LEEWARD COMMUNITY COLLEGE

2000 – 2001 Faculty Senate

APPROVED Minutes of the March 7, 2001 Meeting

Bob Hochstein, Chair

Warren Imada, Vice Chair

Jack Pond, Secretary

SENATORS PRESENT: P. Frary, J. Goodman, J. Hara, S. Hayasaka, B. Hochstein, C. Hochstein, F. Iha, W. Imada, G. Levy, S. Lum, M. Minasian, P. Neils, M. Reese, R. Tanimoto, D. Thomson, R. Toyama.

SENATORS EXCUSED: L. Andres, P. Lococo, D. Pascual, J. Pond.

SPECIAL GUESTS: Linda Currivan, Mary Jane Dobson, Leslie Munro.

CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order with a quorum at 3:28 pm

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: The minutes of the February 14, 2001 meeting were read and approved with minor corrections.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

PROGRAM REVIEW – Senator Levy is planning to see what is being said at the Excellence in Education Conference on this issue. She has been told that at the System level, decisions on five of the indicators have been reached. She also received a call from Cheryl Chappell-Long, from the Chancellor’s Office, stating that final decisions have not yet made and that discussions are continuing.

CURRICULUM COMMITTEE – The Curriculum Committee’s March meeting was canceled, as the subcommittees were not able to meet. Acting Assistant Dean B. Howard has voiced a concern that due to year-round scheduling, curricular changes will not get into the Catalog and Schedule of Courses. The curricular process is not in sync with the new changes, and programs will have to submit curricular/program information a year in advance due to the College’s year-round scheduling.

AD HOC COMMITTEE REPORTS:

REORGANIZATION COMMITTEE – Senator Hayasaka asked Senator Imada to update the Senate on the latest information coming from the Provost’s Reorganization Committee. He reported that the Committee has met twice and has decided to have three vice chairs. It will develop parameters and examine the mission statement for its intent and validity. If the mission statement is no longer valid, then it is felt that there may be a reason to reorganize. The vice chairs are Shelley Ota, Lisa Hayashi and Keith Corenevsky.

CHLOE HOLLAND SERVICE COMMITTEE – The next clean up is Saturday, March 24 at 7:00 am. Volunteers will meet at the flagpole.

DISTANCE EDUCATION OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE – Kay Porter gave her email address in the Bulletin (jporter@hawaii.edu). Those who want minutes from the DE System Committee should let her know by email. They are planning to hand out a Best Practices pamphlet at the Excellence in Education Conference. Senators will soon receive a copy through campus mail.

NEW BUSINESS:

Dean Smith’s Memo – Senior Vice President and Executive Vice Chancellor Dean O. Smith has written a memo to President Mortimer asking him to deny the Community Colleges’ request to delay the implementation of the new general education requirements at UHM. While the memo had wide distribution, no CC Senate Chair received a copy from him. There is concern over #2 on page 2 regarding Focus Requirements which reads, “…there appears to be some misunderstanding over the focus requirements. They are graduation requirements specific to Manoa, and like the current second language requirement or the current upper division portion of the Writing Intensive requirement, they need not be completed prior to a student’s transfer to Manoa.”

Tuition Increase – The proposed tuition increase did not have a lot of student comment except from LCC and MCC students. Now that there is an impending strike, students are voicing concern about the tuition increase. They appear to be supporting the strike, but they also want the support of the faculty against the tuition increase. The proposed increase will affect the vocational students who must take more than 12 credits per semester. The rebuttal to this is that vocational students need to apply for financial aid. Additionally, vocational students would end up paying the same as other students since they finish faster (they pay for fewer semesters). A survey seems to indicate that vocational students are not receiving financial aid, but the accuracy of the instrument was questioned. It was also noted that just because students do not receive financial aid, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they applied for aid and were denied. It was also noted that as the CCs are being asked to be more entrepreneurial, compete with private colleges (such as Heald), and deliver the programs in competitive ways that meet the needs of employers, industry and students. Increasing the tuition for vocational students is not assisting the CCs in doing different things. If anything, it is detrimental.

Standing Committee on Written Communication – The Committee’s task is to develop criteria for courses that satisfy the written component of the UH Gen Ed requirement. LCC reviewed the criteria and feels no changes are needed. The abovementioned committee will be a model for the General Education committees.

Distance Education – Chancellor Tsunoda has stated that DE is frozen due to the budget. There will be no further expansion beyond what is scheduled now, that is, until additional funding is found.

TPRC Concerns – Leslie Munro wants the Senate to be aware of concerns she has brought forth in her memo to UHPA and other Faculty Senate Chairs. The memo outlines her concerns regarding TPRCs. She feels the selection of TPRC members is both inequitable and unethical and that the process lacks clear criteria for recommending or denying tenure and/or promotion and results in inequitable application of the inadequate guidelines. She has indicated to the Chancellor and Provosts that she no longer chooses to participate in the tenure/promotion review process. The administration has deemed her decision to be contrary to her professional obligations and has indicated that future nonparticipation would result in disciplinary action. Professor Munro requested the Senate for a motion to ask UHPA to look into the matter.

Motion 01-06 (Hayasaka/Neils): That the LCC Faculty Senate recommends that UHPA look into the issue of TPRCs as outlined by Dr. Leslie Munro in her letter of 2/19/01.

PASSED – Y=13; N=0; Ab=1

Community College Workload memo – This resolution was written by HCC, KCC and LCC faculty. Linda Currivan and Mary Jane Dobson were present to answer questions. It is intended to remind the Chancellor that she should address the workload issue. Senate concerns included “Why should this issue be passed when faculty take on additional courses as overload?” “Other CCs nationwide do not require community service and professional development as we do in Hawaii.”

Motion 01-07 (Hayasaka/Imada): To approve the resolution to modify the current UH Community College Faculty Workload requirements and reinstate single semester sabbatical leave opportunities.

PASSED – Y=13; N=0; Ab=1

Division Chairs Meeting – The question of the campus buying site licenses for software versus having individual divisions purchasing software was raised. The advantage of having a site license is that not only would the college be able to use the software, but it would also be cleared for professional use at home. The Senate deferred taking any action due to a lack of financial information.

Elections/New Senate Meeting – A joint meeting of the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 Senates will be held on May 2 at 3:00 pm. The Senate Secretary should send a letter to all indicating that nominations for the next year’s Senate officers are being sought until April 1. Elections will be held at the May meeting. The letter should also indicate that nominations will also be accepted from the floor at that meeting.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

ü The next meeting of the Senate is April 4, 2001. Refreshments will be provided by Senator F. Iha and …

ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 5:30.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED: Jack Pond, Secretary from notes provided by Senator C. Hochstein.