Johnson County Community College
Adjunct Council Meeting
February 1, 2023
Attendees
Tom Heapes
Rebecca Kastendick
Jeff Oden
Elaine Sinn
Joelle Spotswood
Minutes
- Topic: Spring 23 Meeting Times
Discussion: Finding a time for all of us to meet is a challenge this semester.
Action: The tentative meeting time will be 3:15-4:15 pm on Wednesdays.
- Topic: Vacant Spots and New Adjunct Council Member Elections
Discussion: There are several opportunities for people to serve on the Adjunct Council. Joelle Spotswood has volunteered to serve as the Arts and Design, Humanities, Social Sciences representative. She also is interested in serving as the ABC representative. According to the Adjunct Council bylaws, Kim and Rebecca are responsible for implementing the election process. They need to reach out to the college divisions by March 1st and solicit nominations by March 15th.
Action: Kim and Rebecca will meet to talk about reaching out to deans by March 1.
- Topic: Report from Dr. McCloud Meeting—Rebecca
Discussion: At the December 7 meeting, Dr. McCloud said that he had advised Deans to give contracts to Adjunct Faculty when they are assigned classes. As of February 1, none of us at the meeting have been given contracts.
Action: Kim and Rebecca will meet with Dr. McCloud on February 13 to follow up with this topic.
- Topic: Report from College Council Representative—no report
- Topic: Report from ABC Representative—no report
- Topic: Adjunct Council Meeting Minutes on InfoHub—Rebecca
Discussion: The blog is up and running. The Adjunct Council meeting are available via a link on the Adjunct Council page in InfoHub. The direct link is here: http://blogs.jccc.edu/adjuncts/
Action: Rebecca will keep the blog updated by posting the minutes of this meeting.
- Topic: Adjunct Orientation
Discussion: Kim and Rebecca met with Farrell. The new CTL (Center for Teaching and Learning) is developing an orientation for Full-Time Faculty. The Adjunct Faculty might be able to use and/or expand what they do. Joelle mentioned that she didn’t know that she had office space available to her when she was a new Adjunct Faculty member. There is a definite need for a way to give all Adjunct Faculty a basic orientation.
Action: We will put our Adjunct Orientation on hold while we wait for the CTL’s orientation development.
- Topic: Spring Semester Ed Camp—Jeff
Discussion: Jeff will set up the next Ed Camp on Zoom. We talked about topics. Jeff suggested the topic of “redesigning a course shell” to share some new options available in Canvas to improve Canvas courses. Other topics include Crucial Conversations and Yuja. We decided on Wednesday, March 8 as our first Ed Camp of the semester. It will be either from 4-5 pm or 4:30-5:30 pm.
Action: Rebecca will email Council members for their availability and interest in facilitating a topic.
- Topic: Adjunct Class Cancellation/Reassignment Guidelines
Discussion: Dr. McCloud’s support for Adjunct Faculty receiving contracts when they are assigned classes will help this topic. Jeff also suggested that all Adjunct Faculty build their courses in Source Courses instead of the actual courses in Canvas. That way, if a class is taken away, all the materials that an Adjunct Faculty member created will still be available to the Adjunct Faculty member.
Action: This is an on-going topic of discussion.
- Topic: Recognition for Long-Time Adjunct Faculty Members
Discussion: We all agree that there should be some recognition of Adjunct Faculty members when they retire. Elaine said that Staff Development keeps track of the length of time Adjunct Faculty members have worked at JCCC. However, the new Banner system cannot track if an Adjunct Faculty member taught for a time, took a break from JCCC, and then returned. Staff Development is relying on Adjunct Faculty to report those previously worked dates themselves. Staff Development has sent out emails regarding this.
Action: This is an on-going topic of discussion.
- Topic: Fall Synergized Event
Discussion: It was agreed that we should do this. Planning will need to start in April. New members to the council will also help with this event.
Action: This is an on-going topic of discussion.
- The next meeting will be Wednesday, March 1 from 3:15-4:15 pm.