Ventura College Academic Senate
Thursday, January 22, 2009
1:30—2:30 pm

I.	Call to Order
	This meeting was called to order at 1:35 pm.
	The following senate members were present: 	
Algiers, Kammy
Anderson, Lisa
Bittl, Ann
Garcia, Jennifer
Gonzales, Angelica
Haines, Robbie
Lange, Cari (Secretary)
Mitchell, Nancy
Morris, Terry
Munoz, Paula
Pauley, Mark
Pollack, Deborah (Vice-President) 

	The following guests were present:

Barker, Jennifer (Child Development)
DeClerk, Tania (Foreign Language)
Fiumerodo, Gigi (Co-chair, Bio/Anth)
Keebler, Dave (VP, Business Services)
Lall, Sumita (Language Arts)
Latham, Nancy (EAC)
McCarley, David (Foreign Language)
Moskowitz, Bob (Art)
Pierce, Nancy (PE/Health Ed)
Schroeder, Pam (ESL)
Sloan-Graham, Stacy (Speech)
Turner, Steve (EAC)
Waltzer, Simon (Chair, Language Arts)

II. Approval of minutes
a.	The minutes for the extraordinary meeting held on Dec. 12, 2008 will be approved at the next Senate meeting.

III. Study Session
a.	Dave Keebler spoke and entertained questions on the Budget Status Report. 
		A major point of the report is that the state of California will no longer be funding CAP growth. Due to this, according to Keebler, the goal is to locate, and cut 1 to 3 million dollars from the operational budget. Keebler is open to ideas and suggestions as to where some of these cuts should and could be made; he further specified that administration does not intend to dictate this to faculty. It was suggested that the academic senate take a role in this process.
		Another key aspect of the report is the state’s and district’s defining of “Core College” and “Core Curriculum/Scheduling.” According to Keebler, the district must use their allotted budget to first and foremost pay the fixed operational costs of the college.  These things include, but are not limited to, utility bills, insurance policies, etc. After these receive funding, then the district will address the incremental budget which includes such things as student support services and classroom instruction. 
		To determine what will take priority funding, the district and administration want to focus on “core scheduling”.  Core scheduling includes the most fundamental classes (“core courses”) and support services for matriculation. 
		The operational definition of core courses is, “The minimum number of classes a 	student needs to obtain: 
	● a general studies associate degree,
	● an associate degree with one of the identified majors,
	● a certificate,
	● basic skills,
	● CTE job skills.”
			The State asked the District Office to identify courses that lead to an AS 	degree, AA degree or certificate of achievement (as published in the catalog).  	For credit courses:
·         Use Code 1 if the credit course is part of a certificate or degree that is approved by the System Office. This includes credit courses that are required or restricted electives for an approved certificate or associate degree, including general education requirements. Restricted electives are specifically listed as optional courses from which students may choose to complete a specific number of units required for an approved certificate or degree.
·         Use Code 2 if the credit course is not required or a restricted elective for any credit program approved by the System Office. This type of course is commonly referred to as “stand-alone.” 
Keebler and Connie Baker then designed a rubric, as detailed above, based on this definition and identified 80 sections targeted to be dropped from the VC Fall 09 schedule. They have an additional target of reducing the Spring 2010 terms by 80 sections.   The department chairs have been asked for their input regarding the proposed classes to be dropped. The actual classes to drop will be left up to the discretion of each department, this process was just a way to identify which departments will have to drop what number of classes. It was estimated that this reduction of 80 sections will result in approximately a $600,000 savings. It has not yet been determined how the school will address student support services, administration, and classified positions. 
		All are welcome to attend Keebler’s campus wide presentation on Feb. 6, 2008 at 2 p.m. in Guthrie Hall.

b. 	Discussion following Keebler’s address:
	Simon Waltzer (Chair, Language Arts) suggested that the senate prepare a statement for the board that emphasizes the fact that curriculum is a matter for faculty, that it is not a purview of the administration to dictate curriculum to faculty.  He also cautioned that it is very difficult and time consuming to get a class back into the curriculum once it has been cut.
	Steve Turner and Nancy Latham (EAC) suggested that the senate’s statement also focus on the idea that this is actually a community issue because it is a part of our mission statement that we work to serve a diverse community. Often, we serve students WHO otherwise would not be represented in other forums. 
	David McCarley (Foreign Language) suggested that the declaration include a statement about faculty not allowing cuts in curriculum until substantial cuts have been made at the district and administration level first. The reasoning is that cuts at that level would affect students less directly.
	Robbie Haines (Biology/Senate member) suggested that we open a forum to explore areas for potential budget cuts from both the operation and the Core Curriculum budgets. Some suggestions included cuts to the watering and landscaping funds. 
	Many in attendance were in favor of exploring the amount saved by changing to a compressed schedule.
	Deborah Pollack stated that the Senate Executive committee will draft a Senate declaration including these suggestions to be presented to the district and administration. The Senate, will, of course, have the opportunity to review and revise the statement.
	
IV. Information Items
a.	There were no information items.

V. Adjournment
		Meeting adjourned at 2:31 pm.