Notes - April 30th, 2007
The De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
April 30th, 2007
Senators and Officers present: Bambhania, Cadge-Moore, Chenoweth, Cole, Coleman,
Cordero, Dolen, Glapion, Goodwin, Guevara, Hearn, Jensen-Sullivan, Joplin, Kessler,
Kramer, Lathers, Lee-Klawender, Lizardi-Folley, Miller, Osborne, Paicius, Raffaelli
Schaffer, Setziol, Walton, Winters, and Zill
Senators and Officers absent: Capitolo and Gallegos
DASB:
Classified Senate: Olivia Patlan
Administrative Liaison:
Guests: Andrew LaManque
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 2:36 a quorum being present.
I. Approval of Agenda and Notes: The agenda was approved as distributed.
The notes of April 16th were approved as distributed with minor changes.
II. Needs and Confirmations: Cadge-Moore was confirmed for service on the Open Educational
Resources Subcommittee.
Dan Mitchell, Dave Capitolo, and Lena Chang were confirmed for service as at large
members of Tenure Review Committees.
The names of volunteers Marcy Betlach and Michele DuBarry Kathy Flores, MaryAnne
Ifft, Clara Lam, and Julie Madigan were referred back to the department to determine
two department representatives. The remaining four will be encouraged to volunteer
for either division or at large service on so far unspecified tenure review committees.
III. Community College Survey of Faculty Involvement: Andrew LaManque was present
to inform the Senators of an on line survey of faculty. It will take 20 to 30 minutes
to complete and should yield good information. Senators were told to expect notification
of the specifics as soon as they are ready, probably before May 15th.
IV. Instructional Testing Update: Hearn carefully led the group through a document
describing the duties of the test proctor(s) distributed April 23rd and repeatedly
asked for feedback and consensus. Questions were raised about how students with disabilities
would be handled. It was clarified that only issues of time will be handled by this
function. Other kinds of accommodations are the responsibility of the office of Disability
Support Services. Several suggestions were accepted by Hearn without discussion.
The group then returned to the "Guidelines" document also previously distributed.
The primary goal of this discussion was an attempt to come to agreements on timely
notification to and from faculty and hours of operation. On the first point, after
discussion, it was the consensus of the group to call for notification to Instructional
Testing 24 hours prior to a given test by whatever means chosen by the faculty member
and 24 hours after the administering of the exam for its return to the faculty member.
On the second point, after even more discussion, it was the sense of the Senate to
ask Hearn to balance a desirable mix of days and midday to early evening hours with
the availability of desirable applicants. Without objection the group allowed Hearn
to finalize job description and guidelines on her own.
V. State Senate Feedback: Chenoweth led off and focused on changes to Title 5 announced
at the Plenary Session. Although very numerous, the changes were characterized by
Chenoweth as being of a "clean up" nature. One non clean up change was presented
in detail. It calls for any offering of a course which calls for any amount of on
line or other distance work in lieu of face to face contact with the instructor to
be reviewed separately by the Curriculum Committee.
Setziol brought back three things. One was a speech by the president of the University
of California Academic Senate which was characterized by Setziol as a kind of rallying
cry wherein faculty were encouraged to represent education as its own model and not
some variation on a business model. Students are not customers and, if someone needs
to hear something analogous to an industrial model product, that product is twofold,
the creation of a process of discovery and a process of disseminating discovery.
The second topic was a proposed change in the discipline qualifications lists to add
a third list which would be similar to the current non master's list but including
a bachelor's degree in the discipline.
The last, and most important to Setziol, was an initiative by the California Community
Colleges Board of Governors to require mandatory uniform testing of all students across
the state. The response to this initiative both at the session and in the Senate
meeting was that, although well intended, it has the potential for a disastrous downside
that appears to easily outweigh a potential up side.
Hearn concentrated on the explication of the CSU's infamous LDTP (Lower Division Transfer
Path). Hearn explained that although the fallout of the plan to force community colleges
to adopt specific prerequisites for specific courses regardless of whether or not
they are required at CSU was continuing, some progress (from a community college perspective)
was said to be happening.
Goodwin presented on the topic of reading competencies which included a discussion
of definitions of reading itself and its connection with writing. Included in the
session presentation was a discussion of pilot research on the testing of reading
being used to attempt to move to standardized outcomes.
VI. ePortfolios: The item was held over.
VII. Academic Freedom Statement: Setziol presented and Schaffer contributed to a
presentation which brought into discussion a draft essentially by Paul Starer (Foothill
Senate)and Faith Milonas (Faculty Association). Changes suggested by Setziol were
supported as to their nature and helped by wording suggestions.
VIII. Process for Hiring Committees: The item was held over except for Hearn saying
that the objective for this agenda item at the next week will be to find and list
all areas of agreement.
X. Good of the Order: - Hearn said that response to the Senate action in the Economics
hiring committee case was continuing and was largely supportive.
- Hearn appealed to the Senators to arrive promptly at 2:30 for Senate meetings.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30