October 04, 2021 Meeting

Agenda

TAFT COLLEGE SENATE-OF-THE-WHOLE

AGENDA

MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2021

Cougar Room

12:10PM to 1PM

Call to Order

Roll Call (3-minutes)

Public Commentary

Action Items

  1. Approval of Minutes September 13, 2021 Meeting (2 minutes) ACTION

Information Items

  1. Superintendent/President Update (5 minutes) INFORMATION
  2. ACCJC Accreditation – Next steps INFORMATION
  3. Reminder: Committee charters, effectiveness evaluation, and goal setting INFORMATION

Action Items

  1. Recommendation of Adoption: Strategic Action Plan (SAP) 2021-2024 ACTION
  2. Approval of AP 5530 Student Rights and Grievances revision ACTION
  3. Approval of Curriculum Committee Charter ACTION
  4. Nomination of Adjunct Representative – Senate Council ACTION
  5. Election of Adjunct Representative – Senate Council ACTION

Information/Discussion Items                                                                               NO ACTION

  1. Committee Report: Dual Enrollment Committee – Historical background, status, goals and plans REPORT
  2. Requests for Reports – Committee Reports: – November DISCUSSION

On what should committee report(s) focus?  (5 minutes)

  1. Other Topics of Interest Q&A (5 minutes)

Open Forum for Announcements                                                                          NO ACTION

Adjournment

Minutes

TAFT COLLEGE SENATE-OF-THE-WHOLE

Minutes

MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2021

Cougar Room

12:10 pm to 1 pm

Call to Order:

12:14 pm

General welcome by President Eveland

Public Commentary:

None

Attendees:

Attendees: A. Abbott, M. Beasley, A. Bledsoe, N, Cahoon, J. Chaidez, B. Devine, C. Duron, G. Dyer, S. Eveland, S. Getty, G. Golling, V. Jacobi, D. Jones, T. Mendoza, D. Mitchell, M. Oja, J. Page, R. Payne, J. Rangel-Escobedo, B. Roth, K. Richards, L. Travis, and Natalie Woodall.

Guests: D. Daniels, L. Minor, and X. Li

Action Items

Approval of September 13, 2021, Minutes

Ruby Payne suggested changes to the minutes for clarification. Dr. Sharyn Eveland stated that not all our Senate subcommittees will be directly associated with the goals adopted by the Senate. With corrections, the 1st Motion by Ruby Payne and a 2nd motion by Bill Devine to approve the minutes. The Motion was approved unanimously.

Information Items:

Superintendent/President Update: Dr. Deb Daniels stated that the accreditation team would report no findings. She proceeded to thank everybody involved in the process for their hard work and dedication.

ACCJC Accreditation – Next steps: The accreditation process gives the team two weeks to write the report. Dr. Daniels then will review and does not get to make edits, and she gets to attest to the facts in the report. Then after that, it is sent to the Commission, and the Commission makes a final determination. The Commission meets in January. We will not hear anything until after their meeting, and then we will receive a letter informing us of our accreditation status.

The accreditation team had some suggestions for the Quality report. The team has no control over that process, but they can give us some guidance, so they said there might be some tips or recommendations to review and consider.

Human resources have noticed selecting committee members has become an arduous task. We may be looking at ways to make the administration of committees a little easier. Part of the issue is assigning committee members. Right now, a request goes to the Senate President and classified staff, and we get recommendations for who wants to be on those committees, and it is taking a very long time.

Reminder: Committee charters, effectiveness evaluation, and goal setting: Dr. Eveland requested that committee members review their charters and use that to help them set up whatever goals they have within that committee structure. My only request for something a little different this time is that it is reflected in our minutes. Once you have reviewed your charter, if there are any changes, please send those to me to be put on the Senate Council agenda for review. If you are not making any changes, please send those to me to tell Sarah and let her know that our current official compilation is still accurate.

Action Items:

Recommendation of Adoption: Strategic Action Plan (SAP) 2021-2024:

Dr. Xiaohong Li is the (VP of Information and Institutional Effectiveness) The new action plans will still adopt the previous numbers. However, the current action plan will use the leading indicator and a lagging indicator because the news Strategic action plan is still tied to the state’s vision for success, which is for five years.

Bill Devine asked; So, what are we looking at for indicators? Dr. Li, for example, the lagging indicator is still degree awarded and unit. We tried to reduce the units of student grade and reduce the academic gap for the student’s success, and that leading indicator still is course success rate. This will help meet the accreditation standard.

Geoffrey Dyer made a motion to adopt, Bill Devine seconded. The Motion passed unanimously.

Approval of AP 5530 Student Rights and Grievances revision:

Dr. Eveland gave the members an overview of AP 5530. The Administrative Policy 5530 Student Rights was rewritten to clarify the grievance process. Dr. Michelle Oja asked a question about grievance form language, which says a student has ten (10) after learning of the basis for a grievance to file a statement of grievance.

She requested the language to be changed to ten days after the semester instead of the 10-days stated in the document. Geoffrey Dyer indicated that other language in the document would mitigate Michelle’s concerns regarding a 10-day timeframe.

Bill Devine made a motion to approve the document, and Adam Bledsoe seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Approval of Curriculum Committee Charter:

There was no discussion on the Curriculum Committee charter. Diane Jones made a motion to approve, Geoffrey Dyer seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Nomination of Adjunct Representative – Senate Council:

Dr. Reginald Clemons cannot fulfill the Adjunct Representative duties because he is not located in the area, and we are meeting face-to-face due to Brown Act. The President of the Academic Senate opened discussions for nominees, and the only adjunct professor who replied to the announcement was Rebecca Colaw.

Election of Adjunct Representative – Senate Council:

No election was held since Rebecca Colaw was the only adjunct to reply. Therefore, the new adjunct representative is Rebecca Colaw.  Congratulations!

Information/Discussion Items

Committee Report: Dual Enrollment Committee – Historical background, status, goals, and plans REPORT:

Dr. Greg Golling gave an overview of the dual enrollment program. Dual enrollment between Taft Union High School and Taft College started 14 years ago, and the first offerings were online, which was Psychology 1500. Historically, high school students can take college coursework, and a student will get credit for both college and high school. Qualified high school instructors taught all the courses, and the courses were housed on the high school campus. About eight years ago, an ad hoc dual enrollment committee was formed, and they met once a year to address issues that had come up during the year. Approximately five years ago, the dual enrollment committee was formalized as an Academic Senate committee. Dr. Golling emphasized that the committee’s primary responsibility is to enforce parameters on what courses are offered to the high school. Also, he stated that the committee tapped down expectations of what can be provided to high school students in the Dual Enrollment program. This year, instead of relying primarily on adjunct faculty who also teach at the high school for the first time, a tenured faculty member, Dr. Oja, has volunteered to teach at the high school campus.

Dr. Oja asked about the future and goals of the program. Dr. Golling stated that the high school would like to have more course offerings, which was challenging since we had limited qualified faculty members to teach the high school. Now that we are getting more adjuncts who are qualified to teach, that will mitigate some of the concerns regarding the rigor of the courses offered on the high school campus.

Furthermore, there is a concern from the committee about how the two systems’ class schedules do not sink together. For instance, our classes are on a 17-week schedule, and they are a 27-week schedule, and how the professor’s time is calculated for a semester course. Dr. Oja stated that their in-service days are different than ours. Also, they have half days. So that concern will have to be addressed at a later date.

Ruby Payne wants to remind full-time faculty members are under no obligation to teach at the high school as part of the dual enrollment program. Also, she noted concerns about getting adjunct faculty to teach classes at the high school because of time constraints.

Dr. Golling told Academic Senate membership the difference between concurrent enrollment and dual enrollment. Dual enrollment is during regular high school hours instruction would take place on the high school campus, and then concurrent would be your teaching your class on Taft College, and you have a high school student enrolled in your course. They can still get credit from high school and the college.

Dr. Eveland brought up the middle college model and asked if the dual enrollment committee is looking into this option. Dr. Golling presented his understanding that the middle college model is usually attached to a specific degree. He believed that it was not a viable option with the current courses and programs we have at this time.

Requests for Reports – Committee Reports: – November On what should committee report(s) focus?:

Dr. Eveland asked the membership if there were any areas or topics they would like to discuss at next month’s membership. No one spoke up, so Dr. Eveland will determine what reports should be presented at the next Senate meeting.

Other Topics of Interest Q&A:

Diane Jones asked about the Brown Act emergency amendment. Dr. Eveland stated Gov. Newsom signed the Brown Act emergency bill, and it goes into effect October 10, 2021. Also, to comply with the Brown Act, committees would have to have a special meeting and vote on whether you need to be face-to-face or use a digital medium like Zoom. There are other requirements, but that is the basic structure.

Open Forum for Announcements

None.

Adjournment

Adam Bledsoe made a motion to adjourn, and Dr. Oja seconded the meeting was adjourned at 1:01 pm

 

Respectfully submitted by:

Dr. Amar Abbott

Academic Senate Secretary

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