Tuesday November 4, 2014

President's Update

Hello senate presidents and other interested readers,

As the fall term has progressed at our colleges, many local academic senate presidents have contacted the ASCCC to ask questions, to seek advice, or to request that a member of the Executive Committee visit their campuses.  We want to remind you that the Academic Senate is here to provide what help we can in all of those ways.  If you need input regarding a local issue or information on a statewide topic, you can contact us through info@asccc.org.

David Morse
President

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Fall 2014 ASCCC Plenary Session

The ASCCC Fall Plenary Session is almost upon us.  The Fall Plenary, with the theme “Calling all Voices,” will be held at the Marriott in Irvine from November 13-15.  The October President’s Update gave a detailed preview of the general sessions and breakouts, and the full program, along with more information on the plenary session, is available on our website by clicking here.  We hope to see many of you at the plenary to debate resolutions, gather information, and give us input on important issues that face the ASCCC and all of our colleges.

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Area Meetings

The area meetings on October 24 and 25 were well attended and involved good discussion and exchange of information.  Our thanks to Cosumnes River College, Los Medanos College, Santa Barbara City College, and Santa Ana College for hosting the meetings for their respective areas. Congratulations and thanks also to area representatives James Todd, Dolores Davison, John Freitas, and Cynthia Rico for a great job in conducting the meetings.  We hope that those of you who attended enjoyed the experience and came away more informed and more energized for the Fall Plenary Session.

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AB 86 and Adult Education

Conversations continue regarding the level of faculty participation in discussions regarding the AB 86 Adult Education Consortia at both the local and state levels.  The Chancellor’s Office has heard these concerns from numerous organizations and in many venues and has promised to work to address the problems.  At the Fall Plenary Session, the lunchtime panel presentation on Thursday, November 13 will offer an opportunity for faculty to receive more information on the consortia and on the AB 86 effort in general.

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Upcoming Executive Committee Meetings

The November Executive Committee Meeting will be held at Irvine Valley College on November 12, the day before the Fall Plenary Session, from 1:00 PM to 5:30 PM.  The agenda for the meeting is available here. We urge all local senate leaders and other interested parties who plan to arrive on Wednesday for plenary to come a few hours earlier and join us at this meeting in order to hear our discussions, to interact with us, and to be a part of our preparation for the Fall Plenary Session.

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Community College Baccalaureate Degrees

Recently the Chancellor’s Office sent out information for colleges that plan to apply for participation in the Community College Baccalaureate Degree Pilot.  All academic senate presidents should have received this information; the certification of interest memo and form are available on their website by clicking here.  Note that the form requires a signature from the local academic senate president.  The ASCCC has joined several of our system partners is expressing concerns about the timeline for the pilot and in noting the need for parameters for the degrees to be established before any application for the pilot is accepted.  Several resolutions dealing with this topic will be debated at the Fall Plenary Session.

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Regional Meetings

The ASCCC, in cooperation with the Chancellor’s Office, presented Regional Curriculum Meetings on October 17 at Sacramento City College and October 18 at Riverside City College.  Over 300 faculty members, administrators, and staff attended the meetings on these two days.  Congratulations and thanks to Curriculum Chair Michelle Grimes-Hillman for organizing these events and to Distance Education Committee Chair John Freitas, Noncredit Committee Chair Debbie Klein, the Chancellor’s Office Staff, and all others who participated.  You can find the PowerPoint presentations on our website here.

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Task Force on Workforce, Job Creation and a Strong Economy

At the November 17-18 Board of Governors Meeting, Chancellor Harris plans to request that the board authorize a task force on “Workforce, Job Creation and a Strong Economy.”  One reason for the creation of this task force is a frequently stated and generally accurate perception that the 2011 Student Success Task Force did not give enough attention to career technical education and workforce development issues.  This new task force will be asked to recommend policies or practices that will do the following:

• Prepare students for high-value jobs that currently exist in the state.
• Position California’s regions to attract high-value jobs in key industry sectors from other states and around the globe.
• Create more jobs through workforce training that enables small business development.
• Finance these initiatives by braiding state and federal resources.

A more complete discussion of the task force’s purpose can be found here.

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Legislation

The Chancellor’s Office Legislative Task Force met recently under the direction of Vincent Stewart, Vice-Chancellor for Governmental Relations.  The task force considered several proposals for new legislation for the upcoming year.  At this time, the Chancellor’s Office only plans to sponsor one piece of legislation, a bill on concurrent enrollment.  Details of this bill are not yet determined.  Vice-Chancellor Stewart will be attending the Fall Plenary Session to provide more information on the legislative activities of the Chancellor’s Office.  In addition, the Community College League has agreed to sponsor a bill that would change the Education Code language on auditing to make the fees equivalent to those for credit instruction.  The ASCCC suggested this bill, as the change was endorsed through Academic Senate Resolution 6.02 in Fall 2011, and we hope that it will make colleges more inclined to allow auditing as an option for students, which may help to address some concerns raised by the Title 5 changes to course repetition.

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Conclusion

The issues noted above and others will provoke plenty for conversations at the Fall Plenary Session.  We hope to see many of you there and to hear from you the topics being discussed at your colleges. Until then, we hope that the important work you do on your campuses is proceeding smoothly, and we again urge you to contact the ASCCC if the Executive Committee can do anything to assist you.

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