The De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
March 2nd, 2009
Senators and Officers present: Argyriou, Brennan, Cichanski, Coleman, Cordero, Hanna, Goodwin, Guevara, Kang, Karst, Lathers, Lee-Klawender, Liu, Logvinenko, Maynard, Miller, Mitchell, Roberts, Setziol, Sherby, Swanner, Walton, and Winters
Senators and Officers absent: Botsford, Dolen, Glapion, Hughes, LaManque, and White,
DASB: Jorge Pacheco Classified Senate: Lois Jenkins
Administrative Liaison: Rich Schroeder Guests: Karl Schaffer, and Jim Haynes,
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.
The notes of February 23rd were approved as distributed with minor editing.
II. Needs and Confirmations: Cordero was confirmed for service on the Li Wei Sun Tenure Review Committee (Phase 3) [NOTE: Cordero replaces Angela Buchanan
with Carolyn Wilkins-Greene, Dean, replacing Buchanan as chair.]
There is a need for a faculty member to be an alternate on the Disciplinary Hearing Board.
III. Student Services Program Review: Winters reported on and showed several documents which demonstrated the Student Services approach to Program Review. They included the topics of "budget snapshot", projections, staffing, student equity, possibilities for consolidation, and the potential impact of reduction to or elimination of the program being reviewed.
IV. District Mission Statement: Argyriou presented a new attempt (not written by her) at a District Mission Statement. Within minutes it was apparent that there was little or no support for the attempt. Argyriou made note of several conceptual starting points for a statement emerging from the discussion. One was to go to a very simple, one sentence statement. Another was to examine mission statements from other districts.
V. Educational Master Plan Drivers: The Senators had received material backing up the Bob Barr presentation show during the February 23rd meeting. It was immediately clear that the material had the effect of solidifying the sense of the Senate that the presentation, unfortunately, used data and projections which seem irrelevant to the current state of affairs in the county.
The discussion shifted to Foothill's Middlefield campus and the NASA Ames site. Evidently, the tenuous nature of the District's lease for the Middlefield campus leads Martha Kanter to consider the expenditure of Measure C money for a presence at NASA Ames. It appeared that the group was skeptical that the data presented in the "drivers" validated a pursuit of NASA Ames or some other North County site.
VI. Board Policy : "Harrassment and Discrimination": Argyriou presented Doreen Novotny's response to her report of the Senate discussion of a harassment and discrimination Board policy draft. Based on Argyriou's account, it was very clear that Novotny had no interest in including anything other than that which is legally mandated. Several people commented that Novotny's opposition to including atheism or "lack thereof" (relating to religious belief) did not mean the Academic Senate should withdraw its suggestion for that inclusion into the policy.
VII. SLO Resolution: A new draft resolution was presented for discussion rather than action owing to the fact that changes called for at the February 23rd made for a substantially different resolution. Discussion revealed that the group was still thinking discursively. One idea was to go back to the original draft which expressed only those things which should not happen in connection with SLOs. Another idea was to have two resolutions, one "positive" and one "negative". A third idea was to create a short position paper containing a balance between positive and negative perspectives and then have a resolution calling for certain action by officers and Senators and, by implication, administrators as well.
VIII. ICC Feedback: Khanna and Haynes presented with Khanna giving an account of the Town Hall meeting on the subject of Institutional Core Competencies. A new draft will be prepared as a function of a General Education Steering Committee meeting Wednesday, March 4th and will be presented at the March 9th Senate meeting. Khanna and Haynes appealed for two division liaison persons from each division.
IX. Budget Questions: Anyone with questions about anything related to budget was asked to forward their questions to Argyriou.
X. Faculty Hiring: - Lee-Klawender presented the Instructional Planning and Budgeting Team (IPBT) recommendations for faculty positions to be filled. Quickly obvious was the fact that the Executive Committee's priorities of Staff Development and Diversity were on the list being forwarded to the College Council for action.
- Goodwin reported on a controversy surrounding the fact that whereas state law has changed, allowing part time faculty teach up to 67%, the District's administrators do not want to shift the practice in the District. In response to this, the Faculty Association has withdrawn access to teaching on the part of administrators.
XI. Good of the Order and announcements: - Senators and others were encouraged to sign up for SLO training March 11th.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:32.