New Faculty Senate chair wants to lift morale

Business Professor Larry Rosinbaum said one of the issues he plans to tackle as Faculty Senate chair is to improve employee morale, which he believes is at a low point.

“I just think that the school has gone through a lot of changes … and I think some of the faculty members don’t quite have the input they thought they used to have,” he said in an interview after he was elected May 2.

“Congratulations, I’m sorry,” the outgoing chair, English Professor Dawn Elmore-McCrary joked at the meeting.

Rosinbaum said he also would like to strengthen relations with the Faculty Senates at sister colleges, promote shared governance by encouraging all faculty to participate in college and district committees, and work to build bridges with district administration and the board of trustees.

He said during the summer, he plans to finish rewriting the senate’s bylaws to clearly reflect the rules under which the senate operates.

“That kind of just lays out a roadmap as to the rules that we are supposed to follow when we do something,” Rosinbaum said.

He said the senate tried to rewrite the bylaws this semester but was unsuccessful.

Rosinbaum said although this was his first year on the senate, he served on the Elections and Survey Committee and has served on other college and district committees, including college Curriculum Review and Evaluation Committee; District Curriculum Review; Performance Enhancement Team; Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Management PEAG; and district discipline lead for Business Administration.

Student development Professor Dehlia Wallis was elected vice chair, and architecture Professor Isabel Garcia was elected secretary.

New senators are student development Professors Lisa Black and Julie Engel; sociology Professor Terri Slonaker; nursing clinical program Coordinator Teresa McPherson; and criminal justice Professor Tiffany Cox.

Senators who were re-elected for a second three-year term are Linda Lowman, early childhood studies professor; Librarian Celita DeArmond; and John Onderdonk, radio-television-film professor and adviser to KSYM 90.1 FM.

Senators who will continue their terms are engineering technology Professor B.P. Agrawal; English Professor Alex Bernal; Psychology Chair Tom Billimek; English Chair Mike Burton; math Professor Gerald Busald; Barbara Knotts, director of creative multimedia; human services Professor Kathryn Miller; political science Instructor Suzanne Martinez; speech communication Coordinator Jolinda Ramsey; kinesiology and dance Chair Bill Richardson; Counselor Steve Samet; philosophy Professor John Visintainer; and Ronnie Watson, theater and speech communication instructor.

The senate membership increased to 26 at a March 7 meeting in which the senate approved the addition of two voting adjuncts chosen by the Adjunct Faculty Council:Chair Jerry Townsend, media communications full-time adjunct, and nursing Adjunct Antonia Scialdo.

Wallis presented Elmore-McCrary with a plaque for outstanding leadership and service for 2011-12.

Elmore-McCrary, an outgoing senator barred to re-election by term limits, works tirelessly and is always available, Wallis said.

“She was the watchdog for all faculty, not just here at SAC,” she said.

Elmore-McCrary said when people approach her and tell her she has great power, she responds with, “No, I have great responsibility.”

She said she viewed her position as one of service.

Elmore-McCrary said she would tell her husband, “There are 800 faculty (including Super Senate) depending on me every day to make sure I go out and that I represent them.”

Four leaving the senate are fine arts Chair Jeff Hunt, business Chair Val Calvert, mortuary science Professor Mary Mena and reading and education Professor Susan Falcon.

The Faculty Senate meets the first Wednesday of each month during the fall and spring terms.

For more information, call Rosinbaum at 210-486-0199.