Ventura College Academic Senate
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Campus Center Conference Room

I.	Call to Order
This meeting was called to order at 1:34 p.m. The following senate members were present:
	
Chen, Albert - Social Sciences & Humanities
Gardner, Ty- Math & Sciences
Guillen, Guadalupe - Student Services
Haines, Robbie - Math & Sciences	
Hendricks, Bill - Social Sciences & Humanities
Kolesnik, Alex - Math & Sciences	
Lange, Cari – Senate Secretary
Mitchell, Nancy – Career and Technical Education	
Morris, Terry – Health, Physical Education & Athletics
	        Muñoz, Paula – Student Services
Parker, Jennifer- Career and Technical Education
Pauley, Mark- Senate Treasurer/ Curriculum Co-chair
Pollack, Deborah - Senate Vice-president
Schoenrock, Kathryn - Communication & Learning Resources
Sezzi, Peter – Senate President

The following guests were present:
	       Calote, Robin- Ventura College President 
	       Hernandez, Art—VCCCD Trustee, Area 5
              Valenzuela, Arthur - Associated Student Body Representative

II.	Public Comments
There were no public comments at this time.

III.	Approval of minutes
a.	February 3, 2011
	Motion to approve the minutes from the previous Academic Senate meeting was made by Pauley and seconded by Pollack. Motioned carried 9-0-1, with Muñoz abstaining. Hendricks, Haines, and Gardner were not present for this vote. 

IV.	Acknowledgement of Guests
a.	Robin Calote 
	President Calote was present to speak to the Academic Senate about the Ventura College Strategic Plan and Integrated Planning Manual. Calote explained that last Fall, using various constituiencies but relying primarily on faculty, various large focus groups identified from within the Educational Master Plan six (6) goals, or strategic areas, that we will focus on fully developing during the next three years. Each of these goals is then further divided into strategic objectives, each with a series of action steps. This process allows for the measurement and documentation of progress towards meeting the Educational Master Plan’s ultimate goals. Calote stressed that this is not a static document. It represents a work in progress and will be continually updated as goals are being met and new objectives are identified. Calote anticipates releasing the first official summary of the goal report in Fall 2011. 
	When asked what the current progress on the strategic goals was, Calote replied that she is impressed at how we have come together as a college and worked to move things forward at a rapid rate. She specifically cited the swift action taken by both the SLO and Professional Development Committees. Calote fielded several specific questions about East Campus (Strategic Area 6). She informed us that a new location has been identified for the relocation of the East Campus and that the Santa Paula community was surveyed a few years back to determine what type of services would be most useful for VC to provide at the East Campus. Discussions on the future plans for East Campus include focusing on fast-track vocational training programs.  
	When asked about progress towards meeting the Accreditation Team’s recommendation for addressing “total cost of ownership,” Calote mentioned that a new M&O management position was created to replace that of M&O Director Bob Forest’s previous position (recently vacated due to retirement) and she hopes that this will begin the process of addressing the issue. She also encouraged faculty to have more communication with their deans on the subject of what needs to be done routinely for basic maintenance and upkeep. Sezzi added that if faculty email him their concerns he will relay the message at Admin Council in order to get the items added to the M&O to do list. The concern is that while M&O currently does the best that they can, they may be too underfunded to allow them to possibly meet the state’s recommendation. 
	Calote then asked if the Academic Senate supports this process of developing and implementing this Strategic Plan model. Roundtable discussion revealed that we were overall satisfied with the process as it was developed. Some minor suggestions for disseminating the information were made to Calote.  

b.	Art Hernandez , VCCCD Trustee
	Trustee Hernandez was present to meet with and address questions from the Senate. Hernandez opened by stating that he appreciates that the faculty and staff at Ventura College have sprung into action to address the issues revealed during the Accreditation Team’s visit. He stressed that as an elected official, he is a voice of the community that elected him and that communication between the community, campus, and Board of Trustees should be strengthened, which is what he is seeking to accomplish. 
	The following are key points raised by senators that were addressed by Hernandez:
	In regards to alleviating the aforementioned communication barriers, Hernandez was asked about why we have our all users email access denied and why the Trustees can only be accessed through District Office channels. To address the all users email access, Hernandez wants to know, by us demonstrating in some tangible manner, that lack of this access is impeding the educational process; and if we find that the policy is too restrictive, then we should talk about it.  In regards to communicating with individual trustee members, he feels that it is necessary to use proper channels of communication in order to learn the process. However, if the process is broken, then he would like to know about that.
	To address the recent accreditation report, Hernandez feels that the WASC process was not appropriately nor fairly conducted and that the Board of Trustees was not given enough opportunity to discuss the topics with WASC. However, in spite of his feelings, Hernandez says that the Trustees can move forward to address the issues.
	When asked about the current budget cut proposal, Hernandez said that he supports a 5% cut at each college before going into reserves spending, but he wants to see line items as to where each campus plans on making these cuts. He is protective of the reserves budget, but declared that the Board of Trustees needs to “see the faces” of the budget cuts.
	Hernandez was asked his position on the recent proposal of enforcing a 24 hour student deadline to pay fees. He stated that we should make options available for students, especially those who may encounter an unexpected financial emergency. He feels it would be appropriate to have a board policy on the timeline for student fee payments. 
	On the Board objectives statement Hernandez says that we should be careful not to read too much into this document, but that if we would like to have the Board clarify any of the points made in the document, the Senate should prepare a statement to have Sezzi share at the next Board planning meeting in June. 
	Trustee Hernandez thanked us for having him out to speak to us.

V.	Announcements
	One Book One Campus email voting has begun. Pollack told us to encourage our students to vote for the book they would like using the portal system. 

VI.	Study Sessions
a.	Ventura College WASC Accreditation Report
	Sezzi reported that two of the recommendations made by the visiting Accreditation Team were removed by WASC. Administration will be meeting soon to discuss how to best address the remaining recommendations. Calote will be holding an open forum meeting from 3-4 p.m. on March 1st to gather input from faculty and staff specifically with regards to the WASC college recommendation on what policies/procedures/practices/communications impedes our abilities to work effectively. 

b.	Multi-Term Registration
A roundtable discussion on the value/costs associate with multi-term registration occurred. This will be discussed in greater depth at the next DCSL. 

VII.	President’s Report
a.	Administrative Council report
	The topic of primary note was that of petitions for late enrollment and late pre-requisite challenge forms. Starting as soon as this semester for late pre-requisite challenges, the deadline that is printed on the pre-requisite challenge form will be more strictly enforced. Starting next Fall for late adds, instructors will no longer be able to easily add a student to their class after the fourth week of instruction. Susan Bricker, Registrar, will be coming to an Academic Senate meeting later in the semester to talk about these issues in more detail.  Sezzi also mentioned that there is a movement afoot to begin enforcing the language in the catalog/schedule of classes that says that payment for classes is due immediately upon registration. It was noted while our catalog/schedule of classes does say that fees should be paid “immediately”, the subsequent sentence states that they must be paid “in a timely manner.” Sezzi has asked for BP/AP 5030 Fees to be discussed at the next DCAS. The consent of the Senate was for our Board Policy/Administrative Procedure to reflect our current practice of not dropping students for non-payment of student fees until seven (7) days after they have registered.  

b.	Consultation Council report
	Sezzi reported that the Senate Presidents have been added back to the beginning of the Board of Trustees meeting agenda for business announcements, but remain at the end of the agenda for general announcements. 

c.	DCAS
	The current FY12 [budget] reduction scenario consists of the first 5% of cuts being taken at the local college level, the next 5% would come out of the district reserves, the next 2% from the local colleges, and anything over 12% out of the district reserves. The Senate agreed with this proposal by consent. 
	Ventura College can absorb most of the first 5% of cuts through the cutting of one time funds that were present in the FY11, therefore our overall net impact should be low at this level. Keebler has been working on models that would help VC absorb as much as 10% without many visible effects, so we are looking to be in not too bad shape for the upcoming fiscal year.

VIII.	Campus Committee reports
a.	Curriculum Committee report
i.	SB 1440 Degrees
b.	Student Learning Outcomes Oversight Group report
c.	Task Force on Learning Communities report

Due to time constraints, no Campus Committee reports were given.

IX.	Action Items
a.	Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) Toolkit (Third Reading)
	Sezzi gave accolades to the SLOOG for their work on quickly developing and  implementing a plan of attack. Gardner announced that he is very willing to meet with any group on campus to help them develop SLOs and assessment practices that can be incorporated into their program review. 
	A motion to approve the Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) Toolkit documents was made by Pauley and seconded by Gardner. Motion unanimously carried.

b.	Ventura College Strategic Plan and Integrated Planning Manual (Second Reading)
	Please see discussion notes under item IV.a. above.
	Motion to approve the Ventura College Strategic Plan and Integrated Planning Manual was made by Pauley and seconded by Guillen. Motion unanimously carried. 

c.	BP,AP and Forms/Processes for Hiring Student Workers (Second Reading)
Due to time constraints, this action item was not discussed or voted on.

X.	Adjournment
This meeting was adjourned at 3:36 p.m.