Faculty Senate

West Virginia Northern Community College

Present: F. Binkley, T. Boyers, P. Canary, C. Dale, T. Danford, M. Davis, W. Deibert, E. Gast, M. Goldstein, D. Gonot, M. Grubor, K. Hart, K. Herrington, R. Honeman, S. Hooff, B. Hudak, R. Jennette, J. Keyser, N. Krupinski, R. Lucki, R. Malek, G. Pickett (presiding), D. Poffenberger, M. Riley, S. Robinson, E. Rogers, S. Rychlicki, P. Sharma, L. Shelek, D. Smittle, C. Stokes, C. Teaff, A. Thompson, A. Vavra, M. Watson, G. Winland, and R. Yeager.

Excused: R. Berry, J. Cisney, T. Craig, L. Ingram, A. Kuca, V. Larson, K. Leisering, S. Mankowski-Myers, K. Morelli, S. Purpura, R. Pusz, R. Vance, and J. Van Fossan.

Absent: S. Beck, D. Hans, C. Huston, K. Jacobson, D. Jones, C. Mason, G. Norton, C. Rogerson, D. Roth, R. Sambuco, A. Secreto, M. Sidon, and V. Slider.

G. Pickett called the meeting to order at 2:05 p.m. in the Culinary Arts room, HA, Wheeling Regional Campus. This meeting, held on the third Friday, in lieu of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting, was to accommodate Dr. Linda Dunn's schedule.

• Dr. Linda Dunn, President

Dr. Dunn addressed the Senate on three inter-related topics and then answered questions from the floor. The three topics were: 1) community colleges and the global picture (her Oxford University experience), 2) community colleges in WV and legislative possibilities, and 3) the state of WV Northern.

- With respect to the first topic, Dr. Dunn indicated that a large number of collected materials are available in her office and that an article should be published in the near future in the Wheeling newspaper. Specifically covered were four topics: general education and its relationship to technical studies (embedded or separate), workforce development (training and retraining; financing), technology and distance education, and globalization of the curriculum.

- Regarding the second topic, state issues, Dr. Dunn hopes to advance the cause of free standing, comprehensive community colleges with a consistent message of unique mission and role, and with information concerning the inequities of funding generated by a solely FTE approach. She speculated on what might or might not occur with respect to mergers and/or affiliations, all subject to legislative whim of course.

- Dr. Dunn indicated that the current budget, although not ample, has provided for legislated salary increases through this year. All indications are that it will not be possible to continue that without elimination of vacant positions, but only those positions vacated by resignations and retirements. Four vacant staff positions were eliminated this year and nonclassified positions were reduced by two. An institutional plan for restructuring and economizing is under development. She listed the following as highlights: Weirton campus construction project is underway; Wheeling campus B&O roof restoration project was honored by the Victorian Wheeling Society and the Wheeling Civitan Club; Northern will be announcing large donations ($240K) to scholarship programs; the Bell Atlantic ATM project will provide the first year's connections to each campus; Northern is participating in a NSF grant proposal for instructional technology; CEWE has been launched. She indicated that Friends of the College associations on all three regional campuses are celebrating this fall with dinners - Wheeling, 17 September; New Martinsville, 29 October; and Weirton, 4 November.

- Dr. Dunn fielded several tough questions, particular with respect to the academic calendar. She indicated that the 1999-2000 academic calendar is set. She agreed to have "her team" [S. Bungard, P. Mancha, M. Wetherald] meet with "our team" [G. Pickett, A. Vavra, ??] over this calendar issue. She is particularly interested in the establishment of some principles/policies/practices/procedures (pppp or a four p letter word) for calendar development. With respect to the questions about the major administrators' evaluations, she has distributed a memo with an analysis of the evaluation process to all members of the internal community.

• Minutes

The minutes of the September meeting of the Faculty Senate were approved (D. Poffenberger/A. Vavra). The minutes of the September meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee were approved (D. Poffenberger/C. Stokes). These minutes are available on the Senate page: http://www.northern.wvnet.edu/~tdanford/senate.

• Faculty Workload

Dr. Phil Mancha, Vice President of Teaching and Learning, sent G. Pickett a memo concerning faculty workload. This memo addressed Dr. Mancha's concerns and included a draft workload policy. The Senate agreed that this matter needs discussed again and agreed to identify divisional representatives to an ad hoc committee at the November division meetings. G. Pickett will follow up on this with a request to the Division Chairpersons.

• Committee Reports

• Other

G. Pickett introduced Mr. Sam Corabi who is the tutoring coordinator. He indicated that he is in need of student tutors, that he is normally available during days, but can flex his time to accommodate needs, and that he is hoping to positively impact student learning.

There will be no November nor December meetings of the Faculty Senate. The next Senate meeting will be in January or February, 1999. The Faculty Senate Executive Committee is currently scheduled to meet in November and January.

• Adjournment

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:50 p.m. on a motion by R. Lucki and a second by D. Gonot.

Respectfully submitted,

Thomas R. Danford, Secretary