Notes - February 14, 2005
De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
February 14th, 2005
Senators and Officers present: Bryant, Chenoweth, Cordero, Dolen, Dunn, Fritz, Goodwin, Hearn, Hrycyk, Illowsky,
Jensen Sullivan, Joplin, Logvinenko, Lopez-Morgan, Mitchell, Mosh, Pierce, Setziol,
Sheirich, Zarecky, and Winters
Senators and Officers absent: Argyriou, Bresnan, Cole, Moreno, and Salah
DASB: Alex Candia and Katie Zeng
Classified Senate: Dennis Shannakian
Administrative Liaison:
Guests: Kathy Plum, Cindy Castillo, 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 2:33, a quorum being present.
I. Approval of Agenda and Notes: The notes of February 7th were approved as distributed with a canine related correction. The Agenda was approved as distributed with the printed Item V retitled Va and with the addition of an Item Vb: Student Services Planning and Budgeting Team Report
II. Needs and Confirmations: Illowsky reiterated the need for two faculty to serve on the Campus Center Advisory Board and the Bookstore Advisory Committee and for one faculty member to serve on the college Facilities Committee.
III. Printing Issue: Mitchell introduced the item by announcing, for those not already aware, that printing services has begun printing the SEIU logo on all items printed there. Kathy Plum then told the group that this change in policy was problematic, that faculty should be able to opt out of having the logo printed and the change would have a negative impact on the ability of printing services to get outside non academic work such as announcements, invitations, etc. Mitchell told the group that he had discussed the situation with Javier Rueda with a mind to establishing a faculty "opt out" option.
Va. Scholarship Application Readers: Cindy Castillo was present to ask the Senate to help recruit readers for student scholarship applications. She said that the training required lasted about an hour and that the reading time per person is ordinarily from 15-20 hours, although speedy readers can do it in much less time.
IV. District Environmental Policy Update: Mitchell reported that he and Brian Murphy were able to get the Chancellor's Advisory Council to agree that a comprehensive review of the District's Environment Policy was needed even though the existing revision was about to be approved
Jensen Sullivan expressed concern about the fact that, whereas she thought the sense of the Senate was to have Ed Cuevedo come and address the group at this meeting, the officers chose not schedule it at this time. Her concern was capturing the momentum provided for this important issue by the current, fine avoidance concern on the part of the Chancellor and the Board. Mitchell responded by saying that late Winter quarter or early Spring quarter would be good timing relative to review by the Chancellor's Advisory Council and the Board. Mitchell then amplified his point by reading from the proposed language and pointing out where the language makes for policy stronger than the one officially in use. Setziol and others acknowledged that implementation is at least as important as policy language and that the group should spend an equal amount of time ensuring appropriate implementation. Winters concluded the discussion by saying that the Senate should take the lead in reviewing and promoting a new, more comprehensive policy.
Vb. Student Services PBT Report: Winters reported that reporting out of the Student Services group to the College Council was a bit behind due to a flawed presentation but that it was not critical because that time frame for real decisions seems to be a little less desperate than it did a couple of weeks ago. The Student Services group is hoping to invoke accreditation standards to bolster support for student services because they find themselves unable to cut further without reducing services to students and the college as a whole.
VI. Textbook Policy: Mitchell began the item by acknowledging that the officers were not exactly in agreement as to the tone and appropriate intent of at least the next couple of sections in the Textbook Policy (The Bookstore and Ethical Issues). As the group discussed before, the main question was "should the policy be mostly or exclusively model proposing and philosophically based or should it be more action oriented". A careful reading of the draft being used for the meeting reveals both and reads very differently from one section to another with regard to that question. Winters said that her main complaint about this and other Senate document was that they tended to be all philosophy and no policy. The quandary seemed to be resolved by a sense of the Senate that the main policy could be more consistently modeling and philosophical and will be followed by the development of implementation language.
More specifically, Chenoweth asked that a subsection be added, perhaps in the Ethical Considerations section, on accessibility to textbooks and other course materials on the part of disabled students. Mitchell made note of this. Several other statements seemed to accentuate the previous discussion on the difference between model and philosophical statements on the one hand and actionable policy or implementation language on the other. An example given was along the lines of "Would the policy direct the Senate to care or do something about a faculty member selling copyright infringing material for a high price in the parking lot to intimidated students?" It was noted that some of the existing language needs to be rewritten and that, somewhere, actionable conflict of interest language was needed.
VII. Curriculum Committee Policy: In light of the hour, Mitchell briefly advised the group that the Curriculum Committee overstepped its authority in intending and announcing action to delete, wholesale, courses from the College catalog because they have not been revised within the last five years. He went on to say that a possible Senate action, perhaps at the meeting of the 28th, would be to direct the Curriculum Committee to allow some courses to be deleted as per the Curriculum Committee's announcement because they have not been offered recently and to have the remainder given a one year period to comply with the revision order.
VIII. For the Good of the Order: Dolen announced a fundraising event for aid to Sri Lanka in Conference Room A + B, Wednesday, February 16th, at 11:00 a.m. - Mitchell reminded the group that the next Senate meeting would be February 28th.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.