The De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
April 19th, 2010
Senators and Officers present: Anderson, Annen, Argyriou, Beckum, Botsford, Brennan, Chang Cordero, Glapion, Goodwin, Guevara, Hanna, Kragalott, Larson, Lathers, Lee-Klawender, Maynard, McNamara, Mjelde, Nickel, Norte, Schaffer, Setziol, Stockwell, Swanner, and Tao
Senators and Officers absent: Nengo and Singh,
District Senate President: Alex Kramer
DASB: Classified Senate:
Administrative Liaison: Rich Schroeder Guests: Brian Murphy
SLO coordinators/Staff Development: Jim Haynes and Coleen Lee-Wheat
Curriculum Co Chair: Anu Khanna
[NOTE: Item numbers are reflective of agenda numbers in the order they are actually taken up at the meeting.]
The meeting was called to order at 2:34 a quorum being present.
I. Approval of Agenda and Notes: The agenda was approved as distributed
The draft notes of April12th were approved as distributed.
II. Needs and Confirmations: Dolores Davison was approved as the next District Senate President after the group was reminded that A) it will be a year for a Foothill person to have the office and B) having someone serve as college and District Senate President at the same time has happened several times before and has been largely uncontroversial due to the limited power of the District Senate President and the well tested protocols of that position. Jason Damjanovic, Kulwant Singh, Marcia Maiero, and Dawnis Guevara were confirmed for service on the Cross Country/Track and Field Coach Search and Selection Committee.
Lee-Klawender also reminded the group of continuing committee needs.
III. Senate President's Report: Argyriou was asked about the status of locally distributed lottery money in terms of when it might be distributed. The focus of Argyriou's report was the Spring Session of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC). The officers will submit written reports which can then be discussed at the April 26th meeting. She went on to say that President Murphy had been the keynote speaker at the Session and was extremely well received. Three topics among the resolutions were mentioned because of their vital interest to the group, equivalency for non master's disciplines, transfer degrees, and proposed vote of no confidence in the ACCJC accrediting agency. The proposal to end the possibility of equivalencies for non master's disciplines was defeated. The outcome of the transfer degree group of resolutions was said to be much more complicated because of very recent changes in legislation. Setziol will explain a resolution he authored at the session on the topic. The resolution calling for a vote of no confidence in Barbara Beno and the ACCJC board was withdrawn in favor of a resolution calling for the ASCCC to collaborate with the other members of the Consultation Council in Sacramento in seeking accreditation through another agency. Setziol clarified that such a move was, de facto, a vote of no confidence.
IV. IPBT Update: Lee-Klawender showed the group the names of eight positions recommended to be filled. Whereas six had been previously authorized, eight will now be authorized because of additional anticipated retirements, the possibility that not all eight searches will be successful, and a commitment from Christina Espinosa-Pieb that positions in excess of six will be deducted from next year's retirements if necessary.
VIII. Program Review Update Form: Jim Haynes and Coleen Lee-Wheat, assisted by Anu Khanna, presented a new proposed draft form for the annual Program Review Update. The draft was entirely devoted to an SLO perspective. The main point of discussion was a concern on the part of the officers that collecting information as to the specific numbers or percentages of faculty participating in various aspects of SLO development and use could be something that would ultimately not be in the best interests of faculty or education, may be going against statewide faculty organizations, and amounts to the creation of data points for the glide path towards the destruction of faculty institutions like tenure and the evaluation of students. Setziol specifically asked Haynes for reassurance that the approach proposed constituted minimum compliance.
V. Election Committee: Alex Kramer, Lydia Botsford, and Rick Maynard volunteered to comprise the committee. Maynard raised the possibility of voting on line. Argyriou said she would check to make sure that there was no problem with electronic voting in terms of the official status of that approach being recognized by the State Academic Senate.
VI. Pay to Stay Committee: The item began, innocently enough, with a report on the phenomenon known as “pay to stay”. Just as an idea to have a fixed point in time as a deadline to pay, President Murphy, who had just entered, told the group that the workings of the Banner system made it necessary to have a fixed date. He continued by saying that the current idea is to have that time certain be two weeks prior to the start of a quarter and that those who registered after that - good luck on getting into classes – would be dealt with on a more traditional basis.
VII. Educational Master Plan: Kramer asked the group for feedback on the draft distributed electronically prior to the meeting - what’s missing? What could be done differently? He also acknowledged the irony of planning to do things at a time when the wherewithal to do things is in short supply. Much of the item was centered on a new draft College mission statement (page five). Both Kramer and Murphy welcomed comment and said that work on the mission statement included considerable background work examining and critiquing other college mission statements.
IX. Wrap Up: Argyriou asked the Senators to report responses to the master plan and especially the proposed new mission statement, the Program Review/SLO work tracking form and its possible implications, and also asked Senators to report back as to whether course outline writing was a distributive or centralized process in the various departments.
X. Good of the Order and Announcements: - A flyer announcing tenure review training April 20th and 21st was distributed. Other trainings were said to be anticipated.
- Anderson brought up the Teaching and Learning conference held at De Anza April 16th. The group joined him in applauding attendees and organizers of this very successful event.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:21