Whereas, the Academic Senate recognizes and values the importance of sabbaticals and the benefit that they bring to the District, students and fellow faculty, and;

Whereas, the Academic Senate acknowledges the dedication, professionalism and work ethic of faculty members who take sabbaticals, and;

Whereas, the Academic Senate endorses the Ventura College published goal of “continuously improve[ing] educational programs and services to meet student, community, and workforce development needs,” as stated in the Ventura College Educational Master Plan, and sabbaticals are a way in which this goal of faculty enrichment is met, and;

Whereas, the Academic Senate values the work that faculty on sabbaticals bring back to the institution in the way of new curriculum and programs created, new teaching methodologies and pedagogies learned and explored, individual continued academic development brought to the individual instructor, and honor brought to the institution by individual scholarly research and publication, and;

Whereas, the Academic Senate gratefully thanks the hard work, scrutiny and careful review performed by the Ventura College Sabbatical Leaves and District Sabbatical Leaves Committees in evaluating and ranking the sabbatical proposals using contract section 8.6M of their fellow faculty, and;

Whereas, the Academic Senate strongly agrees that faculty should be held accountable for the work performed during a sabbatical and we look forward to further showcasing the productive works achieved by faculty during their sabbaticals during future meetings of the Faculty Professional Development Committee and the Academic Senate, amongst other places;

Therefore, Be It Resolved, that the Academic Senate considers any changes made to the contact concerning sabbaticals as detrimental to the academic integrity of the institution, the faculty, the community and the District but most importantly, any changes would be to the detriment of our students.

Presented to the Senate Council for First Reading Feb 4, 2010; Presented as a Second Reading and Adopted Feb. 18, 2010.