Notes - February 6, 2006
De Anza Academic Senate
Notes for the meeting of
February 6, 2006
Senators and Officers present: Argyriou, Barney, Bryant, Capitolo, Chenoweth, Cole,
Cordero, Dolen, Dunn, Fox, Fritz, Goodwin, Hearn, Jensen Sullivan, Joplin, Kramer,
Logvinenko, Moreno, Mosh, Osborne, Setziol, Sheirich, Ujifusa, Winters, Zill
Senators and Officers absent: Annen, Olsen, Rodriguez
Curriculum Cochair: Khanna
DASB: Saleha Pirzada, Menglan Fan (Susan)
Classified Senate: Olivia Patlan
Administrative Liaison: Christina Espinosa-Pieb
Guests: Brian Murphy, Elizabeth Bresnan, Rich Hansen, Rich Schroeder, Glen Ho, Dan
Mitchell, Bob Barr
The meeting was called to order at 2:34, a quorum being present.
I. Approval of Agenda and Notes: The agenda was approved with changes. Item VI
was modified to VI.A: Community College Initiative and VI.B: Child Development Practicum.
Item III was modified to III.A: Technology Reorganization Update and III.B: Bond
Measure Update.
The notes of the meeting of January 30, 2006 were approved.
II. Needs and Confirmations: Setziol announced continuing need for volunteers for
the Professional Relations subcommittee, a need for representation on a search committee
for the “Interim Director of Technology Resources” position, and for at-large participation
in the Environmental Sustainability subcommittee. Please contact Setziol with interest.
Dan Mitchell has resigned as and (by acclaim) Wayne Chenoweth was appointed to replace
him as co-chair of the Technology Task Force. Judy Mowrey was appointed to serve
on the Bookstore Director search committee.
After discussion the proposed faculty representation on the philosophy instructor
search committee was approved as submitted: Cynthia Kaufman, Tom Vician, Steve Rappaport
and Larry Burke. Jon O’Bergh was noted as the EO Representative although the Senate
does not confirm that position.
Rich Schroeder announced that tenure review committees need at least 11 at-large members
to serve one year appointments, to start in the spring of 2006. Newly tenured faculty
are encouraged to apply. All will need training to be eligible to serve. Marcos
Cicerone and Rich will return at to a future meeting to pursue this matter.
III.A Technology Reorganization Update: Hearn reported that she and Murphy have met
on this topic and that she will undertake additional meetings with those affected
by the proposed reorganization. Murphy said that a “Technology Trainer” position
has been approved. [This was later clarified in a meeting between Hearn and Murphy
as the “Faculty Coordinator” position that appeared in the proposed technology reorganization
chart presented by Hawk and Murphy.] He asked if the Senate had received information
on this and was told that no such information had been passed to the Senate. He
said that the technology people had asked for an additional position, that of “Curriculum
Design Assistant” and that he was trying to find the money for such a position, also
new to the Senate. Murphy sought to reassure the Senators that the first order of
business in his reorganization is to make sure that instruction would receive at least
a continuation of existing service.
III.B Bond Priority List: Hearn presented a list of the items scoring highest in
a vote by the senators on the 12/18/05 list distributed by J. Hawk. After additional
items (not included in the 12/18 list) were discussed, the total senate high priority
items are as follows (in list order, not in vote order):
• Renovation of Television Studio (for part time faculty offices)
• Renovation of Seminar Building
• Learning Center
• Renovations and Expansion of Auto Tech
• Reconfiguration of Multicultural Center
• Renovation of Admin. Phase II (only with administration returning to a central,
not peripheral, location on the campus)
• Landscaping, Phase II
• Campus Exterior Lighting
• Environmental Studies Area
• ADA Transition Plan
• Install Photovoltaic Arrays – Campus Wide
• Mediated Learning Center construction
• Group 2 Equipment
• Film/TV Equipment for studio and control room
• Project HOPE housing if necessary
It was clarified that this list highlights Senate priority items but is not meant
to indicate a stance on whether the remaining bond items are desired or not.
IV. Senate Orientation: This item was moved over to a later meeting.
V. ETS Service Agreement: Senators worked in dyads to list the most pressing items
that need to be included in such an agreement. Hearn will report on the outcome at
the meeting of 2/13/06.
VI. Community College Initiative: Rich Hansen presented information on this initiative
to strengthen community colleges in financing by being recognized as an entity apart
from K-12 in governance. This would be done by confirming the community college bilateral
structure, with a state Board of Governors and locally elected Boards of Trustees,
thereby shifting much power from the state to the local level, and increasing responsiveness
to student needs, particularly in the area of regulation of student fees, to assure
a level of predictability to any future changes.
VII. Technology Task Force: Dan Mitchell presented an update on the progress of the
Task Force, highlighting four points: 1/ student email accounts, 2/ bond measure
3/ technology plan development 4/ course management system. Hearn asked about task
force involvement in the proposed technology reorganization and was told that there
had been none.
VIII. Plus/Minus Grading: Bob Barr presented the results of the board-directed study
of the effects of plus/minus grading on the GPA of students. There was no demonstration
of any significant impacts and this will be reported to the Board of Trustees, with
the expected result that plus/minus grading will be district-wide in fall 2006.
IX. Good of the Order: Cordero presented a letter being sent to Murphy et al from
faculty and staff in the Child Development Center addressing perceived shortcomings
and damage to the program by recent decisions.
Winters reminded senators to attend (or contribute to) the African Ancestry Faculty
and Staff and Students Association luncheon on February 9th.
Jensen Sullivan invited faculty to a Rwanda Slide Show on Feb 23 in KC115 at 2:30.
Hearn presented an option to modify the class hours of summer session classes to accommodate
a Tuesday holiday following the Monday opening of summer session. No clear consensus
emerged and this topic will be addressed at another senate meeting. She also highlighted
a problem in class conflicts between many Saturday classes and graduation as scheduled.
This topic will be brought back for further discussion.
Setziol suggested an IPBT report.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:42.