The De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
April 12th, 2010
Senators and Officers present: Anderson, Argyriou, Brennan, Chang Cordero, Goodwin, Guevara, Hanna, Kragalott, Larson, Lathers, Lee-Klawender, Maynard, McNamara, Mjelde, Nengo, Norte, Schaffer, Setziol, Stockwell, Swanner, and Tao
Senators and Officers absent: Annen, Beckum, Botsford, Glapion, Nickel, and Singh,
District Senate President: Alex Kramer
DASB: Classified Senate:
Administrative Liaison: Rich Schroeder Guests: Sal Breiter, Jan Rindfleisch, Tom Dolen, Kulwant Singh, and Judy Mowrey
SLO coordinators/Staff Development: Jackie Reza
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 2:34 a quorum being present.
I. Approval of Agenda and Notes: Argyriou introduced new Senators Arden Kragalott from Physical Education and Michael Chang from Intercultural and International Studies. The agenda was approved as distributed
The draft notes of March 15th were approved as distributed with a clarification about the confirmation of Anderson and Diana Alves de Lima for two Student Success Center searches rather than one.
II. Needs and Confirmations: A document containing candidate statements for the faculty co chair of the Student Services Planning and Budgeting Team was distributed at the meeting. After time was given for reading the statements, Vicky Moreno was selected. Also, Robert Cormia (Foothill faculty) District Director of Institutional Research and Planning Search and Selection Committee; Diana Alves de Lima and Jackie Reza were confirmed for service on the Associate Vice President of Instruction Search Committee; and Michael Chang and Marc Coronado were confirmed for service on the Dean of Intercultural and International Studies division Search Committee
Lee-Klawender also reminded the group of continuing committee needs.
III. Senate President's Report: Argyriou began by giving an account of the most recent Board of Trustees meeting. The Board was obliged to deal in public with the lay off and bumping of employees. There were a number of moving testimonials supporting positions slated for elimination which did not sway the Board to go against staff recommendations. The Board proposed using $6 million from the stability fund to carry over support (through the 2011-2012 academic year) for positions officially eliminated. This was said to be pending a state decision on mid year cuts. The Board discussed a possible opportunity to purchase the Middlefield site. Argyriou said she was one of several who are skeptical that the site will be sold at all. She then mentioned that, in a District Budget meeting, a projected $19 million ending balance was said to be somewhat inflated in that most of that money is already encumbered and, therefore, not available for discussion.
Moving on to statewide matters, Argyriou described the Area B meeting leading up to the Academic Senate for California Colleges' Spring Plenary Session. Resolutions were featured regarding a vote of no confidence in ACCJC President Barbara Beno – “will no one rid me of this troublesome priest” - and another area B resolution calling for the addition of Title 5 language specifically calling for Equivalency for non master's disciplines. She concluded by stating that the ramifications of the recent Accreditation Institute attended by herself, Kramer, Lee-Klawender, and Dan Mitchell would require considerable attention on a future agenda.
IV. IPBT Update and V. Faculty Hiring: These items were merged as the principal work of the IPBT at present is recommending 6 full time faculty positions to be hired from among 13 requests. Argyriou began by announcing that the intent of the item was to give the faculty on IPBT direction as to applicable criteria. Early on, the officers questioned the appearance on the list of a proposed position primarily because it did not appear to be essentially a faculty position. After the group was told that, indeed, the position was presented with the principal argument that as a faculty position it could survive periods of classified layoffs, it was removed from consideration.
Argyriou provided, without objection, a starting point of criteria from the previous IPBT work on identifying positions. She listed:
- Breadth and depth of expertise in the discipline
- Full time to Part time ratio
- Program Integrity
- Only one or two full time faculty in a discipline
Appearance on a previous list was brought up as being a previous criterion. After a brief discussion it was MSC(Maynard/Hanna) not to have “appearance on a previous list” as a criterion.
Other criteria added through discussion were:
- Affect of position on the ability of students to obtain degrees/certificates/transfer
- Percentage of load dedicated to teaching
- Impact on the whole college – including non teaching positions
The risk of iterating multitudinal unweighted criteria prompted Argyriou to declare discussion closed.
VI. Themes for Parcel Tax: Setziol told the group that Chancellor Thor requested quick action on the item, i.e. during this meeting. The idea of having themes stemmed from the rules governing parcel taxes which are for a specified amount of time and do not require the identification of specific projects.
Ideas generated included:
- Improving success in areas of instruction with currently low levels of success
- Finding the basic principles of categorical programs and supporting them’
- Tutoring and other direct support for student success
- Surveying the needs of the community, using the outcome as a theme
- Life long learning
- Training and other assistance for local, recently unemployed people
- Enhancing transfer support
- [Method for identifying – what’s different or better about a proposal (especially to bond measure projects) ]
- Finding the commonalities among all the above
VII. Selected resolutions for Spring Session: A discussion of resolutions yielded solidified support for previous positions regarding the Associate degree and equivalency for non master’s disciplines et cetera and a new position regarding a vote of no confidence in ACCJC president Barbara Beno and the whole ACCJC Board (in support of a vote of no confidence). Support for resolutions about Physical Education and for the Basic Skills Initiative as well as concern about the Kaplan initiative were also discussed.
VIII. Wrap Up -
IX. Good of the Order and Announcements: Setziol expressed concern about the ramifications of the current relentless pursuit of productivity at the college. Senators were reminded of the upcoming Teaching and Learning conference Thursday and Friday, April 15th and 16th.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:32