Notes - January 24, 2005
De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
January 24th, 2005
Senators and Officers present: Argyriou, Bresnan, Bryant, Chenoweth, Cole, Cordero, Dunn, Fritz, Hearn, Hrycyk,
Jensen Sullivan, Joplin, Logvinenko, Lopez-Morgan, Mitchell, Moreno, Mosh, Pierce,
Salah, Setziol, Sheirich, Winters, and Zarecky
Senators and Officers absent: Goodwin, Dolen, Illowsky, and Mujal
DASB:
Classified Senate: Dennis Shannakian
Administrative Liaison:
Guests: 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 2:32, a quorum being present.
Prior to taking up the agenda, Mitchell sadly announced the passing of Sharon Sunico and a February 1st memorial service on campus. As Sharon was actively involved in many college activities, including the Academic Senate and Curriculum committees, several Senators spoke of her with reverent respect.
I. Approval of Agenda and Notes: The Agenda was approved as distributed. The notes of January 10th were also approved as distributed with the inclusion of Pierce as being present.
II. Needs and Confirmations: In the absence of Illowsky Mitchell presented. Jensen-Sullivan, Fritz, and John Fleming were confirmed for service on the ad hoc Committee on Scheduling Issues.
III. Enrollment and Budget Updates: Mitchell began by informing the group that the year to year enrollment decline for De Anza shrank from 9% to between 2 and 3% by the second week of the current quarter – good news. He then went on to highlight different aspects of the District budget building process and how items like the state CoLA interact with the local budget in terms of collective bargaining expectations.
Equalization was an item that was said to be key for the fiscal health of the District next year as the current mechanism yields approximately three million dollars less than what was projected and pushes the District to 71st out of the 72 districts.
The rest of the time was spent talking about the 5% budget reduction by each division at De Anza. Hearn asked for instruction on the Senate position for her work on the Instructional Budgeting and Planning Team. An expectation of the utilization of Program Review information for any program elimination or significant curtailment was one answer. A primary concern was the presentation of departmental activity in profit and loss terms. Given the odious connotation of those presentations, it was suggested that, should the administration pursue that logic as central to the exercise, the administration should be immediately and constantly reminded that its profit/loss ratio is 0 to 100% in the terms presented on spread sheets. The group was asked whether individual performance reviews could be utilized for the elimination of faculty positions. The answer was no, at least not literally. Mitchell ended the discussion by saying that the group seemed all charged up and that this was a good segue to the Town Hall meeting to which the Senators were invited to adjourn.
IV. Senate Budget Update: Mitchell hurredly presented that the Senate B budget is on track to be in the hole by the end of the year. The dues account will be used for expenses normally covered by the B budget.
V. Textbook Policy: The item was held over with a plea for careful reading of the next two sections to be considered, Cost and Faculty Authored Texts. This was said to be especially true of the second of the two since it did not contain any specific recommendations, merely a range of possible policy positions. Both sections were characterized as probably incomplete.
VI. Charge to Subcommittee on Scheduling Issues: The item was held over.
VII. For the Good of the Order:
- Faculty member Dan Leeson will be giving a book talk on a recent and highly successful book having to do with Mozart and forgeries Wednesday at 1:30.
- Tickets for the APASA scholarship luncheon should be ordered by next week because there will be no ticket sales at the door.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:33 p.m.