By | December 4, 2019

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THE SENATE STANDARD – ISSUE 15

Dear Faculty Colleagues,

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and are ready for the final push before the end of the semester. In this issue of the Senate Standard you’ll get caught up on the most recent board meeting, and several opportunities to share your views on college-wide work at ACC.

Senate Meetings / Minutes / Agendas

12/13/19 Senate Meeting – noon to 2pm HBC 301 – The agenda for our next Senate meeting is being approved by the Faculty Senate Officers. It will be posted in the next Senate Standard.

Newsworthy

ACC Board Meeting – 12/2/19 – agenda

Dr. Rhodes and the Board recognized two ACC Faculty who are retiring in December. Please join me in celebrating our wonderful colleagues who were honored for their incredible contributions during their ACC careers. Marlene Meador and Patti Singleton have both been active in the Faculty Senate, and we will certainly miss them!

In Dr. Rhodes’ report he shared the following:

• The search for the Director of ACC’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center is complete. Khayree Williams (currently at Calvin College) will be joining us in January.

• ACC’s registration is up from last year, and we are doing better than most of our peer institutions, many of whom saw registration decreases.

• ACC Commencement is coming on December 13, and will include our first cohort of BSN graduates.

Other Items of note:

• The search for our new ERP provider is complete. ACC will contract with Workday to provide our new software solutions for HR and student records. The changeover will take several years, and for some of that time, we will run both the old “Colleague” system and the new Workday system.

• A discussion on ACC’s Employee and Student Freedom from Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation– Sex and Sexual Violence policies was begun. The board will address this again at their next meeting, so if you are interested in sharing your voice on how ACC responds to concerns surrounding sexual orientation / gender and other harassment and discrimination issues, please consider reading the information posted in the agenda, and perhaps signing up to speak at citizen’s communication in January.

• The Board approved a new degree for ACC! We will soon begin offering an Associate of Science Architecture (AS) degree. This will allow students to transfer to a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture at the 4 year university of their choice. We will continue offering the workforce version of this degree (AAS) as well.

Current Action Items (These are reminders for things I’ve already sent out – Please review – several due dates are approaching):

LAST CHANCE – Please help Missi!!! [due December 5, 2019] – Every semester, the Faculty Senate President gives a short address sharing a faculty perspective at the ACC Graduation Ceremony. This year, I’d like to bring many faculty voices to our students on their special day. Do you have some wishes or words of wisdom you would like to share with graduating students? If so, please take a moment to craft a sentence or two that could be a part of this year’s graduation address. I’ll review all submissions and select as many as possible to include. Submit your statement on the “Graduation Speech Suggestions” form.

Dual Credit changes [due December 5, 12, and 13] – Please take a moment to view the memo entitled “Dual Credit and Student Success”. If you would like your views on this proposal to be shared with either ASAC or the FT Faculty Senate, please use one or all of the options below:

• Email a Senate representative on ASAC (membership is listed on the ASAC webpage) – before Dec 5

• Email one (or all) of your campus senators (senators are listed on the Senate webpage) – before Dec 12

• Email the faculty senate officers – [email protected] – before Dec 12

• Join us at the FT Faculty Senate meeting and share your perspectives in person (December 13 from noon to 2pm, HBC 301)

LAST CHANCE – Comment on new Proposed Senate Bylaws [due December 6, 2019] – The Senate Bylaws Committee, chaired by Jon Luckstead, is in the process of making changes to our bylaws. This effort has been in the works for several years, and we are pleased to be in the home stretch. The proposed drafts are now available online. You can see the red line version to recognize changes, but the most up-to-date version is the clean copy. You can also review a summary of the major changes. Take some time to review the proposed drafts, and then send any comments to Jon Luckstead ([email protected]).  Once we’ve heard from faculty and improved the draft, the Senate will be voting on whether or not we should call for a vote of all faculty to adopt these changes.

LAST CHANCE – Faculty Values Logo [due Friday, December 6] – The Faculty Values Project aimed to get ACC faculty to agree on key values that inform our work. There is a proposal to update the logo for the Values, and Michelle Fitzpatrick, Assistant Dean of Faculty Development would like your input. Please take a moment to vote on the options for the logo.

Volunteers for the 2020 Institute on High-Impact Practices and Student Success – ACC is putting together a team that will travel to this conference on improving teaching. If you are interested, please submit your name on our travel volunteer form to be considered. Only one nominee can be sent from the Full-Time Faculty Senate.

Faculty Emergency Fund – Please Donate! – The Faculty Emergency Fund is in need of our support. Our Senate Committee, led by Kisha Moragne asks for your help so we can assist our colleagues in need. Take a moment to learn about how you can be a part of this important effort.

New Academic Master Plan Process [December 12, 2019] – You may remember that in the past, ACC developed its Academic Master Plan by having each department submit its own goals and budget requests. That resulted in a nearly 400 page document that was really difficult to review. This year, our Provost, Charles Cook, would like to move toward a more concise and readable version of the Academic Master Plan. One that uses requests from the AoS level, rather than individual departments. He is also interested in focusing on some college-wide goals. A sample master plan that he likes was created by Montgomery Community College. Take a peek, and then weigh in on this new idea. You can submit your comments to [email protected]

Pay as you go details – Help spread the word to students [through January 6, 2020] – A new registration process is in effect for students. Known as “Pay as you go,” this process outlines new deadlines for paying tuition. To ensure that students keep the classes they register for, they all need to know about these deadlines. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with this information. Then, consider announcing it in class, or sending an email to your students with a link to this information.

Best,

++missi patterson