President's Update | December 2020

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

The end of the fall term is upon us, hopefully bringing some welcome rest and relaxation for all of you who have worked so hard to ensure that students had a successful learning experience.  It was a busy term for the Academic Senate as well, as the update below will demonstrate.

The last President’s Update came out just prior to the Fall Plenary Session in November, which was the first plenary session the ASCCC has hosted in a fully online format. While we began with uncertainty as to how things would go, the event was a clear success.  We are grateful that more than 500 faculty, administrators, classified professionals, legislators and legislative staff, Chancellor’s Office staff, Board of Governors members, and students participated in two days of breakout sessions, general sessions, caucus meetings, and area meetings.  On Saturday, November 7, we held our first online resolutions debate and voting session, the results of which can be found here.  At this plenary session, the largest that the ASCCC has ever held, we passed groundbreaking resolutions including calling for a graduation requirement in ethnic studies and a request to change Title 5 Regulations to reimagine the second minimum qualification for the hiring of faculty and administrators.  This event would not have been possible without the incredible work of the ASCCC Executive Committee, the members of the ASCCC standing committees, and the many presenters who provided their expertise at the event.  Additionally, the extraordinary work of the ASCCC office staff requires a separate recognition – the efforts and support of this team ensured that the event went off without any significant problems.  While we missed being able to catch up with everyone in person, we will look forward to an event in the not-too-distant future where we can do just that.

To that end, at its most recent meeting on December 4-5, 2020, the Executive Committee voted to hold all of our remaining events through the end of the academic year, including Executive Committee meetings, in a virtual format.  While the Curriculum Institute falls into the next academic year, the Executive Committee felt that given the amount of planning and work involved in the institute, holding it in a virtual format would be best.  We did not make this decision lightly, but until we know that everyone can gather in groups safely based on local, state, and federal mandates and guidelines along with the commensurate scientific evidence, we will continue to provide all of our services virtually.

We continue to engage with the Chancellor’s Office and other practitioner and stakeholder groups on topics of interest to faculty around the state.  Working in conjunction with our higher education partners, we are in discussions on ways to improve transfer to the CSU and UC systems as well as to the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities and Historically Black Colleges and Universities institutions which accept the associate degrees for transfer.  We are also in dialogue with our CSU partners as they implement AB1460 (Weber, 2019), the new CSU graduation requirement in Ethnic Studies, and are working with the Chancellor’s Office on system-wide guidance.  The work of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Implementation workgroup also continues, and in our work to support that group’s recommendations, the ASCCC will bring together its first cohort of the Faculty Empowerment and Leadership Academy in February with an emphasis on providing mentorship to faculty who have been historically underrepresented in leadership in the California community colleges.

On behalf of the Executive Committee, I wish all of you a happy, safe, and healthy holiday season and look forward to seeing you in the New Year. 

Dolores Davison
ASCCC President

Guided Pathways

The Guided Pathways Task Force will continue through the Spring 2021 term to support faculty and colleges in implementing guided pathways frameworks.  Professional development opportunities will include webinars and faculty discussions, short Canvas courses, articles and papers, presentations at events, and especially technical visits. More information is available here.

Other events are being planned and will be announced shortly. If you are not already on one of the ASCCC listservs, consider signing up today here.

ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative

The ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative is currently looking for faculty interested in reviewing OER for a number of disciplines, as well as discipline leads for the Spring 2021 term. If you or a member of your faculty is interested in applying, visit the ASCCC-OERI page here to find out more and to complete the application: https://asccc-oeri.org/asccc-oeri-seeking-discipline-leads/. In addition, the OERI team is wrapping up its webinar series for December. The remaining webinars can be found here: https://asccc-oeri.org/webinars-and-events/.

Course Identification Numbering (C-ID) System

C-ID is continuing its work with existing Faculty Discipline Review Groups for disciplines that are undergoing five-year review. The C-ID Advisory Committee and Intersegmental Curriculum Workgroup are reviewing current processes to evaluate the comprehensiveness of the existing documents as well as to embed culturally responsive curriculum into the creation and evaluation of TMCs and descriptors. In addition, C-ID is currently working with the CCC Chancellor’s Office and the CSU Chancellor’s Office on how to implement the change to the Business Administration TMC.  Additional information will be forthcoming in early spring 2021.

Hiring Modules

The ASCCC continues to collaborate with system partners to improve hiring modules and create guidance and regulatory changes to improve the faculty hiring process.  Faculty leaders are encouraged to review the modules and incorporate their content in local hiring policy, processes, and procedure reviews. 

Committee Appointments

Many faculty have been appointed to ASCCC standing committees, Chancellor’s Office advisory committees, and other state-level bodies, but the need for faculty participation is ongoing. The ASCCC is therefore continuing to recruit faculty for statewide 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. Each year we appoint nearly 900 faculty from around the state to a variety of committees on a wide range of subjects to ensure the faculty voice, and we 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, suburban or urban colleges. Some appointments are for no more than two meetings per year, while others are to committees that meet twice per month. Whatever availability one may have, we are happy to utilize the expertise brought into these appointments by the many talented faculty around the state. 

List of Upcoming Events

January 2021

• January 8-9, 2021
  Executive Committee Meeting - Virtual Meeting

February 2021

• February 5-6, 2021
  Executive Committee Meeting - Virtual Meeting

• February 18-19, 2021
  2021 Part-Time Faculty Institute - Virtual Event

March 2021

• March 5-6, 2021
  Executive Committee Meeting - Virtual Meeting

April 2021

• April 14, 2021
  Executive Committee Meeting - Virtual Meeting

• April 15-17, 2021
  2021 Spring Plenary Session - Virtual Event

• April 30-May 1, 2021 
  2021 Career Noncredit Education Institute - Virtual Event

Upcoming Webinars

• January 7
  3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

  Strategies and Effective Practices for Conducting Labs and Activities Online

• February 9, 2021
  11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  CTE Liaison Coffee Hour - Perkins Funding

• March 18, 2021
  11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  CTE Liaison Coffee Hour - Credit for Prior Learning

• April 6, 2021
  2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
  CTE Liaison Coffee Hour - Minimum Qualifications