CALL
TO ORDER
Chair Sally Galer called the meeting to order
at 7 p.m.
ROLL
CALL
Members
Present: Robert Bovee, Jan Keith Farmer, Sally
Galer, Roy Spangler, Patricia Webb, Roberta Werle, Richard Silverman
Members
Absent: None
Others
Present: Stacey Barnes, Jerry Boerema, JoAnn
Comerford, Paul Durbin, Analise Finke, Carol Finke, Detmar Finke, Fred
Giacobazzi, Eric Hamp, Kerry Harwood, Jeremy Jones, Kathy Koch, Ed Koliba, Doty
Latuszek, Jackie Liddle, Kathy Marsh, Anne Meeks, Jason Prout, Charles Rorie,
Ilene St. Onge, Tim Scherer, Glen Schicker, Jill Schult, Dale Shantz, Margaret
Tatum, Jerry Werle
WELCOME
Members and guests were welcomed by Chair Sally
Galer.
OPEN
DISCUSSION
Honors
Program
Trustee Richard Silverman asked questions about
the honors program regarding the decision to do away with release-time. He asked if it is an absolute decision or
will there still be some release-time in the future? What about non-instructional program mission
statements, goals and objectives as a basis for discussion for those
activities? What duties will the
administrator assume that the coordinator used to do and does this reflect a
change in the program, especially the philosophy of the program?
Kathy Marsh, Dean of Instruction and
Educational Services, responded that she met with each of the special projects
and release-time incumbents and told them that her philosophy about
release-time is that she would like to see all faculty back in the
classroom. Her rationale is that we
hired them to teach; they are one of our best resources. This is why she is
trying to move away from release-time.
Her answer to the question of whether there will be any release-time
next semester, or this year, is no. The
decision applies to all programs, across the board.
Explaining the process that led to her
decision, Marsh said that she took on the review of the special projects and
release-time, because 1.) it is stated in the Master Agreement that is to be
reviewed and posted annually, and 2.) there was an issue with the TSPS group about the annual review. On June 14, 2004 she met with the TSPS group
and told them that her intent was to move away from release-time and to
try to come up with a paid scale that is
consistent across the board. Stating
that they all supported that effort, she started the review process, meeting
with every one of the incumbents and looking at job descriptions.
Specifically addressing Silverman’s questions
about the honors program, Marsh explained that when she went looking for a job
description for the honors program, she found the job posting from 1994-95 and
determined that it was the most current.
It had the following three responsibilities: 1. Develop and implement an
honors program at Kirtland; 2. Coordinate the honors program activities
including managing the budget; 3. Serve as a student advisor. Through further
discussions, she found that the honors program secretary had been hired in the
fall of 1995 to support the coordinator, but the coordinator’s job description
had never been reviewed or updated.
It became imperative that she review the
coordinator job description in light of the fact that there was now a 10-hour
per week support person for the honors program.
She interviewed both Fred Giacobazzi, coordinator for the honors
program, and Elaine Thiboult, the honors program secretary. She compiled a list of activities and found
that the honors secretary now performs the following: Reviews the honors
program with students when they come in the
office, assists them with the application process,
provides faculty with honors option courses, the approval forms and directions,
communicates with honors committee members to obtain approval of student
applications and honors option course approval, works with instructional
support in student services to get the honors course on the college’s
administrative computer, advises students in the honors program and processes
scholarship forms and promotes the honors program with recruitment letters,
brochures and publicity.
The coordinator is left with managing the
budget, coordinating the offerings of the winter semester colloquium, and
student advising in the honors program.
She did not feel that those three functions justified two release-times. She felt that the dean would be more readily
available to greet and congratulate the students as they come into the honors
program, and as far as the coordination of the colloquium in the winter
semester, that is what her office does.
They offer courses, find instructors and set times, so she felt the functions
could be easily incorporated into those of the dean of instruction’s
office. She said that there was no
scaling back of the honors program or change in the mission of the program.
Richard Silverman responded that it sounds like
she views most of the honors functions as clerical and he wondered if they
truly are clerical. He said working with
faculty on potential honors projects is not necessarily a clerical
function. Marsh responded that the
honors committee reviews the applications and when a faculty member wants to do
an honors option, they write up a syllabus explaining what they are going to do
and it is reviewed by the committee.
Silverman responded that he thinks release-time
issues should be an information item to the board with some explanation like
she just gave because his concern is that we already have administrators who
are very busy, and then to load on some of these other functions to avoid
release-times may not be cost effective if the programs suffer. He agreed that faculty are primarily teaching
resources, but they have expertise in a variety of areas, so her decision
should be looked at carefully. He said
he thinks we need to go back to the mission statements he had everybody submit
and come back to the board to justify them on a point-by-point basis.
Sally Galer expressed concern from the emails,
and from what she heard tonight, that the board as a whole is not asking for
this as a board, “We do not want to micro-manage.” Unless she hears a motion
from the board stating that they want this, she feels there is sufficient
information and does not see a need to become further informed on this
issue. She said it was a good decision
and certainly within the realm of the administration to make. It was coordinated with the faculty and
reviewed with the faculty committees prior to making the decision. She said that the board needs to remember
that they are only a board if they act as a board; that no one-person is the
board. She said that she is not inclined
to demand any further information on this unless the board makes a motion and
approves it.
Silverman responded that he is merely asking to
be informed in the same manner as routine communications about personnel
matters. Consequently, he made a motion to be informed about issues related to
personnel because he considers this a personnel issue. Roy Spangler seconded the motion to move it
to discussion. During discussion
Spangler asked at what point do we draw the line? Silverman said that he sees it as a sharing
of information issue that should not take an inordinate amount of time. Marsh noted that the previous dean of
instruction never brought this to the board.
Silverman responded that he is no longer in that position, but is now a
board member. Roberta Werle said the board
has a responsibility to oversee what is going on. When you change a long-standing practice, it
behooves everyone to be advised of those changes. She said she supports the motion.
Galer expressed concern that they are moving
into micro-managing which is not desirable for all involved. It becomes a tool of obstruction. Silverman said he does not think it will be
used like that. For example, if a personnel decision to not have release-time
is a sound decision, then the idea of giving a two-sentience rationale of why
release-time was eliminated is a
reasonable request.
Dale Shantz, Director of Human Resources, asked
for clearer guidance as to how to draw the line. Since so much goes on in the day-to-day
business of running the college, at what point must we stop and consult with
the board? He has a need-to-know what
the boundaries are. He has clear guidelines now but it appears they would no
longer be valid. Silverman spoke of
looking at those guidelines to see if there are other things that need to be
changed. Marsh added that the board
approved the Master Agreement and she was only acting within the guidelines of
the Master Agreement, so the board has already approved her action. Silverman asked that the administration look
at that to see if they could develop some guidelines. Galer suggested that Shantz do a report on
the policy and how he understands it and make some recommendations that they
could use. Silverman agreed. At this point, the motion was withdrawn. Marsh passed out written details of the
report she just gave.
Medical
coverage for Part-time Faculty
Trustee Roberta Werle read her position on the
decision to change the language on medical benefits for part-time faculty. She
read the following from an announcement by Kathy Marsh: “...The language now
reads, part-time faculty who have been eligible for medical benefits shall be
required to make a two-semester commitment to teach a minimum of 12 contact
hours per week each semester and...” with emphasis “...that medical benefits
shall not be available for any additional part-time faculty regardless of
work-load effective July 2004.” Werle
expressed surprise at this announcement and at the idea that there was a
proposal to change the benefit package being offered to part-time faculty.
Under this proposal, no new part-time faculty
hired after July 2004 will be eligible for medical benefits regardless of the
number of hours they teach. A couple of
thoughts came to her when she read this, some dealing with the economics of
change and some, equally and perhaps more importantly deal with issues of
values and ethics. Do we at Kirtland
want a culture that creates two groups of part-time faculty? One group, because they were hired before
July 2004 with medical benefits and the other because they were hired after
June 30, 2004 carrying the same load, responsibilities and out-of-classroom
preparation time but without medical benefits. How can such a system create a
good working relationship between members of the part-time faculty? She does not think it can. How can such a system allow a college to hire
the best candidates as its part-time faculty?
She does not believe it can. How
does this fit into our pronouncements that we are a student-oriented campus
when or if we are creating disparate groups within the same category of faculty
and we cannot hire the best? She does
not think it does.
From a social standpoint, one of the most
urgent social problems facing the country, the state of
From an education and an economic viewpoint,
how can a part-time faculty who must delay medical attention for lack of
medical coverage help
From a business standpoint, will new part-time
faculty be pushed to the limit, just under the hours of full-time faculty, to
save money on those medical benefits?
Will the part-time faculty with medical benefits be eased out, or pushed
out because they cost too much? She
suspects this will happen because it happens in industry and business and if we
subscribe to the so-called business model, we will soon adopt those ethics.
The above are important considerations that go
to the heart of how we treat our faculty.
How was this change made without being presented as a possibility to the
board of trustees? Why is it such a
complete surprise? It was not reported
in the budget documents or made a part of the fringe-benefit assumptions which
were incorporated into the preliminary budget that was adopted in June and
presented to this board in May 2004. So
far this change in the medical benefit program has not been approved by the
board of trustees and no other justification, other than cost-cutting was
included in Ms. Marsh’s email response.
One of the major problems on this campus right
now and the thing that AQIP and everyone is trying to work toward is the lack
of trust between the staff, the faculty and the administration. This lack of trust is going to be greater
between the two elements of the part-time faculty because the changes were made
merely for cost reasons. No other
considerations were given. Changes were
made after one of the parties thought that they had signed off on the proposal;
ambiguous language that she was to report the changes.
The perception the board of trustees’ approval
is not necessary prior to a major change in the benefits of part-time faculty
was also one of the elements of the lack of trust. The perception that discussion is not
necessary before major changes are initiated is another element of a lack of
trust. The whole situation seems to lack
a social sensitivity that consternation would arise as a result of these
reported changes.
This is a real problem to her and she proposed
that this be an item on the October agenda and that the administration be
prepared to present the pros and cons of their proposal for a change in the
benefits structure for the part-time faculty, and until then, things be put on
hold and we go back to the status quo that we had before that July 4
meeting. She added that she will put
this in writing to the board chair to get it on the October agenda.
Kathy Marsh asked the board chair for
permission to respond, which was granted.
She stated that there has not been any changes made to any policy or
what we have been doing in the past. She
acknowledged that the language that went in the handbook was fairly awkward and
did not accurately reflect the intent, so she has revised the language,
notified all the part-time faculty that came to the part-time meetings, and she
sent out an email that afternoon.
She explained that to protect the integrity of
the instructional programs it is sometimes necessary to ask a part-time faculty
member to teach as much as 80 percent of a full-time faculty member’s
load. When such an assignment is
projected to last for a whole academic year, it has been our practice to
authorize medical benefits for that faculty member. Individual benefit packages range from $6,000
to $14,500. In a time of financial
constraint, the instructional administrators determined that whenever possible,
we would avoid this action. That is what
she was conveying in the communication Werle spoke of.
The language she had to revise, when it talks
about regardless of work-load, the intent was the fact that we cannot just use
12 hours anymore to represent 80 percent of a load because we have
load-language out there that is written in clock hours, such as in the
cosmetology program, and the FLEX program, we have loads that reflect student
contact hours. What they were attempting
to do was not to follow that action, if possible, regardless whether it was a
FLEX, Office Information Systems or M-TEC faculty member. In a circumstance where we could not avoid
it, medical benefits would be extended as normal. There was much discussion within the
instructional administration as to whether or not they could fill classes using
that guideline, and they determined that this would not be a problem.
Roberta Werle expressed confusion and asked for
further clarification on cost constraints versus medical benefits. Is there a change or not? Marsh confirmed that there has not been a
change. If a part-time faculty member
reaches 80 percent of a defined full-time load in their discipline, and it is
projected to last for two semesters, they will get benefits. The intent is to try to meet classroom needs by not having additional
part-time faculty in the 80 percent arena.
Werle indicated that she still intends to bring this back to the board
in October.
Selection
of Replacement Trustee
Paul Durbin, candidate for the June 14, 2004
biennial election, gave a history of his involvement with Kirtland and the
reasons he feels he should have been considered for Carol Kuehn’s vacated seat
on the board of trustees.
He has lived in the college district for 34
years and was employed at Kirtland for 32 years, from 1970 to 2002 when he
retired. He taught classes at Kirtland, was vocational director, dean of career
and technical studies and dean of instruction.
He was a key player in bringing M-TEC to Gaylord and the district,
having met with the original group of Otsego County citizens who brought the
idea to his attention. He helped write
the two plans submitted to the state that eventually brought the $4.1 million
grant to Kirtland for the purpose of building the technical education center
which serves northern Michigan. He also
met with Michigan Works! committees to explain Kirtland’s plans for the M-TEC
and supervised career and technical education during the development of plans
for programs there.
In the recent board of trustees election, he
received enough votes to be fourth in an election that seated three
candidates. His vote total was far above
that of one candidate running for re-election. When Mrs. Kuehn tendered her
resignation, the board immediately selected the candidate who garnered the
least number of votes to fill the vacancy.
The rationale given was this person’s low vote total was based on a
technicality. He said that does not
explain the fact that he received more votes from the citizens of the district.
He understands that one board member
recommended Mrs. Webb to fill the vacancy because she had board experience and
experience in dealing with the M-TEC.
The board voted to have her serve again.
He maintains that not only does he have more experience with the M-TEC
since its inception, but he is sure that his experience as an administrator at
Kirtland and his attendance at more board meetings over thirty-two years than
Mrs. Webb, outweigh her experience as a board member. It would seem logical that the candidate who
obtained the next highest number of votes in the election would be considered
to fill the vacancy. The person who
received the least votes was asked to serve.
Durbin said he was not contacted by the board, nor did he think he was
considered.
He ran as a candidate for the board because he
cares about the college and felt that he could make a contribution. Many citizens of the district voted for him.
His concern was that over the past several
years the college seems to be on a path to mediocrity. He doubts very much that “morale” has or will
change much among college employees. He
has noticed that good people are leaving Kirtland, possibly being “persuaded”
to leave because their jobs are being changed so much that they feel they would
be better off to leave. He knows of some
who believe they have not been supported by administrators. He said, to use what is becoming, if not
already a cliche, there seems to be “an elephant in the room.” He hopes the board will see it.
MINUTES
Minutes from the July 12, 2004 organizational
and regular board meeting were presented. No corrections or additions were
offered. The minutes from July 12, 2004 were declared approved as published.
Minutes from the August 12, 2004 board of
trustees workshop, Working Toward A Vision, were presented. No corrections or
additions were offered. The minutes were
declared approved as presented.
FACULTY
PRESENTATION
Kerry Harwood, M-TEC Instructor, Computer Aided
Drafting (CAD)/Manufacturing, explained that he is also responsible for
machining and welding on main campus.
The Johannesburg-Lewiston high school CAD students have a competition
every year, and what we do to help support their interest in CAD is to take the
winners from that competition and turn their projects or designs into metal. He
showed an example of some of their metal work, specifically the Kirtland Firebirds
logo cast in aluminum. They take the
student’s designs and make the metal product. Then they bring the students to
M-TEC to tour the facility where they see their designs being made. It shows them that something can be made from
a computer screen into a finished product that they can hold in their hands.
Another thing they do, with college students,
is to try to involve them with real-world problems and designs that they would
experience out in the workforce. This
last year they had an opportunity to get involved in a wheelchair project. Harwood displayed a wheelchair that was
designed and produced at the M-TEC. An
individual approached them on behalf of his 13 year-old son who has been in a
wheelchair since he was five, with things they experienced that they do not
like and ideas to design a chair that better meets the boy’s needs. The result is a wheelchair with much
flexibility and adjustments, mainly in the seat area, allowing for expansion
and contraction up to six inches with a shock in the front-end to absorb road
noise. The wheels have three different positions for differing stability and
maneuverability situations. A target
weight for this chair was 30 pounds, and without the purchased component of wheels,
it weighs 26 pounds. With the wheels, it
is 34 pounds. Most commercial
wheelchairs weigh between 30 and 40 pounds. The project has garnered a lot of
good publicity for the program.
COMMUNICATION
Calendar
of Events
A list of events for the fall semester, taken
from the college master calendar was presented. Charles Rorie added the
Kirtland Retirees’ Association luncheon on Wednesday, September 8, 2004 from 11
a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the cafeteria.
Everyone is invited to stop in and renew old friendships. Richard Silverman added Midnight Madness, the
event kicking off the men’s and women’s basketball season for Friday, October 1 at 12:01 a.m. at the CRAF
Center in Roscommon.
Roberts
Rules of Order
Charles Rorie noted that the board of trustee
bylaws specifies the use of Roberts Rules of Order, Newly Revised and
distributed a concise version with an insert about small boards. A copy of the
complete version will be available at all board meetings in the future, but the
smaller version is for individual use as a handy reference guide. He also provided copies of “Procedures for
Small Boards” that was presented at the MCCA Summer Workshop 2003. Roy Spangler commented that he would like to
see that motions be seconded, even though it says it is not necessary. Sally Galer suggested that everyone have a
chance to read it and discuss it further at a future meeting.
BUSINESS
FOR BOARD ACTION
RESOLUTION
TO BESTOW HONORAIRE STATUS
The following preamble and resolution were
offered by Trustee Robert Bovee and supported by Trustee Roy Spangler:
WHEREAS
1.
Carole Duquette Kuehn has 10 years of dedicated service as a member
of the Board of Trustees at Kirtland Community College;
2.
She has
ably discharged her responsibilities in the functioning of the board;
3.
During her
tenure, she has served as Vice Chair (2002-2004), Secretary/Treasurer
(1996-1998), Board representative to the American Association of Community
Colleges, the Kirtland Community College Foundation, and the Kirtland Finance
Committee;
4.
She has
supported and advanced the mission and goals of Kirtland Community College;
5.
She has
continually demonstrated her concern and dedication for the students we serve;
6.
Her
concern, dedication, and skills will be greatly missed by the students we
serve, the staff of the college, and her colleagues on this board;
7.
She has
met all qualifications for Honoraire Status;
THEREFORE
BE IT RESOLVED THAT
The board of trustees, in public recognition
and appreciation of these years of service, does hereby bestow Honoraire Status
on Carole Duquette Kuehn, with all
the honors and privileges such status entails.
Discussion: Roberta Werle asked what are the honors and
privileges the status entails? Dale
Shantz responded, free parking privileges, access to the library, two
complimentary tickets to performing arts series, and a Kirtland email account.
Vote: Ayes,
seven Nays, zero Abstain, zero Absent,
zero
Resolution declared adopted.
REPORTS
FOR BOARD INFORMATION
Election
Consolidation
Kathy Koch, as Election Coordinator, presented
information about the new election consolidation law signed by Governor
Granholm on January 8, 2004. It is a
major revision to the school election code, consisting of nine separate
bills. Unfortunately, the legislation is
confusing and unclear with attempts to interpret the law currently in process. The information presented came from a video
conference by the Thrun Law Firm, P.C. on February 17, 2004.
Beginning January 1, 2005, regular school
elections will default to the first Tuesday following the first Monday in
November of every odd year unless school boards take affirmative action to
choose another permitted date. The legislation does not permit terms of office
to be shortened. Therefore, with all
current trustees’ terms expiring in an even year, moving to an odd-year
election means that each board member’s term of office will be extended at
least six months, or longer if an election date other than November is chosen.
Recent communications with legal counsel
indicate that the community college district may be bound to the election date
chosen by the constituent intermediate school district. Therefore, Charles
Rorie has placed this subject on the next COOR-ISD Superintendent’s meeting
scheduled for August 31. The board will
be kept informed of further clarification of the application of the new
legislation.
Continuation
of August 12 Workshop
JoAnn Comerford, Director of Facilities,
provided Physical Plant and Employee Safety report titled, A Snapshot of the
Present. The purpose of her presentation was to show where we are now with
facilities in order to help us prepare a vision for the college. She covered utilities, buildings and grounds,
plant equipment, air conditioned classrooms and offices, M-TEC, water wells,
waste water treatment, operations budget, deferred maintenance and the employee
safety program.
Ed Koliba, Chief Business and Financial
Officer, provided a report on Business and Financial Services focusing on
general fund sources of revenue, general fund sources of expenditures and
issues relating to them. He provided
graphs, charts and five-year trends.
AQIP
update
Kathy Marsh, Dean of Instruction and
Educational Services, provided handouts with preliminary time-lines, a
description of the process used to develop an action project, a list of
information required to be posted on the NCA’s AQIP site by September 20 for
each action project, and a statement of the board of trustees’
role/responsibility in the process.
The board is needed to participate as a
constituency group in a meeting with outside facilitators on Thursday,
September 9 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. The
board is also needed to participate as individuals in the Vision Day
discussions to be held on Friday, October 1, all day. The board as a whole will be asked to review
and act on the final version of the vision statement which is tentatively
scheduled for the January 2005 board meeting.
Marsh explained that trustees need to stay
informed via the Kirtland AQIP web site.
They will receive a monthly update on the action projects, hopefully
from the leaders of each of those projects rather than from her. The board will need to approve the action
plans before they are submitted to the Higher Learning Commission.
Marsh provided the minutes from the August 16,
2004 AQIP meeting. Additionally, she
provided handouts of milestones and time-lines for establishing a shared vision
with leveraging drivers and neutralizing restrainers. Another handout was the proposed milestones
for retooling trust with leveraging drivers and neutralizing restrainers. Finally, she provided biographical
information on the two outside facilitators for the visioning project team, Lee
Whipple and Olga Holden.
M-TEC
report
Doty Latuszek, Provost, provided July and
August governing advisory board minutes and information. The college has always had a position for
customized training or workforce development with a designated person in charge
of working with business and industry, and the current position has recently
been vacated. She hopes to fill that
position in the next month or two, recommitting our efforts to workforce
development functions based primarily at the M-TEC but covering both campuses
and all five counties that we serve.
A private training company in Midland requested
a partnership with Kirtland over the last several months to work on training
and assessment of Dow Chemical employees in Midland. Dow has almost one thousand employees who
will be given the six different WorkKeys tests.
Then, if they do not reach certain levels they will go through training
through the private training company, after which Kirtland will reassess
them. This is a year-long project. Jan Farmer asked why Dow selected Kirtland
rather than other sources and she responded that the bid proposal offered more
flexibility and a greater variety of training (traditional training as well as
computerized training).
A couple of unresolved issues they are still
working on are the wireless connectivity at M-TEC and the joint operating
agreement with the University Center.
She hopes to bring closure to that soon.
Silverman asked about the M-TEC budget for next
year, that it looks like it has a 20 percent increase in revenue from tuition.
He asked if it is the result of an increase in enrollment and a raise in
tuition. Latuszek responded that the
college did raise out-of-district tuition and M-TEC has a higher percent of
out-of-district student than main campus, so yes, it is a combination of an
increase in students and tuition rates.
She explained that the revenue projection was based on actual numbers
from the fall and winter semester of this past year and that some of the
nursing and pre-nursing courses are expanding which is included as a component
of the projection.
Open
discussion
Chair Sally Galer asked if there were any more
reports, questions or comments. Detmar
Finke made a suggestion that any handouts that were distributed to the board
for information during the meeting might be included in the packets that were
put out for those attending the meeting.
ADJOURNMENT
With no further business to come before the
board, Chair Galer declared the meeting was adjourned at 9:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by
Kathy Koch, Recording
Secretary