President's Update | June 2020

June 02, 2020

Dear Colleagues,

As we close another academic year in a way that none of us could have predicted, it is important for faculty to reflect on the accomplishments we have collectively made to support our students and communities. At the college level, we have transitioned to a virtual environment to ensure continuity of education and services for our students to the best of our ability. We continue to improve those services since the jarring transition the current pandemic has required. We are evaluating the appropriateness of future course offerings for distance education and identifying the course outcomes that must be completed face-to-face so that our administrations have the capacity for informed discussions with the county departments of health moving forward. We have also worked hard to ensure college governance processes have transitioned to the virtual environment, and some colleges have begun to evaluate those processes for effectiveness and equity. Our institutions have made progress implementing guided pathways, have begun evaluating the racial and ethnic biases inherent in district educational systems, and have begun dialogue about the culture that does and should exist on college campuses.    

This update is a summary of the ASCCC’s work on guided pathways, faculty diversification, and governance and an update on the state budget.  Please forward this message to all constituents at your college. All stakeholder work is interconnected, and the system is strongest when all constituencies work together and keep each other informed. As always, academic senate presidents should feel free to contact the ASCCC at info@asccc.org should they require any assistance or have questions. The ASCCC is here to serve the 62,000 faculty and 2.4 million students in all academic and professional matters.

This update to you is my last as the President of the ASCCC.  I have been tremendously honored to serve as your voice and to shepherd the work of an amazing Executive Committee to improve the lives of our students and communities. I hope each of you is well and that you find some time to breathe and rest this summer, and I encourage you to continue to participate at the state-level next year. Each faculty voice is valuable and it is only through our collective voice that we have the capacity to change. I am proud to have had the opportunity to hear your voices and represent you.  

        Respectfully,

        John Stanskas, President

Scheduled Events 2019-2020

This year the ASCCC has reached nearly 12,000 attendees at our events either in-person or via webinars and discussion sessions. Our guided pathways programming had nearly 2,000 attendees, and our open educational resources initiative reached 1,500. Our professional development webinars in April and May had over 6,000 attendees. As the system continues to move forward in a mostly virtual arena, our Faculty Leadership Institute and Curriculum Institute have moved to an online platform. Based on feedback regarding what faculty need from the ASCCC, the Executive Committee will need to consider programming on instructional quality, student equity, governance, systemic bias and diversification of faculty and staff, and culturally responsive pedagogy and curriculum in the virtual environment in the next year. 

Faculty Diversification

The Executive Committee adopted this five-year goal in 2018. While community colleges cannot erase centuries of systemic racism and bias built into American society and culture, faculty can engage in the work of perfecting the system and colleges. Every systemic structure holds the inherent bias of its time of construction, and California’s community colleges and system are no different. The ASCCC’s work is to facilitate a deep examination of college structures and individual biases and address them so that the colleges can serve their students and communities to the best of their abilities.  At the Fall 2019 ASCCC Plenary Session, the delegates adopted the paper Equity-Driven Systems:  Student Equity and Achievement in California Community Colleges, and we have begun work on another paper on Anti-Racism Education in the California Community Colleges.

Part of the examination of structures includes the hiring processes of the colleges. Two minimum qualifications are required to work as faculty in the California Community Colleges:  one is the requisite degree and industry experience, and the other a sensitivity to the diverse needs of students. We have published a Rostrum article that may help colleges evaluate the second minimum qualification here and are in the process of editing our publication Equivalence to the Minimum Qualifications (2016) to reflect our work on the Equivalency Toolkit regarding CTE disciplines and equivalency to the associate degree and to re-evaluate the paper through an equity lens.  

We also developed a model hiring and appointment processes module to create tools to assist academic senates in beginning or furthering dialogue on systemic change and provide examples of how to modify hiring processes locally. While we continue to perfect the Canvas shell, one can preview it here.  This module includes an amazing amount of work that breaks down the dialogue and processes that are hopefully a focus of local action next year. If we can be of service to facilitating this difficult and meaningful work at your college, please request a technical visit through your academic senate president here. 

Guided Pathways

Another long-term goal of the Executive Committee is supporting colleges in the implementation of guided pathways. The ASCCC Guided Pathways Task Force was charged to amplify equity work and evaluate structures to assess and improve program review and related processes, create tools for college onboarding processes for students, deliver professional development, and assist in the evaluation of college governance structures. This team has visited colleges to provide tailored professional development, conducted regional meetings, strengthened the ASCCC partnership with the RP Group to evaluate program review processes, and created a Guided Self Placement Tool for colleges to use as a guide in creating their own processes to meet local student needs.  All colleges may evaluate resources or request a local visit, though in the fall such visits will probably be virtually managed, through our website here.  

Governance Processes and the Faculty Role 

The last goal identified for the 2019-20 academic year was to support faculty governance processes. This year the ASCCC encouraged local senates to review policies and practices related to governance and the 10+1 defined areas that are academic and professional matters. Two areas of focus included program review, particularly the faculty role and the utility of program review as part of guided pathways conversations, and curriculum processes, including framing curriculum revision and development processes around the five development criteria outlined in the Program and Course Approval Handbook. Recently, the ASCCC has engaged local senate and curriculum leaders through webinars to facilitate dialog about curriculum and distance education addendum processes, utilizing the Brown Act regularly and during the governor’s declared emergency, and providing faculty the professional development support needed to transition to online instruction.

As recent months during the COVID-19 response have shown, the faculty role in governance remains as critical as ever and yet can be both challenged and challenging, especially in crisis situations. In response to recent COVID and budget challenges as well as in preparation for future moments, academic senates, curriculum committees, distance education committees, and other senate-related committees with a role in academic and professional matters would be well-served to continue to review current policies and practices, formal and informal, with an eye on the faculty role in governance and the responsibilities inherent in the 10+1.  This work will be particularly important as the state moves into a recession that traditionally sees a decrease in money for higher education and an increase in demand from local communities. 

Legislative Messaging and State Budget Update

The governor released his May Revision of the budget on May 14; the summary or detailed version from the Department of Finance is available here. It includes a roughly 10% cut to colleges through the funding formula, and all categorical programs have a 15-58% cut. For example, the Strong Workforce Program has a 58% cut, which is very harsh considering colleges hired faculty and staff with these funds. Student Equity is cut by 15%, and the ASCCC received a 25% cut - $253,000 from our base budget. The May Revision also includes a $3M cut to Calbright, 15% of its ongoing budget. These cuts would be off-set a federal relief fund is passed this summer. For a perhaps easier to read summary of these details, the Chancellor’s Office report about the May Revision is here.  

The legislature is now deliberating about the budget. The Legislative Analyst’s Office has suggested a different proposal to achieve the same level of cuts here. One alternative on page 5 includes eliminating Calbright, eliminating College Promise program money, and eliminating apportionment funding for intercollegiate athletics. It also cuts Strong Workforce by 6% and does not appear to cut Student Equity funding.  The elimination of promise programs is harsh, but it preserves need-based financial aid at the expense of promise programs, which are not need-based. The ASCCC is concerned about the cut to athletics, which support many minoritized students and encourage their educational attainment. We have recommended that this cut could be one-time only for the 2020-2021 fiscal year instead of on-going.  

The state Senate has proposed a different take on the budget by utilizing a series of deferrals that would be offset if federal monies become available. This plan would create a different hardship for districts pertaining to cashflow and payroll depending on available district reserves but may be preferable to a cut to apportionment rates. The Senate plan does not cut programs like Strong Workforce and does cut $77M of the one-time monies of Calbright to offset shortfalls this year. A summary of the state Senate proposal is here. The state Assembly continues to deliberate on the budget, and at this time a final recommendation from that body is not available.   

Once the Senate and the Assembly both have agreement on their final budget proposals, the Senate Pro Tem, the Assembly Speaker, and the governor will meet to determine the final budget for the state of California. 

This year, due to the Covid-19 crisis, the legislative process has been significantly truncated. The only bills that will be considered for the year are those that meet one of the following criteria: they must be heard this year, are Covid-19 related, are related to the issue of homelessness, or have to do with PG&E. The Senate will begin hearing bills on June 1; the Assembly has not yet moved bills out of appropriations but will convene on June 8.

ASCCC OERI - OER Available for Faculty Consideration

The ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative is pleased to share completed and draft versions of the products from its first round of funded projects. Faculty are encouraged to access our ASCCC RFP 1 - Resource Preview page to review available resources and learn about Open Educational Resources (OER) that will soon be available. If you want to ensure you are aware of new OER as they are made available for review and adoption, please self-enroll in the ASCCC-OERI Canvas resource.

ASCCC Elections for the Executive Committee and Applications to Serve

The ASCCC has completed the virtual elections process. I am pleased to announce that the following individuals have been elected for the 2020-2021 academic year, beginning June 6:

President:                    Dolores Davison, Foothill College
Vice President:            Ginni May, Sacramento City College
Secretary:                    Cheryl Aschenbach, Lassen College
Treasurer:                   Mayra Cruz, De Anza College
Area A:                         Julie Oliver, Cosumnes River College
Area B:                        Karen Chow, DeAnza College
Area C:                        Robert Stewart, LA Southwest College
Area D:                        LaTonya Parker, Moreno Valley College
North:                          Carrie Roberson, Butte College
North:                          Stephanie Curry, Reedley College
South:                          Sam Foster, Fullerton College
South:                          Manuel Velez, San Diego Mesa College
At-Large:                     Silvester Henderson, Los Medanos College
At-Large:                     Michelle Velasquez Bean, Rio Hondo College

I want to sincerely thank everyone who chose to run for a position. Deciding to participate as a candidate in an election process is not easy, and the commitment on the part of all who ran to the ASCCC, to faculty colleagues, and most importantly to students is admirable. 

We are also recruiting faculty for state-wide service for the 2020-2021 academic year. Every faculty voice is important, and we encourage all interested individuals to consider filling out an application here. We appoint nearly 900 faculty to a variety of committees across the state to ensure the faculty voice and have made a concerted effort to diversify those voices across the categories of race or ethnicity, gender, life experiences shaped by military service, full-time or part-time status, and rural or urban colleges. Some appointments are for a total of two meetings per year, while others are to committees that meet twice per month. Whatever availability one may have, we are happy to utilize. 

Upcoming Events

Jun. 05, ASCCC Executive Committee Meeting, Zoom

Jun. 17-19, Faculty Leadership Institute, Virtual

July 07-10, Curriculum Institute, Virtual

Oct. 8-10, Academic Academy, Burlingame
The Academic Academy this year will focus on online education and open educational resources as a partnership between the ASCCC’s OER Initiative and the CVC-OEI.  Mark your calendars for this important and timely event. 

Useful Resource Link

We are continuously adding resources to a central location on the ASCCC website for maximizing our service to our communities during this pandemic. 

Lastly, congratulations to Dolores Davison and her team!