Faculty Senate Executive Committee

West Virginia Northern Community College

Present: R. Berry, P. Canary, T. Danford, M. Grubor R. Honeman, R. Jennette, V. Larson, R. Lucki, G. Pickett (presiding), D. Poffenberger, S. Rychlicki, A. Secreto, P. Sharma, C. Stokes, C. Teaff, A. Thompson, T. Vavra.

G. Pickett called the meeting to order at 2:05 p.m. in the Culinary Arts room, HA, Wheeling Regional Campus. Minutes from the August meeting were approved (Canary/Vavra). These minutes are available on the Senate web page: http://www.northern.wvnet.edu/~tdanford/senate.

• Liaison Committee Report: G. Pickett reported on the meeting of the Liaison Committee on Friday, 11 September 1998. The following topics were discussed: academic calendar, length of faculty contracts, enrollment/class cancellations, bookstore, and financial aid. Each of these topics was discussed. This report will be presented to the full Senate.

• Academic Calendar and Length of Faculty Contracts: T. Vavra presented a version of the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 academic calendars and also a comparison of the 1998-1999 calendar with West Liberty State College and Wheeling Jesuit University. After much discussion, this was placed on the Senate agenda for discussion and action at the September meeting.



• Faculty Overload Pay: It has come to light that faculty teaching an overload during the fall semester will not be paid that overload until their teaching schedule for the spring semester is finalized. The reasoning behind this is that the 30 credit teaching load for the year can be unequally distributed between the semesters. Faculty expressed serious concern over this situation.
  
  
  

• Early Entrance Courses: C. Teaff raised the question of early entrance courses, starting and finishing times, and total contact hours of instruction. It seems that there are discrepancies in timing and hours of instruction in certain early entrance courses. For example, some classes start late and end late, well past the end of Northern's semester. In other cases, the total hours of instruction are greater in the early entrance class as compared to the on campus class. It was the consensus of the committee that these questions need to be addressed before next semester.
  
  
  

• Reports: Reports will be heard from the committees which have met (certain standing committees have not yet convened). D. Poffenberger reported from the ACF. In particular, he is concerned about the upcoming Legislative session and the emphasis on higher education governance reform. He suggested that the Senate investigate ways of getting area legislators to a forum for discussion of Northern, the free standing community college, and higher education governance.

• Other: These items were discussed: 1) Major Administrator Evaluations - Faculty raised the question of these evaluations and whatever became of them; and 2) Leisering's suits - K. Leisering reported that she won both cases in court, however, Northern has yet to pay the interest on the salary although the principle has been paid.

• Adjournment: With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:15 p.m. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the executive committee is Friday, 16 October 1998, at 2:00 p.m. in Culinary Arts, HA, Wheeling Regional Campus.

Respectfully submitted,

Thomas R. Danford, Professor of Biology

Faculty Senate Secretary