Executive Committee Meeting Minutes November 4, 2011

Present:  Jan Clark, Jason Huffman, Ken McGill, Stas Preczewski, Edward Whatley, Matt Rogers

Regrets:  Catherine Whelan, Sandra Jordan, Lyndall Muschell

Call to Order by Jan Clark.

Agenda was read and approved.

The minutes of from the October 14 meeting were read and approved as submitted.

President’s Report:  Interim President Stas Preczewski

No report that differs from what was presented at Senate.

Provost’s Report:  Jason Huffman (for Sandra Jordon)

Mrs. Linda Noble from USG was here this past week and conducted a number of focus groups to guide us with the process of re-evaluating the role of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) on our campus.  Mrs. Noble will be looking for common themes from across the GC campus from the focus groups and it is anticipated that she will have this information back to Dr. Jordan next week.  This information will be used in the development of a faculty survey that will be distributed to faculty shortly. 

Jason Huffman will begin strategic incentive development process this week.  Look for more information about this to be forth coming.

In response to the questions brought forth at the last Senate meeting, concerning the process by which updates to guidelines and procedures in the online policy manual, Dr. Jordan proposed the following suggestions for how this could be handled:

1.    

Institute a change-log that would track any and all changes made to the online policy manual (which can be accessed and viewed by anyone logging into the online policy manual).

2.    

Send a campus email to all faculty and staff when a recommendation is made for a new or changed guideline or procedure.

3.    

All a 30-day feedback timeline before the guideline or procedure is implemented.

4.    

Post to the manual with notation in the change-log.

 Following a discuss of Dr. Jordan’s suggested procedure by the members of ECUS, Interim President Stas Preczewski noted that some of the questions raised pointed to possible areas of concern related to if the online policy manual as it stands now, meeting the requirements set forth by SACS for student, faculty, and human resources handbooks. Interim President Stas Preczewski also stated that at times immediate changes are necessary and that a waiting period of 30 days might not always be possible. In light of this discussion, a motion was made by President Preczewski that we schedule a separate ECUS meeting to further identify all areas of concern regarding not only the procedure and process for change to the online policy manual as well as clarification regarding what should be in online faculty handbook. The motion was seconded and approved.  The ECUS meeting date was set for December 9^th at 2pm in Parks 301.

Information Items:

1.    

Update on Presidential Search – Ken McGill, Chair Search Committee

a.    

Dr. McGill reported that the survey went very well and that we had excellent participation.  He also reported that he recently had met with the GC Foundation Board and he was very impressed with how hard they are working for GC.  The Foundation Board members provided with feedback regarding questions to ask the candidates. 

b.    

Dr. McGill will make an effort to meet with the two colleges (business and education) that do not have representation on the Presidential Search Committee to engage them in this process and address any specific concerns or questions they may have.  The initial step will be to reach out to the Deans and Department Chairs of the College of Business and the College of Education and determine the most appropriate way for this to happen.

2.    

Update on Faculty Salary Study – Dr. Jan Clark

a.    

Dr. Clark reported that another copy of the Faculty Salary Study has been located and will now be placed in the library to replace the one that was removed.  The process for the distribution of the letters to faculty regarding the faculty salary study was discussed.  It was decided that the letters would be delivered to the Chairs to distribute by hand to the faculty.  This would address the issue of faculty perhaps being uncertain if they were supposed to receive a letter or not. Chairs would be able to have this information and discuss that with the faculty in their departments.

Advisory Matters

Steering Committee recommendation is to re-institute December graduation commencement beginning in December 2012. The will be directed by ECUS to the appropriate committee to work out the details. 

Unfinished Business

Process on Presiding Officer Election Procedure – Dr. Ken McGill asked if we needed an ad hoc committee or if ECUS could simply make a motion directly to the Senate.  The decision was made to table this question and discuss at the next meeting at large.  It was felt that the process for Presiding Officer Election would require a by laws change.

Adjournment