Notes - October 1st, 2007

The De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
October 1st, 2007


Senators and Officers present:, Argyriou, Bambhania, Chenoweth, Cole, Coleman, Cordero, Dolen, Gallegos, Hanna, Hughes, Kessler, Kramer, LaManque, Lathers, Lee-Klawender, Maynard, Miller, Mitchell, Osborne, Paicius, Schaffer, Setziol, Shively, Walton, White, and Winters,
Senators and Officers absent:, Cadge-Moore, Glapion, Goodwin,
DASB:        
Classified Senate:   Al Guevara  
Administrative Liaison:  Christina Espinosa-Pieb
Guests: Brian Murphy, Rich Schroeder, and Jeff Dickard
Curriculum Co Chair:  Anu Khanna
[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 agenda was approved as distributed.  The group worked from a revision of the Agenda template updating the membership of the group and attaching a document for Item VII on the back.  As this was the first meeting of the year and the notes of the last meeting of 2006-2007 were approved by mail in June, there were no notes to be approved.
II.  Needs and Confirmations:  The ongoing Tenure Review Committee Membership spreadsheet was distributed including the names of  faculty newly proposed for service. Rich Schroeder was present to deal with Tenure Review committee slots and to show the group that a large number of people previously confirmed for service had not yet gone through the required training for the service.  In addition to all the people proposed on the spreadsheet, Mae Lee was confirmed for service on the Antonio Ramirez Tenure Review Committee.
Appearance of Brian Murphy:  Dr. Murphy said he came primarily to prepare the group for the upcoming searches for the Vice Presidents of Instruction and Student Services.  He said he was expecting an Academic Senate officer plus one additional faculty member to serve on each of the search committees.  Murphy then went on to recognize that there would be perhaps some second guessing about filling the position due to simultaneous discussions of reorganization but thought that position announcement would be generic enough to allow latitude for possible reorganization.
Murphy then went on to observe that the Senate’s plan for the review of general education was a great opportunity to start from scratch in considering the difference between satisfying UC and CSU transfer requirements and what we as an institution want our students to know and how this connects to student learning outcomes.
A breach of confidentiality occurring in a search process was brought up from the perspectives of both prevention and accountability.  While Murphy acknowledged that training could be better and more consistently given and that the strength of Equal Opportunity representatives was quite various, he said that, as far as he knew, breaches of confidentiality are an exception to what is mostly good work by everyone participating in search and selection processes. The possibility of not allowing faculty who breach confidentiality to serve on subsequent Search and Selection Committees was offered for future consideration and was well received by Murphy.
Back to II:  Kramer took the Executive Committee through a list of committee needs projected onto a screen.
III.  Certificate Changes:  Anu Khanna made a gripping presentation of required changes to De Anza certificates.  Much work lies ahead as all certificates must be examined and nearly all changed in one or more ways.  She urged that programs be asked to especially consider whether low unit certificates should continue to be offered especially in light of the mandated change disallowing those certificates being noted on student transcripts.  A simple problem with no easily apparent solution is what to call reconsidered certificates since almost all need to change title.  These changes need to be made starting with the 2008-2009 catalog. As soon as the group began thinking of names the difficulty became apparent with Shively offering the oh so helpful solution of “Certificate of Certification” as a title.  Both Academic Senate Executive Committee and Curriculum Committee will need to be directly involved since so many programs and faculty will need to be involved in a fairly short period of time. Response to her presentation was respect for the work ahead and for her presentation and ideas on how to proceed.
Khanna also noted Title V changes to distance education (DE) with regard to curriculum.  DE is defined as:  Instruction in which the instructor and student are separated by distance and interact through the assistance of communication technology.  Title V changes now require a separate course approval if any portion of the instruction in a proposed or existing course or course section is designed to be provided through DE in lieu of face-to-face interaction between instructor and student.  The college will need to have ongoing discussions about criteria and guidelines and the implementation of them.
IV.  General Education Pattern: Chenoweth reminded the group that in June it had established October as the beginning of the process of reviewing general education at De Anza (only five years late).  The first step will be for the Curriculum Committee to select its six division representatives for the steering committee.  The executive committee will then fill out division representation from its membership.  An officer plus the faculty Curriculum Committee co chair will complete the initial membership.  Khanna announced that the Curriculum Committee meeting of Tuesday, October 2nd  will include the selection of its portion of the steering committee.
V.  Academic Calendar: Chenoweth and Kramer brought to the group’s attention the fact that the Foothill Senate is asking for a serious consideration of changing from quarters to semesters.  The officers were asked to determine the official status of the request before any serious consideration at De Anza.  Several points were made in the direction of an immediate discussion but Chenoweth declared that they were premature and that the item would undoubtedly return for discussion soon enough.
VI.  Textbook Adoption:  Setziol quickly took the group through some of the history of textbook adoption problems at De Anza leading to the Course Materials policy adopted by the Executive Committee in the spring of 2005.  At the time of passage the group made a commitment to create a companion implementation document outlining procedures and possible outcomes which it has not met.  Currently, the math department is demonstrating the need for help in this area.
VII.  Senator Orientation: Chenoweth walked the Senators through the list of “ten plus one” areas of academic and professional matters which encompasses much of what the Academic Senate does.  More such bite sized orientations are to come.
VIII.  Good of the Order:   Nothing came to light.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:30

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