Faculty Council Corner is a regular Thursday morning-ish feature (that sometimes shows up later) , presenting an open thread for you to bother your HWFC members with pressing questions (or for us to post the pressing questions that you have). Also, you can expect this to be the forum where we post regular updates about what is happening with Faculty Council and when.

This Week’s Updates: There was an HWFC meeting between today and the last Faculty Council Corner, but I missed it so I don’t have a ton of updates for you except that:

~The Council met with Michael Maltenfort and Charles Ansell to discuss the proposal for revising the Tenure Process and various aspects of it. The Reinvention team, which includes our Jeni Meresman, will be gathering feedback on the proposal and working out the forms and details over the next three months. Go HERE to check out the proposal and see the schedule for feedback meetings, and if you see something, please go to one of their meetings (see below) and SAY something. At the meeting they asked us to share this:

To all CCC full-time faculty members,

A new tenure process is coming, and those of us leading this effort are interested in getting feedback on the new materials as they are created.  All full-time CCC faculty members are invited to join in this process.

At minimum, everyone is welcome to look at the documents which are well on their way to being finalized.  They will always be available at http://faculty.ccc.edu/mmaltenfort/REI/ (this Web site will be periodically updated with new materials) and if you have any comments on these, you are always welcome to contact Michael Maltenfort (mmaltenfort@ccc.edu) and Jeni Meresman (jmeresman@ccc.edu).

If you wish to be more involved, we would like to get feedback about our recommendations and new documents as they are created.  Our work this semester is to create all rubrics and models that will be used to measure faculty effectiveness, revise observation forms and student feedback forms, and design the curricula for the all-college orientation and the Tenure Assistance Program seminar.  If this sounds like something you would like to help with, please join our Review Team.

We especially encourage stakeholder organizations (FC4, college faculty councils, union leaders) to send a representative to the Review Team.

Much of the work of the Review Team will be done through Blackboard, but we also ask that you attend our meetings, which are Friday mornings, 10:00 to 12:00, at the District Office (Room 641) on the following dates:

February 24

March 16

March 30

April 27

May 11 (or possibly May 4)

If necessary, you may join us instead by phone.

If you would like to join the Review Team, please contact Michael Maltenfort (mmaltenfort@ccc.edu).

Thanks!

—Michael (and Jeni)

~In other Meresman-related news, Jeni Meresman volunteered to serve as an FC4 representative for the remainder of Ellen Eason Montgomery’s term, and she was approved by the Council.

~In other English Department news, the department is building (and circulating) a draft about the new copier situation for other departments to consider signing onto. More on that when we have it.

~The council is working on coordinating with the Union leadership (through our shared leader, Anthony Escuadro) to schedule a joint meeting to share and work on issues that relate to both. More on that when we have it.

~The State of the College happened in a new format. Reviews seem generally positive (as you saw here and here)

~GradesFirst is coming. FC4 met with Anne Brennan about it and THIS is what they saw.

Last “Week’s” Pressing Questions:

~Kamran asks:  “What are the details of Malcolm X being converted to specialize in Health Care services? Specifically, what kind of degrees will Malcolm X now be offering? Does this mean the school will no longer provide an AA? Will departments/programs not directly related to Health Care services (history, philosophy, arts, astronomy, business, etc) be eliminated, relocated, reduced, or unchanged? On a related topic, if one school per year is converted to a particular industry, shouldn’t we be receiving information on what these will be? Don’t know; don’t know; don’t think so; don’t think so, but maybe eventually; they’d probably say no, since ‘ours is not to wonder why’ etc. Should be interesting though.  Still and all, while poking around yesterday, I found this (scroll down to read the comments) and was gratified to see so many voices of former students sticking up for what we do. I think if the Mayor and company drift toward the more radical possibilities of what they’ve proposed they may end up with a sh*t storm of pushback from the hundreds of thousands of students we’ve successfully served over the years. I mean, if they really believe that 7% number, they’re going to be in for quite a surprise.

There was also this about the building of a new Malcolm X college in the current MX parking lot–just announced this week, with this tidbit:  “He will make upcoming announcements about the focuses at other campuses, the mayor said.” The same announcement here also includes this:  “Other colleges will focus on information technology, hospitality, high-tech manufacturing and business.”  So, counting Health care and logistics, that makes six. Sounds like a great contest/pool opportunity. 2 variables, with five sub-variables each–that makes for hundreds of possibilities (more than a thousand? who knows the formula for that; help me out) for complete sets doesn’t it? I guess if we have to wait, we might as well play…

Post any additional questions (and responses) in the comments please.