President's Update - October 2018

President's Update | October 2018

Dear Colleagues,

The ASCCC Executive Committee is in full swing as the fall term progresses. Now, more than ever, faculty need to rally to undertake the overwhelming work colleges have been asked to perform as we all strive to serve our students and communities. The list of professional development and collaborative inquiry opportunities available to faculty cannot be attended, synthesized, and disseminated locally by one or even two individuals. In order to ensure the success of our colleges, faculty need to organize through their academic senates to distribute the various areas and assignments of work and ensure the sharing of information. Finding ways to support each other and the work of the colleges is more critical as we grapple with the implementation of Guided Pathways, AB705, the new funding formula, and the Strong Workforce Program recommendations, all through the lens of equity and justice while continuing to serve the students present every day on our campuses. The answers to most of those initiatives can and often should be different for each college as we examine and improve our service to our communities.

This update is intended to provide you with information on several items we are working on at the state level. Please forward this message to all faculty and perhaps all constituents of your college. As always, academic senate presidents should feel free to contact us at info@asccc.org should you require any assistance or have questions. We are here to serve the 60,000 faculty and 2.1 million students in all academic and professional matters.

On behalf of the Executive Committee, we look forward to seeing many of you next month at the Fall Plenary Session in Irvine.

Respectfully,

John Stanskas, President

Fall Plenary Session

Registration is open and available for the Fall Plenary Session in Irvine from November 1-3. Registration information and the program outline are available here. Due to the myriad initiatives to be discussed, senates are strongly urged to send teams of faculty to contribute, learn, and discuss the relevant issues facing our system today and report back to local academic senates. The general sessions will cover the four areas of academic and professional matters on which to focus our attention this year: the last of the Strong Workforce Program recommendations regarding equivalency to minimum qualifications and credit for prior learning, the diversification of faculty, the implementation of Guided Pathways, and the implementation of AB705. An additional general session is scheduled regarding the new funding formula.

Legislative Update

The Academic Senate tracks important pieces of legislation that fall within academic and professional matters as well as bills that may be of interest to faculty. Of the bills that were still viable, September 30 was the last day for the governor to sign or veto them. Several bills that the ASCCC supported were vetoed by the governor or failed to pass the legislature, including AB310 (Medina) on Part Time Office Hours, AB1935 (Irwin) and SB1009 (Wilk) on Student Tutoring, and SB968 (Pan) on Mental Health Counselors.

The governor did sign bills to expand credit for prior learning (AB1786 , Cervantes and SB1071, Roth) and extending the pilot baccalaureate program (SB1406, Hill), as well as requiring colleges to publish and evaluate their placement policies (AB1805 Irwin).

Detailed information about the content and status of bills may be accessed at the California Legislative Information website. Also, information on advocacy as well as tools to track legislation may be found on the Faculty Association for California Community Colleges (FACCC) website. Additional ASCCC legislative updates and additional information may be found on the Legislative Update page as well as the Legislative and Advocacy Committee webpage. The new legislative cycle will begin officially in the new year.

C-ID Update

C-ID was included in the Academic Senate’s 5-Year Strategic Plan, approved by the delegates at the 2018 Spring Plenary Session. Work continues on this important initiative to maintain and review existing Transfer Model Curriculum, facilitate the review of over 1,200 courses submitted to C-ID, and facilitate the work of faculty from forty Career Technical Education disciplines to create Model Curriculum and descriptors to be used for the creation of local certificates and degrees. In addition, C-ID worked with the Math Quantitative Reasoning Taskforce to post resources related to AB705 on the resources tab of c-id.net. On July 25, 2018 the CCC Chancellor’s Office and the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities signed an agreement to expand the Associate Degree for Transfer program to offer guaranteed acceptance to 36 private, non-profit four-year colleges and universities.

In spring 2019, C-ID will begin convening discipline experts to discuss the feasibility of identifying whether courses meet general education requirements and how C-ID can facilitate this work through the existing structure. Stay tuned for additional information regarding dates for the spring Discipline Input Group meetings.

OERI Update

The ASCCC will formally launch its comprehensive statewide Open Educational Resources Initiative, OERI, in the spring 2019 term. Presently, efforts are underway to increase OER awareness, gather data related to OER use at our colleges, and to identify OER use and needs for specific disciplines. OERI is in the process of identifying contacts at each of our colleges to provide us with data related to OER use and we will soon be distributing discipline-based surveys to pilot a discipline-based approach to OER needs assessment. In order to increase OER awareness more generally, a series of weekly webinars has been scheduled.

Strong Workforce Program

The ASCCC is working with the Chancellor’s Office to produce a toolkit and professional development activities for local senates and equivalency committees in spring 2019. This work is called for in the Strong Workforce Program Recommendations and by several ASCCC resolutions, including SP17 10.05. The work encompasses considerations of equivalency to the associates degree, the use of subdisciplines, and tools for human resources and college administrators regarding connecting with local industry talent and evaluating the application process for those who may need to apply for equivalency. The ASCCC is currently gathering feedback about equivalency processes and matrices for evaluation of equivalency from various groups of faculty, including at the Fall Plenary Session. We encourage colleges to consider sending a CTE faculty member as part of their team to the fall plenary session.

In addition, the ASCCC is working with the Chancellor’s Office to evaluate how best to advise colleges on effectively granting credit for prior learning. We are evaluating models for military service as a top priority for this academic year and have found promising practices locally implemented that can benefit all of our colleges.

Faculty Diversification

The first set of workshops related to the faculty diversification effort occurred in September through the IEPI Division of the Chancellor’s Office, and resources can be accessed using the embedded link Building Diversity (Part 1) – Using Data for Hiring, specifically targeting human resources managers, researchers, administrators, and department chairs. Phase two and three of this endeavor are currently being planned. General session planning for the ASCCC Fall Plenary Session and conferences for the CCCCIO and the Community College League are underway. The ASCCC is also partnering with the Chancellor’s Office to host a Faculty Diversity conference in Sacramento tentatively scheduled for February 8-9 as well as regional workshops from the ASCCC in late February tentatively scheduled for Butte College, Bakersfield College, and Norco College. As always, we truly appreciate colleges willing to sponsor important professional development events like these for faculty.

Guided Pathways

The ASCCC Guided Pathways Task Force is to be commended for the Academic Academy held in September. The responses have been positive, and attendance was at maximum capacity. Many of the resources are available on our Guided Pathways Resources webpage that may be of use to colleges. The ASCCC has developed information colleges can use to empower all students to make informed choices through guided self-placement. Information is available on the Guided Pathways resource page. In addition, we have received may requests for local visits regarding Guided Pathways implementation that we do our best to honor. If a local academic senate would like to request a local visit, please do so here.

AB705 Implementation

Colleges are working hard to implement AB705 through curricular design and assessment for placement rules for fall 2019. Many opinions regarding what colleges may or may not do are being disseminated throughout the system. As of today, only four official primary source documents define what colleges are required to do and the framework within which colleges should innovate: the guidance encapsulated in one document for English and mathematics/quantitative reasoning, one document for ESL, and a Frequently Asked Questions page all co-authored by the ASCCC and the Chancellor’s Office, as well as the actual law. All other information disseminated to colleges should be evaluated as suggestions that may or may not be appropriate for the college community served.

To support colleges, the ASCCC has held two regional meetings, participated in various webinars, and has another webinar scheduled for October 19 and a micro-regional meeting scheduled for October 20. The implementation of AB705 will also be a topic for the curriculum regional meeting in November. In addition, a discussion board with questions we receive from the field and the answers provided is available on our AB705 Resource webpage.

Upcoming ASCCC Events

Nov. 1-3 Fall Plenary Session, Irvine
Feb. 8-9 Faculty Diversification Conference, Sacramento (cosponsored by the ASCCC, tentative)
Feb. 21-23, Part-Time Faculty Institute, Newport Beach
Apr. 11-13, Spring Plenary Session, Millbrae
Apr. 25-27, Career and Noncredit Institute, San Diego
Apr. 30-May 3, ACCJC Partners in Excellence, Burlingame (cosponsored by the ASCCC)
June 13-15, Faculty Leadership Institute, Sacramento
July 10-13, Curriculum Institute, Burlingame

Oct. 12 or 13, Area Meetings, Various locations
Oct. 19, AB705 Webinar, 1PM
Oct. 31, Executive Committee Meeting, Irvine
Nov. 16, Curriculum Regional Meeting North, Mission College
Nov. 17, Curriculum Regional Meeting South, Mt. San Antonio College
Dec. 7-8, Executive Committee Meeting, Sacramento

*Note: More events will be posted as soon as they are confirmed.

The ASCCC is always happy to provide assistance or guidance on any senate-related topic. We also make visits to local colleges to connect directly with academic senates or other faculty bodies when appropriate. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in these services. More information may be found at www.asccc.org.