Notes - April 25, 2005
De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
April 25th, 2005
Senators and Officers present: Bryant, Chenoweth, Clavijo, Cole, Cordero, Dolen, Dunn, Fritz, Goodwin, Guevara,
Hearn, Illowsky, Jensen Sullivan, Joplin, Logvinenko, Mitchell, Moreno, Setziol, Winters,
and Zill
Senators and Officers absent: Argyriou, Bresnan, Lopez-Morgan, Mosh, Pierce, Salah, and Sheirich
DASB: Alex Candia
Classified Senate:
Administrative Liaison:
Guests: Karl Schaffer, Brian Murphy, Kim Chief Elk, Jane Enright, Thai Chang
[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 notes of April 18th were approved as distributed with one minor correction and the addition of language regarding the possibility of having part time faculty run for Senate office. The agenda was approved as distributed.
II. Needs and Confirmations: Those proposed for confirmation in the distribution were approved. In addition, Kulwant Singh and Debbie Schaefer-Braun were approved for service on the new Physical Education faculty member Tenure Review Committee and Bill Geisinger and Wilfredo Castaño were approved for service on the new Art faculty member Tenure Review Committee.
Mitchell interrupted the normal progression of the agenda by announcing that Item IV would have to be held over due to Brian Murphy coming to speak.
President Murphy addressed the group about two items: One was an explanation as to the unusually informal way the college became involved in a project called Equity for All run by the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education. He explained that, in his eagerness, he did not follow protocol in initiating a task force on Civic Engagement. Mitchell, on behalf of the officers, expressed strong support for both efforts and looked forward to Murphy forwarding names of faculty proposed for the task force.
V. Respect in the Workplace Project: Jane Enright and Kim Chief Elk from the District office of Human Resources and Equal Opportunity were present for the item. Enright reminded the group of a campus climate survey done in the 2002-2003 academic year. One result from that survey was considered unacceptable and, therefore a call for action. Approximately 20% of employees surveyed said that they encountered occasional or frequent disrespect on campus. The classified staff was the first group to volunteer to participate in follow up sessions aimed at dealing with disrespect. Now, Enright and Chief Elk are asking the Academic Senate to promote an effort designed for faculty. Specifically, the Senate is asked to encourage people willing to act as facilitators and people willing to be participants in the 90 minutes sessions. Facilitators will be asked to make an approximately three hour commitment, 90 minutes for a training and 90 minutes facilitating one of the sessions with another faculty member. The groups will have between 6 and 10 participants each.
It was asked if there could be a separate session or so for part time faculty. The response was positive.
III. Minor GE Area A Revision: Mitchell and Joplin presented a need to change the information given to students about the general education pattern. It was proposed to divide Area A into three rather than the current two numbered sub sections. No change in requirements is involved and all the courses currently listed as satisfying Area A requirements will continue to be so listed. It was MSCU(Goodwin/Cordero) to approve the proposal. The change allows the information given to students to closely parallel that given them by CSU sources in terms of the presentation of the various areas.
IV. District Senate President Selection: The item was held over as mentioned above.
VI. Textbook Policy: The group reviewed proposed new language in three sections: Ethical Issues (continued from the previous meeting), Library, and Copyright issues. Conflict of interest once again dominated the discussion. After some discussion, during which Mitchell and others reminded the group of previous work to be found elsewhere in the document and the commitment to both augmented appendices and an implementation/action document to follow, it was MSC(Logvinenko/Bryant) to accept the proposed Ethical Issues language. As for the Library section, it was the first time for open discussion on this section. After significant discussion of the topic, Mitchell summarized his intention to redraft the section by citing five areas of substantial addition or alteration. As for the Copyright Issues section, a fairly brief discussion revealed that the reference to "Appendix number 3" was insufficient. It was MSCU(Cordero/Joplin) to accept the language of the Copyright Issues section as proposed with the understanding that the reference to Appendix number 3 would be made accurate.
VII. Accreditation Draft Documents: As soon as the item was introduced, various Senators said that they had difficulty finding the materials on the college web site that Mitchell had asked them to read. Mitchell answered by saying that what should work is to type in "group.deanza.edu/accreditation" for the beginning of the overall self study and then replace the word "accreditation" with any one of the four standard names. Mitchell reminded those who had attempted as well as those who had not yet attempted to read to focus on the planning agenda portions of the standards and to comment on what's good, bad, and missing. At this time he emphasized a question as to whether or not items in the planning agendas are suitably linked to the self evaluation.
VIII. For the Good of the Order:
- Karl Schaffer handed out a document on a phenomenon called "mobbing" and urged that the Senators read it.
- Bryant and Mitchell will meet to structure a discussion of classified layoffs at the May 2nd Senate meeting.
- There will be a diversity Campus Climate retreat focused on examining student data May 20th.
- A College Budget report was requested for May 2nd. Mitchell responded that he preferred to wait until after the state's May revision of its income and budget but it was unclear at the close of the meeting whether or not he would grant the request.
- Mitchell plans to attend a California Community Colleges strategic Planning event in the near future.
- The new environmental classes previously announced have begun. Senators were reminded that they can take advantage of the course materials without going through the whole course.
- Thai Chang showed the group a nice poster about "Campus Pride Day" and asked the group for continuing support.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:27 p.m.