Ventura College Academic Senate
Minutes
Thursday, October 15, 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
Arquilevich, Gabriel – Communication & Learning Resources
Aubry, Michael – Career & Technical Education 
Guillen, Guadalupe – Student Services
Hagerman, Michelle – Math & Sciences
Haines, Robert – Math & Sciences
Lange, Cari – Senate Secretary
Mitchell, Nancy Rae - Career & Technical Education 
Morris, Terry – health, Physical Education and Athletics
Pauley, Mark – Senate Treasurer
Pollack, Deborah - Senate Vice-president
Schoenrock, Kathryn – Communication & Learning Resources
Sezzi, Peter - Senate President
Suel, Tim (subbing for Munoz, Paula) - Student Services

The following guests were present:
Alcala, Richard – student rep
Calote, Robin – President
Turner, Steve - Student Services

II.	Approval of minutes
a.	October 1, 2009
	Motion to approve last meeting’s minutes was made by Morris, and seconded by Guillen. The following corrections were made: noted in section V.e for AP72XX (7211) was the fact that the Senate members had agreed that the process should be evaluated after a one year period. Also modified was the language in section V.f. to note that Bransky and Mitchell are in communication with one another regarding the Student Discipline Board Policy and Administrative Procedures.
	Motion was approved 12-0-2 with Turner and Schoenrock abstaining. 

III.	Guests
a.	Alex Miranda – Time Certain:  1:35 pm (15 minutes)
	Dr. Miranda was unable to make his presentation at this meeting. He will be rescheduled for a Senate meeting during the Spring 2010 semester. 

b.	Robin Calote – Time Certain: 1:50 pm (15 minutes)
	Dr. Calote was present to conduct a Question and Answer / “rumor busting” session and to address general concerns. During the 20 minute session Dr. Calote was openly candid and the conversation was seen as beneficial.
	Q: How accurate are recent newspaper articles referencing future layoffs for VCCCD?
	A: Recent news articles have been based on pure speculation.
	Q: What is the current status of the IT reorganization?
	A: There is a move to make IT a more centralized department within the district. The end result of this reorganization will likely result in more IT personnel on the VC campus.
	Q: Instead of being told to cut a certain number of class sections, why can’t departments be given a dollar amount to work with in order to best budget for their particular needs?
	A: Keebler and Sanchez are working on developing a system like this. The budget would be presented to each division dean, and it would be up to the deans to work with their departments to use the budget according to department needs. 
	Q: What is the status of administration cuts?
	A: VC is anticipating another 2 million dollar budget cut next academic year. However, VC is hovering near a violation of the 50% law (one-half of the budget must be spent on student instruction) so future cuts are likely to come from administration and other non-instructional sources. 
	Further, VC has borne the brunt of the burden to this point, so future budget cuts, which may near 5 million dollars the year after next, will more heavily target the other district campuses. The district reserves will be used over the next two years to ease the impact of these additional budget cuts. 

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 
Program review - The following members were approved by consent: 
Career & Tech Ed:  Sandy Melton 
Communication & Learning Resources: Stacy Sloan-Graham, Deborah Pollack
Math & Science:  Cari Lange, Gigi Fiumerodo 
PE & Athletics:  Larry Barette, Valerie Greenberg 
Social Science & Humanities:  Jennifer Parker 
Student Services: Bea Herrera, Tim Suel 
Econ Devel & Off-Campus:  Art Sandford
Senate President:  Peter Sezzi

Staffing Priorities – The following faculty members are on the committee: 

Peter Sezzi                     Academic Senate President                            
Deborah Pollack           Academic Senate Vice-President
Mark Pauley                  Academic Senate Treasurer
Cari Lange                      Academic Senate Secretary 
Becky Hull                      Past Academic Senate President
VACANT		    General Education                                    1st year 
Sumita Lall                     General Education                                    2nd year
VACANT 		    Voc/Tech                                                    1st year
VACANT                         Student Services                                       1st year
Patty Wendt                   At Large                                                     2nd year
Kammy Algiers               At Large                                                     2nd  year

	Sezzi will distribute an all users e-mail to elicit the filling of the one remaining General Education position. If more than one person volunteers for the position, there will be an e-mail vote among the Academic Senate Council to elect this remaining vacancy. The vacancies for Voc/Tech and Student Services will be determined by those divisions. A deadline of Thursday, Oct 22 at 12 noon will be in force for persons interested in filling the General Education slot on this committee. The Voc/Tech and Student Services must inform Sezzi by that date as well who their representatives to this committee will be. 
	The Staffing Priorities Committee will meet on Friday, November 13, 2009. VC should be getting replacement positions for this coming academic year. The staffing priorities will convene to determine growth positions only. It was suggested that staffing priorities be allowed to rank replacement positions as well, however, Sezzi stated that this would be logistically problematic and that the current process of the SPC ranking only growth faculty positions was very successful last year.  
	Approval of the appointed members and the procedure/timeline for filling the remaining positions was motioned by Arquilevich and seconded by Haines. The motion passed without dissent.

b.	AAUP Statement on Professional Ethics (First & Second Reading requested)
	Sezzi reported that the other Senates are also addressing the proposed statement on professional ethics, and essentially rejecting the original language put forward by the district board. Oxnard College has rejected the proposed statement and voted to accept the AAUP statement. Moorpark College is line editing the proposed statement, and the classified senate rejected the proposed statement and is working on an alternate code of ethics.
	Schoenrock motioned to accept the AAUP statement on Professional Ethics for Ventura College. Haines seconded. The Senate unanimously approved this adoption. 

c.	AP 5701 on Athletics Programs (First Reading) 
	First reading of this academic procedure revealed that minor changes to the language should be addressed. Richard Alcala noted that the procedure should address athletics as they pertain to “California Community College students”, not merely “California students” as not all of our student athletes are California residents. Further clarification is also needed to note that student athletes need to be progressing satisfactorily towards the completion of a degree, not that a degree must be completed. 
	This procedure will be up for voting as a second reading action item during the next Academic Senate meeting to be held on Nov. 19, 2009.

VI.	Information Items
	Kathryn Schoenrock was honored to be nominated to serve on the Statewide Academic Senate Basic Skills Committee, but declined due to the fact that she will be on sabbatical leave during the Spring 2010 semester. 

VII.	President’s Report
a.	Administrative Council report 
Sezzi distributed a handout that he received at Admin Council that focused on student enrollment priorities. DCSL will address enrollment priorities at its next meeting. The Academic Senate will address this item as an action item during our next meeting. Preliminary discussion revealed that the proposed enrollment priority procedure needs to be reworked to some extent. Of particular concern was the fact that the proposed procedure limits the number of repeats for unsatisfactory grade replacement to two repeats, not up to three as allowed for by Title V.  
	It was noted that the special admit procedure requiring instructors to sign off on course admission for K-10 grade students will go into effect for the Spring 2010 semester.
	The Senate was also informed that course prerequisite enforcement procedures are being addressed by division deans and counselors. 

b.	Board of Trustees meeting report
	Sezzi regrettably reported that despite his speaking out against the elimination of the campus Public Information Officer position, the board approved this action 3-2.  Sezzi also spoke out against the IT reorganization but the board also approved that reorganization/centralization by a  4-1 vote. 
	On a brighter note, both the Ventura College Mission Statement and Educational Master Plan, were unanimously approved at this Board meeting.

VIII.	Vice-President’s Report
a.	Senate Goals for 2009-10 Report Out 
	Many ideas were collected during the last senate meeting. The establishment of an honors program and addressing campus bookstore policies were among the top vote getters. The Senate Executive panel will organize a plan for which of the listed goals can be addressed this academic year.

b.	One Book, One Campus
	Pollack was pleased to announce that the Muhammad Yunus book, Creating a World Without Poverty, was the book selected for Spring 2010 and Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire was chosen for Fall 2010.

IX.	Treasurer’s Report
	Senate was reminded that the dues drive will be held in November. 

X.	Campus Committee reports
a.	Curriculum Committee report
	Senate was asked to encourage our colleagues to update their course outlines.

b.	Faculty Professional Development Committee report
	October 22, 2009- Detecting and preventing plagiarism.
	November’s workshop will be a collaborative effort on classroom management of the disruptive student. 

c.	Core College Design Team report
	Keebler is beginning to organize the Core College Design Team into action. 

XI.	Adjournment
	The meeting was adjourned at 3:22 p.m.