Field Observation: Middle Georgia State College Faculty Senate Meeting 1

John Miller
EDLD 7431: Higher Education Administration
Dr. Jensen
April 20, 2013

Field Observation: Middle Georgia State College Faculty Senate Meeting
For my field observation I chose to attend a Faculty Senate meeting at Middle
Georgia State College. Since I am already familiar with the consolidation and the issues that
we are facing in student affairs, I thought it would be interesting to see what type of issues
the faculty is facing and how they are coming together to resolve those issues. The faculty
senate meeting was only the second one held as the consolidated institution. The meeting
took place on March 15, 2013.
Immediately after the meeting was called to order, there was a move to suspend
Senate rules that require the minutes from the meetings to be read out loud. This was
carried unanimously and they all agreed that it was a good idea. The first important issue
discussed was SACS and the approvals that the senate needed to be sure that they were
aware of such as policies and procedures and the handbook. SACS has been a huge topic
around campus with the review coming this fall and the consolidation going on. I was not
very aware of the guidelines on SACS until reading the information on their website for
class. I am sure that there will be many issues arising with the accreditation process due to
our consolidation. Before attending this meeting I was also unaware of the number of
committees in our institution that focus on different areas of SACS.
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One of the guests was Dr. Wearn, Assistant Vice President for Academic Planning
and Policy. She was there to announce that the current operations which the faculty senate
goes by do not necessarily represent the way things are going to be done in the future with
the many changes going on due to the consolidation. A very interesting note that was taken
was on the discussion over the way that the Senate votes for the policy changes in the
academic catalog. Prior to the consolidation, the Senate would vote on policies as they
change, however, now they have decided to approve the academic catalog with a single
vote. With the new consolidated institution they have only come to a conclusion that the
catalog may be set in stone for a single year but there is not yet information on the exact
duration due to the consolidation and the different types of academics that are offered
across the five campuses.
After the committee had several questions regarding the academic catalog and their
doubts with its sustainability and what types of subcommittees were needed to ensure a
thorough and credible handbook, Dr. Wearn seemed to step in and emphasize that
everyone should be confident in the policy elements of the catalog because of how well it
was evaluated before the consolidation was finalized. She seemed to be reassuring those
that were worried to say the least. However, once she made that clear, another faculty
member wanted to know how much the By-Laws and Statutes were examined by the
consolidation committee. It was made clear that those were not focused on but are
currently under review.
Once again, due to the long discussion over the handbook and the different elements
of it, a reminder of the SACS review coming up in November was reiterated. They made it
clear that Student Affair and other committees were already planning for fall so they all
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needed to be ready by August. This discussion led to the immediate planning on who would
cover which portion of the handbook and how each area should be responsible for covering
their offered programs in the handbook for review. This idea for everyone making sure
they cover themselves for the SACS review brings me back to our discussion over the
accreditation process and if the practices of SACS are really doing what they should be. For
instance, to have this guideline to go by gives these faculty members a clear cut picture of
what is needed to stay accredited. They can work off of that basis to have an easier way
towards proper order. As I have stated before, there should be ample time to review all of
these policies throughout the year rather than waiting close to the time of review and
everyone get into panic mode to make sure their areas are in working order for SACS
accreditation.
The next important issue on the agenda was the Promotion and Tenure and Post
Tenure Review Committees. It was stated that as of now these committees are different
from what Macon State College and Middle Georgia College had before they consolidated.
The Chair and Associate Professor of English, Dr. Bunker gave an outline for this committee
and stated that it will consist of seven members. However, all of the departments will not
be represented on the Promotion and Tenure Committee. During this discussion, it was
explained how the voting would take place to secure these committee members. Once
again, I felt like this was where the processes of the faculty senate were much more formal
than anything I have seen in the institution. In order to have a finalized vote, the faculty
members would vote, next the deans would tally the votes and send them to someone else.
After that person counted them, they were to be given to the senior accountant at our
school to verify the count. After that, two others would count the votes and then return
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them for the finalized outcome. After the explanation of the voting process was sorted out,
many of the faculty members began to ask questions about the committee and many even
seemed unclear. They were unsure about the eligibility requirements, should they apply if
in doubt about their eligibility, and what would change exactly from the two separate
committee rules from the previous institutions. Basically, the only thing that I seemed to
have had answered from the many doubts was that if a faculty member is unsure then they
should apply anyway and that the deadline to apply for promotion and/or tenure is the
first Friday in April.
Other items on the agenda were meant to be covered; however, due to the questions
and concerns over the other two issues and the changes due to consolidation with those,
there was not much time for anymore discussions. It was stated just before the meeting
was adjourned that the 2013 commencement speaker is going to be University System
Chancellor Hank Huckaby. To me this seems very fitting to have him speak at the
graduation considering the consolidation and the many changes that the USG has brought
upon us. After this, the scheduled time for the next meeting was announced and the
meeting was adjourned around 10:45am.
After being a guest at this meeting, I realized how much work these faculty members
do outside of the classrooms. From my understanding, there is no compensation given for
being on this committee. Many of the faculty members shared heavy concerns over
different items of the agenda and explained what they thought would be more beneficial to
the different things such as the handbook, even when it meant considering subcommittees
to work on things and essentially put more work on themselves. No one is getting
compensated for the larger work load that is placed on them due to the consolidation,
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however, they are all working together to ensure that we have a great consolidated
institution.
There are so many demands being placed on these faculty members and
administrators to ensure that this consolidation is done right. This is the first time for
almost everyone at this institution that has to go through such rigorous changes. If SACS
comes and realizes that things are out of line, it will be as always the administrators at fault
even though they are given so little time to create one institution out of two completely
different ones. These administrators are putting their faith and trust in the committees that
faculty and staff are taking a part of and in our daily workloads and ensuring that each and
every one of us are going by these guidelines. Some of which have never even been
introduced to what exactly needs to be done in order to become accredited. There is so
much more than the mere day to day operations that hold this institution together and that
the administrators stand behind.
The best possible way to address and explain the situations during the uproar of
committee meetings or unknown outcomes due to consolidation budget cuts is for
everyone to stay on the same page with one another and realize that we are the only ones
in this situation and the worse we make it, the worse our outcome is after review. It is the
responsibility of the administrators to ensure that the faculty and staff are doing all that
they can and have all of the resources that they need in order to make this process work. As
long as we are staying focused and using the resources sufficiently the hard work will
ensure that the consolidated institution becomes a very successful one.

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References
(March 15, 2013). Notes from Meeting Number 2. Middle Georgia State College Faculty Senate Meeting.