Notes - December 5, 2005

Notes - December 5, 2005

De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
December 5th, 2005

Senators and Officers present: Annen, Bryant, Chenoweth, Cordero, Dolen, Dunn, Fox, Fritz, Goodwin, Hearn, Jensen-Sullivan, Joplin, Kline, Logvinenko, Mjelde, Moreno, Mosh, Olsen, Osborne, Raffaelli, Setziol, Sheirich, and Zill
Senators and Officers absent: Argyriou, Capitolo, Winters, and Zarecky
DASB:
Classified Senate:
Administrative Liaison:
Guests: Brian Murphy, Rich Hansen, Anne Paye, Scott Heffner, Faith Milonas, Anne Leskinen, and Tim Shively

[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.

I. Approval of Agenda and Notes: The agenda was approved as distributed.

The notes of the meeting of November 28th were approved as distributed with one correction to the attendance portion.

II. Needs and Confirmations: Debbie Zavodnick and Maria Gallo were confirmed for service on the Child Development standing committee on Classified Staff hiring.

At this point, Hearn recognized the presence of Brian Murphy who then addressed the group. President Murphy began by acknowledging that a considerable amount of time had passed since his last appearance. He then laid out reports on a number of initiatives. First among these was about the strategic planning effort he announced last year. Three faculty with appropriate expertise (Dan Salah, Jack Lynch, and Matt Abrams) were asked to recommend a process. The thrust of their recommendation was to ensure that input and discussion were as broad based and participatory as possible, thereby making it more likely that the result would be general expectation followed by action rather than documentation followed by occasional reference.

A Civic Engagement Taskforce report is coming soon.

Intervention grants aimed at increasing enrollment while improving other aspects of the educational process will be announced soon.

A joint California State University and California Community Colleges civic engagement initiative is being preliminarily discussed. The basic idea deals with civic engagement requirements or recommendations at three CSU campuses, San Francisco, Chico, and Channel Islands. At these institutions, participating students receive an acknowledgment of their civic efforts prominently on their official transcripts. Murphy and one or more of the Senate officers will meet with their counterparts at CSU San Francisco to discuss ways that De Anza students can get credit for civic work prior to transfer. Logically, Murphy is also working to include San Jose State in the mix since many more of our students transfer there than to San Francisco.

A "Good Works" project, including two community colleges and a number of four year schools, has issued a report. The project identifies institutional values and intended outcomes as per interviews with faculty and then compares those with the values and expectations of students. The report is available on line at goodworks.org and the De Anza portion of the report will be distributed to Senators by Murphy.

III. Spring Term - Six Week Classes: Hearn expanded on her initial introduction on November 21st. The idea is to add a number of classes to the Spring offerings such that students will be able to take certain classes the first six weeks (will be an advantage by appealing to students who cannot or will not enroll in Spring due to the lateness of the end of that quarter, the second six weeks (will be an advantage by appealing to students who cannot normally not enroll in Spring due to their enrollment in semester system schools), or both (allowing continuing students to get ahead or catch up.

The classes offered in this way are to be: A) from among the most highly enrolled courses at the college, B) already deemed pedagogically sound to offer in six weeks due to their prior offering in Summer, and C) taught on a completely voluntary basis by interested faculty. Concerns noted will be taken by Hearn to the various constituents.

VII. Work to Contract: Rich Hansen, Anne Paye, Scott Heffner, Faith Milonas, and Tim Shively were present to represent the Faculty Association. Paye presented the current salary negotiations situation and the case for a work action called "Work to Contract".

After a thorough presentation which focused on the disparity of salary trends among employee groups and questions about it, it was the clear sense of the Senate to support the Faculty Association's case.

If the work action is actually called, there are two intended aspects, called phases by Paye. The first phase is withdrawal from committee work not directly connected to the particular interests of faculty such as the Academic Senate, the Faculty Association, hiring and tenure review committees and work done on released or reassigned time. The second phase is holding firm on the maximum seat count number of record. Some faculty take this to mean not adding above the seat count number while others, more aggressive, take this to mean not adding at all.

[NOTE: At the conclusion of the item, Hearn pointed out the limited time remaining and asked the group if an extra meeting December 12th would work for everyone. The answer was yes.

Back to Item II - Needs and Confirmations: Senators were asked to announce the availability of positions on the soon to be formed Senate subcommittee on Environmental Sustainability. Confirmation of the Film/TV Search and Selection Committee was held over due to a desire to know who would be the Equal Opportunity representative on the committee.

IV: Program Review: The item was held over after Senators were asked to consider a new draft of criteria distributed by Hearn.

V: Bond Measure Planning: Hearn reiterated Jeanine Hawk's statement that anyone could put anything on the list of items to be considered for bond measure funding and suggested that Senators encourage their divisions to contemplate requests.

VI. Compensation for Substitutes: The item was held over.

VIII. Instructional Materials - Library Request : The item was held over.

IX: Professionalism and Collegiality – Process and Procedure: Hearn began by stating that the officer's priorities were policy, procedures, and the prevention of problems, Setziol, chair of the Professional Relations Committee, and Kline, a member of that committee presented information including the understanding of the Professional Relations Committee that prevention of problems, mediation given problems, and consequences given unsuccessful attempts at mediation, in that order, were the priorities. It was observed that to have the same committee attempt mediation and, perhaps, find fault, was a tricky proposition. It was also observed that the committee's existence and charge was not widely known and that it lacked sufficient clout. Hearn proposed without controversy that next quarter's work would be action and solution oriented rather than the receiving of complaints.

There was significant interest in the item including a much broader view than that primarily discussed and also in the idea of having a kind of troubleshooting matrix upon which a person with a given problem could locate a process aimed at a solution.

X: Good of Order:

Hearn reminded the group that Program Review and Bond Measure Planning (including, perhaps, a vote as to whether or not the group wishes to endorse a bond measure for a particular election), will return for the one hour meeting December 12th.
• Laura Raffaelli announced that she will be replaced as a Senator beginning Winter and that she enjoyed her time on the Executive Committee and learned a lot.
• Hearn announced that the group would be giving away two tickets to an upcoming Golden State Warriors game at the holiday party next week.
• The new copier for faculty use will be in place by the start of next quarter. Exact location has still not been determined.
• Ulysses Pichon was said to be deeply thankful for being nominated for the Hayward Award.

The meeting was adjourned at 4: 31