The De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
September 29th , 2008
Senators and Officers present: Argyriou, Botsford, Brennan, Cichanski, Coleman, Cordero, Dolen, Glapion, Goodwin, Hanna, Karst, LaManque, Lathers, Lee-Klawender, Lee-Wheat, Liu, Logvinenko, Maiero, Maynard, Miller, Roberts, Setziol, Sherby, Swanner, Walton, White, and Winters
Senators and Officers absent: Hughes and Mitchell
DASB: Classified Senate:
Administrative Liaison: Christina Espinosa-Pieb
Guests: Karl Schaffer, Rich Schroeder, Carolyn Wilkins-Greene, and Maryalice Bonilla
Curriculum Co Chair: 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 2:34, a quorum being present.
1. Approval of Agenda: The Agenda was approved as distributed with Argyriou presiding over her first agenda as Senate President.
II. Needs and Confirmations: Kulwant Singh, Maiero, Tom Beggs, and Lee-Wheat were confirmed for service on the Aquatics Coach Search and Selection Committee.
Marilyn Patton was confirmed for service on the Iaroslav KyrloukTenure Review Committee. Tim Shively (formerly known as Shively) was confirmed for service on the Ram Subramian Tenure Review Committee. Dave Capitolo, John Walton, and Doli Bambhania, were confirmed for service on the Mark Larson Tenure Review Committee. Lee-Wheat was confirmed for service on the Rachel Pacheco Tenure Review Committee. Kevin Glapion, Mary Bennett, and Miller were confirmed for service on the Esther HalwaniTenure Review Committee. Sandy Kovach-Long, Tom Beggs, and Alex Kramer were confirmed for service on the Christine Magnin Tenure Review Committee. Lathers, White, and Argyriou were confirmed for service on the General Education Review Committee.
At this point College President Brian Murphy addressed the group. He mostly talked about the State budget and what its effects will be on the college and District as well as a critique of the State budgeting process. For the district, the budget is manageable for the current year but the next two years will see the district struggle to alleviate a structural imbalance. Mid year cuts are a possibility both years but the probability of that is unknown at this point. For the college budget specifically, some reduction in reassigned time is a strong possibility along with cuts to B budgets (just on the heels of increases). He also mentioned that on campus enrollment continues to be strong, especially with regard to previously underserved communities. In response to a question about policy for cutbacks, Murphy said that guidelines were in place and iterated the college Strategic plan that there were District Guidelines for Cutbacks. Those guidelines are primarily aimed at preserving the instructional core of the college. Deciding "Which Student Services go" is inevitable but odious since we know that the students most in need of services will be most affected by cut backs.
Cookies were distributed at this time. It was clarified that timing of their distribution did not mean that they were offered in celebration of Murphy's departure.
III. Introductions: A traditional "going around the room" with self introductions was conducted.
IV. Draft of Textbook Selection Policy Language: The draft had been sent out prior to the meeting and extra copies were distributed. The officers told the group that, even prior to any discussion, the draft was already controversial and that, although it came to Argyriou from Martha Kanter, the author was unknown at the time of the meeting. They also observed that the document read as if written by an Academic Senate person in that the focus of action contemplated by the draft was to be undertaken primarily by the Academic Senate.
There was considerable discussion much of which revealed that group varied widely in its background knowledge of the subject and of the points of discussion, etc. which have been going on for four years. For a time the discussion appeared headed for a revisitaion of the many hours of discussion which led to the current Senate position on the subject, which itself was unknown to a number of the people in the room. There was considerable confusion even about how the document should be approached and in what context. There was a call for all pertinent background material to be distributed and there was a parallel call for the attachment of at least the most pertinent parts of that material to the document itself should the group decide it was worth supporting. Argyriou tried to bring some focus by referencing documents previously distributed and writing down the names of some documents and their web site locations.
A knight in shining armor appeared in the person of Maynard. It was MSCU (Maynard/Winters) with regard to the document presented, to direct Argyriou to seek clarification from Martha Kanter as to its author and potential purpose.
The item will return when the information is available and the officers will determine how to present the context more clearly and what if any other documents need to be companions.
V. Senate Orientation: The item was held over due to a lack of time.
VI. Plans for the year: The item was held over due to a lack of time.
VII. Student Learning Outcomes: The item was held over due to a lack of time
VIII. Good of the Order and announcements: - Argyriou announced that the Student Learning Outcomes item was a very high priority and would be the focus of the October 6th meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:35.