Notes - June 6, 2005
De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
June 6th , 2005
Senators and Officers present: Argyriou, Bresnan, Bryant, Chenoweth, Clavijo, Cordero, Dolen, Dunn, Fritz, Goodwin,
Guevara, Hearn, Jensen Sullivan, Joplin, Logvinenko, Lopez-Morgan, Mitchell, Mosh,
Setziol, Winters, and Zill
Senators and Officers absent: Castaño, Cole, Illowsky, Moreno, and Sheirich
DASB: Alex Candia
Classified Senate:
Administrative Liaison:
Guests: Brian Murphy, Larry Bloom, Beth McPartland, Rich Schroeder, Tim Shively, Stephanie
Sherman, 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 2:32, a quorum being present. Before and during the meeting, Setziol surreptitiously went around the room seeking and easily getting signatures of Senators authorizing the expenditure of $250 for the purchase of small gifts in appreciation of excellent and extraordinary service by Barbara Illowsky and Dan Mitchell in their roles as Academic Senate Vice President and President respectively. I. Approval of Agenda and Notes:The notes of the meeting of May 23rd were approved as distributed. The agenda was approved as distributed ("Proposed Revision" version) with the addition of VIIIa: Tech Plan and noting that the agenda would be interrupted by an appearance by Brian Murphy.
II. Needs and Confirmations: There is a need for faculty to serve on the De Anza Technology Taskforce. Of those on the distributed confirmation list for the meeting, only Patrick Bresnan was confirmed for service. His confirmation was for service on the Bookstore Advisory Committee. The previously proposed Biology and Nursing tenure review committees were not acted upon due to the need for further consultation. They are scheduled to be considered at the June 13th meeting.
III. Curriculum Committee re: Course Outlines: Mike Gough was present to request approval of a new form for those writing new or revising existing course outlines for action by the Curriculum Committee. The new form is of the "check the box" variety. In this case, the boxes are in front of simple descriptors of "Instructional Methodology". The new form pertains to laboratory courses. A question was raised about courses which contain laboratory hours but are not entirely laboratory courses. It was also noted that there have been frequent complaints about the number of forms involved in the process for submitting curriculum for approval. Formal approval of the new form and its application are scheduled for June 13th. Clarification as to whether or not courses containing a portion of laboratory hours would be included in the requirement should happen by June 13th.
IV. Campus Signage: Larry Bloom of the Campus Signage Committee presented pictures of an array of new signs slated for use on the campus. The signs are largely additional and will enable people to find groups of buildings through color coding which will be both on the signs for a particular group as well as on the buildings themselves. Included in the plans for signs are two "LED" signs, one of which will replace the current Flint Canter marquee and include information about both Flint and other campus events. Bloom was asked whether the signage group would consider dealing with current misleading or nonsensical signs. He said it would. He was also asked if bilingual signage was under consideration. He said it was. Brian Murphy entered the room during the Campus Signage item. President Murphy addresses the group: Brian Murphy began by announcing something that was not his original reason for coming to the Senate, the arrest of De Anza Classified staff member Alex Hochstrasser on suspicion of murder. Murphy focused on people at De Anza coping with the shock of the situation and on the possibility of people from various news organizations coming on campus seeking interviews with friends and acquaintances of Alex. The original reason for Murphy's visit had been to engage the group in discussions about strategic planning for the college and to ask for the group to consider what role it might wish to take in the effort slated to begin in the Fall. In addition to general outreach and relationships with the communities served, Murphy emphasized a perhaps greater engagement of the local higher education community, especially UC and CSU. He mentioned the possible use of outside consultants and named some possibilities. Perhaps most importantly, Murphy asked the group to discuss the potential scope of the activity and its involvement in it, likely faculty reaction to the effort, structure of the process, etc. He ended by posing the following question: "What ought to be the relationship between De Anza and other local higher ed folks, especially UC and CSU?"
V. Opening Day Planning: A presentation began with a question: "Is the conference format worth trying? After several more minutes of presentation and questions, it became clear that the group was not at all sure of the difference between what has recently been the case and a conference format, thereby rendering the question difficult to answer. Mitchell read a list of possible workshop sessions. They were generally well received as promising titles/topics. An ongoing significant question was raised: How can we get part time faculty involved? Part time faculty are paid to attend the second (college) opening day but not the first (district). Possible keynote speakers were mentioned. Mitchell will take the names to the next Opening Day Planning Committee meeting.
VI. Executive Committee Orientation Plans: The orientation of new and ongoing Senate Executive Committee members is an ongoing necessity and difficulty. When should it be done? For how long? In a single session or over several? and How should it be organized? are among the questions that need to be discussed as part of preparing for any orientation. Some Senators have binders with helpful information and some don't. The material in a single binder may not match that of another. Some divisions have representational rotation schemes during a single academic year and others don't. Further discussion found that a history lesson should be a part of the orientation and that some thought an extended single session would be fine while others favored spreading the orientation out over several meetings. Updated and inclusive binders that were in better shape and more capacious than the previous binders were called for. Virtual binders were suggested. The group reacted favorably to a case study approach.
VII. Senate By-Laws Revisions: Virtually all of the proposed changes to the Senate By-laws were very minor (e.g. changing the dates of the current year referenced). The main focus of discussion was the released time for the officers. That section of the document will be rewritten to eliminate any real or implied codification of 1.3 as opposed to 1.5 FTEF released time. Also suggested was the addition of language stating an expectation that discussions of released time include the new officers from inception and allow sufficient time for figuring out department schedules affected.
VIII. Textbook Policy: The distributed proposal to greatly revise/virtually eliminate Appendix 3 was immediately found to have gone too far. Most things slated for elimination were asked to be brought back in. There was agreement to include a quote from a section of the copyright law and the initial quotation from the first four numbered portions of the June 1st, 2005 version of Appendix 3. Mitchell summarized and will attempt to make the document meet the expectations of the group.
IX: Environmental Policy: In very limited time, establishing environmental sustainability as a fundamental and very high priority for the college, having environmental sustainability as the focus or a focus of next year's opening day(s), having environmental sustainability a center piece of upcoming strategic planning, and using an initial energy management focus to fund other environmental sustainability needs were all mentioned as appropriate for further discussion June 13th.
VIIIa. Tech Plan: Dolen quickly presented the 30 page document now going through the approval phase. He pointed to five areas as particularly important for Senators to read: Guiding Principles, Assumptions About Students and Faculty, Student Access and Success, Classroom Based Technology, Technology Mediated Learning, and Security and Privacy. The plan MAY be accessible at ets.fhda.edu. There was a request for it to be put on the Senate website.
X: Good of the Order:
- World environment day was introduced as important worldwide but largely ignored in the good ol' US of A.
- Mike Malone, successful author and former De Anza student was introduced as this year's graduation speaker.
- The state of the college address was announced as being a mere hour and a half away.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:33