Ventura College Academic Senate
Minutes
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Campus Center Conference Room

I.	Call to Order
This meeting was called to order at 1:33 p.m. The following senate members were present:

Anderson, Lisa - Math & Sciences
Aubry, Michael – Career & Technical Education 
Corbett, P. Scott – Social Sciences & Humanities
Guillen, Guadalupe – Student Services
Haines, Robert – Math & Sciences
Lange, Cari – Senate Secretary
Mitchell, Nancy Rae - Career & Technical Education 
Morris, Terry – health, Physical Education and Athletics
Munoz, Paula - Student Services
Pauley, Mark – Senate Treasurer
Pollack, Deborah - Senate Vice-president
Schoenrock, Kathryn – Communication & Learning Resources
Sezzi, Peter - Senate President

The following guests were present:
Martin, Rebecca – student rep
Alcala, Richard – student rep
Sales, Enoch Nino – student rep
Beem, Joan - Career & Technical Education
Turner, Steve – Student Services

II.	Approval of minutes
a.	September 17, 2009
Motion to approve last meeting’s minutes was made by Haines, and seconded by Mitchell. The following corrections were made: Guillen, Guadalupe – Student Services, is noted as a regular, not substitute representative and Steve Turner was serving as the Student Service representative alternate. Motion was approved 7-1-4 with Guillen voting no. Anderson was not present for voting.
 
III.	Guests
a.	Alex Miranda – Time Certain:  1:35 pm (20 minutes)
Dr. Miranda was unable to make his presentation at this meeting. He will be rescheduled for the following Senate meeting on October 15, 2009. 

IV.	Discussion Items
a.	Institutional Research Board
Dr. Miranda’s absence precluded us from discussing this agenda item.

V.	Action Items
a.	District & College Committee Appointments
Munoz asked that we all inform our colleagues that in addition to serving on committees, we are able to attend many of the district sub-committee meetings even though we are unable to formally serve on them. Sezzi noted that faculty may also be more actively involved at the Senate level where they would have the ability to more directly affect change. Further, faculty is encouraged, but not obligated, to allow the Senate and designated committee representatives to serve as the collective, unified, and strong voice of the faculty body. Corbett and others echoed this sentiment. 

b.	Core College Design Team Faculty At-Large Appointments
		As per assignment at the last Senate meeting, each division representative was responsible for collecting the names of division representatives for the Core College Design Team. Each division rep to the Senate forwarded a faculty name to Sezzi to serve as their divisional representative on the Core College Design Team. The names were as follows: 
    Joan Beem (Career & Technical Education), Simon Waltzer (Communication &Learning Resources), Dan Kumpf (Math & Sciences), Ned Mirectic (Physical Education, Athletics & Health Education), Mark Pauley (Social Sciences & Humanities), Bea Herrera (Student Services), Art Sandford (Economic Development & Off-Campus Programs) and Peter Sezzi (Academic Senate President). 
The Senate members were also asked to forward names for the three “At Large” seats on this committee. Five faculty names were forwarded: Jan Archibald, Mike Clark, Karen Harrison, Paula Munoz and Steve Turner. The Senate Council voted on the At Large members. For these seats, priority was given to candidates from diverse divisions where two appointed representatives may bring vastly different viewpoints of the systemic functioning of the college to the design team. 
The At Large positions were voted on by the Senate Council with the top three vote getters being appointed. The top three were Mike Clark, Paula Munoz and Steve Turner. Karen Harrison from Student Services was voted as the first alternate, and Jan Archibald from Math and Science was voted in as the second alternate.
	Discussion then centered on the role that faculty will serve while on the Core College Design Team. It was motioned by Schoenrock and seconded by Mitchell that all faculty who serve on this committee shall represent the college at large and not be advocates for their own particular departments or divisions. The motion passed without dissent.

c.	District Drafts of Procedures/Forms for “Vehicle & Transportation” and “Student Travel, Field Trip and Excursions” (Second Reading)
	Modifications were made to the form’s statements regarding accessibility accommodations.
	The Senate acknowledges that while the documents are quite lengthy and may be cumbersome, with these modifications they are procedurally sound. 
	A motion to accept these modified procedures was made by Pauley and seconded by Morris. The motion was unanimously approved.

d.	Senate Resolution on Program Discontinuance (Second Reading)
	Corbett moved that the Senate accept the resolution of Program Discontinuance. Morris seconded. Motion carried 12-0-1 with Mitchell abstaining. 

e.	DCHR:  AP72XX (now 7211) (Third Reading)
	Sezzi noted that an “updated” version of BP 7211, Minimum Qualifications and Equivalencies, was presented at DCHR. He voted in favor of BP7211 at the last DCHR meeting as there were only minor wording revisions that served to clarify the procedure and to bring it in line with recent changes in Title 5. The “updated” version was distributed to the Council.
	AP7211- concern still centered around how these district wide ad hoc committees to evaluate equivalencies would be implemented after the beginning of the semester and a vacancy still exists, in what used to be dubbed as an “emergency hire” situation.  Sezzi recommends that the Senate propose a separate process to address this issue. 
	Discussion led to the following alterations (in bold) to part B, Procedure for the Determination of Equivalency, section 2: “Composition of the subcommittee(s) includes one tenured faculty member in the discipline from each of the colleges in the District serving as the only voting members of the committee, an Academic Senate President serving in an ex-officio capacity, and a Human Resources representative responsible for meeting facilitation.” Senate members agreed that this process should be evaluated after a one year trial period.
	With these revisions, Corbett motioned to pass this procedure and it was seconded by Anderson. The motion was unanimously approved.

f.	Student Discipline Board Policy and Administrative Procedures: BP 5500; AP5500, AP 5520, AP 5530 (Second Reading)
	Mitchell has been communicating with David Bransky to determine the appropriate course of action and document language to address the issue of professional and moral codes of conduct in such fields as Criminal Justice and Nursing. These fields often have regulated codes of ethics that must be adhered to and are not addressed in the current draft of these procedures. For this reason Mitchell and Beem both asked that the Senate postpone voting on these procedures until this modification can be made.
	Haines motioned that the Senate tables Student Discipline Board Policy and Administrative Procedures: BP 5500; AP5500, AP 5520, AP 5530. Morris seconded. The motion to table these procedures was unanimously approved. When Mitchell has appropriate language to insert in these BPs and APs, she will send them to Sezzi, at which time these documents will be picked up from the table and agendized at the subsequent Senate meeting.

g.	Employee Code of Ethics: BP 7205 (First Reading) & AAUP Statement on Professional Ethics
	Munoz motioned to reject BP 7205, Employee Code of Ethics. Schoenrock seconded the motion. All Senate members voted in favor of rejecting BP 7205.
	The AAUP Statement on Professional Ethics will appear as a first and second reading agenda item for the next Senate meeting. Consideration will be given to adopting this statement as our Employee Code of Ethics.

VI.	Information Items
	Munoz passed out copies of the District Office’s mission statement that was approved last June.

VII.	President’s Report
a.	Administrative Council report 
	Nothing to report.

b.	DCAS/DCSL/DCHR/DTRW/DACW reports
	DCAS- Sezzi rejected the proposed budget at DCAS in part because of the manner in which budgetary decision making was made at the local level. However, Sezzi reported that the budget passed.
i.	DCSL: Possible revisions APs 4021, 4100
Sezzi expressed his frustration at not knowing when to bring things to Senate from his District Office meetings. He explained that he prefers to bring “final” drafts to the Senate for review but he also noted that presently most “final” drafts seem to be moving targets. Soon  after we approve or make modifications to a BP or AP, a more “updated” version appears. He used the example of AP 4100, which is an AP on Program Discontinuance. He carried forward our Senate’s recommendations but he brought back to our Senate the fact that this AP has not been formally adopted yet because at DCSL we are still discussing how to define the word “program.” Discussion centered on this specific problematic definition and the Senate Council was in favor of defining the word program as: “Any course of study that leads to a certificate or degree and/or anything that supports student activities at a college within the District.”

c.	Board of Trustees meeting report
	The Board held an emergency closed door session on Tuesday, Sept 30 but there was no report out on what happened.

VIII.	Vice-President’s Report
a.	Senate Goals for 2009-10 / Idea Gathering 
	Cards were distributed to collect ideas from the Senators on what goals the Academic Senate should set for this year. Faculty input to each senator is encouraged.

b.	One Book, One Campus
	The first meeting will be held on October 8, 2009 to begin planning for the next two cycles on One Book, One Campus.

IX.	Treasurer’s Report
		Senate is planning for the dues drive in November with a separate scholarship drive in January or February. Pauley also noted that last Spring, the VC Academic Senate established with the VC Foundation a $10,000 endowment for student scholarships. 

X.	Campus Committee reports
a.	Curriculum Committee report
	Meeting is to be held 10/6/09

b.	Faculty Professional Development Committee report
	There will be an up coming seminar focusing on the prevention and detection of plagiarism on Thursday, Oct 22.

XI.	Adjournment
	The meeting was adjourned at 3:39 p.m.