Policy Committee
Minutes
June 12 , 2006
1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
Central, Rm 301

Present:

- Porter Raper	- Michael Sonnleitner	- Linda Bastian	- Michael Warwick	-Michael Lawrence
-Judy Selander	- Cheryl Scott	- Taylor Hanna	-Jim Hicks	-Bonnie Alberts
-Phil Thurber (Guest)	-Michael Dembrow (Guest)

Updates

Working group on Academic Policy Handbook: Chris Chairsell has asked to take the summer to become familiar with the Handbook and have a small group (including Rick Aman and Susanne Christopher) rid the document of antiquated language (LRC, Executive Deans, etc.). The EAC leadership (including the Policy chair) in collaboration with the administration will work on a process/task force in the fall for addressing the needed changes/additions to the Handbook. We’ll carry the PC working group’s priorities forward to this new group.

There was strong concern expressed that even the language-changing scope of the administration’s group was taking responsibility away from the Policy Committee’s jurisdiction. The Policy Committee has historically been the group responsible for changes in the handbook, and members were uncomfortable handing off any work regarding the handbook to another group. However, once they heard that all potential changes would be “redlined” and thus clearly identified, they were willing to agree to the work. The committee was insistent that they be a prominent part of the process in the fall: any other deviation would be a serious transformation of the procedures and precedence set over the years. They also insisted that any proposed changes to the handbook first go through the Policy Committee (then to the EAC), which has historically been the protocol at PCC.

Grading Proposal: The committee will continue in the fall working on information-gathering regarding the proposal (from students and faculty).

Membership

Nearly all of the committee will continue their service on the committee.

• Linda Bastian requested that Phil Thurber of the Sylvania Math Dept (who has been present the last two meetings) replace her—at least temporarily. The committee agreed with this arrangement
• Tony Stine, Rock Creek student representative from ASPCC is leaving us, but will recruit another student, probably from RC. The committee is interested in getting at least one more student from one of the other campuses.
• Mike Lawrence is continuing, but requested that Jeff Edwards (Business, Sylvania) temporarily replace him Winter term, 2007.
• The committee would like to have reps from SE, advising/counseling, classified staff, and perhaps from Student Records (although Craig Kolins will be with us in his capacity of Student Services Dean)
• We will also invite the new director of Enrollment Services
• Jane Holman, English-Sylvania, is on leave until Spring 2007, but would like to continue her membership upon her return

PCCFF and Part-time Faculty Voting Rights

Michael Dembrow, federation president, was present to request the committee look into establishing consistency regarding PT voting rights within SACs. According to Michael, both the union and management have agreed that the issue was part of academic policy, and indeed, there is reference to it in the handbook. The committee saw this issue as one falling under purview of the handbook review effort in the fall.

Prioritizing for 2006-2007

• grading policy work will continue in the fall (forums and follow-through)
• core outcomes: keep the issue alive in the EAC and EAC leadership/ administration discussions
• as the handbook is reexamined carefully in the fall, the PC anticipates a heavy workload with small and large issues needing discussion, communication with the college community, and consensus-building for eventual recommendations to the EAC
• PT voting rights issue will be brought up with the new handbook effort in the fall
• On-line etiquette issue (brought to our attention by the CIS faculty at Sylvania) will be given to the Student Development Committee for consideration
• On-line residency: the committee saw this issue as one better handled by the EAC, perhaps in the form of a task force.

Porter will summarize and present the PC’s suggested priorities to the EAC at the meeting on June 14th.

Retreat Potential and Miscellaneous

• The committee was very interested in the possibility of meeting in September for a retreat where we could, among other things, discuss the scope/purview of the committee. There was a discussion about the difficulty of separating institutional policy, academic policy (which was clearly the PC’s mandated purview), and those efforts/changes which are both or neither (3-4 credit and prereqs, for example). Wednesday, 9/20 was viewed as potential date (2-6)
• In a tangential discussion regarding the handbook, the PC as a whole was puzzled about why the task force looking into class size in DL courses wasn’t an EAC-created task force.
• The committee sought an agreeable day/time to meet in the next academic year, and Weds afternoons appeared to be the best option.