Notes - February 11th, 2008

The De Anza Academic Senate
Notes for the meeting of
February 11th, 2008

Senators and Officers present:, Bambhania, Chenoweth, Coleman, Dolen, Gallegos, Goodwin, Guevara, Hanna, Hughes, Kessler, Kramer, Lathers, Lee-Klawender, Maynard, Miller,  Mitchell, Ng-Lee, Paicius, Schaffer, Setziol, Shively, Walton, and White

Senators and Officers absent:  Argyriou, Chang, Cole, Glapion, LaManque, Schafer-Braun, and Winters
DASB:
Classified Senate:   Al Guevara
Administrative Liaison:
Guests: Phyllis Garrison, Olivia Patlan, and Kathleen Moberg
Curriculum Co Chair:  Anu Khanna
SLO Coordinator:

[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 2:32 a quorum being present.

I.  Approval of Agenda and Notes: The agenda was approved as distributed.
The notes of February 4th, 2008 previously distributed were replaced with notes distributed at the meeting.  These were approved with minor corrections.

II.  Needs and Confirmations: Amita Tiwana was confirmed for service on the Mediated Learning Building  Design Committee.

Paul Calgher, Gary Fisher, David Gray, Cinzia Muzzi, and Homer Tong were confirmed for service on the Chemistry Search and Selection Committee

A need for faculty participation in a Transfer Leadership Research Project was highlighted from the list of ongoing needs for faculty participation.  There will be a focus group event for the project February 28th at 1:30.

III.  Classified Employees Support:   Members of the classified staff were present to request support from the group towards an end to an apparent stalemate between the local Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the District negotiators.  After a detailed and easily understood presentation and a fairly thorough discussion, it was left to the officers to recommend either a resolution or a motion for consideration at the next meeting.  If there is a resolution, it should reference both action to be taken and the potential ramifications for instruction and student services of a prolonged dispute.

V. Grading Issues:  Kathleen Moberg was present primarily to present and discuss plans for on line grading, including changes in record keeping.  On line grading is being done reliably elsewhere.  If all goes well, De Anza may have a Fall, 2008 implementation.

Key points made included:
-  De Anza currently keeps grading records for seven years which is an unusually long period of time to keep such records
- There is a need to identify “portal” users and devise strategies for making this access to grading more attractive and easy to use.
- There will need to be multiple training opportunities for those not currently using the “portal”
- On line tutorials need to be available and as many faculty as possible should be aware of them.
- Mandatory use should be phased in.
- The integrity of the system with regard to preventing student access will need to be diligently maintained.
- Attendance records will no longer be requested or kept by admissions and records leaving grades and grading scales as the only records kept.

IV. Academic Senate Budget:  Chenoweth presented a budget update which included both the Senate’s college B budget account and the dues account and proposed expenditures for the remainder of the year.  After a few corrections (with the result of an increased dues account projected fund balance) it was MSCU(Shively/Coleman) to accept the presented budget with the corrections made at the meeting.

VI.  Educational Information System Update: Chenoweth presented a comparison of capacity and performance between the two companies competing for a contract with the district.  In almost all categories probed a company called Sungard and its product called “Banner” outperformed one from Datatel called “Colleague”.  While the Sungard bid was considerably higher than Datatel’s ($11.5M over 10 years), its capacity and reputation were even higher and thus the Sungard was being recommended to the Board.

VII.  Textbook Policy Update: The Board held a study session devoted to this topic during a Board meeting with primary informing material coming through presentations from Larry Toy and Paul Starer and with supporting materials from the De Anza Academic Senate and a paper on the topic from the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges.  By the end of the session, Trustee Hal Plotkin and the other Board members had been made more aware of the distinctions between faculty interests and “Open Educational Resources” and the full scope of interests presented.  In further pursuit of Open Educational Resources, it was contemplated that textbook authoring faculty might be paid a stipend ($20,000 was suggested) to make their materials “Open Source”.

VIII.  Board Policy Revisions:  After a discussion containing multiple deja vu aspects, there emerged a consensus that the group is unable to proceed with this important without a different kind of presentation


VII.  Good of the Order and announcements:  -  A floor plan for the part time faculty office space in the  Baldwin winery building was presented by Goodwin to an enthusiastic response.
-  An African Ancestry student event was announced for February 13th in the campus center featuring “Dancestry” produced by the De Anza Dance department.


The meeting was adjourned at an astounding 4:21.

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