Ventura College Academic Senate
Thursday, April 21, 2011
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:
	
Chen, Albert - Social Sciences & Humanities
Drake, Ken - Career and Technical Education
Gardner, Ty- Math & Sciences
Guillen, Guadalupe - Student Services
Haines, Robbie - Math & Sciences	
Hendricks, Bill – Social Science & Humanities
Kolesnik, Alex - Math & Sciences	
Lange, Cari – Senate Secretary
Mitchell, Nancy – Career and Technical Education	
	Muñoz, Paula – Student Services
	Parker, Jennifer- Child Development
Pauley, Mark- Senate Treasurer/ Curriculum Co-chair
Penuela, Alan – Career and Technical Education
Pollack, Deborah – Senate Vice-President 
Sezzi, Peter – Senate President

The following guests were present:
	Algiers, Kammy - Math & Sciences
	Herrera, Bea - Student Services

II.	Public Comments
Bea Herrera spoke out against AP 7205, the Employee Code of Ethics, on the grounds that it outlines consequences for exhibiting unethical behavior and specifically cites such California Education Codes as section 87732. Herrera stated that a Code of Ethics should not be a detailed guide for circumventing the existing discipline/termination process and encouraged the Senate to vote it down.

Sezzi indicated that he had further information pertinent to the subject, and subsequently Haines motioned that we address agenda action item VIII c, AP 7205 – Employee Code of Ethics (First Reading) immediately. This was seconded by Gardner and unanimously approved. Discussion appears under action item III c below.

Pauley motioned, Hendricks seconded, and all approved that the agenized action items be moved to the top of the agenda for this meeting.

III.	Action Items (moved up from item VIII as noted above)
a.	Proposed Changes to VC Academic Senate By-Laws
Sezzi informed the Council of the proposed updates to the Senate By-Laws to reflect necessary changes in our outdated Senate Committee structure.  The proposed By-Laws changes deleted sections of the current Senate By-Laws that have been superseded and reordered the numbering of articles within the By-Laws. Sezzi noted that these proposed changes were initiated and/or reviewed and approved by the committees that these By-Laws govern.  So, in effect, this By-Laws update simply ratifies what these committees either already do or need to do.

Round table discussion revealed that one or two of the proposed deletions are actually viable sub-committees (Student Services Committee and Financial Aid Committee) and should be included in the ratification. Sezzi agreed to talk to the appropriate faculty members about these particular committees in order to include them in the ratified listing.

It was motioned by Guillen that Sezzi moves forward with presenting the ratification, with the potential modifications, to the entire faculty population for vote. This was seconded by Hendricks and unanimously carried. 
 
b.	Ventura College Integrated Planning, Program Review & Resource Allocation Model Handbook (First Reading)
Gardner motioned and Pauley seconded to move this to a second reading at the next Academic Senate meeting. All approved. 

c.	AP 7205 – Employee Code of Ethics
Sezzi informed the Senate and guests that following the previous senate meeting he contacted the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Accreditation Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) to ask if the Employee Code of Ethics needs to be a single document in order to meet the Accreditation Standard III.A.1.d., or if each group of employees may adopt their own Code of Ethics. The Vice-President at ACCJC that Sezzi talked to noted that we could in fact have different Employee Codes of Conduct as long as they were all presented as one group document. This allows faculty to reaffirm the AAUP Code of Ethics while other groups of employees affirm the Code of Ethics suitable to their area. Sezzi also informed us that Moorpark College recently voted down AP 7205.

Muñoz motioned that we reject AP 7205 and reaffirm the AAUP Faculty Code of Ethics. Hendricks seconded this motion which was approved by acclimation. 

IV.	Approval of minutes
Motion to approve the minutes from the previous Academic Senate meeting was made by Pauley, seconded by Gardner, and unanimously carried.

V.	Acknowledgement of Guests
There were no guests at this time.

VI.	Announcements
a.	VCF/Osher/Senate Endowed Scholarship Update
Sezzi reminded us that there is a deadline of the end of the semester to make contributions to the Senate Endowed Scholarship fund. To date we have $810.

b.	Ventura College Academic Senate Faculty Awards
Sezzi will be placing nomination forms in faculty mail boxes next week. Forms were distributed to the Council and members were highly encouraged to nominate fellow faculty.

c.	Ventura College Faculty Satisfaction Survey
The annual survey, as discussed and approved by the Senate earlier in the semester will be sent out to all faculty next week.

VII.	President’s Report
a.	Administrative Council report
Sezzi outlined the stipulations for receiving a travel stipend for attending the Summer Institute for Teaching Effectiveness.

b.	Board of Trustees Meeting report
Sezzi reported out on the six hour long March BOT meeting. While no full time classified staff was laid off at Ventura College, there were a substantial number let go at the other two campuses which will create district wide “bumping.” It will take a couple of months for us to know the full effect of the staff reassignments. We did have two child development staff positions reduced to 80%. Sezzi also reported that the management intern position was voted down by the board 4-1. 

c.	Statewide Academic Senate Spring Plenary report
Sezzi informed the Senate on the results of the statewide Senate resolutions. He also informed the Senate about upcoming changes from the state Chancellor’s Office about course repeatability. 

VIII.	Campus Committee reports
a.	Curriculum Committee report
i.	SB 1440 Degrees
Pauley reported out that the psychology program has been approved and that the Communications program is ready for board approval.

b.	Student Learning Outcomes Oversight Group report
Gardner reminded the Senate that there is a deadline goal of Friday, April 29, 2011 for all programs to submit the next stage of their SLO evaluations. 

c.	Learning Communities Task Force report
No report.
d.	Program Assessment Rubric Development Task Force report
   	The task force has been hard at work developing a proposed Program Review Sustainability Rubric. A draft was passed out to the Senate Council for review and to share with their divisions. This rubric will be agenized as an action item for the next Senate meeting.
IX.	Adjournment
The regular Academic Senate session adjourned at 2:32 pm and other constituencies joined the body to begin functioning as the new College Planning Council (CPC), the participatory governance group charged with establishing the program review/integrated planning parameters for the 2011-2012 academic year.