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Academic Senate Newsletter
 

Wednesday January 15, 2014

President's Update

Beth Smith
Grossmont College
Mathematics

Happy New Year to all!  Here's to a fabulous year ahead filled with collegiality and productive outcomes for senates, faculty and students. Even during winter break your Executive Committee was hard at work meeting the goals of resolutions and responding to requests for support from the field. Here's some news about what's going on:

Budget News
The Governor has proposed a budget that supports the efforts we have undertaken to improve student success and restore access to citizens in California. The budget process is a long one with the final budget not approved until June. We will monitor progress on the funding to community colleges and to CSU and UC so students can transfer successfully. You can access the Governor’s full budget here.

Area A Representative
Kim Harrell, your former Area A Representative, has taken what she calls "her dream job" as a dean at her college.  Kim's short tenure on the Executive Committee was fruitful and her contributions greatly valued by all. We wish her success and fulfillment in her new duties. Kim's departure leaves the Area A Representative position vacant. The Executive Committee chose not to appoint a replacement for Kim and instead decided to divide her work and assignments among other Exec members. Area A people—we will let you know soon who will be facilitating your Area meeting in March and at spring session. One of you may run in the Spring 2014 election to complete her term (service for the 2014-15 academic year).

Letter to ACCJC and Referred Resolution from Fall Plenary
The Senate debated eleven resolutions plus amendments about accreditation topics. The accreditation resolutions were clustered around policies of the ACCJC, the new standards, and one offered a policy statement for the ASCCC. Included in this mix was a referred resolution about the new standards that you asked us to fix within 30 days so that it could be directed to ACCJC in a timely way. The resolution, now numbered 2.11, was perfected by the authors of the original resolution and the amendments with help from the resolutions committee. The Executive Committee took action on the resolution and adopted it in its perfected form so that it can be included as an adopted position of the ASCCC. This resolution is critically important to communicate to the ACCJC because it asks that "academic senates" and "curriculum committees" be named specifically in the new standards. All eleven resolutions were included in the letter we sent to ACCJC following plenary. You can access our letter here.

CTE and Professional Development
Some of you have asked about the absence of the ASCCC Vocational Faculty Leadership Institute this year. The Senate has not abandoned CTE faculty and plans to address professional development opportunities through regional meetings this spring, and we always encourage CTE leader to join us at our events. For some events this spring and summer, we will be addressing needs of emerging CTE faculty leaders. Our events webpage will have more information soon.

Spring Regional Curriculum Meetings
Thank you for encouraging your curriculum chairs and other curriculum specialists to attend our regional meetings, and we've heard from them about the value of these types of meetings during the year. In response, we're planning spring regional curriculum meetings on March 14 at San Diego Continuing Ed and March 15 at Diablo Valley College. More information is available on the Curriculum Regional Meeting webpage.

Early Assessment Program (EAP) Results for Community Colleges
With a focus on assessment for placement and the new K-12 standards from the Common Core State Standards this year, many of you may appreciate seeing the data on how students who participated in EAP performed. Please share this data with discipline faculty, matriculation folks, student success councils, etc. If your mathematics and English faculty want more information about the Common Core State Standards, please encourage them to review our materials (Rostrum articles and power point presentations from events) and to reach out to their counterparts in local unified and high school districts.

Part Time Faculty Nomenclature
Adjunct? Contingent? Associate? Part Time? Which name is best for faculty who are not tenured nor on tenure track? A resolution from last spring asks us to recommend that local senates address how part time faculty at the college wish to be identified, and we encourage you to reach out to part time faculty for their input prior to making any decision or recommendation.

19.04 S13

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges recommend local senates engage with their part-time faculty in an open and inclusive discussion and democratic decision-making process regarding local terminology used to refer to part-time faculty.

Bagley Keene and Brown Acts and the ASCCC
This year, the Executive Committee asked for legal opinions on whether or not the state Senate and its Executive Committee are subject to either Act, both of which are designed to allow greater public access to the work of certain types of organizations and agencies. The legal advice we received said that we are not subject to either Act, however the Executive Committee is committed to openness and transparency despite not being required to meet the specific details and compliance measures of either Act.  We are in the process of developing policies to ensure our work is as open and transparent as possible while still maintaining the processes and operating systems that have served the Senate and Executive Committee well. 

UC and Standards for Incoming Students
Please refer to the letter sent by the chair of UC's Board of Admission and Relations with Schools (BOARS). The information is important for mathematics faculty and others interested in student success and transfer to UC. You can access the BOARS statement by clicking here.

Phil Maynard
Many of you might remember Phil, a communication faculty member from Mt. SAC, who served on the Executive Committee, and I'm sad to report that he passed away this month. Phil was a strong supporter of diversity and student equity, and he brought critical and often difficult issues to the forefront for discussion and action. He served students and faculty in community colleges well for many years.

Beth

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