FA Meeting Minutes

Minutes from previous years are located on the Faculty Association Canvas site.    Please contact a FA Officer to be added to the course.

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Faculty Association, Monday, April 24, 2023 

2:00 to 3:30 p.m. via Zoom 

In Attendance: 

Andrea Vieux (Vice-President), Jim Leiker (Past President), Dave Krug (Treasurer), Amanda Glass (UNISERV Rep), Jessica Tipton (Secretary), Tim Hamilton, Irene Olivares, Rachel Haynes, Kate McNeil, Mark Swails, Justin Dunham, Gideon Ney, Dennis Arjo, Rhonda Barlow, Scott Gilmore, Erin Gould, Megan Kissel, Luz Alvarez

Agenda

1. Welcome  
2. Employee Engagement Survey – Rachel Haynes  

Rachel presented an overview of the results from the Employee Engagement Survey.  A PowerPoint and Video are available for review at: https://infohub.jccc.edu/toolbox-articles/employee-engagement-survey/.

Faculty and staff are encouraged to participate in focus groups to share their feedback on key areas from the report.  You can sign up for a focus group at: https://infohub.jccc.edu/share-your-ideas-about-jccc/

3. ABC Sub-Committee on Academic Integrity – Mark Swails 

Academic integrity is a conversation happening all across campus, especially due to the new technology available, in particular Chat GPT.  Some takeaways from Mark and the Academic Integrity group:

• Be aware of the power of these tools and make sure to have a policy for your class.

• English Faculty & Writing Center have written up recommendations about Chat GPT tools.
• The new Transcript plugin for Chrome answers quiz questions and is not able to be tracked/blocked by Lock-down browsers.
• Turnitin now checks for AI generated text but is not entirely accurate. Use at your own risk.

4. Treasurer’s Report – Dave Krug

   Dave presented the March report.

5. KNEA Representative Assembly and KNEA/NEA updates  

Amanda spoke about the latest Representative Assembly in Topeka.  During this update, a conversation was held about union options for JCCC and whether or not KNEA is the best fit with K-12 making up the majority of its membership.

6. Presidents’ Reports – Andrea Vieux fills in for Brett Cooper  

• • Board Committees – The next committee day is Wed, May 3^rd.  The agenda will be posted the Monday before.
  • ABC – CAO candidate campus presentations will be held at 11am on May 8, 9 and 11.
  • Collegial Steering – This group did not meet last month.  The next meeting is May 10^th. Shared governance & online math classes are the current topics.
  • College Council – No updates

7. Old Business 

• • Final Call for nominations

8. New Business 

• • The FA Party will be held on May 12^th from 4:30-10pm at the Quivira Falls Clubhouse.  Mi Ranchito will be catered in.

9. Adjournment 

• • Next meeting Monday, May 15 @ 2:00p.m.

 

Adjourned 3:33pm

FA Meeting

March 27^th, 2023 

In Attendance:  Brett Cooper (President), Dave Krug (Treasurer), Jim Leiker (Past-President), Jessica Tipton (Secretary), Megan Kissel, Andrew Lutz, Justin Dunham, Andrea Thimesch, Scott Gilmore, Gideon Ney, Rhonda Barlow, Ron Palcic

Treasurer’s Report

Dave shared the latest treasurer’s report for the FA.

President’s Reports – Brett Cooper

Board Committees

Three committees met this month. The committees and updates are as follows:

Management and Finance – JCCC will no longer use transcript holds for students unable to pay fees. Restricting students’ access to their transcripts is seen as an equity issue. This is a change that is happening at colleges across the country.

Student Success – This group received an update from the STEM Scholars grant, headed by Suneetha Menon & Beth Edmonds.

Inclusion and Belonging – The Student Veterans Association presented. The committee also discussed Pell Grants and the Association of Community College Trustees (AACT) DEI checklist. The college is interviewing candidates for the DEI position now.

ABC

The by-laws have been updated and now have explicit divisional representation listed.

A committee chaired by Mark Swails, Professor/Copyright Librarian, is looking at Academic Integrity concerns on campus.

Collegial Steering

The group discussed Shared Governance.

College Council

Academic Integrity and communications at the college were discussed. A subcommittee has been formed to look at communication.

Old Business – Negotiator Discussion

We are leaning towards not hiring a negotiator because of the following:

• Faculty know more about what is going on in our workplace than a hired negotiator would. There would be a need to stop during negotiation to educate a lawyer throughout the process.
• Questions about return on investment – hiring a negotiator would require a dues increase
• We would like to utilize our KNEA affiliates and legal team more first before we would go to an outside source
• There is concern that the other side in negotiation may draw out the process if faculty were paying a lawyer by the hour
• Interest-Based Bargaining (IBB) would not be possible with a hired negotiator

New business – call for nominations

Officers serve one-year terms. Please let any of the current officers know if you would like to nominate someone or self-nominate. The open nomination window is March 27^th – April 24^th. Elections will be from April 25^th – May 1^st. New officers take over at the May membership meeting.

Other Business

Dave Krug provided a reminder about the need for faculty to serve on Peer Review committees. Each new faculty member needs three faculty members for their peer review committees. Please reach out to new faculty in your area or contact Farrell Hoy Jenab if you would be interested in helping with this.

Brett Cooper provided information about the FA Listserv. The FA Listserv is open to all, and items shared/discussed are not necessarily the opinion of the FA, its officers, or its members. While it is important to be able to discuss things openly, he asked that we remain professional, civil, and respectful in conversations.

 

Meeting ended at 2:35 pm

 

 

 

FA Meeting Minutes

Monday, February 27, 2023

In Attendance:  Brett Cooper, Jessica Tipton, Timothy Graham (KNEA), Susan Johnson, Diane Davis, Brian Wright, Jim Leiker, Tammy Baltzell (KNEA), Kimberly Streit Vogelsberg (KNEA), Tim Hamilton, Hugh Clark, Andrea Vieux, Rhonda Barlow, Melanie Harvey, Christopher Coleman (KNEA), Alicia Bredehoeft, Kelle Oestreich, Kate McNeil, Jacob Kier, Andrea Thimesch, Lisa Parrott, Jim McWard, Andrew Lutz, Irene Olivares, Dave Krug, Gideon Ney, Erik Glowark, David Davis, Amanda Glass, Tai Edwards, Justin Dunham

 

Kansas Legislature

Timothy Graham from KNEA updated the group on higher ed activity during this legislative session.  Things of note for higher ed are KPERS reform and statewide tax proposals to move from a progressive tax to a flat tax on income.  There are concerns that the tax changes may have an impact on the state budget, which would lead to cuts in funding.  The KPERS proposed bills are a mix – be sure to read through them online and pay attention as to how they might impact you.  If you have further questions about legislative issues, please reach out to him at Timothy.graham@knea.org .

KNEA Legal

Kimberly Streit Vogelsberg and Christopher Coleman from KNEA legal visited to introduce themselves and share information about their services available to individual faculty and in contract negotiations.  They can guide and answer questions in negotiations, but do not draft out the language for contracts.  Tammy Baltzell let the group know that she does attend all bargaining meetings and can text/contact KNEA legal about any questions during sessions.

Negotiations

Brett Cooper led a discussion about the possibility of hiring a negotiator for the 2024 bargaining session.  Rhonda Barlow of the research team spoke with several law firms to inquire about costs and practices.

From Brett’s email to FA on 2/20/23:

“Three law firms were contacted.  One has already been removed from consideration as they only work with the management side.  The remaining two firms were similar in price for acting as lead negotiator – $15,000-$20,000.  Obviously, such a decision would necessitate a dues increase.  We could do it over one year with an increase of $75-$100.  Other options include hiring a lawyer from one of these firms to act as an advisor and researcher.  Another option would be to bring our KNEA UniServ Director, Tammy Baltzell, onto the team which would have no additional cost. “

It was suggested that we utilize our KNEA resources more fully rather than hiring a negotiator.  There was also interest in continuing with IBB – Interest Based Bargaining.  There is still interest from some in hiring an attorney.  No final decision was made.  Increasing dues will take a vote of the FA.

TIAA-CREF

Tai Edwards has investigated changes made to JCCC’s TIAA-CREF plan that were implemented last year.  She shared the following notes on 2/27/23.

“FYI: on TIAA investment accounts

• Two West and TIAA made very unique changes to retirement accounts in May 2022: if you had ANY money in a LifeCycle account, they arbitrarily moved ALL of your investments (even if you had made specific allocations personally in your account), without consent.
  • I spoke to Ryan Rink of Two West who is the fiduciary JCCC contracts with to manage our TIAA accounts. He also could not fully explain why this took place. I will contact TIAA and report back.
• There has been some question about if the Investment Committee at JCCC is still operating (we used to get updates in FA meetings).
  • In fact, Rink says Investment Committee has been operating as normal, meeting at least twice every year. And he says the next meeting is in a few weeks. He leads (chairs?) this committee.
  • In order to address confusion related to my experience (and Rink estimates at least 100+ other employees – his “ballpark estimate”), Investment Committee needs to come in line with other committees on campus to communicate its operations/decisions. This would also help us have access to information should there be turnover at JCCC, especially in HR. And since the committee meets so rarely, this shouldn’t be too burdensome on its members. Rink was supportive of this idea and asked me to write up a summary he will share at the next Investment Committee meeting (in a few weeks). He was supportive of communication that could spread this information in ways that could supplement/complement his presentations/webinars.

The members I know of on Investment Committee are: Dave Krug, Tambra Wise, Lisa Sullivan, Colleen Chandler. I emailed them the following (which I also sent to Rink, and he stated he will add to the meeting agenda).

Tai’s Recommendation for Investment Committee communication at JCCC:

• Investment Committee needs to be included in Infohub as one of the committees, with members listed and minutes posted.
• At the end of Investment Committee meetings, the committee needs to collectively summarize the key points of the meeting and share these out thereafter, specifically at Staff Council and ABC meetings (and anywhere else colleagues obtain information, including FA meetings and email).
• Whenever changes will be implemented, Investment Committee needs to have clear, succinct language to describe this to raise awareness and share out. For example, in November 2021 Rink says he presented in Investment Committee the changes to come in May 2022 and they were “approved” by the committee. Clear, succinct language that could have been shared out for months, in every email advertising webinars/presentations, on the beginning and ending slides of every presentation, and the front page of mailers, etc. based on what was presented in November 2021 and happened in May 2022:
  • Employees with TIAA accounts who do not manage their investments themselves (people who are NOT “do -it-yourselfers”) will have their funds transferred. No action needed.
  • Employees with TIAA accounts who do manage their investments themselves (“do-it-yourselfers”), if you have ANY money in a Lifecycle account we will reallocate ALL your investments. You MUST opt out (if you don’t want this) by [provide instructions].
• Whenever there are changes that will negatively impact colleagues – any colleagues, even if they are deemed a “small” number – contact them directly (both HR and Two West), with clear, succinct language. Use committee reports and other groups on campus to remind colleagues this is coming in advance.
• Two West and the College should reach out to all of the other employees impacted the way that I (Tai Edwards) was in the May 2022 changes to ensure they know what happened and how to make changes, if they wish.”

 

Faculty Association Meeting

Monday, November 21st, 2022

Attendees:  Brett Cooper (President), Andrea Vieux (Vice-President), Amanda Glass (UNISERV), Jessica Tipton (Secretary), Tammy Baltzell (KNEA), Diane Davis, Gini Brodie (Interpreter), Kate Austin, Cherie Leiker, Justin Dunham, LaVon Hamilton (Interpreter), Deb Williams, Gideon Ney, Erik Glowark, Tai Edwards, Lisa Parrott, Andrea Thimesch, Carol Smith, Dave Krug (Treasurer), Jeff Lewis

Welcome

Treasurer’s Report – Dave Krug

The October 2022 report was shared.  This will be available on the FA Canvas site.

KNEA/NEA updates

Amanda Glass will be joining the Constitution/By-Laws committee.  Tammy Baltzell reported on the election results.  All judges are staying in place and Governor Kelly was re-elected for another term.  The new vacancy on our Board of Trustees was mentioned.  Joy Koesten resigned effective last Friday, November 18^th.  Applications will be collected through December 7^th.  The goal for the board is to review applications over break and interview finalists in early January.  They hope to have the new trustee in place for the January board meeting.

Representative Assembly Delegates – Andrea Vieux

Andrea is still looking for two more faculty to serve as delegates this year.

Local assembly, Saturday, January 28

State assembly, Saturday, April 22 & half of Sunday, April 23

Presidents’ Reports – Brett Cooper

Reorganization of the administration

The email sent out by President Andy Bowne on November 17, 2022, was discussed.  A copy of this email is at the end of the minutes.

Committee of the Whole

The last Committee of the Whole meeting will be in December.  After that, a new committee structure will begin with various sub-committees.  Starting in January, there will be one board committee meeting day per month, where these sub-committees will meet.  2-3 trustees will be assigned to each committee.

ABC

The following issue came up in ABC as a shared governance conversation.  The college advertises a fully online degree which was started about 10 years ago.  The understanding with this degree was that students would never have to come to campus to complete any requirements.  Recently, Math was asked to offer some sections of Business Math and College Algebra fully online (no onsite exams). Full-time faculty have volunteered to take these courses.  Here is a link to the draft webpage on our online degrees – https://wwwstaging.jccc.edu/online-learning/online-degrees.html .

Collegial Steering

Faculty were pleased to be asked for input on the agenda for the Board of Trustees meeting at Collegial Steering and hope this continues for the future.

College Council

Recent topics at College Council have included campus communication issues and conversations on shared governance.

New Business

The Board did not vote on the VERB replacement so the current incentive will be expiring.  The attendees at the FA meeting thanked the VERB committee for all of their time and efforts they put into creating a new retirement incentive.

Faculty and staff at KU are trying to unionize.  This would be a 1500 member unit.  They are working with AFT & AAUP groups on this and have been since 2019.

Amanda Glass suggested bringing donations to faculty parties to help support the Student Basic Needs Center.  There was much support for this idea.

There will be no December meeting but there will be a December party.  Details to come on this.

 

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Adjournment – 3:22pm

Next meeting, January, TBD.

Addendum:  Email to Infohub :  November 17,2022 – A Message from President Andy Bowne

Dear Colleagues —

Thank you for the amazing work you are doing on behalf of our students. We are having a fantastic semester as evidenced by enrollment numbers that are even with (or ever so slightly ahead of) last fall.

Headcount is even, and credit hours are up 0.1%. What is most interesting to me is that College Now/Quick Step Plus enrollment is up almost 11% and drops/withdrawals are down 16.5% over last year. You are making great efforts to serve our students and to focus on retention, and it shows!

I want to share some updates related to the Student Success Branch that will also affect many areas of the College.

First, I will be expanding Dr. Mickey McCloud’s role to serve as Executive Vice President and Provost beginning no later than May 1, 2023. I have asked Dr. McCloud to take on this larger role because of his demonstrated commitment to the success of all students, his high expectations of faculty and staff across the College, and his vision for preparing students to successfully transfer to a four-year partner or to (re)launch a career. Furthermore, he is a highly regarded leader in Kansas, Missouri, and beyond. He is ready to take on a bigger role, and as Provost he can do so at JCCC.

The Provost will oversee the Academic Affairs, Student Success, and Institutional Effectiveness, Research and Planning Branches of the organization, which follows a model commonly used by community colleges and four-year colleges and universities. This will enable a tighter alignment among these branches by linking data and strategy to increase equitable outcomes for all students. I am confident there will be significant gains for students with this model.

To prepare for this transition, I have asked Dr. Judy Korb to join us in a temporary assignment — from November 28, 2022, through April 30, 2023 — as Interim EVP for Student Success. Dr. Korb will serve as a member of Cabinet and carry out the responsibilities of the EVP while we execute the search process for our next leader of the Student Success Branch. Dr. Korb will report to me during her assignment.

I have asked Pam Vassar to continue serving in an elevated capacity as Dean of Students and Learner Engagement. She will continue to support both operational and strategic priorities within the branch and College, including the Student Success strategic goal, leadership transitions, and Athletics. MargE Shelley, our Dean of Enrollment Services, will retire December 31, and we wish her all the best. We are working through the search process for her replacement now.

Between when Dr. Korb starts and the new Student Success leader is on board (estimated to be late spring), we will deliberately work at the transition from our current model where Academic Affairs reports to one EVP and Student Success reports to another to our new model where both Academic Affairs and Student Success, along with Institutional Effectiveness, Planning and Research, report to the EVP/Provost.

I anticipate when the transition is complete, there will be a Vice President for Academic Affairs and a comparable Vice President for Student Success. John Clayton, our Executive Director for Institutional Effectiveness, Planning and Research will also report to the Provost.

We will launch the search for the Vice President for Student Success position immediately after the first of the year.

Over the coming months, as things develop, you will hear updates from me and others as we make this shift. And I will also update the College and specific branches directly.

As we begin this transition, please make Dr. Korb feel welcome as she returns to JCCC. And join me in thanking MargE Shelley and Pam Vassar for their dedication and leadership during this season of change.

Thank you.

Andy Bowne, EdD

President

 

 

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Faculty Association Meeting 

October 17, 2022

 In attendance: Brett Cooper (President), Jessica Tipton (Secretary), Brian Wright, Amanda Glass (UNISERV Rep), Dave Krug (Treasurer), Doug Copeland, Erin Gould, Doug Texter, Melanie Harvey, Kimberly Kuhns, Kathi Lefert, Jim McWard, Andrea Vieux (Vice-President), Justin Dunham, Scott Gilmore, Lisa Parrott, Caroline, Andrea Thimesch, Gideon Ney, Suneetha Menon, Deb Williams, Tammy Baltzell, Rhonda Barlow, Andrew Lutz, Jessica Herold (Interpreter), ASL interpreter

 

1. Welcome
2. Treasurer’s Report – Dave Krug

Full reports available on Canvas site for review.

3. KNEA/NEA updates – Brian Wright

On April 22 & 23 the Representative Assembly will be meeting in Topeka.

4. Representative Assembly Delegates – Andrea Vieux

Four more faculty from JCCC are needed to go to the assembly meeting in April.  In addition to the April meeting, attendees are required to attend a session on January 28^th from 9-12. FA funds used to support travel and food expenses for attendees

5. VERB Replacement Update – Doug Copeland

Recommendations were presented to cabinet on October 4^th, 2022.  The recommendations included:

• Continue early notification of 5k/7.5k
• Reward future service by increasing employer 403b plan contributions by 1.5% starting July 1, 2023
• Reward past service by awarding faculty & staff for their years of service at retirement with a one-time lump sum cash payment to be paid upon their retirement
• Continue employee “perks” after retirement – jccc.edu email address, JCCC ID card & JCCC facilities access, Cariloop, etc.

The VERB replacement task force will be presenting the plan as is to the Committee of the Whole on October 31^st 2022.

6. Master Teachers Workshop – Jessica Tipton

The Master Teachers Workshop will be held January 10-12 at the Heartland Presbyterian Retreat Center in Parkville, Missouri.  Look for more information and an application soon.

7. Presidents’ Reports – Brett Cooper
   1. EVP Student Success Search – Pam Vassar, MargE Shelley are serving as interims for this position.
   2. Committee of the Whole meeting updates– The Center for Teaching & Learning is now active and has 4 faculty fellows this year. They are looking for a permanent space to host this center.  Campus continues to look at new course scheduling tools.  The benefit year is changing to start in January instead of June as has been done in the past.
   3. ABC – An Academic Integrity Subcommittee is being created.
   4. College Council – no updates
   5. Collegial Steering – Most of the discussion at the last meeting revolved around the new committee structure being proposed for the board. There will be a regularly scheduled committee day so all board members will be on campus the same day
   6. Performance evaluation task force – Recommendations have been submitted to Dr. McLeod. The group is waiting to have the evaluation form in place before gathering faculty input.  There will most likely be town hall meetings spring of 2023.
   7. Next Negotiations – Our next full negotiations will be in Spring of 2024. If you be interested in participating in either the negotiations or research team, please contact one of the FA Exec members.

8. Adjournment – 3:26pm

Next meeting, 2:00p.m. Monday, November 21 via Zoom.