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Academic Senate Newsletter
 

Monday November 25, 2013

President's Update

Beth Smith
Grossmont College
Mathematics

Dear Senate Presidents,

We loved seeing all of you at Fall plenary! The event was more energetic and rewarding because of your presence and participation. We have many more events scheduled this year and hope to see you or others from your college in attendance.

Resolutions from Fall Plenary - The resolutions are now available on the Senate's website. Please distribute the resolutions to faculty, administrators, and student leaders. The resolutions will have far reaching impact in our system and beyond, and we encourage you to explain to colleagues at your college the affect that many of the resolutions will have on faculty and students.

One Thousand Degrees - The Chancellor's Office just announced that they have approved the 1000th associate degree for transfer! You and your colleagues have produced 1000 new degree options for students as they select programs to study and pathways to transfer. We know that many of you have more AA-T and AS-T degrees in the pipeline locally, so in the near future, we'll be able to celebrate an even larger number of new degrees available for students. The Senate is working to smooth the submission and review processes for C-ID so that more of your degrees can be approved by the Chancellor's Office.

Faculty Needed - With the Board of Governors' approval of grants last week, three major initiatives are underway that need faculty participation:  the online course exchange and common LMS, the student ed-planning tool and degree audit programs, and the common assessment and multiple measures initiative. In each case, the Senate will be appointing many faculty to serve on advisory board and task groups to help develop and then launch implementation of these programs. If you are interested in participating, please submit an Application to Serve form and let us know which project(s) interest you.

Open Educational Resource (OER) Textbooks and Digital Library - In January 2014, we will partner with CSU and UC in reviewing OER textbooks for inclusion in a digital library directed by CSU. This work is directed by legislation and recently received funding. We will need faculty to participate in textbook reviews over the next three years. Please let us know if you are interested in participating.

On the Radar - We expect to see more legislation on transfer this year and are trying to anticipate other positions and concerns as the legislative session reconvenes early in 2014. A new project supported by various foundations and organizations is gaining some interest as well - redistributing apportionment based on student demographics and achievement. We have a couple of two-year bills to track in this second year of their life, namely SB 520 and SB 173, and the Senate has strong positions in opposition to key features of each bill.

Holiday Greetings - We wish you a joyful season with family and friends. Travel safely and have fun recharging for the New Year. See you in 2014!

Beth

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