Faculty Senate Minutes

April 2007

Meeting called to order at 2:01

Senators Present: James Jordan, Melissa Elliott, Becky Hand, Stan Stallings, Jane Hellinghausen, Tammy Patni, Robbie Rogers, Geoff Schwende, Claudia Philpot

Senators Absent: Lynette Schillo, Mike Samp, Sandy Graves

President’s report

President Jordan has spoken with David Carson, who assures faculty that advance notice will be provided before any IT maintenance occurs that might affect faculty and students.

Committee Reports

Student recognition

Wayne Johnson visited with the Senate about the upcoming Student Recognition ceremony, to be held on May 3. Twenty students will be honored and each given an academic medal. He and his committee have worked diligently on this academic function and Wayne reported that he would continue to chair this committee during the rest of his tenure at OC.

Retirement

Tammy Patni gave an update on the Retirement reception, to be held on May 7. There are currently two honorees and the theme for the reception will be “1950’s”. All senators are urged to attend and to encourage their constituents to do so as well.

Old Business

Smoking policy

Senator Rogers reported that her constituents would like to see OC become a smoke free campus. President Jordan advised that the previous committee working on the smoking issue made that one of its three recommendations. Due to administrative changes, however, a decision was never made. President Jordan will meet with President Williams about the smoking policy and alternatives proposed by the committee.

Parking

Senator Philpot reported on a meeting that she and Senator Samp had with Amy Hendrick and Al Fonseca regarding the parking problem. They came up with three possible solutions: (1) remove all parking signs and allow faculty, students and staff to park anywhere they wished; (2) Visit with Sherrie Lang about having student groups take turns giving parking tickets and also receive some compensation for their group for their work; (3) encourage hiring of some part time people for the Campus Police department to do this ticketing.

Senators discussed concerns regarding students acting in a law enforcement capacity and the problem of hiring and retaining part time help in the current economy. Many senators voiced agreement that the cost of a parking ticket should be increased. President Jordan will also discuss this with Dr. Williams.

New Business

The Senate agreed upon the following Slate of Officers for 2007 – 2008:

President – Geoff Schwende

Vice – President – Melissa Elliott

Secretary – Tammy Patni

At Large – Robbie Rogers and Lynette Schillo

Terms of both Senator Graves and Hellinghausen are expiring in May. Prior to the next meeting each will coordinate nominations among their constituents for their replacement.

Meeting adjourned at 2:58 P.M.

Submitted by:

_________________________

Jane Hellinghausen