Members Present: P. Anderson, P. Bagley, D. Borino, T. Crum, F. Daniels, X. Du, J. Emerson, P. Fisher, C. Ford, P. Fox, G. Heberer, L. Heise, M. Howell, C. Hyslop, L. Hyslop, R. Kampf, J. Kempster, J. King, P. Klem, M. Kuhl, J. Licht, L. Macfarlan, K. Martin, R. McNally, K. Miller, S. Negrete, S. Nielsen, M. Puccinelli, C. Pyatt, B. Robertson, S. Sanders, C. Schwandt, E. Seastedt, G. Skivington, T. Staley, J. Smith, J. Smith, P. Smith, S. Thomson, L. Uhlenkott, J. Williams

Others Present: Adjunct Faculty and GBC Student, Trudy Burt.

1. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 1:16 p.m. Chair Schwandt declared a quorum present. Four written and one verbal proxy vote was noted.
2. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS: Chair Schwandt welcomed everyone to Senate. Trudy Burt was introduced as Adjunct Faculty and GBC student.
3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes of the March 18, 2005, meeting was unanimously approved.
4. SENATE CHAIR REPORT: Chair Schwandt provided a written report to Senate.
   1. Faculty Workload Policy: The latest Faculty Workload Policy passed with a Faculty Senate email vote held on April 6. No President's Council meetings have been held between the time of the vote and the full Faculty Senate meeting. The policy will be signed off by the president at the April 26, 2005, President's Council meeting. A breakdown of Chris Mitchell's email, dated April 7, 2005, outlining the breakdown of the votes received is attached to the Senate Chair Report.
   2. GBC-Faculty Email: All faculty members are encouraged to look at the GBC-Faculty list in GroupWise to confirm each faculty member is on the email list. Faculty members not on the list should contact Computer Services to ensure that they are included.
   3. GBC Athletics: Faculty requested a discussion for the proposed GBC Athletics program.
      1. Attached to the Senate Chair Report are excerpts of minutes from the January 15, 2004, Faculty Senate meeting presented by Carl Diekhans which reads in part: “Faculty Representatives to Athletic Committee – Vice President for Administrative Services Carl Diekhans requests two faculty representatives to the committee seeking justification for the implementation of collegiate athletic programs for GBC . . .”
      2. Dan Jones is on the committee, Shane Ridley-Stevens was on that committee and Joseph Johnston has volunteered to be on the committee; it is open to all faculty. The Intercollegiate Athletics Committee consists of Chuck Briggs, Lynette Davis, Carl Diekhans, Summer Ehrmann (former member), Bob Gallagher, Danny Gonzales, Dick Harris, Terry Hritz, Dan Jones, Moyle Kump, Lynn Mahlberg, Melissa Mahlberg, Norm Mahlberg, Scott Nielson, Greg Reeder, John Rice, Terry Sullivan, and Sean Thompson along with other interested parties. It is an open committee and anyone interested can be on the committee. VP Diekhans has been asked by Chair Schwandt to send out notification of meeting times.
      3. In 2004, Fitness Center Director Dan Jones was assigned additional responsibilities and the additional title of Athletic Director accompanied by a raise in salary. Funding for the Athletic Director position comes out of the Student Services; no part of the position funding is out of instructional monies according to VP Diekhans. Faculty Senate Executive Committee requested a job description for the Athletic Director position in order to gain understanding of the intent of athletics for GBC. A copy of the current job description and the potential job description are attached to the Senate Chair Report. The Athletics Director would still piggyback onto an existing position and would not be funded with instructional monies.
      4. Attached to the Senate Chair Report is a copy of the excerpt of draft minutes from the President's Council meeting of March 15, 2005, regarding an, “Athletics Update.” All information official and in print that could be obtained is included in the Senate Chair Report.
      5. Many questions arose regarding the Athletic Director position. Erik Seastedt, Director of Human Resources stated, “Once the formal position of athletic director is created, then yes, it would be posted.” Chair Schwandt will invite VP Carl Diekhans and Athletic Director Dan Jones for a presentation to be given at the next Faculty Senate meeting, May 13, or perhaps a campus-wide presentation in lieu of senate meeting, to address where the process is now, feasibility study, mission statement, formal presentation, notification of meetings, and sources of local support. Dr. Killpatrick will be invited to give a presentation on how the athletic program is part of his “College Town Vision.”
   4. FS Vice Chair and Secretary: Nominations will be accepted by Chris Mitchell from now through the close of the Executive Committee meeting scheduled for Friday, May 6, 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m., HTC 123.
   5. April 14-15 Board of Regents meeting highlights:
      1. ARSA Committee and full board approved the Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education. This will be the last bachelor degree that is brought forth for at least two years.
      2. Chris Chairsell gave information only regarding advising. Regents liked aspects of the NSC advising model; which will help for advising and scheduling issues that GBC faculty will be facing.
      3. Lisa Costa-Campbell received the Regent's Academic Advisor Award.
      4. Congratulations to GBC Faculty that earned tenure: Gary Hanington, Lynette Macfarlan, Karen Mowery, and Linda Uhlenkott.
      5. Robbi Phillips received the Regent's Scholar Award.
      6. Regents approved the Elko Clinic Lease, Expansion of Space agenda item. The leasing of an additional 17,473 sq. ft. of space was approved by the Board of Regents. The estimated fiscal impact will drop to $110,100 per year.
      7. Interim Chancellor James Roberts asked that action item #43, appointing him to the permanent chancellor position, be pulled. The search process for the chancellor position will continue as planned. There are several qualified candidates for the position.
5. COMMITTEE REPORTS:
   1. Academic Standards – Information /Action:
      1. Student Complaint Procedures: The procedure for filing complaints is not being followed. Chair Schwandt will present this issue to President's Council on April 27, 2005, and ask that the grievance procedure outlined in the Great Basin College Catalog, page 54 be followed.
      2. Final Exam Schedule: A motion was made and unanimously approved to leave the final exam schedule for both Fall and Spring semesters as they are, but allow individual faculty members to change the schedule at their discretions. The committee will devise an alternate schedule for spring semester to address conflicts with graduation.
      3. GBC Catalog Wording: A motion was made and unanimously approved to revise the wording in the GBC catalog. The AS Committee will revise the wording and present it to Faculty Senate for action and approval.
      4. Final Exam Schedule: The committee brought forward a revised final exam schedule which addresses courses which meet on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The committee will devise an alternate schedule for Spring semester to address conflicts with graduation.
   2. Adjunct Faculty – No report.
   3. Assessment Committee – Action:
      1. INT Seminar Waiver: A motion was made to pass the INT Seminar Waiver as is for one year. In the event there were issues from one or two students, the waiver would be revisited. The motion did not carry. With a show of hands, 11 members approved and 16 opposed the motion.
      2. INT 100 Organization: A motion was made and unanimously approved to transfer the responsibility for the organization of INT 100 from the Assessment Committee Chair to the Director of the Academic Success Center in order to provide continuity. The responsibility of teaching the orientation would remain with faculty.
   4. Budget and Facilities – No report.
   5. Bylaws – Information only. The committee has received a preliminary draft of the proposed Institutional Bylaws from Frank Daniels. The draft is currently being reviewed and a copy may be available for the next Faculty Senate meeting.
   6. Compensation and Benefits - Written Report:
      1. Administrative Salary Committee Report: A written report was submitted by email (including attachments) to all faculty. Since that time Garry Heberer has spoken to some of the people in the system office regarding administrative salaries. They have indicated that some of the things that the Administrative Salary Committee has proposed could possibly be done now and parts might require Regents' approval. The systems attorneys are currently examining the document.
   7. Curriculum and Articulation – Written report; unanimously approved.
   8. Department Chairs – No report.
   9. Distance Education – No report.
   10. Faculty and Administrative Evaluations – Information/Action:
       1. Evaluation Forms: A draft of evaluation forms will be revised, sent via email, and an email vote will be conducted.
   11. Library – No report.
   12. Personnel – Written report/ information only:
       1. Tenure and Sabbatical: Discussions are ongoing regarding tenure and sabbatical.
   13. Student Relations – Information only:
       1. Scholarships: The committee met on March 31, 2005, regarding scholarships for next year. There were 185 applicants; 91have been awarded. Since this date, there have been several that have come in due to recommendations to outside groups. There have been an additional 12 applicants. It was voted this year to combine the Scholarship and President's Award ceremony. It will be held May 6. Please RSVP by Monday.
6. FOUR YEAR COMMITTEE REPORTS:
   1. BAS – Written report.
   2. BAIPS – Verbal report; information only:
      1. Fire Management Program: The Science Department is looking at details of developing the Fire Management program as a component for the BLM. The course would be part of a degree. The committee is looking at logistical and course workload issues.
   3. BSN – Written report/Information only:
      1. Fall 2005 Applicants: Six applicants have been accepted for this fall. Three are currently finishing their second year at GBC in the AND program. They will take their state board exams and their status will be known by the July 1. At that time, they will be formally admitted. Many of them have the upper and lower general education courses completed which individuals from the first group did not. Each Department Chair and faculty member will receive notice in writing of what the students will be able to do or not do as far as frequency of courses, morning vs. evening, or online courses, starting fall '06. There is a push for all of the departments to commit to offering courses at certain points in time as part of an ongoing scheduling discussion. The third and last candidate for the full-time ADN/BSN will be interviewed on the 29th. Based on each person's timeline for graduation from the BSN first group, a fall accreditation will be conducted.
   4. BSW – No report.
   5. Education – No report.
7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: No unfinished business was brought forward.
8. NEW BUSINESS:
   1. Athletics Program: Included in the, “Senate Chair Report.”
   2. Administrative Salary Committee: Garry Heberer gave an overview of the history of the Administrative Salary Committee beginning with its formation two years ago. During the first year, administrative staff members were assigned to one of the salary ranges created by the Board of Regents. In 2003, the committee was asked to create a means for administrative staff to move within their salary range and to move from one range to another. There are nine grades. Grade nine is at the bottom with a minimum salary of $27,700; the maximum is $44,300. The board changed these grades from FY ‘04 to FY ‘05. They lowered some of the ranges after completion of a salary analysis with other institutions. The Board of Regents decided that the first three ranges were too high and they were lowered; some at the lower end were increased. Carl then came back and asked the Salary Committee to devise a means for a person to move from the bottom to the top and also from one grade to another. After many discussions, it was decided that the way salaries were assigned to administrative staff was arbitrary. The committee's goal was to establish a system that was fairly objective but not as objective as the previous program that the college was using. The old system collapsed because it was onerous and difficult to use. The committee wanted a system that was easier to use, could be maintained, and also developed a system for giving people advancement in salary for increase in degrees. We looked at a grid that had been developed for teaching faculty and decided we liked it. We modified the grid, eliminated some of the columns so that some columns are only for full degrees. Then we issued a points system for each position. Everyone would rewrite his/her position/job description and a form was developed. Then the person would sit down with his/her supervisor and go through the position assessment and points would be assigned for working conditions, physical demands, problem solving, decision making, consequences of error, etc. It is a 1000 point scale, and the person would end up with one scale from the incumbent vs. position, the supervisor, and a third independent person. The independent individual would look at only the job description and would not know the person involved. The mean score of the three would be taken and as long as the score was in +- 10% of the range, it would be considered, “in control.” Eventually, we would have a score for every position at the college. We would then divide them up and take a statistical look at the range, standard deviation, etc. and assign points values to all of the nine ranges. The work is ongoing. A recommendation was made to both College Council and to President's Council over a year ago; Eric was not employed at that time. President's Council thanked us for the presentation. We were under the assumption that the committee had made some recommendations. One of those was that the new HR Director would be the independent evaluator. The second recommendation would be to have Carla Hanson, the state UCCSN HR Director or the Administrative Salary Committee do the evaluations as the independent evaluator. President's Council has never given Eric Seastedt the request to research this and become involved. It was just brought back to us within the last month. It has been a three year process: It has been sitting for one year and the committee has been working on it for two years. Director of HR Eric Seastedt stated, “This issue has been sent to legal. Our legal council will be on campus next week Wednesday through Friday. If you would like to talk to them, you can send me an email.”
   3. A recommendation was made to have the Evaluation Committee review the evaluation process. Evaluations should include all members of President's Council and all middle managers in all divisions.
9. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS:
   1. Students with Special Needs - Julie Byrnes will speak at the next Faculty Senate meeting.
   2. Open Enrollment - Eric Seastedt announced that open enrollment packets for health benefits have been mailed. Email will be sent regarding changes to the plan.
   3. Career Focus Magazine – The cover will be a matt finish and will be going out as a marketing tool. This magazine puts GBC information in a narrative format and is about focus on careers. Other institutions using this magazine have reported a significant increase in enrollment of new students.
   4. Budget Information - Carl Diekhans sent an email spreadsheet on April 13. He had been requested by the system to come up with a worst case scenario if we did not get the money that we need to get in a hold harmless situation. He received many email response, the four Presidential Chats scheduled for this week were regarding this issue. There are going to be budget votes beginning on April 28 and every week after that according to Carl Diekhans. There will be three or four weeks of voting on the budget. In the next couple of weeks, we will know what our true economic picture is going to be. The Administrators are cautiously optimistic.
   5. Velveeta Club - Karen Martin made a proposal to faculty to meet during the lunch hour starting the first Friday in May for a casual, social forum for faculty to discuss all issues. Meetings will be at 12:00 p.m., every Friday, in the Adjunct Faculty break room.
   6. Systems Office Survey - Frank Daniels asked faculty to take 15 minutes to complete the survey.
   7. Alcohol & Drug Policy - Phil Smith explained to faculty that GBC received an $11,000 grant from the Bureau of Alcohol and Drug abuse. The Board of Regents requires GBC to have an Alcohol & Drug Policies on campus. A student survey is forth coming. Select faculty members are asked to allow time for completion of the student survey during class time. Shirley Rombough is training students to administer the survey, students will collect the surveys and return them to Institution Research where the information will be tabulated, given back to Shirley, and Shirley will write the report. Phil Smith is the contact person for faculty to see if his/her class has been selected for survey.
10. PUBLIC COMMENT: No public comments were made.
11. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 3:37 p.m. Senate will convene on Friday, May 13, at 1:15 p.m. in GTA 130.