Notes - October 15th, 2007
Approved Notes for the meeting of
October 15th, 2007
Senators and Officers present:, Argyriou, Bambhania, Beggs, Chenoweth, Cole, Coleman, Dolen, Gallegos, Goodwin,
Hanna, Hughes, Kramer, LaManque, Lathers, Lee-Klawender, Maynard, Miller, Mitchell,
Paicius, Schaffer, Setziol, Shively, Walton, White, and Winters,
Senators and Officers absent: Glapion and Kessler,
DASB:
Classified Senate: Al Guevara
Administrative Liaison: Christina Espinosa-Pieb
Guests: Brian Murphy, Barbara Illowsky, Willie Pritchard, Mary Alice Bonilla
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 2:30 a quorum being present.
I. Approval of Agenda and Notes: The agenda was approved as distributed with the addition of an Item IB, “Three Short
Part Time Items”.
The notes were modified, including minor editing and adding language clarifying statements made by Anu Khanna in the Certificate Changes item.
IB. Three Short Part Time Items: Goodwin raised three questions – 1) If an instructor gets permission from a student
to post something written by that student on a web site, What are the limitations,
if any, on subsequent uses of that writing, 2) Isn’t temporary part time faculty office
space supposed to be available this quarter, and 3) What’s the status for this quarter
of Instructional Testing?
To 1) several people responded that the use on the web site could continue despite
the fact that the student is no longer at the college and that others could download
that material but that use of the material in another form not directly connected
to the web site for which permission was granted was questionable to say the least.
To 2) Chenoweth responded that temporary part time faculty office space is now available in Mod Quad C with access by means of a D44 key.
To 3) Chenoweth responded that getting Instructional Testing up and running for the quarter is a work in progress. He made note of the fact that, given three weeks having already gone by in the quarter, time is running short to get it to work for Fall.
II. Needs and Confirmations: The latest update to the Tenure Review Committee Spreadsheet was presented and approved.
A proposed Search committee for the Environmental Studies Area classified position
was again considered. After considerable discussion, it was decided that Kramer should
communicate to Stephanie Sherman a concern for ethnic and especially gender balance
on the committee, hoping that classified union and Equal Opportunity representatives
yet to be determined could help make for a more balanced committee.
III. Diversity Advisory Council - Conference: Two handouts were distributed. Winters reported that De Anza is to host a conference on student equity in April,2008. Using some money from the strategic planning initiative, De Anza will share its leading work in the area with attendees invited from across the state. Those invited include, among others, college presidents and vice presidents and representatives from the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, which organization may serve to facilitate a more robust statewide effort. The conference will be located at a hotel near the San Jose airport to accommodate those from out of the area and will feature James Banks, nationally known figure as keynote speaker. Volunteers are needed to help with the many tasks involved in putting on a conference like this. Interested people are asked to contact Winters directly or come to a meeting of the Diversity Advisory Council which meets the second and fourth Wednesdays of every month during the academic year from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.
IV. Courses Into Disciplines: Setziol shared with the group his observation that recently approved courses show
a more conservative trend in terms of the number of disciplines assigned to courses.
This trend reduces flexibility in hiring faculty and increases the potential for Equivalency
hearings. He asked the Senators to communicate with the faculty in their divisions
about being mindful of possible appropriate discipline preparation for individual
courses beyond the base discipline(s) of a department.
VI. Tech Update: Open Educational Resources, ePortfolios, Security: The primary focus of the item was a presentation on the Community College Consortium on Open Educational Resources. Barbara Illowsky and Willie Pritchard presented with Illowsky making most of the introduction. A wide variety of particulars were presented including pros and cons and possibilities and limitations. Various avenues are being explored which will allow interested faculty to move in the direction of using Open Educational Resources. Pritchard’s faculty web site was suggested as a good source of information and links to more information.
V. Student Learning Outcomes: Two handouts were distributed, one titled “An Overview of De Anza’s Anticipated SLOs’
Efforts and one titled “Rubric for Assessment of Progress Towards Implementing a Student
Learning Outcomes Framework at a Community College. Anu Khanna presented and raised
awareness on the part of the group of the necessity and importance of the work involved.
Concerns about Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) were both general and specific. Specific
concerns will be addressed at length in a variety of venues. A more thorough discussion
of general concerns will be needed before most specific things are appropriate. An
example of the interaction between general and specific came with Khanna’s suggestion
to look at Cabrillo College’s work for information and to invite a team from Cabrillo
to come to share their experiences. A response to that was a statement that to invite
a team from a specific school and to look at their work might make sense but might
have unintended consequences like reduced faculty participation or uncritical acceptance
of the work as a model to be copied in order to avoid doing work on something the
Executive Committee already knows to be, at least in part, a hard sell.
The Senate will follow a process for choosing a Student Learning Outcomes Coordinator as we do for Curriculum Committee Co Chair. There will be a job announcement and a selection committee will forward its recommendation to the Executive Committee for confirmation.
VII. Senator Orientation: The item was held over due to a lack of time
VIII. Good of the Order: A question was raised about putting items on the agenda. Agenda items can be requested by anyone. To get an item on the agenda, see an officer by 1:30 on the Wednesday before the meeting at which you want the item taken up.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:32