2012 September 21

MINUTES

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

1:00 – 2:00 PM | MITC ROOMS 1 & 2, NATIONAL CAMPUS

I.    CALL TO ORDER

Senate president Christopher Ross Perkins called the meeting to order at 1:05 P.M.

II.    PRELIMINARIES

Ross thanked everyone for coming. He asked the senate officers and at-large members from the national campus to introduce themselves. After the introductions, Ross announced that in behalf of the senate VP Francisco Mendiola will be sitting at the Council of Chairs’ meetings, while he as president will be serving in the Cabinet.

III.    TREASURER’S REPORT

Morehna Rettin-Santos, treasurer of the senate, reported the following:

1. There was no transaction from last year after February 4 up to this day.
2. Collection of the $5.00 membership fees was discontinued until questions regarding the fund’s intended use are resolved.
3. Senate’s account balance, per bank passbook, was $1,195.03; there’s also $5,342.07 in the account that belonged to the Gene Ashby Scholarship fund.

Morehna invited anyone with questions about the account to feel free to come and talk to her.

IV.    ACCREDITATION AND WHAT WE HAVE TO DO

Ross said that VPIEQA Frankie Harriss sent out an email inviting everyone to take the survey regarding the assessment rubrics. He called upon all faculty and staff to take some time to take this survey. In addition, he announced that...

1. BASIC ACCREDITATION COURSE – Those who have not yet taken the online course are enjoined to please do so. He announced that 100% of faculty and staff from Chuuk and Yap Campuses had already taken the course.
2. COMMITTEE SERVICE – Everyone is encouraged to join and serve in committees in order to take part in participative governance and have a say in the affairs of the college. He said those who haven’t done so should ask their supervisors for help in selecting which committees to choose.
3. CAPACITY TRAINING – There will be a capacity training for faculty on October 8, 2012 with Sandy Pond Associates. The training will be dealing with the rubrics for accreditation which was the subject of the current survey. Results of this survey will give us a baseline of where we’re at, and the workshop will help us increase our capacity for understanding them.
4. PROGRAM ASSESSMENTS – President Daisy had sent out an email regarding closing the loop on last year’s assessments (Worksheet #3) and on making sure that the other worksheets (#1 and #2) for the current year are done and posted on the wiki. The budget process for next year will begin in a couple of weeks, and the completion of these assessments provides the basis of the budget process and the justification for requests.

QUESTION FROM FACULTY MEMBER

Regarding the worksheets: Which comes first, approval of the worksheets, or posting to the wiki?

Director Karen Simion explained that she didn’t think an approval is needed. A review will be conducted (by the Curriculum and Assessment Committee), and feedback may be provided. As for specific recommendations, they should go to appropriate offices or committees.

5. PERSONAL NOTE – Faculty and staff have done great work on accreditation, but we cannot stop, we have to do it all together. We cannot have just a small group of people making all the decisions, everybody has to participate. (Ross shared a recent article he read about the San Francisco City College, a 90,000-student college that is part of the ACCJC, which is now on ‘show cause’ status and is in danger of being closed down for the same reason for which we are being cited and placed on probation.)
6. TERMS OF REFERENCE – There is a need to look into the senate TOR and bring them up to date to represent the current governance and communication structure. Where does the faculty/staff senate fit within all these? It’s been kind of left out at all the discussions. All of the committees have rewritten their TORs and the faculty staff/senate needs to update its own terms of reference. We need your inputs. [Secretary's Note: In lieu of the TOR, what the senate has is its By-Laws. Please CLICK HERE to view and post comments on the senate BY-LAWS]

V.    CARRY OVER ISSUES FROM LAST YEAR

1. SALARY FREEZE – In the Planning and Resources Committee (PRC) they are looking at the assumptions that, if we are given back the $700,000 decrement from the national government, what will be the priority for funding out of that money? This is where serving on your committees can really be important because a lot of these issues can actually be dealt with in committee structures that will help to speed up the process.
2. SPECIAL CONTRACTS FOR STAFF MEMBERS – VP Mendiola explained that new special contracts covers six months. However, there are those who have been on special contracts for the past 10 years and were deprived of basic benefits such as life insurance, health insurance, annual leaves, etc. And they are essential to our operations, e.i., janitorial, security, and maintenance. Why not put them on regular contracts for three years and be a part of our own?

RELATED ISSUE – FROM CHUUK CAMPUS – Ross explained that Chuuk Campus had its general assembly and mentioned in their email the same issue. He added that the senate would be waiting for feedback from other campuses which were also asked to schedule their own meetings.

QUESTION FROM FACULTY MEMBER – On special contracts: Why not ask the Human Resources Committee to look into this issue simultaneously?

3. FACULTY OVERLOADS – Ross brought up the issue of special contracts for overloads and their implications on budgets. He said this year probably most faculty are teaching overloads and it doesn’t seem healthy to be doing that semester after semester.
4. HIRING PROCESS FOR FACULTY AND STAFF – In a meeting with President Daisy, Ross said this matter was mentioned and that they are currently looking into the process to find out where the process gets bogged down and why it takes so long to hire someone, particularly faculty which takes about a year. They are also looking at ways to expedite the process. This will help the overload issue if we have a full complement of faculty.
5. SUMMER PAY FOR 2013 – Ross said there is no need to wait until that time, we can deal with the issue now so we can get it into the budget this year for FY2014. He explained that if it is already funded, it doesn’t have to come from the fund balance.

VI.    ROAD MAP – WHAT WE WANT TO ACCOMPLISH FOR THE YEAR

Once all campuses have had their meetings and have sorted out and itemized the issues they want to talk about, or issues that they want us to work with, Ross said he will put them in some sort of a layout of the things that we in the senate will try to accomplish for this year. The issues will be prioritized as, for example, critical and need to be dealt with as soon as possible, or can be dealt with maybe next semester.

VII.    RESOLUTION NO. 2010-01 BY THE NATIONAL FACULTY SUBCOMMITTEE

1. Resolution to Expunge Provision 6, of the College of Micronesia–FSM Employment Contract, which reads: The College has no obligation upon completion of this contract to provide further employment. The College may, at its option, offer a new period of employment to the Employee, but a decision by the College not to offer a new employment contract may not be appealed.
2. At Rafael’s suggestion, Ross sought guidance from Profs. Faustino Yarofaisug (Senate President in 2010) and Brian Lynch (At-Large Faculty Representative in 2010) to shed some light into the issue. Unfortunately, neither was present during the meeting (Brian was off-island). 
3. BACKGROUND INFORMATION – It was another faculty member who volunteered some background information, saying she thought it probably had something to do with one former faculty member who had been teaching for 10 years, with good recommendations, who came back (from vacation) and found out all of a sudden that her contract wasn’t renewed. In this school, she added, “there seems to be a tendency, for instance, that if your contract is to be renewed in January, they don’t get done until a month later. So, since you didn’t get any other words, you assume that you have a job. You come back all the way, then you find out you have no job. And what’s more, they don’t have a process for you to appeal.” She expressed that this is very very unfair to the faculty, especially one who is serving the college faithfully.
4. Rafael explained that what we have is a final draft copy of the resolution, with no signatures, and so we need to find out (from Faustino, Brian, and Mariana Ben) more details before we could proceed.
5. Prof. Kathy Hayes said that since this happened in 2010, before the committee and governance structure was in place, she recommended that the matter should go to the relevant committee, which in this case is the Human Resources Committee.
6. Ross agreed, adding that this will be referred to HRC with the support of the Faculty/Staff Senate.
7. SUGGESTION FROM FACULTY MEMBER – That a draft be sent out for comment by faculty, so that a final draft can be done which should reflect the current view of everyone, and then this is the version that should be submitted to the committee.

VIII.    SENATE WIKI AS A WAY TO DISCUSS ISSUES & CONCERNS

Ross said rather than hold meetings every month, and since many are busy serving on committees, he preferred using the senate wiki as our tool of interaction, where we can put up issues and everyone can comment on them, and then we can take those comments and create a document based on those. He strongly recommended to all faculty and staff to click on the senate wiki, check out what’s happening, and about what issues we are talking about, and place own comments and suggestions.

IX.    BEGINNING A CULTURE OF CONSTRUCTIVE PROBLEM SOLVING AND NOT JUST ‘PROBLEM POINTING OUT’

Ross encouraged the faculty and staff, when pointing out a problem, to also include a solution  to the problem, to offer one or two suggestions as to how a problem could be solved. He emphasized the need to move into a culture of problem solving and not just problem pointing out. If we see a problem, he said we should try to figure out a way to fix it.

REACTIONS

1. One faculty member suggested that we also need to celebrate some of the things that we do well. 
2. Another faculty member pointed out that some suggestions made to the higher up do not get carried out and that they seemed to have stopped up there. Ross said he understood that a lot of times suggestions do get lost on its way up, so we may have to follow up two, three, or four times.

X.    NEXT MEETING: ONE FOR FACULTY, ANOTHER FOR STAFF (NEXT MONTH)

1. The next meeting will be one for faculty and another for staff.
2. Ross clarified that this should not be construed as dividing up the senate.  [NOTE: See related concern by Chuuk Campus]
3. We’re still one senate, but sometimes because of the number of faculty and staff, it is easier and more manageable to handle small groups and have a focused discussion as opposed to general discussion.
4. The meeting will probably be in late October.

XI.    FINAL COMMENTS

1. Prof. Monica Rivera asked if they could email their concerns to Ross. He said yes, but it is better to post their concerns to the senate wiki so it can reach a wider audience and quicker; but if it is a private issue, then it can be sent by email.
2. Rafael further explained that emails can be sent to senate@comfsm.fm, and that messages sent to this address will be received by all senate officers and at-large representatives.
3. Prof. Yenti Verg-In congratulated the officers and at-large representatives who are serving on the senate.

XII.    CLOSING

The meeting was adjourned at 1:45 PM.

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ATTENDANCE LIST

1. Monica Rivera
2. Marian G. Medalla
3. Kathy Hayes
4. Susan Moses
5. Ruci Yauvoli
6. Marlene Mangonon
7. George Mangonon
8. John Ranahan
9. Edper Castro
10. Sven Mueller
11. Akiko Kamikubo
12. Norma Edwin
13. Reynaldo Garcia
14. Paul Gallen
15. Asher Hallens
16. Yolina Yamada
17. Amy Delyla Ulm
18. Allain Bourgoin
19. Karen Simion
20. Luciano Mathias
21. Lihno Panwelo
22. Magdalena Hallers
23. Lucia Donre Sam
24. Jennifer Hainrick
25. Mark Kostka
26. Bruce Robert
27. Resida S. Keller
28. Dana Lee Ling
29. Alfred Olter
30. Snyther Biza
31. Leilani W. Biza
32. Mayliza Ariote
33. Mike Dema
34. Karleen M. Samel
35. Delihna E. Manuel
36. Ikoli Ilongo
37. Joseph Felix Jr.
38. Rafael Pulmano
39. Ross Perkins
40. Paul Dacanay
41. Yenti Verg-In