Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

October 17th, 2007

Senate members present:  Ruth Frickle, Glen Avantaggio, Gloria Rose Koepping, Chris Gan, Sherri Chun, Jack Harton, Mike Armstrong, Dusty Wilson, Tina Ostrander (for Eric Baer) and Jeff Wagnitz.

Guests:  Gwen Spencer

The meeting was called to order at 3:07 in room 411 of the Library.

As a quorum was present, the minutes from June 6, 2007 and October 3, 2007 were approved.

Ruth then clarified our potential new business for the year and asked for some help in setting priorities for these items.  These topics include getting more information on the Honors designation and how that program operates,  having some understanding of the mission and some input into the purpose and operation of the FRC, class caps on distance learning classes, and creating new PR&R procedures. 

The Senators also identified a concern over the waitlist for DL courses, hybrid courses, and weekend college courses.  It has been difficult for students who are waitlisted for these courses to make contact with Instructors to express a desire to add the course once the waitlist goes away the first day of the quarter.  They must oftentimes wait a week to find out if they can take the course and by then other options are no longer available.

The status of the alternate schedule for classes (4 day schedule and different starting times for courses) was also brought up. The topic is still being studied in a Cabinet subcommittee.

Gwen asked if we wanted to develop a policy or guidelines for when we might allow a student to take over 18 credits.  Currently 1^st quarter students and those on probation are not allowed to take over 18 credits, but sometimes they find a faculty member to sign them up anyway.  This practice is often not in the student’s best interest.

Ruth asked the Senators to consider what things we want to see happen out of the FRC, what training we want, etc.  It was decided to table this topic till Winter Quarter, at which time we might be able to invite Allison Green and Kathy Oberg to come and share their vision for the Center.

The discussion of DL class caps, lack of DL testing, and the waitlist for DL courses were deemed important topics to address together as they seem related.  Senators wondered how to approach these issues.  It was noted that the current cap for first time instruction is 25, (actually 20) thereafter it is presumed that it rises to the usual cap for a class.  This is found in the Faculty contract in section 304.4, Provisions for Online Courses at www.highline.edu/admin/hr/hcea/HCC_HCEA_agreement.pdf 

Jack Harton volunteered to research this issue and see what other colleges are doing in this area.  There was some discussion of changing CAF forms to reflect 3 possible caps, one for classroom offerings, one for DL offerings, and one for Hybrid offerings.  Ruth Windhover, President of the Faculty Union, HCEA, was suggested as a possible guest speaker for these topics, as this could be a contractual issue.

Tina Ostrander said that she would be glad to take back our concerns about DL courses, DL testing, and waitlist inquiries to the DL committee to add to their other agenda items.

Senators also discussed the importance of having a Testing Center for DL testing and make up testing.  The possibility of having a general faculty resolution supporting its availability was mentioned.  The Senators were asked to poll their divisions and see how big an issue this is.  The Pure and Applied Science division also might look to other campuses to see how they test on line and how students can still show their work on problems.

It was suggested to invite Barbara Clinton to come and explain to us the difference between Honors degrees and the Honors Program designation.

Meeting Adjourned at 4:02 p.m.

Next meeting is November 7th, 2007.

Minutes submitted by Gloria Rose Koepping, Faculty Senate Secretary