Faculty Senate Meeting Agenda Southwest Tennessee Community College

Macon Cove Campus MA B 153

February 11, 2020, 3:00 PM

1. Call to Order and Roll

Faculty Senate president Bill Summons called the meeting to order at 3:00. Secretary Doug Branch called the roll:

William Summons (18-20) President Division Senators, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Mathematics Doug Branch (19-21) Secretary Annie Sultana (18-20) Proxy Holly Green (18-20) Thomas King (19-21) Melissa Reyna (19-21) Absent Division Senators, Business and Technologies Tim Harrison (18-20) Kimberly Taylor (19-21) Absent Division Senators, Health and Natural Sciences Joyce Johnson (18-20) Treasurer Delores Thomas-Boland (19-21) Proxy Department Senators Shilpa Desai (18-20) Allied Health Vicki Armstrong (19-21) Business and Legal Studies Annette Fournet (19-21) Communications and Fine Arts Julie Fournier (19-21) Languages and Literature Absent Matthew Palotti (18-20) Natural Sciences, Vice-President Marilyn Wilbourn (18-20) Nursing Frank Daniels (19-21) Mathematics, Parliamentarian

Stewart White (19-21) Technologies Darcy Sims (19-21) Social and Behavioral Science

2. Approval of Minutes

The body approved, with minor changes, the minutes from the November, 2019 faculty senate meeting.

3. Reports from senate officers and senate committees

A. Bill Summons: Report on regular SEC meeting with Sindy Abadie, Special Assistant to VPAA. Report on TBR Faculty Subcouncil.

Bill mentioned the progress on the search for a new VPAA: two on-campus interviews have been completed, but no announcement as to who the new VPAA will be has been forthcoming Bill noted that the administration would be taking the survey of college administrators off the faculty senate’s hands but that the administration wished for the senate’s advice concerning the questions that should be asked. One area of special concern from the Faculty Subcouncil meeting, for Bill, was the statewide general education revision, which is currently underway. Bill’s concern is that requirements may be eliminated, which would weaken the program, in addition to costing faculty positions. Further, Bill reported that TBR is working on articulation agreements between the Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technologies and the state’s community colleges. Bill’s full report of the Faculty Subcouncil meeting, held on February 6, is appended to these minutes, as Appendix A. B. Matthew Palotti: Report on election process.

Matt noted that he could use assistance, perhaps a committee, to help him with the elections. Doug Branch, Shilpa Desai, Darcy Sims, and Frank Daniels volunteered to serve with Matt on an elections committee. Matt noted that he thinks we may need to add or subtract divisional senators, as the numbers of faculty they represent have changed. He noted, too, that we should consider a new by-law to the constitution, specifying when new senators begin serving their terms. C. Joyce Johnson: Report on activities of the president’s cabinet.

Joyce has been attending these meetings, rather than Bill, the senate president, as Bill teaches a class when those meetings are scheduled. Joyce’s minutes of the most recent president’s cabinet meeting are appended to these minutes, as Appendix B

4. Special Guests: Sindy Abadie, Special Assistant to the VPAA; Jeremy Burnett, Dean,

Faculty Support; Jacqueline Taylor, Associate VP, Retention and Student Success. All were invited to address special concerns of the senate and to answer questions pertaining to their areas.

A. Sindy led a discussion of the procedure about how term appointments would be

converted to tenure track appointments, so Southwest’s practices would square with TBR policies. TBR’s policy is that term appointments should not be made to serve long-term staffing needs. Although it will ultimately be the job of the new VPAA and new HR head to address how we stop making such hires, the problem now is what to do with faculty at Southwest who have been in term positions for more than six years. There are about twenty such faculty members. Sindy advocates our using Volunteer State’s basic policy, which would involve allowing faculty in term positions after six years to ask for the appointment to be converted, should they wish to do so. In this case, the position would be converted, and the faculty member would apply for the position, which would also be open to others. Sindy agreed to send Bill a draft of the policy, for senate review.

There was a good bit of concern expressed about this potential policy, with several

senators expressing their sense that these positions should be automatically converted and not require faculty members to reapply for positions they have held for six years.

Responding to these concerns, Sindy noted that she had spoken with Greg

Sedrick, Associate Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs at TBR regarding “converting the position” vs “converting the person.” In the former, the position would become tenure track, so the holder of the “old” position would need to reapply. In the latter scenario, the person holding the position would automatically be converted to tenure track. Sindy reported that Greg Sedrick made it clear that colleges may not “convert the person” because that would be in violation of state hiring practices. Sindy reported that Sedrick had told her that the Volunteer State policy of “converting the position” and posting it is correct. Senator Frank Daniels asked Sindy if he might see these state hiring practices and to know where they were located, to which Sindy replied that she was only reporting Greg Sedrick’s answers to her questions about the policy.

B. Sindy also discussed problems involving IncludED which, in her judgment, creates a great number of unforeseen and possibly unworkable downsides.

C. Jeremy noted that our graduation rates have improved dramatically from 2015

through 2019, increasing from 5% to 13.7%. Jeremy also agreed to address, at some point, the issue of students and often faculty not understanding the difference between faculty advisors and faculty mentors, as the word “advisors” is often used to denote both. Thus, there is confusion when students are given faculty “advisors” when they are really meant to use personnel in the advising office as their advisors. Jeremy also was pleased to report that Southwest would be recognized as a leader college at an Achieving the Dream conference to be held soon. Jeremy reported, too, on improvements being made in the process when students submit reinstatement forms after having been dropped from the roll for non-attendance.

D. Jacqueline discussed the Equity and Inclusion Committee, which is in her area and

which she supervises. This is in response to a Title III grant from the Department of Education, which pays for equity and inclusion specialists, faculty members who conduct studies to address major achievement gaps among students of different races and income levels, among other factors. Jacqueline also discussed personnel hires that we are planning, using these funds. These include more peer tutors, professional advisors, and a data consultant.

5. Old Business

6. New Business

A. The senate decided to invite Michael Boyd, Chief Information Officer, Information Systems, to our next meeting, to discuss Information Technology matters of faculty concern.

7. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 5:25.

Appendix A TBR FACULTY SUBCOUNCIL 2/7/2020

The Faculty Collaborative did not meet this quarter. Note: The Faculty Collaborative is a meeting of representatives of the community colleges, colleges of applied technology and four year universities. The purpose is to share information about topics of mutual interest. The Faculty Subcouncil does not include representatives of the four year universities. It does include representatives of the 13 community colleges and the 27 Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology (TCATs). The Faculty Subcouncil was called to order at 9:30 am by its chair Terry Sparks from TCAT Livingston. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved with minor changes. Opening Remarks – Lana Hamilton

Lana and her team are visiting the campuses of all the community colleges as part of the strategic enrollment management project. So far visits have been made to Dyersburg State, Jackson State, Roane State, Cleveland State, Nashville State and Motlow State. The TCATs will be incorporated soon. This visit is also about Achieving the Dream. It is a positive thing which asks how we bring all these initiatives, including SACS-COC, together. TBR is also looking at the makeup of the various subcouncils and councils. Should these be changed in any way? The Academic Subcouncil which is made up of Chief Academic Officers only has two TCAT representatives from each of the grand divisions of the state (6 total). The presidents would like to see an increase in TCAT representation. There is a push for Associate of Applied Technology degrees to be awarded by TCATs. This would involve only Surgical Technology at six TCATs. The first step will be to change state law to allow this to happen.

DISCUSSION ITEM Achieving the Dream Costs – Wendy Thompson

This year Cleveland State joined Achieving the Dream. Now all of the community colleges are ATD schools. There is an initial three year commitment to join. The TBR System Office will now pay the cost for all three years. The cost is $65,800 per college. If a school does a relaunch after three years the cost is $28,000 which is the cost of a leadership coach and a data coach.

ACTION ITEM Inter-Institutional Relationships and Off Campus Offerings Policy 2:01:01:02 – Robert Denn

This is new policy that was previously a guideline. It has been updated to remove references to obsolete documents. Definitions were added. This policy was approved unanimously.

STAFF UPDATES Common Course Alignment Acalog Audits – Treva Berryman

This is now online at tbr.edu. They are almost finished with all of the degrees. So far 60 have been completed with about 10 to 15 to go. They have asked campus CAOs for input. The CAOs need to look at certificates at the campus level and make sure they align with those in the existing library. This should happen by March 1st and should include faculty and deans. A list of libraries was included.

Process of Academic Action Approval for Community Colleges – Berryman

TBR is just now starting this. Treva will give a report at our next meeting. Each campus has a person (expert) that handles Curriculog.

Advising Academy, Advising Resource Guide and Innovation Grants – Sean Chism

Campus visits are taking place this spring. The advising Academy will meet March 9th and 10th at the Franklin Marriott Cool Springs Hotel. Each school may bring a team of five and 2/14 is the deadline to register. There will be at least four grants available of $10,000 each for advising. Work is being done to create an advising website that will link all of the campuses advising centers together. This central space will be up soon and can be located under Student Success at the TBR website. A TBR System Advising Mission Statement has been developed. The midyear report is due 2/14/2020. They are also looking at the first year experience and how to improve that.

Accessibility Timeline and 2019 Audit Results – Kristina Waymire

TBR has accessibility training available if a college does not and they are working to get accessibility teams in place. Dave Vinson told about some severe accessibility problems that they have been having at Pellissippi State. A discussion followed. Greg Sedrick mentioned that pre-focus TBR had an accessibility officer but that went away post-focus. In the future TBR will only work with vendors that have accessible products. A subcouncil member related that the software Ally is a very good product. It is made by the same company that produces Blackboard but it is a separate product. The Pellissippi State Community College Senate passed a resolution recognizing the issue of accessibility and the major problems being encountered by faculty in areas such as mathematics, natural sciences, health sciences, etc. These areas use charts, graphs, pictures and figures that are not easily made accessible. The resolution was passed to help the college realize the scope of the problem and to encourage the VPAA to have a plan in place and to encourage the VPAA to have conversations with everyone involved. Audit results were shared.

Academic Affairs Initiatives Status – Greg Sedrick

A hand out of all 13 topics was distributed. I have attached it to this email. A request was put out for proposals for the learning management system. Vendors will make all day presentations at the University of Memphis, Nashville State Community College, Roane State Community College and Chattanooga State Community College. See item

#6. Everyone is invited to attend and to try and “break” the systems. Contact Greg Sedrick if you have any questions. His contact information is on the attachment.

A break was taken for lunch at this time. General Education Program Review – Denn

There will be a General Education conference in Jacksonville, FL from 2/22 to 2/24. The Gen Ed steering committee will meet on 3/27. Jason Whitt is the Southwest representative on that committee. A revised and updated website for Gen Ed was launched on 1/21/2020.

Veteran Affairs – Denn

The TBR system level veteran contact is Robert Denn. The THEC Service Member Opportunity Portal is now online. It is at TN-SOP.GOV and will let a veteran know what colleges will give college credit for their military training.

K-12 Connectors – Denn

Get them ready, get them started, get them through. This is their new motto. Some of the initiatives are SAILS, TN Pathways and Early Post-Secondary Opportunities (EPSO). There are 122 recently certified pathways now in TN Pathways. They are piloting transitioning to college in SAILS now. It is no longer just math. EPSO enrollment has gone from 55,600 to 95,000 in just the past few years. TBR is trying to get the state to let them spend more money for Dual Enrollment but is wary because the state of Georgia recently ran out of money for their similar initiative.

TCAT (Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology) to Community College Articulation – Tachaka Hollins

There are three stages to this process. 1. First Draft in which the faculty are heavily involved. 2. Working Draft which involves the CAOs and Presidents. 3. Final Draft which involves the various Subcouncils and the Chancellor. Agreements have already been reached in Dental Assisting, Surgical Technology and Welding. Upcoming agreements will include Industrial Maintenance and Engineering Systems Technology.

Workforce Development – Hollins

A pipeline is being put in place to go from LWFD to DHS to TBR. TCAT In-Service – Hollins

The TCAT in-service meetings will be held from March 9th to March 13th, 2020. Gun Bill Update – Hamilton

Dave Vinson asked to be updated about the progress of gun bill legislation. Lana Hamilton said there is no information yet about these bills.

Evaluation of Upper Level Administrators – James Adair

Lana Hamilton related that while she was president of Jackson State they used a third party vendor called IOTA 360 to evaluate upper level administrators.

Winter Term – Adair

James related some problems with winter term contracts and pay at Dyersburg State. Their winter term takes place between fall and spring semesters. Some faculty members did not get their winter term contracts until 1/31/2020 which was long after the term was over. Others still have not been paid. Comments were made that this was probably a onetime occurrence since winter term is new at DSCC.

QuILLTS – Berryman

Quality Initiative and Long Term Support. This involves training for long term care facility workers and training for care givers. It is supported by TnCare. There is funding in the Governor’s budget for this but it must first pass the legislature. There are 12 badges to complete and workers receive a pay raise after each badge completion. Treva Berryman is the point person at TBR in charge of this. Right now there is a 50% turnover rate in this industry. Workers don’t feel qualified and need to know what to say and not say to their patients and patient families.

Personnel Policy – Sonya Franklin and Denn There will be a policy coming soon involving 12 month faculty.

Service Educator Event – Karen Eastman

There is a service educator event scheduled at Chattanooga State Community College on 3/28/2020.

TMATYC – Adair

The Tennessee Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges will meet at Volunteer State on March 27th and 28th.

The next meeting of the Faculty Subcouncil will take place on Friday 4/17/2020. The meeting was adjourned at 1:50 pm.

Appendix B President’s Cabinet Meeting Report

Feb. 5, 2020 Student Success Council (SSC) report has been attached for your review. Sindy Abadie, Jeremy Burnett, and Jacqueline Taylor will attend the faculty senate meeting on Feb 11, 2020 to discuss the items in the report with faculty. Here are a few topics that will directly impact faculty. Training for faculty for students with special needs. The task force report focused on the lack of training and awareness of American with Disabilities guidelines. Five sessions were on the DE calendar in the fall 2019. There was very poor attendance. It was proposed that this training become mandatory for faculty similar to the online trainings for Title 9 and IT safety. In the attached report, the Southwest policy for Extra Compensation for Additional Duties and Interim Appointments was discussed. This policy was reviewed because of an interpretation issue with human resources specifically the wording in number 5. Human Resources was using faculty summer school pay to calculate the 20% of their salary therefore making faculty ineligible for extra compensations for additional duties including grants. A few grants were turned away because they were unable to find a faculty member willing to give up their summer pay. Changes to this policy were accepted highlighted at number 5. During the division meetings, it was announced that our spring break 2021 would line up with Shelby County Schools. Currently, Shelby County school (SCS) calendar is a draft, however due to our deadlines for posting our school calendar, there is a possibility that our spring breaks may not line up if SCS makes changes to their calendar; still to be determined. Teaching and Learning: Theme for Summer Institute 2020 will be on culturally responsive teaching. Proposed by cabinet to develop a clear definition for “cultural responsive teaching” and “race conscious teaching”. Suggestion: for faculty representatives on the SSC participate in developing these definition being faculty will be expected to attend the training and execute these teaching styles. Institution Affairs Council – This council is examining the results of employee engagement

survey. This council is looking into the timekeeping policy for exempt employees. No details as

to the discussion surrounding this policy. According to the policy: “Exempt” refers to

employees who are exempt from Federal and State laws regarding payment of overtime, and paid

a pre-determined salary, not an hourly rate. “Non-Exempt” refers to employees who are eligible

to receive overtime or compensatory time, for hours worked in excess of 37.5 hours per week.

http://www.southwest.tn.edu/policy/section5/5-01-00-00-16.pdf

Suggestion: Ask that the faculty representative on IAC to report to the senate if the discussion

around this policy impacts faculty directly. Some faculty members have not seen the results of the

employee engagement survey. We would like to see the results from this survey.

Included Ed will be a topic of discussion for Faculty Support and SSC. They are currently evaluating the issues students are having with “opt-out” of this service. Opt-out policy statewide (federal policy) is not as clear as it should be for students. Working on developing a plan for our students if they choose to opt out. Issues:

eBook only

The costly overall. There has not been enough significance in cost reduction for

students statewide.

Identifying a ISBN for the course when a student “opt-out”

Action suggested: Suggested to add the opt-out policy and link into the syllabus using the new syllabus tool Simple Syllabus. It will be standard statement on all syllabus just as the information for software, hardware, guideline for communication, technical support, and student services is on our current syllabus tool. Question raised to faculty – are there common course information forms? Response from academic affairs was that we have them but not all have access to them. Suggestion: Per discipline, do we have the course description, common goals for the course, competencies and /or student learning outcomes for each course? Current plan discussed during the meeting, is to have a common scale on each syllabus by Fall 2020. E.g. 100%-90% =A 89%-78% =B etc. or whatever increments are proposed. Suggestion: Work with faculty support to ensure faculty suggestions are taken into consideration. During the HR ATD redesign, suggested for them to develop standard operating procedures for each area across the college. Communications from VP, to Exec. Directors, to Directors, to all levels of leadership are not making it to the faculty & staff. Work on closing the loops.

Michael Boyd would like to come to the March senate meeting. He wants to hear from

faculty and he will be available to tell faculty about anything new in IT.