The De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
January 12th, 2009
Senators and Officers present: Argyriou, Botsford, Brennan, Cichanski, Coleman, Cordero, Dolen, Hanna, Hughes, Goodwin, Karst, Lathers, LaManque, Lee-Klawender, Lee-Wheat, Liu, Maynard, Miller, Mitchell, Roberts, Setziol, Sherby, Swanner, Walton, White, and Winters
Senators and Officers absent: Glapion, Logvinenko, and Maiero,
DASB: Classified Senate:
Administrative Liaison: Lydia Hearn Guests: Karl Schaffer, Brian Murphy, Jim Haynes, Jeaninie Hawk, and Juliana Kang
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 2:35, a quorum being present.
I. Approval of Agenda and Notes: The agenda was approved as distributed. There were no notes to approve as the notes of the December 1st meeting had been approved by mail.
II. Needs and Confirmations: Doris Spanggord and Judy Cuff-Alverado were confirmed for service on the new Biology faculty Tenure Review Committee.
Argyriou and Cordero were confirmed for service on the Interim Vice President of Educational Resources and College Operations Search and Selection Committee.
With regard to Needs, once again there was a brief reminder that there are many vacancies on committees and special attention was once again paid to the Facilities Committee, this time with updated information.
III. Mediated Learning Center : Jeanine Hawk gave what was apparently her last presentation to the group prior to employment at Santa Monica City College. Her presentation of the designs for this new building was thorough and aimed at answering known concerns. Many computer pictures of the design were shown. A lot of information was shared and concerns were noted by Hawk (e.g. all kinds of ambient noise). A primary concern about the architectural integrity of the campus was a primary focus of the presentation. There were multiple references to the use of color as a tie to the main themes of the college. However, the computer presentation did not show this, at least not accurately.
IV. Budget Update : Brian Murphy was present to share with the group an unfortunately small amount of news regarding the state budget. To describe his estimate of the chances of the Governor's latest budget proposal succeeding, he used a figure of speech wherein the odds were said to be from less than zero to zero. He also wanted people to consider the fact that many part time faculty did not get an assignment this quarter to be layoffs even though that term is not technically accurate. Cutting classes for the Winter was serious business seriously undertaken. Mistakes may have been made but multiple and unusual measures were used to make it as fair to people involved and as programmatically sound as possible. Any specific proposals or plans for cutting budgets is still premature. The basic strategy for the moment is to use the percentages given by the Governor in proposing mid year cuts and extrapolate from those for use in the 2009-2010 year projections.
V. Budget Discussion: Given the lack of any real news on the budget, this item was presented very conceptually. For example, given that classified staff are more vulnerable to being laid off than full time faculty and feel it keenly, faculty should remind them as appropriate about the status part time faculty being more precarious and that many have already been affected. Also, the Senate needs to be careful to work with the Faculty Association to avoid either group unnecessarily getting in the way of the other with regard to budget responsibilities.
VI. Program Review: Lee-Klawender presented a draft version of a program review template that was slightly different than the one previously distributed. An immediate concern was voiced about being asked to designate a program as basic skills rather than transfer (or vice versa presumably) when the program feels it is both. It was strongly stated that the Instructional Planning and Budgeting Team and the Student Services Planning and Budgeting Team should be recommending the disposition of vacant faculty position rather than a person or persons unknown. Also mentioned was the lack of any reference to student learning or student learning outcomes on the program review template. It was recommended specific statistics be requested for answering some of the questions.
VII. Student Learning Outcomes: Jim Haynes and Colleen Lee-Wheat were introduced as the coordinators of Student Learning Outcomes for Student Services and Instruction respectively. Each made a brief statement demonstrating enthusiasm for the work ahead.
VIII. Curriculum Update: The Item was held over due to a lack of time
IX. Good of the Order and announcements: - A celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day was announced for Thursday, January 15th (Dr. King's birthday) at 11:30 in the campus center. A flyer was distributed as well.
- A flyer describing the new Asian American, Native American, Pacific Islander grant recently received by De Anza was also distributed.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30.