President's Update | September 2020
September 16, 2020
Dear Colleagues,
As we begin the academic year in a way that none of us could have predicted or wanted, I am nevertheless glad to be welcoming you to the fall term 2020 as the president of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. We realize that the past six months have been extremely difficult, compounded by natural disasters, tremendous uncertainty, and a seemingly relentless stream of crises, big and small, that have exhausted everyone. The transition to fully online instruction and service at most colleges, the need to stay at home, the spread of the pandemic, the murders of black men and women, the continued protests against systemic racism, the recent fires, and countless other stressors that have impacted all of us have made this a year that we are unlikely to forget. However, as stressful as these last six months have been, we ask you to attempt to focus on the good that we have seen come out of these events: the important dialogues and meetings around combating systemic racism, the increased focus on what is best for students and how to ensure that they can reach their educational goals, and perhaps some unexpected and welcome time at home.
This update is a summary of the ASCCC’s work throughout the summer and into the beginning of the fall term. Please forward this message to all constituents at your college. All stakeholder work in the community college system and with other higher education colleagues 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 59,000 faculty and 2.4 million students in all governance and academic and professional matters. This is my first update as your ASCCC president, and I am excited for the opportunities and challenges that all of us will be facing in the coming year.
Dolores Davison
ASCCC President
Summer Work
Thank you to all of the dedicated faculty, classified professionals, administrators, and students for all that they have done since June. Like so many of you, the ASCCC does not take the summer off, as was evidenced by a number of our events and publications.
Our first virtual event, the Faculty Leadership Institute (FLI), was held in June and proved to be the largest gathering we had ever registered for the event. Dedicated to working with new faculty leaders in areas of governance and academic and professional matters with a specific focus on diversity and inclusion, the FLI included guest speakers from the Los Rios District’s management team and presentations on multiple aspects of leadership, governance, and academic and professional matters. This institute’s target audience is faculty leaders from local academic senates as well as other faculty leaders within the colleges, including department chairs, curriculum chairs, union leaders, and others.
The first Executive Committee meeting of the 2020-2021 year was held during the FLI. At that meeting, the Executive Committee adopted three areas of focus for the year, recognizing that goals can often have finite conclusions while areas of focus can shift to reflect the needs of the moment. This year, the ASCCC will be focused on the following areas:
- Culturally responsive curriculum, student services, and student support, working in concert with the California Community Colleges Chief Instructional Officers through their open forums as well as in a variety of other ways;
- Equity driven systems, including a paper on anti-racism being developed by the Executive Committee and further work on faculty diversification; and
- Guided pathways inclusion and integration, including the integration of guided pathways work into the ASCCC standing committees as a model for how colleges can integrate guided pathways efforts into existing committees and processes.
Each of these areas will include work from a variety of ASCCC subcommittees and task forces, allowing for all members of the Executive Committee, as well as the faculty, classified professionals, administrators, and students working alongside us, to engage in this work. We will be reporting out on each of these areas at our Executive Committee meetings as well as in future President’s Updates.
This focus was clearly demonstrated at the 2020 Online Curriculum Institute (CI), which featured a theme of “Responsive Curriculum and Collective Impact.” Held in July, the CI is traditionally the ASCCC’s largest event, and this year was no different despite the online format. Attended by faculty, administrators, and classified professionals from across the state, the sessions focused on various areas of curriculum including pedagogy, processes, and access. Presentations included integrated approaches to serving students equitably through curriculum, responsive curriculum in a variety of ways such as responding to COVID and other crises, and discussions around racism and anti-racist work. The event featured more than 70 sessions for all levels of stakeholders involved in curriculum.
While the ASCCC traditionally does not put out an issue of the Rostrum in the summer, this year the leadership of our Faculty Leadership Development Committee and our Equity and Diversity Action Committee worked with faculty from around the state to bring out a special Rostrum focusing on the voices of black faculty. We hope to feature a general session at the upcoming plenary session to engage the authors of the special Rostrum about their experiences.
Into the Fall
The 2020 fall plenary session will be held online from November 5 to 7. The theme, “Addressing Anti-Blackness and IDEAs (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Anti-Racism) in Academic and Professional Matters,” reflects the ASCCC’s Call to Action as well as our commitment to the Call to Action from the Chancellor’s Office and the work of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Taskforce and Implementation Team. The Executive Committee and other ASCCC committees are working to put together a productive and timely event for all attendees. Attendees will also be spending Saturday, November 7 participating in the ASCCC’s first ever online resolution voting session. It should be an interesting event.
The Academic Academy will be held on October 8 and 9, with an emphasis on equity, open educational resources (OER), online pedagogy, course design, and humanizing curriculum and instruction in an online format. Registration for that event is now open on the ASCCC website.
The Guided Pathways Task Force (GPTF) is planning a series of events in the coming months. These one-hour free online presentations are taking place on most Tuesdays, 11:00-12:00, and will be either a typical webinar or more of an office hour format titled “Coffee, Tea, & GP.” In addition, the GPTF will be working with the ASCCC standing committees to begin moving the work of the GPTF to the standing committees. 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.
The ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative completed the first round of funding for OER resources for 18 disciplines. The products of the RFPs are available on the ASCCC-OERI Resources page: https://asccc-oeri.org/asccc-rfp-1-resource-preview/. We are also excited to share that a second round of projects were identified for funding and 24 faculty teams are now working to complete the OER products. The ASCCC OERI anticipates the completion of these products for December 2020. For more information about the ASCCC OERI upcoming webinars and events please visit the ASCCC OERI Website: https://asccc-oeri.org/webinars-and-events/.
The Course Identification Numbering System (C-ID) is hosting two events this fall for discipline faculty discipline review groups (FDRGs) that are undergoing their Transfer Model Curriculum (TMC) and descriptor’s 5-year review. The Norming Session will be conducted on September 21 and 23, and will bring together faculty to discuss the C-ID 5-year review process, as well as discuss ways in which the C-ID system can incorporate culturally relevant pedagogy in the courses that make up the programs. C-ID is also continuing transfer alignment work from last year and will look to convene additional disciplines where TMCs and UC Transfer Pathways may align. For additional information, visit the C-ID website: c-id.net or email C-IDsupport@asccc.org.
This year, the ASCCC proudly introduces the new Faculty Empowerment and Leadership Academy (FELA), a one-to-one mentoring program designed to meet the needs of our diverse faculty in the California community college system. The program will provide opportunities for participants to engage in empowerment for personal and professional development, including networking opportunities and support through an entire year (starting in spring 2021 and ending in summer 2022). FELA will focus on the development of faculty from groups historically underrepresented within higher education leadership, such as Black/African American, Latinx, Native American, Asian-Pacific Islander, and women. The academy will provide opportunities to connect with leaders, empower faculty to seek leadership roles, and provide regular contact with mentors. Applications are now open and due November 1, 2020. Visit the FELA Academy Page to access the applications and additional information:https://asccc.org/faculty-empowerment-and-leadership-academy
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 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 the expertise brought into these appointments by the many talented faculty around the state.
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