Notes - January 14th, 2008
The De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
January 14th , 2008
Senators and Officers present:, Argyriou, Bambhania, Chang, Chenoweth, Coleman, Dolen,
Gallegos, Glapion, Goodwin, Hanna, Hughes, Kessler, Kramer, Lee-Klawender, Maynard,
Miller, Mitchell, Ng-Lee, Paicius, Schaffer, Setziol, Shively, Walton, White, and
Winters
Senators and Officers absent: Beggs, Cole, LaManque, and Lathers
DASB:
Classified Senate: Al Guevara
Administrative Liaison: Christina Espinosa-Pieb
Guests: Brian Murphy, Ehssan Barkeshli (La Voz), and Jay Donde (La Voz)
Curriculum Co Chair:
[NOTE: Item numbers are reflective of agenda numbers in the order they
are actually taken up at the meeting.]
The meeting was called to order at 2:32 a quorum being present.
I. Approval of Agenda and Notes: The agenda was approved as distributed.
The notes of December 3rd, 2007 had been previously approved with minor corrections.
II. Needs and Confirmations: Chenoweth took the opportunity to correct an error stated
in the new Newsletter and stated that Gregory Anderson’s name should have appeared
instead of Rob Mieso’s in the “Basic Skills Initiative” subsection of the President’s
report. Melinda Hughes, Jean Miller, and Gregory Anderson were confirmed for service
on the EOPS Director Search and Selection Committee.
Chenoweth, Kramer, and Brian Murphy all spoke to the status of the Mediated Learning
Building. Only a few things have been decided to this point, the basically East West
orientation of the building, the number and approximate size of the classroom, and
the desire to achieve a high level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
Certification level. Time for discussion of committee membership was reduced and
greatly delayed by the keen interest in a variety of aspects of the building and the
process leading up to its construction. Coleman, Dolen (or perhaps another librarian),
and several other faculty from departments projected to use classrooms in the building
will be joining Chenoweth on the building’s design team.
The first meeting of the design team will be January 25th.
III. Teaching and Learning Conference: The main purpose of this item was for Chenoweth
to encourage anyone interested in giving a workshop to contact either himself or Karen
Chow for details.
IV. Part Time Faculty Communications: Chenoweth began by framing the topic as a problem
to be solved, i.e. successful communication to and from part time faculty, especially
as that would increase the faculty voice in the governance of the college. Goodwin
reiterated her vision of an FA and Academic Senate co sponsored committee the members
of which would receive stipends for their participation. She also reminded the group
that it was not her intention to create an autonomous body rather one which would
enhance the functioning and credibility of both FA and Academic Senate.
It was clarified that this would be a District committee, something that raised new
issues not discussed at the meeting. Other issues raised included especially a question
as to how many part time faculty would be interested. A friendly dispute arose as
to whether most part time faculty were interested or disinterested in full time positions.
It was MSCU (Hanna/Shively) to direct Goodwin to bring back a document covering her
proposal thoroughly.
V. Faculty Democratic Solicitation Process: White distributed a handout consisting
of a couple of possible formats for directly soliciting input from faculty at large.
Nearly immediately a question was raised as to whether the utilization of a form similar
to the ones distributed by White would amount to supplanting representational democracy
with direct democracy. White and others suggested that the approach could be used
to inform the current representational process instead of replace or bypass it. One
perspective was that the Academic Senate is officially the collective faculty and
that, for certain matters, the Executive Committee has conducted all faculty votes
and polls. By the end of the discussion, the sense of the Senate was that the group
should move in the direction of uniform direct solicitation of input as an augmentation
to the current system through the use of a form like that proposed by White, either
on paper or on line.
VI. Shared Governance: Kramer and Chenoweth distributed a handout “shamelessly” based
on a San Francisco City College document titled “Evaluation of Shared Governance Report
(2004)” consisting of nine points on how to effect an effective governance system.
The document is aimed at meeting a long term need for clarity as to what exists and
means to work on improvement. Chenoweth further clarified that this would mean delineating
how issues and decisions flow through what processes.
New college supported software called “Omni Update”, with its ease of use may help
drive the creation of a more transparent and responsible governance process with a
comprehensive web site providing accountability.
VII. Committee Reports: The same dynamic duo that led the previous item distributed
a multipage document with drafts of proposed language for a number of Board Policies.
A concern was raised about the status and origins of the drafts. Members of the Academic
and Professional Matters Committee were said to be responsible for the language and
the status of all the language was said to be early draft. Other concerns were raised
including concern about the need for District language on some of the topics and the
relationship between District and College documents on the same topic, the fact that
the group was asked to review new language without being presented existing language,
and the history of some College and District policy language being created collaboratively
and then modified unilaterally by someone in administration. Senators were asked
to carefully review the drafts which will return in the near future.
Good of the Order and announcements: - Chenoweth announced that the State budget
crisis with the governor calling for 10% across the board cuts, might result in a
425 million dollar cut for The California Community Colleges.
- Chenoweth also announced that headcount enrollment was up 2.7% at De Anza (from
Winter 2007) and that WSCH was up 4.3% as of January 10th.
- Setziol suggested that the group may need to revisit the Faculty Ethics Statement
and include practical application in orientation and other staff development activities.
A stimulating case in point was a report from a student that a faculty member was
suggesting that students purchase items from the faculty member’s family business
(which was also not academically oriented).
- A problem was brought to light about faculty members scheduling exams for on line
courses to conflict with other classes.
- Chenoweth distributed an announcement flyer for the statewide “Regina Stanback-Stroud
Award”
- Winters distributed a flyer outlining Martin Luther King events.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:36