Ventura College Academic Senate
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Campus Center Conference Room

I.	Call to Order
	This meeting was called to order at 1:35 p.m. The following senate members were present:
	
	Anderson, Lisa – Math & Sciences
	Chen, Albert - Social Sciences & Humanities
	Gardner, Ty - Math & Sciences
	Guillen, Guadalupe - Student Services
	Haines, Robbie - Math & Sciences
	Hendricks, Bill - Social Sciences & Humanities
	Lange, Cari – Senate Secretary
	Mitchell, Nancy – Career and Technical Education
	Morris, Terry – Health, Physical Education & Athletics
	Muñoz, Paula – Student Services
	Pauley, Mark- Senate Treasurer/ Curriculum Co-chair
	Pollack, Deborah - Senate Vice-president
	Pourmoghim, Salomeh - Communication & Learning Resources
	Reynolds, Andrea - Social Sciences & Humanities
	Schoenrock, Kathryn - Communication & Learning Resources
	Sezzi, Peter – Senate President

	The following guests were present:
	Algiers, Kammy -  Math & Sciences
	Corbett, Scott -  Social Sciences & Humanities
	Cowen, Will -  Athletics Director	
	Hall, Steve - AFT 1828 President
	Freixas, Marta - Math & Sciences
	Miller, Larry – VCCCD Trustee	
	Ruiz, Joe - Associated Student Body Representative  	

II.	Approval of minutes
a.	Motion to approve the minutes from September 16, 2010 was made by Guillen and seconded by Pollack. Motioned carried 12-0-1, with Mitchell abstaining. Haines and Muñoz  were not present for this vote. 

III.	Acknowledgement of Guests
a.	Steve Hall, AFT 1828 President 
	Hall was present to report on a few the current issues in our district. He confirmed that the board had been talking about the idea of converting the finals week block schedule to a regular week of instruction. Hall stated that the union, in agreement with the three academic senates, does not support this. 
	Hall also informed the senate that the union is not officially in support of the process of using local equivalency committees to determine if instructors flagged by District HR meet or do not meet minimum qualifications. Sezzi reminded Hall to review DCHR minutes regarding the AFT’s rep’s position on this. Hall did note that the union will intervene on behalf of any faculty member that has been negatively impacted through this process. Additionally, the union has concerns over how this the secondary effects of this process will impact Previously Assigned Load (PAL) in certain disciplines.
	Hall also reported that the current AFT executive director, Kathleen Sage, has stepped down. 
	On a more positive note, Hall informed us that the union will be bargaining for State disability insurance for part time faculty and will be advocating for the reinstatement of the four week summer session, or, at a minimum, adding more classes to the six week schedule funded through the reserves budget. 

b.	Larry Miller, Trustee, VCCCD
	Trustee Miller was present to meet with and address questions from the senate. The following are key points raised by senators that were addressed by Miller:
	New members and vacant seats on the Board of Trustees (BOT): Diane McKay is the newest member. The BOT will likely appoint a replacement to fill the vacancy left by Bob Hubert, who will now be serving as mayor of Simi Valley. Appointing a trustee would save a considerable amount of money over opening a special election. Finally, Miller reported that the Board will need to fill the chair and vice-chair positions.
	District budget reserves: According to Miller, there is a “betting certainty” that there will be mid year cuts to this year’s budget at the statewide level. Miller then reminded us that unlike the CSU and UC systems, the California Community Colleges are not written into the state constitution and could be effectively shut down at any time; or, the county could simply refuse to divert funding to us. 
	Conversion of converting finals week block scheduling to a regular instructional week: Miller was unaware that this was in the works. He noted that the Chancellor was on vacation so this must be coming from someone else in administration. Miller fully supports the current block schedule for finals and noted that the issue of overseeing /implementation of the finals week schedule should be an administrative issue. 
 	Board’s role in developing policy: On the heels of the discussion above, Miller was adamant in his opinion that the role of the BOT is to act as policy makers, not managers, and the Board should not become involved in things such as how the administration oversees and/or enforces the use of final exams during the block scheduled week or issues such as developing department statements on particular philosophies regarding curriculum used in teaching. However, Miller commented on the fact that a major problem in the district is that each campus does not a copy of the Board’s policy manual. Trustees Miller and Blum, the Trustees serving on the Board Policy Subcommittee, are in the process of reviewing the current policies and consolidating them into one such document. 
	Board objectives statement: Miller was unaware that this document existed. When provided a hard copy of the document (and after Sezzi reminded him of the Board action on this document back in June/July), Miller recalled the document in question. After taking a moment to review the document, Miller declared that this was likely just a document created for the purpose of accreditation, and probably is not significant in any way. 
	Communicating with BOT members: Miller suggested that, as a Senate, we outline our objectives and concerns and present them at the December Board Planning Session as a white paper. He noted that while speaking at Board meetings is helpful, he recommended addressing the Board’s subcommittees (such as the policy subcommittee or the finance and audit subcommittee) are open and a good way to communicate to the Board using either the Senate or Union reps as the vehicle of communication. 
	Trustee Miller thanked us for inviting him out and marveled that he doesn’t get invited to more Senate meetings, as he thought it was beneficial and enjoyed talking to us. 

IV.	Study Sessions:
a.	Finals Schedule
The Senate discussed the nature, value and paramount importance of maintaining our current block scheduling of Finals Week as a minimum, and, in for next year academic calendar development process, propose to the AFT any modifications we are interested in seeing.
b.	Accreditation Visit’s College Recommendations & Campus Response
	The Academic Senate formed a task force to look into the process of closing the gap between our current Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) process, our Mission Statement, and the impending recommendations made by the Site Visit Accreditation Team. 
	Task force member Gardner reported out that the committee looked at what constitutes a “program” in order to determine how to best develop and assess program level SLOs . The task force will be generating several documents for review including a list of “programs” and a Nichol’s Model formatted document to be used in the development of program level SLOs. Gardner stressed that developing the program level SLOs was not a particularly time consuming process, as they are built upon the existing course level SLOs that many programs already have in place. 
	We are extremely fortunate to have P. Scott Corbett, who successfully guided Oxnard College through this process, express interest in serving as the faculty lead to help coordinate and over see this process of SLO development and assessment at the campus- wide level. Corbett was present at the meeting to make this announcement and to stress that the most critical aspect after we develop program level SLOs is showing that we have a means of evaluating our effectiveness in achieving them. This, according to Corbett, is primarily a dialogue process we need to develop. 

V.	President’s Report
a.	Administrative Council report
Nothing to report other than it is still meeting on a bi-weekly basis.

b.	Consultation Council report
	Conversion of finals block scheduling to regular instruction: Sezzi noted that it was at Consultation Council on Oct 29 when the idea of removing the block scheduling of Finals Week from the academic calendar was first mentioned publicly. Discussion then moved to if the 4-week summer school session is canceled. Sezzi noted that he could not recall where, if anywhere, it is written down that there will not be a 4-week summer school session. He further noted that the governance committee where this would most likely be discussed would be DCAS, which meets on the morning of our next Senate meeting. Therefore, he urged all Senators to discuss with our colleagues and bring to him prior to the 18th of this month academic reasons why we should maintain a 4-week summer school session, focusing on reasons of how this is  beneficial to our students. 

c.	Statewide Academic Senate Fall Plenary Session Resolutions
	Sezzi reported that he will send the senators the list of statewide resolutions via email for us review. He will note the most significant issues. 

d.	DTRW, DCSL, DCAS, DCHR
	The senators were informed that each discipline will need to begin considering the minimum qualifications for teaching each course and that Sezzi will bring up the idea of assigning courses to a discipline at both the next Curriculum Committee and at Department’s Chairs & Coordinators Council. Assigning courses to a discipline was an original part of AB 1725 and our lack of doing so was highlighted during the local equivalency process.

VI.	Campus Committee reports
a.	Elections Committee report
	Anderson reported the following results of the Academic Senate elections. The following candidates were elected to serve as the Ventura College Academic Senate officers for the 2011-2013 academic years:
	President: Peter Sezzi
	Vice President: Cari Lange
	Treasurer: Mark Pauley (through the most write-in votes)
	Secretary: Robbie Haines

b.	Staffing Priorities Committee report
	Sezzi reported that 18 programs requested an expansion position. Representatives from each program are invited to give a presentation on Friday November 19th in order to be ranked by the Staffing Priorities Committee. The Academic Senate will hold a special session at 3p.m. that same afternoon to vote on the report presented by the Staffing Priorities Committee’s recommendations. 

c.	Curriculum Committee report
	Pauley reported out on the current status of curriculum updates.

d.	Campus Resource Council report
Had not met since our last Senate meeting.

e.	Sabbatical Leaves Committee report
	Two faculty members submitted for sabbatical and will be making presentations.

f.	Task Force on Learning Communities report
Both Bob Porter and Jennifer Parker were unable to be at this Senate meeting. The first meeting of this Task Force will be next Wed, Nov. 10 at 1:30 pm. The VC Foundation partially  funded Porter’s request for travel funds to attend the preeminent learning communities conference at Evergreen College in Washington. Sezzi will be working with Porter to identify additional funding sources so as many as 7-10 faculty may attend this conference in June 2011.  

g.	Professional Development Committee report
Nothing to report.

VII.	Action Items
a.	AP 4250 – Probation (Second Reading)
	Pauley moved that the senate approve AP 4250. Pollack seconded the motion that then unanimously carried. Hendricks was not present for this vote.

b.	Priority Registration for Student Athletes (Second Reading)
	Motion to approve Priority Registration for Student Athletes was made by Haines and seconded by Morris. Discussion revealed that many departments did get give feedback on this matter. The math department was divided on the issue, and the English department was against it as their classes are already too impacted. The motion carried 10-3-1 with the two Communication & Learning Resources reps and Pollack voting against, and Anderson from the Math division abstaining. Hendricks was not present for this vote.

c.	Senate Resolution on Finals Week
	Muñoz moved that the Senate adopt and carry forward to the Board of Trustees our resolution on finals week. Pollack seconded. The resolution carried unanimously, 13-0-0. Hendricks was not present for this vote.

d.	Accreditation Visit’s College Recommendations & Campus Response
	Please see the discussion under Study Session IV b. This item will be discussed further at the next senate meeting.

VIII.	Adjournment
	This meeting was adjourned at 3:30p.m.