Faculty Council – 5/11 & 13/09

Council met on Monday to review slates of faculty candidates for the upcoming fall-spring semesters. Additionally, we reviewed changes and updates to:

• Faculty template used by Human Resources to advertise faculty positions.
• AP 157 – a reformed Safety Committee following a splitting of the old Safety and Security Committee into two separate bodies. Particular emphasis in the changes was to make certain HACC was in compliance with current Federal and State labor laws and regulations.
• Receipt of a Student Success Initiative Report from ASPA.

Council met on Wednesday for two purposes: conclude business for this academic year; reform under the newly elected leadership for the upcoming academic year. Of particular interest was the review and approval of an updated AP 663, Appeal of Academic Decisions. This AP is the result of the work effort of two faculty and and two deans, intended to clarify and streamline the appeal process under the newly reorganized HACC structure. Pay particular attention to this AP when it emerges in its final form from the college review and approval process.

Council will hold a retreat on a date-to-be-determined during the week prior to the start of the fall semester. The purpose will be to inform new members and establish faculty goals and objectives for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Have a great summer!

Dan Moseler

APSA Meeting 4/27/09

AP157 was passed with changes as suggested by the subcommittee. Changes include altering the title of the AP to “College Safety Committee.” Todd Crawley contributed to the AP to ensure that the contents would be found acceptable to the PA Department of Labor and Industry.

A report was given by the Student Success Initiative subcommittee which summarized discoveries about current student success initiatives by numerous college groups. The subcommittee concluded that a unifying effort was needed to pull these varying parts together to make student success more attainable and reduce duplication by college staff. The subcommittee recommends that this effort be managed by an advisory team under the direction of the Vice President for Student Services.
Ellen Shatto, chair of APSA, will share the report with accompanying write-ups of current initiatives and student poll results with President Baehre in the next few days.

AP 663, the Appeal of Academic Decisions, will continue to be debated during the summer under a group of 2 deans and 2 faculty members as suggested by Faculty Council. This group will hopefully mediate some successful steps to make the appeal process run smoothly and equitably for all parties involved. AP 595 “Academic Dishonesty” will continue as a tabled item until some closure is reached for AP 663.

The committee concluded with an appreciation for the year’s efforts and plans to reconvene in Fall, 2009.

-Risa R. Robinson (Harrisburg Libraries)

RSS Feeds – An Automation Update

Our colleague Matt Seibert provided some insight earlier regarding the ability to automate updates for repetitive searches on a personalized Web page, using RSS feeds. He provides an update with downloadable instructions below:

The following PDF documents will demonstrate how to incorporate RSS feeds from library database search results into iGoogle and MyYahoo home pages. RSS feeds work as subscriptions that update library search results and display those results within iGoogle or MyYahoo. This benefits users because they only have to perform a search once and then results will come to them. These results are updated daily. If you have additional questions, please contact me, Matt Seibert, at mkseiber@hacc.edu. Thank you and enjoy searching.

Download iGoogle instructions here.

Download MyYahoo instructions here.

Dan Moseler