee meets, only six of the appointed people will meet. Corrections to the PR&R committee list were to remove Ruth, Helen, and Phil.

Helen moved to approve the committee list as amended; Patricia seconded. Motion passed.
  1. Discussion Items
  1. FACTC Representative

Phil will continue this for the rest of the year.
  1. Replacement of Chair Elect

At this time, we are still working on this issue. If you know of someone interested or are interested yourself, please contact Phil or Lea Ann.
  1. Revised Constitution

    Phil passed out the first draft of the proposed revision of the Faculty Senate constitution. He noted that we will have it as a discussion item on the January agenda. Please read it over and write comments and thoughts on it to bring to the meeting for discussion.
  1. Withdrawal Policies (Student-Initiated)

Phil noted that the Student-Initiated Withdrawal Policies are a separate issue, not to be confused with the Instructor-Initiated policies that we approved earlier. We will have a preliminary discussion today and by January, come up with a statement on it.

Helen gave the Faculty Senate history regarding the Student-Initiated Withdrawal Policies. She noted that two years ago in November 1996, she was asked to have the senate look at this issue. In February 97, a faculty forum was held. Helen stated that it was decided at this forum that the end of the ninth week was too late for student-initiated withdrawals. On March 12, 1997, Helen passed out the results of the forum and additional relevant information from the registrar which lent evidence that it wouldn’t be a big shock to the system. The Faculty Senate curriculum committee performed a campus-wide survey and then it was forwarded to Michael Grubiak. It was noted that nothing has been done on student-initiated withdrawals since. Helen remarked that the survey results and supporting materials are out there, where exactly is the uncertainty.

Phil noted that the current policy is that students can withdraw up to the 9th week. Patricia Haggerty stated that there are reasons for the 9th week withdrawal. One reason being that the ESL students can be in the course longer before having to withdraw. Helen questioned whether this could degrade the quality of the class. She noted that the Faculty Forum, previously held, was largely for moving up the deadline for student-initiated withdrawals. The possibility of having this included in the upcoming faculty meeting was discussed or as a faculty forum. Phil stated that we will continue this discussion in January.

The Faculty Senate meeting was adjourned at 3:37 p.m.

Lea Ann Pratt, Faculty Senate Secretary
1/10/99