Notes - June 9th, 2008
The De Anza Academic SenateApproved Notes for the meeting of
June 9th , 2008
Senators and Officers present: Argyriou, Bambhania, Chenoweth, Coleman, Cordero, Dolen, Gallegos, Glapion, Goodwin, Hanna, Hughes, Kessler, Kragelot, Kramer, Lathers, Lee-Klawender, Maynard, Miller, Mitchell, Ng-Lee, Setziol, , Walton, and Winters
Senators and Officers absent: Guevara, LaManque, Schaffer, Shively, and White
DASB: Classified Senate: Al Guevara
Administrative Liaison:
Guests: Lena Chang, Alex Swanner, Jenny Levitsky, Pauline Yeckley, Brian Murphy, Kristin Jensen-Sullivan, Marcos Cicerone, and Marcia Maero,
Curriculum Co Chair: Anu Khanna SLO Coordinator:
[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 2:36, a quorum being present.
Before getting to the normal order of things, Chenoweth took a moment to reflect on the Town Hall meeting on Institutional Core Competencies held Thursday, June 5th. The meeting was reasonably attended and the presentation went well. In response to a question about timeframes, Chenoweth said that the deadline for input prior to an all faculty vote would be early Fall.
I. Approval of Agenda and Notes: The Agenda was approved as distributed. The Notes were approved as distributed with corrections to the attendance section.
II. Needs and Confirmations: Kramer again outlined the need for tenure review committee members including department, division, and at large and the consequences of not filling those slots. Shively was approved for the at large pool of faculty on tenure review committees. Letty Wong was approved for continuing service on the Professional Development Leave Committee. A nominee for service at large on a tenure review committee was not confirmed due to a vote of 2 in favor, 10 opposed, and 2 abstaining.
III. Reorganization: President Murphy was present and began by talking about the search for a new Vice President for Student Services. The only remaining candidate was announced as having withdrawn, citing acceptance of a similar position in Dallas, Texas.
Murphy said that his intention was to reconstitute the Search Committee, reopen the position in late July, and then reconvene the committee in September. He also stated that it was his plan not to have an interim Vice President for Student Services.
With regard to reorganization, Murphy started by saying that the whole exercise was terribly influenced by a lack of funding, thereby making it virtually impossible to make good choices. Given the current inability to get a new administrative position, Christina Espinosa-Pieb will be reclassified to be an Associate Vice President. The one available position will include the Library, Distance Learning, and the loose consortium currently being dubbed Student Success. Staff Development will continue as at present. Murphy then returned to the topic of Student Success group and greatly lamented the fact that so many people and functions and an underfunded budget of roughly two million dollars will not get a dedicated administrator at the present time. In response to a question, Murphy revealed that a new job description is in the works.
IV. Staff Development: Marcos Cicerone was present and began by distributing a document of his devising which iterated the current activities of his office. Given his departure and the prospect of a temporary void in the position, Cicerone concentrated on a few high priority items about which he said he was particularly worried. The primary concerns were about tenure review training including follow up with probationary faculty and orientation of full and part time faculty and full time classified staff.
There is in place a plan for a temporary fix for part of the orientation function which calls for a new intensive three day, ten to twelve hour orientation of full time faculty.
Another concern for Cicerone was understaffing, especially with regard to bookkeeping kinds of functions. He said he has found himself doing far too much bookkeeping and too little development.
V. Board Policies: The agenda item proposed a consent calendar of five proposed Board Policy statements, 1) Access Control – 3225, 2) Environmentally Sustainable Practices – 3214 and 3220, 3) Publication of Instructional Materials – 4185, 4) Intellectual Property – 4186, and 5) Approval to Increase Student Health Fee.
Chenoweth himself withdrew item 3) due to a brand new version recently produced by lawyers essentially causing consideration to begin all over again. Setziol asked that item 2) being removed from consent. It was MSCU (Hanna/Kramer) to approve items 1), 4), and 5).
Item 3) was not discussed as the newest version was unavailable. Regarding item 2), Setziol walked the group through both sections, pointing out numerous places where new language was inferior to the current language due to its being weaker than current language. It was the clear sense of the Senate that the proposed language required some significant changes.
VI. Professional Relations: Despite the time available rapidly drawing to a close, Setziol again presented the seven recommendations from the document previously distributed. Recommendation 1 was tentatively approved. Recommendation 2 was said to be key to the overall proposal and it was suggested that funds for mediation training might be available from Human Resources as that had been done for classified staff. Recommendation 2 was being discussed when it became apparent that more discussion of the recommendation was necessary and that the time available was insufficient.
VII. CEAG + Environmental Sustainability: Former Senator Kristin Jensen-Sullivan was present and made a short presentation during which she sought and received permission to use the sub committee on Environmental Sustainability for work on implementing the now approved Environmental Sustainability Management Plan. She also announced that there was funding for implementation of the first three steps of the plan.
VIII. Good of the Order and announcements: - It was MSCU (Goodwin/Hanna) to authorize $300 for refreshments after the meeting of June 16th, the last scheduled Senate meeting of the year.
- Setziol proposed and the group heartily endorsed the writing of a resolution commending Robert Griffin on his years of service to the college. It is to be presented at the meeting of June 16th.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:01.