Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC) Meeting Minutes
Meeting Date: November 17, 2004

Present: Leanne Parker, Chairperson, Diana Ames, Henrik Brosten, Lana Elliott, and Victor White.

Minutes from previous meeting:
Minutes approved from previous meeting.

Old Business: (SRI’s)
The LCSC Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC) will make recommendations concerning possible revisions to SRI content, utilization and format. Leanne Parker, FAC Chairperson and FAC will propose changes in the spring and these recommended changes will be sent to the LCSC Faculty Senate and Chet Herbst for evaluation and review.

Question: Can Chet veto FAC recommendations concerning SRI’s? Group discussion indicated that Chet probably did not have the power to do this and probably would not do so.

SRI Format:
It was indicated via group discussion that the current SRI’s rely too much on numerancy and that more narrative should be used. In short, the FAC feels that the current SRI format is not appropriate. 

FAC member comments:
-Hardcopy SRI’s were useful and the faculty should fight for return of hardcopy SRI’s. SRI completion ought to occur by the end of the semester and not during finals week.

Problems with Hardcopy SRI use: Secretarial overload, storage and resources allocation and retrieval problems. Some FAC members indicated that these instances were among isolated individuals and that these problems were not comprehensive across the institution.

FAC Recommendations:
-Use hard copy SRI’s again. In the spring of 2005, FAC will draft a preliminary copy, or template of an updated, proposed SRI document.

-A motion was made and unanimously carried that a hand written (e.g.:  hard copy) SRI template would be brought to the LCSC Faculty Senate in early spring 2005.

-The proposed new written SRI form should be neutral and facilitate constructive input.

-A combination of numerically oriented and narrative components should be used.

-SRI’s should be administrated in a limited format, and not every semester, for every instructor, for every class.

-The number of questions on the SRI needs to be addressed.

-There should be more flexibility in when and how SRI’s are to be used.

-Get rid of questions that do not focus on facilities, classroom location, etc or make a separate campus facilities assessment form.

-Make the SRI Division specific and academic versus clinically specific if needed in certain divisions.

Proposed FAC activities concerning new SRI Form:
-Make a half sheet of possible topics/questions as a template. Distribute this document to each division for feedback.

-Return completed documents to FAC by next meeting.

-Invite Chet Herbst to the next meeting (FAC) once we have some feedback.

A motion was made and unanimously passed indicating that a preliminary draft or template addressing the aforementioned SRI concerns would be brought to the Faculty Senate in early spring 2005.

Withdrawal Policy:
Leanne indicated that there are some institutional resistance components to establishing a Withdrawal (Passing)/Withdrawal (Failing) policy. Important issues include the following:

-Financial aid.

-Registrar’s office.

-Some faculty resistance or lack of concern.

Potential benefits include the following:
-Reduce the number of petitions

-Alleviate some academic fraud issues.

New Business:

General Education:
Make this an actual committee rather than a sub-committee.

There were some FAC member questions concerning serving a five year term and there only being five members on the committee. It was noted that Ed Miller, PhD is the current Chairperson of this sub-committee.

Philosophy: What are the goals of this committee?

Recommendations:
Limit General Education Committee term to 3-4 years and make membership 7 members, with representation from each division.

-The Chair is elected within the committee.

-Potential members must be faculty association members.

 Barbara Kramer Considerations:
-PERCI situation. Make faculty aware of how sick leave is accumulated.

-PERCI methodology involves the number of sick hours accrued as divided by rate of pay.

 Current PERCI sick leave status/situation:

-12 sick days per year.

-Recommend that PERCI go to 9 sick days per year for faculty on 9 month contracts, which benefit faculty per Leanne Parker.

Recommendations:
-Invite Barbara Kramer to one of our future meetings spring 2005 to discuss this issue in more detail.

Directed Study:
A faculty member can not offer a directed study when you the class is being offered also.

 Reasons:
-Does not accurately reflect faculty workloads.

-Does not accurately reflect headcount.

 Areas of FAC concern:

-Do faculty have a say in this issue?

-Delineate the Political vs. Practical issues of offering directed study.

 Future FAC meeting schedule:
A tentative schedule for spring 2005 FAC Meetings is Mondays at noon. Other options will be discussed.

 The meeting was adjourned by Chairperson Leanne Parker at 5: 37 PM.

 Minutes respectfully submitted by Victor White on 12/6/04. I apologize for these minutes being submitted so late.