Faculty Senate Minutes

October 19, 2005

Attended by:  Phil Droke, Glen Avantaggio, Katie Gulliford, Igor Glozman, Gloria Rose Koepping, Keith Paton,  Dee Skinner, Aaron Warnock, John Lindsay, Rod Fowers, Darryl Brice, Rolita Ezeonu, Jeff Wagnitz and Gwen Spencer.

Meeting began at 3:00 p.m. in room 410 of the Library.

Old Business

Chair Phil Droke reminded us all once again about The Tools for Teaching III conference at Highline this fall on October 28^th.  Dealing with “Diverse Communities in the Classroom” is the theme of this conference.  Phil urged us to attend and asked us to be hospitable to the other visiting faculty we’ll have on campus that day.  He reported that there are 110 registered participants so far and that our campus is hosting/supporting them by providing breakfast, snacks, presentation folders, etc.  The FRC has also contributed posters to direct participants to the activities. 

Senators then looked over the Washington State Employees Ethics Law, RCW 42.52 that applies to all state employees.  It was pointed out that it only deals with monetary or fiduciary responsibilities of employees and not ethics that cover relational behavior between employees and students. 

Next the Senators considered the Statement of Faculty Ethics that was found in paper form in one member’s archives, but not currently in use.  The Senators did not recognize this document since it was not an approved policy that we know of or on line in our policies for the college.  No Senator wanted to reaffirm this statement or draft a new one at the present time. 

Lastly we discussed the Faculty Senate Constitution.  Two areas of concern were highlighted.  Under Article 7, part D, it was pointed out that there are no written procedures for the PR, and R committee.  Many senators questioned the viability of this committee and wanted to abolish it.  It was stated that this function is not implied in our mission.  Others had a hard time trying to figure out what kind of issues would even come to this committee.  One Senator spoke of having no authority as the Senate to enforce a solution.  Another echoed this statement by saying whatever solution we would come up with would not be binding between the faculty members anyway.  Someone else reminded us that the Senate really has no authority for anything, we make recommendations to the administration, but that is it.  We do have a limited scope of authority, it is defined as overseeing the degree requirements.

There was also some discussion of Article 2, part D.  Some Senators wanted to drop this part too.  Phil disagreed and said we need a broad statement to allow the faculty a forum for discussion of problem areas that are not covered by the contract.

We concluded this discussion with Phil asking the Senators to go back and ask their Divisions if they want to keep PR and R or not.  How much support is there out there to keep this committee?  What kind of procedures do they want?    He also asked the Senators to discuss Article 2, part D to find out if the faculty want the boundaries of the Senate to be broad or narrow.

New Business

None at this time.

Meeting adjourned at 3:57 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Gloria Rose Koepping, Faculty Senate Secretary