MEMBERS PRESENT: G. Avent, P. Bagley, E. Bateman, J. Burns, F. Daniels, K. Dannehl, P. Fisher, L. Frazier, G. Goicoechea, L. Hyslop, J. Kempster, K. Martin, R. McNally, M. Myrhow,L. Ohlin, R. O'Shea-Hockett, L. Owens, M. Puccinelli, C. Pyatt, N. Remington, J. Rice, K. Schwandt, J. Shaw, J. Shrock, R. Siler, G. Smith, J. Smith, G. Tenney, P. Warren, J. Williams, M. Wise

OTHERS PRESENT: ASB Representatives Laurie Bolin, Elisa Goyneche, Sarah Hart, Brian Hutchison

1. ATTENDANCE: Silent roll was taken. Chair John Rice declared a quorum present.
2. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 1:18 p.m.
3. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS : Chair John Rice welcomed everyone to Senate.
4. UNITED WAY OF NEVADA: A representative covering Elko, Humbolt, Lander, Eureka and White Pine Counties announced the Nevada University System and Community College Charitable Giving Campaign. Senior citizen programs, children's programs, and family support programs in the community are supported by the United Way (Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts, Red Cross, etc.). Booklets will be distributed on campus explaining the contribution procedure.
5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes of the September 15, 2000, meeting were unanimously approved.
6. SENATE CHAIR REPORT: Chair John Rice reported the following:
   1. Board of Regents -
      1. Common Course Numbering Project - Current discussion focuses on defining upper and lower division classes at the system level. Concern has been issued over the practices where identical courses are offered through UNR and TMCC but UNR will change the course to a 300 level so TMCC is unable to teach it.
      2. Institutional Bylaws - System council is investigating the addition of language to the System Code which will give validity to individual institutional bylaws. This will be the easiest form of action.
         1. It is noted that the GBC Bylaws are out of date with the last revision occurring in 1993. A committee composed of Administration, Faculty, Staff and Students will begin reviewing the bylaws.
   2. Special Meeting of the Faculty Senate - The Senate Executive Committee has issued notification of a special meeting of the Faculty Senate with Administration over concerns and suggestions which the faculty may have. The date is pending for late November or early December. Submissions must be in written form, signed and submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. Thursday, November 9 to Chair John Rice. The agenda for the meeting will be distributed prior to the meeting date.
7. COMMITTEE REPORTS:
   1. Academic Standards - Written Report; approved. Senate approved language regarding the overriding of prerequisites and increase of class size as submitted by the committee.
      1. Julie Byrnes with Admissions and Records will draft a form in order to create a paper trail for these measures. The form will be up for approval at the next Senate meeting. The approved form will be placed on the Intranet.
   2. Budget - None
   3. Compensation and Benefits - Written Report; approved. Travel funds were approved for Lynne Owens with the remainder of the request, along with a request for research funds from Pete Bagley, being forwarded to the Professional Development committee for consideration. The committee has been charged with developing a CEU policy for vocational and occupational faculty. The drafted guidelines will be discussed at a later Senate meeting.
      1. The Professional Development Committee approved the funds for Lynne Owens and Pete Bagley.
   4. Curriculum and Articulation - Report; information only. The committee determined that the 100 level work required as prerequisite to the BAS degree is not necessarily in the AAS degree required core. Discussion will continue with the General Education Committee.
   5. Distance Learning - Report; approved.
      1. It is suggested that the Library be equipped to house the adjunct faculty work space. The Library staff would be willing to block specific lab times for this purpose.
      2. Winnemucca and Ely will look into scheduling facilitators more efficiently to insure better IAV coverage.
      3. Committee members attended a conference on Intellectual Property Rights which proposed three options. The most favorable of these appears to be that faculty work as independent contractors. An agreement will be outlined in contract form allowing compensation to the instructor and giving the institution the use of the course for a determined period of time until updated material is instituted or replacement faculty is found. Work will continue toward resolution.
   6. Facilities Committee - None. The committee has been notified of Americans with Disabilities Act issues on campus which need to dealt with immediately. Despite the construction which is taking place, there are many areas of the college which are simply not compliant with ADA standards.
   7. Faculty and Administrative Evaluations - Oral Report; approved. It is time for self evaluations; however, the committee is attempting to streamline the current process. One suggestion is going to department evaluations to eliminate the self-evaluation and peer-evaluation sections. Vice President for Academic Affairs Betty Elliott favors the changes faculty wishes to institute.
   8. General Education - Written Report; approved with the following amendment:
      1. Omit Section D of the report, to the benefit current and future students, which recommended that: "no more than ½ of the General Education credits taken toward any degree at GBC may be from Internet or telecourses. This does not include interactive video courses. This only applies to the General Education component of a degree. For an AA degree at present this would translate to a maximum of 19 credits of electronic courses."
   9. Personnel Committee - Oral Report; approved.
      1. The following should close unfinished business from last year:
         1. An offer for the position of lead faculty for the BAS position was made.
         2. An interview is scheduled for the lead faculty position in the Elementary Education program which proves to be promising.
      2. Department Chairs will meet on November 17 to prioritize the position funding available for this year and next.
      3. The members are currently rethinking the duties of the Personnel Committee. The committee as designated does not have clear function since hiring committees are usually constituted of faculty in the departments where the individual will work. Therefore, a proposal will be drafted recommending that the committee consist of a chair only who has the power to draw on any member of Senate to serve where appropriate as needed.
      4. Two sabbatical positions are available with one request received. The Senate unanimously approved Dr. Jack Smith for sabbatical for the 2001-2002 academic year.
         1. There was concern voiced that the Senate petitioned Administration for two sabbatical positions, was granted the privilege, but only one application for this year was received. This will look to Administration as though two positions are not needed. Many of the faculty have not reached tenure as yet, but the overall feeling is that development of the new programs will not support faculty taking a year of leave.
   10. Scholarships and Awards - Written report; approved. The committee met for re-awarding of scholarships and set down event dates for the upcoming calendar year. The new Millennium Scholarship ceremony was held during lunch and was successful.
   11. Student Relations Committee - None
8. FOUR-YEAR PROGRAM COMMITTEE REPORTS:
   1. Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education - Oral Report; information only. The program conducted admissioninterviews for spring semester. The department was pleased with the professional quality of the submitted applications. The program will lose a number of current students to internships this coming semester but will retain 70-80 students in class. The program has had problems calculating GPA with credits from out-of-state institutions. The program will research this situation and propose a fair solution.
   2. Bachelor of Arts in Professional Studies - The program is on track as it prepares to go before the BoR in January. The committee would like to add that they are making progress on the BSW in conjunction with UNR. UNLV has also come to GBC with a proposal for a possible 2+2 Bachelor's in Counseling.
   3. Bachelor of Applied Science - No Report.
   4. Bachelor of Arts in Nursing - The program is ready to present to the BoR when notification is given. The next stage is to develop the first two courses for the third year.
9. OLD BUSINESS: No old business was brought forward.
10. NEW BUSINESS:
    1. Dr. Heberer's Job Description - The Senate will request the description to be re-written to clarify that Dr. Heberer has no authority to oversee academic programs and their curriculum or the hiring of faculty. The Vice President for Academic Affairs will make the changes clarifying that Dr. Heberer will act as liaison with academic departments, not oversee their responsibilities. The revised description will be on the agenda for approval at the next Senate meeting.
    2. Technology Help Desk - A Classified position has been hired to assist students in hybrid classes (live classes, online, etc., working in conjunction with another mode of delivery such as WebCT). The current plan is to have the discussion as an online chat - at some point the assistant will be able to see what the student is doing simultaneously demonstrating through mouse movements. Orientation sessions for students will be advertised in the tabloid and perhaps tagging the texts in the bookstore. A recommendation for tagging will be brought before the Senate for approval at the next meeting. Other faculty forums are scheduled to demonstrate research and use of technology in the classroom.
11. OUTSTANDING FACULTY, STUDENT AND STAFF AWARDS: No nominations were brought forward.
12. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS:
    1. Tickets are on sale for Giancarlo Menotti's Amal and the Night Visitors and Camille Saint-Saens' Christmas Oratorio at the Reception Desk in Berg Hall. Performances will be held 11/24,25,26,28 at 7:30 p.m. in the GBC Theatre. Tickets are $5 in advance, $7 night of the performance.