Ventura College Academic Senate
Minutes
Thursday, October 16, 2014
2:00-3:00 pm
Multidiscipline Center West (MCW) – 312

I.	Call to Order at 2:00.  The following senators were present:
Senator	Division Represented	Initials	Present	Absent	
Algiers, Kammy	Mathematics & Sciences	KA	X		
Carrasco-Nungaray, Marian	Student Services	MCN	X		
Coffey, Colleen M.	Senate Secretary	CMC	X		
Forde, Richard	Career & Technical Education	RF	X		
Hendricks, Bill	Social Sciences & Humanities	BH	X		
Kim, Henny	English & Learning Resources	HK	X		
Kolesnik, Alex	Mathematics & Sciences	AK	X		
Martin, Amanda	English & Learning Resources	AM	X		
McCain, Mike	Mathematics & Sciences	MM	X		
Morris, Terry or Anglin, Gary	Athletics, Kinesiology & Health	TM / GA		X	
Mules, Ron	Social Sciences & Humanities	RM	X		
Sanchez, Robert (ASVC PR Director) filling in for Reyes, Tony	ASVC External Affairs Director 	TR	SR for TR  		
Sezzi, Peter H.	Senate President	PHS	X		
Sha, Saliha	Mathematics & Sciences	SS	X		
Wendt, Patty or Paula Munoz	Student Services	PW / PM	PW 		
Zacharias, Mary	Career & Technical Education	MZ	X		

Guests Present: Gloria Arevalo; Scott Brewer; Marcelino De Cierdo; Victoria Lugo; Paula Munoz; Lauren Wintermeyer.

II.	Public Comments
Lauren Wintermeyer (Counseling): Speaking to augmentation.  Might be better served by looking at demonstrated models across the state.  Student Transcript Enhanced Placement study.  Says this has research behind it and would be a good model for us.  Advises against doing something in isolation.  Re: mentorship proposal: would like to see some money going into professional development in equity and pedagogy (i.e., a more natural mentorship program).  Her ideas are geared towards all students, not just at-risk.  

Scott Brewer:  Specifically re: faculty mentoring for at-risk students.  His peers believe that cold-calling at risk students by faculty is not the ideal model.  Challenge is a 1-1200 student ratio; when statewide ratio is 1-370.  Says good use of funds might be to put more counseling on the ground to intervene with at risk.  Internship program: use this to address that gap between what students do in the classroom and what they do at work; bridge that gap with real life experience.  Also: revolution in teaching (flipping, apps, etc), use some funding to really invest in faculty to help them learn how to best engage students of this generation.  

III.	Acknowledgement of Guests
a.	Greg Gillespie – President (2:15 pm – time certain):  BH has a question: asks why in a drought we are watering our lawns?  Dr. Gillespie answers that we have reduced; at athletic fields, we must water.  He says they have not yet made the decision to completely stop watering.  We are actually ahead in terms of the percentage reduced compared to the other campuses.

Dr. Gillespie then speaks briefly about 3SP plan and says he will take questions.  He acknowledges that the process was perhaps more rushed than what we would like to see in future years.  He says we have a number of new programs to implement that he believes will help us serve students better, and also document what we are doing such that future funding will be forthcoming.  Plan will be sent to the state on Friday; he knows PHS is waiting to sign until after the senate meeting today.  He says if there are any concerns such as the senate might not give PHS that authority (to sign), he would like to hear them now so that he could have an opportunity to address them.

PHS says the concern among senate was that the listed stakeholders simply were not consulted as required by code.  He says the manner in which the plan was developed leaves many things to be desired.  PHS says he sees improvements in the various iterations of this report; acknowledges that it is improving, but it still leaves much to be desired.  He thinks in public comments we heard some really good ideas, but this is one day before the report is due.  PHS says now is the time to begin the process on the right footing for the next year.  

RM: concern about assessments in English and Math.  AK answers that these sections were revised.  RM questions whether that is the case.  Victoria Lugo speaks to the English assessment online.  She says big groups take Scantron tests and those scores are uploaded into Banner.  RM questions about how valid an assessment this is.  HK speaks up and says the Scantron assessment was not validated by the English department; they suggested an essay component.  

PM redirects question back to Dr. Gillespie: one of the first issues the senate raised was the Student Success Plan contained a list of participant stakeholders but no one listed had been called to a meeting; questions whether there was really a committee at work? This is the concern of faculty here.  This is why senate is hesitating to give its blessing to this report.  AK responds that following a discussion with Dr. Jefferson and PHS, this was revised so that list now accurately reflects who were participating.  

Dr. Gillespie says the membership of this committee (Student Success Committee) needs to be looked at, particularly now that stakes are higher.  We’re learning as we go.  He says as a college we’ve been working towards meeting these requirements.  But as the report came together, he knows there was frustration about the way it all came together and in a short period of time.  He says he hopes everyone knows that he does want to have transparent processes and that he acknowledges that there is room for improvement.  

Victoria Lugo: She says she too would like to apologize inasmuch as in her experience here she does not ordinarily have to vet her reports.  She sees now that that would have been helpful and she apologizes that she simply got the report off her desk and then moved on without perhaps getting as much input as she should have.

Dr. Gillespie: says the Assist. Dean position is not being further pursued at this time.

PHS: asks Dr. Gillespie about his goals for the college in the next 3-5 years.  Dr. Gillespie says he would like to see at least a 5% increase in student retention and success over the next 3 years.  Second, he would like to continue developing strong community connections (ex: VC Innovates grant to develop 62 career pathways).  Tied in with that, we have great transfer programs and rates, but he would like to see us be not just a county leader but, a regional leader in career/technical education programs.  He says we have a great need for trained employees in our county; we need to train residents for these local jobs—workforce/economic development, meeting needs of employers.

IV.	Approval of minutes
a.	September 25, 2014
b.	October 2, 2014
—Motion by KA; 2nd by PW.  Gloria asks about use of initials; CMC clarifies that only senators are referred to my initials as indicated on the attendance chart on page one; guests are always referred to by name.  Correction: Mike was here at last (10/2) meeting; Andrea is not serving this semester on senate; she will serve in spring.  Vote 13-0-2 (RM and TR abstaining).

V.	Consent Items*--Motion to approve consent agenda PW; 2nd by KA.  Unanimous.
a.	BP/AP 5140 – Disabled Students Programs and Services

VI.	Action Items
a.	Approval of faculty membership of College and District committees—PHS says we have an existing Student Success Committee, but this is not widely known outside Student Services.  He recommends that this become a new participatory governance committee re: Student Equity and Success Committee.  KA asks about determining membership.  Senate would appoint faculty to serve.  There would also be management and staff.  PHS says this would raise the profile of this committee tremendously.  Other recommendation is that this committee would report to College Planning Council so that any work product from that Committee would move through CPC.  AK asks about budgeting committees.  PHS says at district level, he serves as our advocate.  But at the college level, do we want it to be a participatory governance committee?  KA says she would like to keep these groups separate.  PHS says that this was his first idea, but Dr. Gillespie prefers a merged model.  PM expresses that separate committees are already called for.  

Victoria Lugo: says there are models already out there that might help us create this.

AK says the issue with these committees is meeting times.  

PHS: good idea to create two participatory governance committees Re: student success and student equity.  Senators concur and PHS will get to work creating a charge.  

Gloria Arevalo: doesn’t want membership to be excluded (committee should be allowed to grow to as many faculty as are willing to serve).

AK has a different take: he says he does not want to see membership unlimited, but he sees that particular roles, such as Basic Skills, should have a place at the table.  In other words, we need some particulars, but he does not want it unlimited.

MCN says she supports what Gloria is saying, let’s look at the areas and make sure we have a content expert.

PHS says he favors a finite amount so that a quorum can be established.  Says he will come up with a proposal, sample committee composition, and bring it to the next meeting.

b.	AP 7120 F – Interim Managers: Recruitment and Selection (Second Reading): AK moves to approve; 2nd by MZ.  PHS: This action sends this AP on to DCHR.  Vote: unanimous.

c.	VCCCD Mission Statement [Revision] (Second Reading): Proposal was to get rid of everything except the first sentence.  Motion by RF, 2nd by RM.

“The Ventura Community College District serves a diverse community of students in the attainment of their educational, career, and personal goals.”

Question by Gloria Arevalo: Notices a move toward shortening our policies  Is this to give the BOT more flexibility? Rather than specifying educational goals?  PHS talks about how this was developed and how the old mission statement was developed.  Vote: unanimous.

d.	Ventura College Academic Senate Goals for 2014-2015 (First Reading): PHS: in his review

Improve communication.
Re-examine our program review process.
Evaluate committees for purpose, length and participation.
Provide faculty education on participatory governance.

KA asks about a previous committee for program review?  PHS says program review is a very localized process.  Says it’s completely up to the department and division.  KA asks about the process itself.  PHS says a few years ago we did have a task force.  Only division going through a full program review process is Student Services.  MCN says she objects to SS being the only division to go through this; how can an objection be raised?  PHS says this decision was made at CPC.  Not clear if SS will do this every year, or if it will be a rotational and they are simply first.

MCN moves that the senate inquire about the process to mandate Student Services to conduct a program review for 2014/2015 and treat them disparately.  PM asks for an amendment that SS has to be on a calendar. 

Revised: Senate asks that Student Services participate equal to instructional divisions in program review (on the same cycle).  Asking not to do it every year.  

Vote: unanimous.

e.	Student Success and Support Program Plan** (First Reading): PM asks that someone make a motion 

Marcelino (Career Center Coordinator): wants to speak about 3SP with respect to these two items.  Talked about in depth in counseling.  With respect to at-risk students: he thinks this (the augmentation) is a bit ambitious—this is speaking to the issue that Scott & Lauren were speaking to.  But he applauds Peter for his work on this, but he does not see this as the best method.  There is a real skills protocol to this.  He would like to see a different population targeted than at-risk.  

PHS: Not easy to come up with transformative ideas on the fly (i.e. the 3SP report).

PW motion that the senate president will not sign the 3SP report because the content and the manner in which it was developed are not in conformance with title 5, section 55510(11)(b) but we look forward to working in concert with our colleagues in the development of next year’s report.  RF seconds.  Vote: unanimous. 

VII.	President’s Report—NONE.

VIII.	Senate Subcommittee reports—NONE. 
a.	Elections Committee report
b.	Curriculum Committee report
c.	Other Senate Committees reports

IX.	Campus Committee reports—NONE.
a.	Campus Committees reports

X.	Announcements for the Good of the Order—NONE.

XI.	Requests for Future Agenda Items—NONE.

XII.	Adjournment at 3:14p.m.