Notes - November 15, 2004
De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
November 15th, 2004
Senators and Officers present: Annen, Argyriou, Bresnan, Bryant, Castaño, Chenoweth, Cole, Cordero, Dunn, Fritz,
Goodwin, Hearn, Jensen Sullivan, Joplin, Logvinenko, Lopez-Morgan, Mitchell, Moreno,
Mosh, Mujal, Salah, Schafer-Braun, Setziol, and Winters
Senators and Officers absent: Dolen, Illowsky, and Sheirich
DASB Student Representatives: James Liang
Classified Senate:
Administrative Liaison:
Guests: Ben Kline, Jean Miller, and Karl Schaffer
[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: The Agenda was approved as distributed with the removal of Item VII (Copyright Issues Report). The notes of November 8th were approved as distributed.
II. Needs and Confirmations: The previously proposed Paralegal Search Committee was approved after Mujal and Bresnan explained the process and offered details of consultations with his colleagues.
III. District Mission Statement: Mitchell reported on the current status of this initiative. Bryant offered official sources for the state mission statement and repeated his expression of the need for the District Mission Statement to quote or otherwise refer to it. A related question asked Mitchell whether he had submitted wording about specific vocational education inclusion. He said yes.
IV. Public Domain: Mitchell returned the group's attention once again to the topic. He mentioned that there was a question whether or not the policy would end up referring to more than Public Domain and that it has been difficult to come up with language referring to things other than public domain that have been in discussion.
V. Class Scheduling Issues: The group spent some time contemplating and then discussing whether or not and then how to take action on the set of issues raised last year and earlier this year. It was the sense of the Senate that a committee be formed at the November 22nd meeting. Attached to that decision was an expectation that Mitchell would find out if the Senate Constitution or By Laws state requirements about who can chair an ad hoc committee.
VI. Division Student Equity Report: Jean Miller reported on Student Equity efforts in the Language Arts Division. She started off by saying that the division level committee was quiet in the 2003-2004 year but that activities set in motion in the prior year were ongoing. She then focused on the success of the Puente Project. It will be necessary to find additional funding for the counseling component of the Puente approach in order for that very successful program to grow.
She then changed to a more global focus and talked about Best Practices and the ongoing discussion attempting to define what a best practice is. Included in this area was her pointing to the writing assistance program in Language Arts which has now gone from serving just one level of EWRT courses to all EWRT courses. She concluded by saying that lack of reassigned time is a real hindrance to the cause of student equity.
On a related note, Mitchell told the group about a presentation due to be made to the Board about model or best instructional practices. A question was raised as to the availability of the people doing institutional research for more research directly related in instruction.
The group was then reminded of the current push for student retention and persistence, both from the perspective of it being self serving in terms of money and from the perspective of it being the right thing to do.
Winters suggested that, perhaps, proceeds from the Night of Magic fundraiser could fund student equity work.
VII. [Removed from the Agenda]
VIII. Student Learning Outcomes Discussion: Mitchell began by presenting the notion that a broad brush description of the controversy over implementation of new student learning outcomes measures through accreditation standards is an outside versus inside control problem. To the extent that the what and how of outcomes measurement are determined by the faculty at De Anza, implementation is likely to be less or not controversial. It was also said that, unless there are longitudinal studies of students 2, 3, 5, and even 10 years after they leave De Anza, other measures are likely to be inadequate, incomplete, and controversial.
It was said that, because the standards are so new, discussions about outcomes may, at least in part, replace actual measurement. It was also said that, because the standards are new, student learning outcomes will defined by what we do – all the more reason to have really good discussions.
IX. Textbook Policies: After the briefest of introductions by Mitchell, it was MS(Setziol/Bresnan/Moreno) to adopt the language offered by Hearn with the understanding that Hearn's second paragraph (the first paragraph was not actually written by her, just included in her proposal) was in the context of Academic Senate consideration after departmental discussion and that the first sentence could result in the Senate taking action one way or another.
During discussion, it was suggested that the first paragraph be stricken and replaced by Salah's language (Not yet under discussion). Hearing the reasoning behind that suggestion, Hearn asked mover and seconders of the motion if they would accept a friendly amendment to the effect that the suggested strikeout language "to compel those who disagree to conform to their choice" would be modified (instead of simply being removed) to read "to enforce conformity". The mover and seconders agreed. It was also requested that potential Senate action be clarified to include "to determine which book or books among those in dispute will actually appear on the shelves in the bookstore. The motion carried.
X. Other Stuff for the Good of the Order:
- Brian Murphy has called for an all faculty meeting Monday, November 22nd and has requested Senate support for the effort, both at the meeting and subsequent to it.
- The Auto Tech students collected 3,400 cans for charity.
- The Bookstore Task Force is soliciting ideas as to the future operation and contents
of the bookstore.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:25 p.m.