Ventura College Academic Senate
Thursday, February 5, 2009
1:30-3:30 pm
Campus Center Conference Room

I.	Call to Order
	This meeting was called to order at 1:31 pm.
	The following senate members were present: 

Algiers, Kammy
Anderson, Lisa
Bittl, Ann
Garcia, Jennifer
Gonzales, Angelica
Haines, Robbie
Lange, Cari (Secretary)
Lew, Warren (Treasurer) 
Mitchell, Nancy
Morris, Terry
Munoz, Paula
Pauley, Mark
Pollack, Deborah (VP) 
Sezzi, Peter (President)

	The following guests were present:
Hull, Becky				Medina, Susan	 (Student Rep)		Taft, Burns

II.	Approval of minutes
a.	Dec 12, 2008
	Will be approved at the next Academic Senate meeting on Feb.19, 2009. 
b.	Jan 22, 2009
	Approved, 13/14 with one abstention (Lew). Motioned by Morris, seconded by Haines. 
III.	Action Items
a.	Academic Senate Secretary vacancy – Spring 2009 (Cari Lange) 
	Approved, 14/14.  Motioned by Lew, seconded by Morris.
b.	“Core College” & Budget cuts
	The Senate Executive committee presented a draft resolution regarding Ventura College Academic Senate’s position on the definition of “Core College” and proposed section cuts as per discussion at the previous Senate meeting. A lengthy discussion led to the formation of the attached revised resolution. The approved resolution with addendum is to be read by the Sezzi at the District Board of Trustees meeting on Feb. 10, 2009. 
Revised resolution was moved by Pauley, seconded by Anderson and was approved unanimously.  See attached: Addendum A. 
IV.	President’s Report
a.	Administrative Council report
Due to time constraints, Sezzi did not comment on Administrative Council.
b.	Consultation Council report
Due to time constraints, Sezzi did not comment on Consultation Council.
c.	DCAS/DCSL/DCHR/DTRW/DACW reports
i.	DCAS: Allocation Model
	A handout was distributed explaining the modifications to the district wide resource budget allocation. Sezzi pointed out that the first year of the plan, Ventura College can expect to see a minor loss but in subsequent years can expect an estimated gain of less than 1%.  

ii.	DCHR: Honorific Academic Rank/Titles
	Handouts were distributed detailing the current and proposed district wide modifications to the honorific academic rank/title system. This item will be open for discussion at a later date. 
iii.	DCHR: Recruitment and Selection Procedures for F/T Academic Hires
	Handouts were distributed. Hull briefly spoke about the importance of this issue being addressed and distributed an excerpt from the an approved Statewide Academic Senate resolution detailing the role between senates and representatives of the local governing boards on a variety of issues such as hiring procedures. This item will be open for discussion at a later date.
iv.	DTRW: Committee charge 
Sezzi distributed the proposed changes to the DTRW charge. This item will be open for discussion at a later date.
v.	DTRW:  Spring semester vacancy
Due to Paulette Johnson being a pre-retirement, Ventura College is short one representative to DTRW. Mark Pauley volunteered to serve as one of our two representatives for the duration of this semester. Moved by Haines, seconded by Algiers. Motion passed unanimously.
V.	Vice-President’s Report
		Pollack distributed a handout regarding the documentation of Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) where multiple sections of the same course are offered. This item will be discussed further at Curriculum Committee and Department Chair’s Council. 
VI.	Treasurer’s Report
a.	Senate dues
A drive to collect Senate dues will begin this month. Lew suggested, and the Executive Committee agreed, that all full time faculty will receive the dues request form in both electronic and paper format, delivered to their administration building mail boxes. Part time faculty will receive a dues drive request via e-mail only. Dues will be due no later than Monday, February 23rd.   
Lew requested that in March, the Senate develops criteria, or appoints a sub committee, to select student scholarships awarded from the Senate Dues Drive. 
VII.	Committee reports
a.	Curriculum Committee report
i.	Documentation of Student Learning Outcomes
	This topic was addressed during the Vice-President’s report. 
b.	Professional Development Committee report
i.	“Writing and Reading across the Curriculum” – Thurs, Feb. 19, 1:30 pm (Guthrie Hall)
	Senate members were informed that the next Senate meeting on Feb. 19, 2009 will have a minimal agenda in order to allow us to attend the “Writing and Reading across the Curriculum” workshop.
c.	Educational Master Plan Advisory Committee report
Due to time constraints, there was no report.
VIII.	Information Items
a.	Budget Forum – Friday, Feb. 6 @ 2:00 pm – Guthrie Hall
	All were encouraged to attend.
b.	Block Scheduling
	An Ad-hoc committee of the Department Chair’s Council has been formed to explore the feasibility of block scheduling. There is no possibility of this happening for the Fall 2009 schedule however. Sezzi will inform the Council as further details emerge of this proposal. 
c.	Other
Sezzi distributed a handout detailing VC’s textbook requisition and adoption schedule. Textbook orders will be moved to an electronic format beginning for the Fall 2009 semester. It was suggested that VC moves the date for requisition to an earlier time to better facilitate the purchasing of used texts. This item will be open for discussion at a later date.
	Sezzi asked that the Senate considers moving the meeting day to Wednesday to allow the Senate President and VP to attend the other committee meetings, namely DCAS and DCHR.  This item will be open for discussion at a later date.
IX.	Adjournment
	Meeting was adjourned at 3:40 p.m.