Ventura College Academic Senate
December 4, 2008

I.	Call to order.
	      The meeting was called to order at 1:36 pm.
	      The following Senate members were present:  Terry Morris, Angelica 			      Gonzales, Kammy Algiers, Jennifer Garcia, Paula Munoz, Mark 	  	      	      Pauley, Lisa Anderson, Nancy Mitchell, Warren Lew (Treasurer), 	      	 	      Deborah Pollack (Vice-President), Peter Sezzi (President).
II.	Approval of the minutes.
            The November 20 meeting minutes were approved with 1 abstention by 		      a council member who was not present at the meeting when they were 	 		      recorded.  
III.	Action item.
a.	Peter Sezzi asked all of those Council members who can to attend an extraordinary meeting of the Senate on Friday, December 12 from 3-3:30 p.m.  The meeting is called to gain Senate approval of the  recommendations put forth by the staffing priorities subcommittee which will meet on that day.  President Calote will be taking the recommendations to the district on Monday, December 15 and the Senate is required to hear and approve them in advance.  Paula Munoz moved to accept the concept of an extraordinary meeting and Jennifer Garcia seconded her motion.  Sezzi expressed his concern about the possibility of less than a quorum attending the meeting and suggested that if this happened, he’d like the rules to be suspended and the staffing priorities subcommittee to make their recommendations directly to Calote.  Mark Pauley so moved and Terry Morris seconded the motion.
IV.	President’s report.
a.	Administrative Council report.  Sezzi reported that this group toured the ICPD and the Alternative Format Center that brailles textbooks.  David Keebler addressed the council about the rules governing how faculty and staff should handle cash.  He also discussed ways of looking at the VC budget that would minimize impact on resources.  Sezzi emphasized at the council meeting that productivity shouldn’t lead to burnout and that monetary allocations should be previewed by the Senate so that we can work collegially.  He invited Keebler to attend a senate meeting to discuss these and other issues.
b.	Consultation Council report.  Sezzi noted that president-elect Obama plans to infuse large amounts of federal money into building projects.    Construction projects most likely to be funded would be those for which all of the paperwork is completed and the district, as well as VC, may qualify for funding.
c.	DCAS/DCSL/DCHR/DTRW/DACW.  
	DACW is a newly formed workgroup involved with district-wide 	accreditation standards.
	DTRW/DSCL meetings coincided with the last Academic Senate meeting, 	so Sezzi was unable to attend them.
	DCAS held a long meeting focused on what Sezzi described as tinkering 	with the allocation model, which he passed around.  The two changes in 	line items that are most likely to affect us involve productivity (the less 	productive a college is the more money it receives) and the FTES 	simulation.  He will bring the final product to the Senate for approval, 	perhaps in January.
d.	Statewide Academic Senate Fall Plenary Session.
	This session focused on a document of about 100 pages detailing passed, 	withdrawn, and failed resolutions.  Sezzi offered to loan the hard copy of 	the document or email it to any interested Council member.
V.	Vice-President’s report.
	       Nothing to report.	
VI.	Treasurer’s report.
	       Nothing to report.
VII.	Committee reports.
a.	Election Subcommittee report.  Lisa Anderson reported that Sezzi and Pollack had been voted in as president and vice president, respectively, of the Academic Senate.  Additionally there were a number of write-in votes for secretary, most of them going to Kari Lange.  Warren Lew was also most often written in for treasurer.  Sezzi will post the results.
b.	Staffing Priorities Subcommittee report.  This group will meet on December 12 beginning at 8 a.m.  Becky Hull leads the subcommittee and 
      is organizing the presentations which will be open to all who are interested 	in attending.  As noted above, the subcommittee members will meet with 	the Senate at 3 p.m. on 12/12 and Calote will present a list of 	recommendations 	to the District on 12/15.
c.	Curriculum Committee report.  Sezzi reported that the ESL department 	has to revamp their entire curriculum to comply with new regulations 	about repeatability.  Department chair Karen Harrison has already written 	up three new course outlines and their approval is being expedited.  He 	also noted that the committee discussed international travel, both for 	professional development and as a component of courses.  They 	determined that any time international travel is part of a course, it must go 	through the curriculum committee.
d.	Professional Development Committee report.  Jennifer Garcia reported that this committee met on 12/3.  They have scheduled their first professional development activity, Writing Across the Curriculum, for 2/19/09.  At that time, they will survey attendees about future activities.
e.	Educational Master Plan Advisory Committee report.  Meeting will take place on 12/5 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 
VIII.	Information Items
a.	Block Scheduling.  Contrary to Ramiro Sanchez’s expectations, Sezzi reported that Ventura College will not be implementing block scheduling next year.  An ad hoc advisory committee made up of department chairs will meet in January to figure out how a four day schedule would actually work and will present their findings to the Academic Senate.
b.	Summer Schedule.  Four week summer classes have been reduced by 1/3, but there have been no cuts in the number of six week classes.
c.	Budget News.  Paula Munoz reported that the new California legislators
	soon to be seated will provide us with a new group to lobby against 	educational budget cuts.
d.	Senate President’s Use of All Faculty E-mail.  Sezzi asked the council for direction on what he should send out to all users.  He noted that he doesn’t forward email that includes attachments because they take up too many megabytes; he would prefer simply to send the link that would connect those who are interested with the material.  Munoz moved and Morris seconded the motion that Sezzi should only forward email pertaining to faculty, leaving all other forwarding of email to Sanchez.    Sezzi agreed to also investigate the possibility of posting all user announcements on Luminis.
IX.   Adjournment
         Meeting adjourned at 2:37 p.m.