October 02, 2017 Meeting

Agenda

Taft College Academic Senate
Senate-of-the-Whole Meeting

Monday, October 2, 2017

12:00Pm to 1:00pm, Cougar Room

Call to Order
Public Commentary
Approval of Minutes of the September 11, 2017 Meeting
Commentary on Electronic Committee Updates
Agenda

Information/Discussion Items
1. Reactions to Scheduling Meetings (3 Minutes)

  1. Guided Pathways Update –Sundgren (2 Minutes)
    3. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals—Duron (2 Minutes)
    4. Accessibility (508) Oversight Committee—Abbott (5 Minutes)
    5. Dual Enrollment Update—Jones, Golling & Devine (10 Minutes)
  2. AB705 Update—Chaidez (10 Minutes)

Action Items
7. Opposition to AB705—Dyer (5 Minutes)

  1. Criteria for Recommending New Faculty Positions (5 Minutes)
  2. Academic Senate Constitution & Bylaws Review & Update (8 Minutes)
    a. Already Approved: Addition of CTE & DE Committees; Screening
    Committee Appointment Process
    b. Resolutions Process: Simple Majority in ASC, One Reading at
    S-o-w, Two-Thirds Required at S-o-w
    c. Brown Act Requirement for AS Subcommittees
    c. Compulsory Resignation If Opposed after Six Years
    Other/Open Forum for Announcements
    Adjournment

 

Next meeting of the Academic Senate Council is Wednesday, October 18, at noon in the Cafeteria Conference Room. Next meeting of the Academic Senate-of-the-Whole is Monday, November 6 at noon in the Cougar Room.

Minutes

Taft College Academic Senate Minutes

Monday, October 2, 2017

Cougar Conference Room

Members Present: President, Geoffrey Dyer, Vice President Vicki Jacobi, Secretary, Candace Duron, Diane Jones, Ruby Payne, Chris Flachmann, Amar Abbott, Robin Polski, David Mitchell, Tina Mendoza, Leigh Golling, Greg Golling, Joy Reynolds, Shelley Getty, Mariza Martinez, David Layne, Adam Bledsoe, Dan Hall, Lori Sundgren, Juana Escobedo, Jessica Grimes, Kristi Richards, Terri Smith, Jill Brown, Mike Jiles, Debora Rodenhauser, Michelle Beasley, Vicki Jacobi

Guests: Kayla Meyer

The meeting was called to order at 1209 P.M.

Public Commentary

None

Approval of September 11, 2017 Senate Minutes

  • Grammatical corrections noted
  • On a motion from Mike Jiles, seconded by Debora Rodenhauser, minutes approved as corrected.

Commentary on Electronic Committee Updates

                None

Reactions to Scheduling/Discussion Items

  • The opportunity for dialogue with counselors about scheduling challenges with the stakeholders present was appreciated.
  • The conversations need to happen but it is hard to fix anything so late in the game; they need to occur earlier.

Guided Pathways Update – Sundgren

  • Guided Pathways Award is different from the Guided Pathways Project.
  • This award compliments BSI, Equity, Strong Workforce, and SSSP.
  • Guided pathways team members include: Vicki Jacobi, Geoffrey Dyer, Terri Smith, Daniel Hall, Severo Balason, Mark Williams, Primavera Arvizu, Lori Sundgren, Sharyn Eveland, Oleg Bespalov, Barbara Amerio, Joe’ll Chaidez, Sandra Graham, and counseling representation as schedules allow.
  • The Guided Pathways Award is not a competitive application process.
  • This funding will allow streamlining and scaling of what the college is already doing.
  • Several members of the team have already participated in a workshop/training.
  • The team will submit a self-assessment as their next action.
  • If there is an interest in joining this cross-functional team, they can contact the co-facilitators: Sharyn Eveland or Primavera Arvizu.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – Duron

  • Students under AB540 and TC News received an email regarding DACA; the email included financial assistance/scholarship information.
  • Please refer students who may have questions/concerns about DACA to the Counseling Center.

Accessibility (508) Oversight Committee – Abbott

  • New operational committee to help with accessibility and to work with departments on any issues/concerns.
  • Once approved by the Superintendent/President, this committee could serve as an approved committee assignment option in January 2018.

Dual Enrollment Update – Jones, Golling & Devine

  • There are 62 special admit students, only 48 are enrolled; of those enrolled, 40 are from TUHS.
  • While researching, Diane Jones found that a few enrolled students did not have a special admit form on file. Krisiti Richards provided an explanation of miscommunication and the forms have sense been signed and are on file.
  • Through several examples (English 1500/1600 split and Speech), there is a concern that the TUHS administration is not following the agreement.
  • Discussion regarding the transferability of the dual enrollment courses. Kristi Richards will add to the dual enrollment handbook developed for students and their parent’s information/disclaimer that classes may not be accepted to out of state and/or private universities.

AB705 Update – Chaidez

  • The bill aims to increase the use of multiple measures, including high school gpa and transcripts, and away from placement based on one test score to increase the probability of entering and completing English and Math in a one-year timeframe unless ESL, then the timeframe is three years.
  • Students could self-report the information if high school transcript is not available.
  • Students would not be required to take remedial coursework.
  • Prerequisites and corequisites for English and Math would be removed.
  • Prerequisites and corequisites could be reestablished with data showing students are not successful without it.
  • AB 705 seeks to amend education code and supersedes Title 5.

Opposition to AB705 – Dyer

  • A summary of ASCCC President Julie Bruno’s letter to Governor Brown was provided, specifically the concern with Title 5 and education code in relation to AB705.
  • The Governor has until October 15th to veto the bill.
  • There is well known research that supports using high-school performance data.
  • Prerequisites and corequisites would be removed until researched to demonstrate they are unlikely to succeed without it; they would all have to be removed until the research is done.
  • Basic skills research supports a corequisite and/or support class model.
  • Questions as to how this will affect transfer degrees and CIDs remain unanswered.
  • The Senate cannot act unless voted to suspend rules on the ground of urgency by a two-thirds majority.
  • On a motion by Diane Jones, seconded by Vicki Jacobi, abstained by Candace Duron, Juana Escobedo, and Tori Furman, to suspend the rules on the grounds of urgency, allowing for action from the Academic Senate in response to AB705 was approved.
  • Geoffrey Dyer presented and read a draft letter for consideration.
  • On a motion by Danielle Kerr, seconded by Bill Devine, abstained by Candace Duron, Juana Escobedo, and Tori Furman, to adopt and send the letter opposing AB705 to Governor Brown was approved.

Criteria for Recommending New Faculty Positions

  • During the January meeting of Academic Senate-of-the-Whole, Division Chairs will make presentations for position ranking.
  • January 6, 2012 a criteria for ranking was adopted for use during the presentations.
  • September 20th the ASC recommended the Division Chairs review the criteria for recommending faculty positions and report back by October 18th.
  • The current criteria has been interpreted and applied differently among the faculty.
  • The ASC asked the chairs to define the elements in the criteria.
  • Discussion:
    • Include the consideration of adjunct availability and overload in the criteria.
    • Make the ranking process/form simpler and combine and/or find a balance between teaching and non-teaching.
    • Consider grant-funded positions.
      • Grant created positons just happened; they follow a different process not through Senate. They come through Senate as an informational item.
    • The current criteria makes it difficult for Student Service faculty position requests.
  • On a motion by Mike Jiles, seconded by Diane Jones, to ask the Division Chairs to revise and define the existing criteria, keeping in mind the concerns noted, and report back to the ASC by the next meeting on October 18th was approved.

Other/Open Forum

  • Taft College Foundation is accepting donations to support the eight baseball players and their families living in Puerto Rico. There is also a spare change collection jar in the cafeteria. The donation is tax deductible.

Meeting adjourned at 1:00 PM.

Submitted by Candace Duron, Secretary

Approved November 6, 2017

Supporting Docs