COLUMBIA COLLEGE

ACADEMIC SENATE MEETING

APPROVED MINUTES

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Executive Committee Members:

Present: Kathy Schultz, Anne Cavagnaro, Micha Miller, Larry Steuben, Jeff Fitzwater, Joe Ryan, Craig Johnston, Gene Womble

Others Present: Dennis Albers, Randy Barton, Josh Bigelow, Vonna Breeze-Martin, Meryl Brooks, Laureen Campana, John Carter, Melissa Colon, Joe Doherty, Tim Elizondo, Brian Greene, Laurel Grindy, Michael Hill, Jerry Hodge, Tom Hofstra, Brian Jensen, Tom Johnson, Alicia Kolstad, Maryl Landess, John Leamy, Morgan McBride, Lynn Martin, Susan Medeiros, Ida Ponder, Jim Riggs, Rick Rivera, Don Smith, Kathy Sullivan, Laurie Sylwester, Jeff Tolhurst, Jim Toner , Guy Van Cleave, Sylvia Watterson, Adrienne Webster, Bill Wilson, and Jeri Perez (recorder)

Guests: Jillian Daly, Elbert James

The meeting was called to order at 3:10

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: for 4/13/07

ACTION: The minutes were approved as submitted

M/S/P (Kolstad/Landess)

ACTION AND DISCUSSION ITEMS:

1. Resolution SP07-A, Faculty Scholarship Awards (Second Draft)-Second Reading

Maryl Landess & Mike Hill

A Resolution to increase the Faculty Scholarship awards. New change is to add to the last clause the underlined words: “for other candidates, a minimum of $500 per candidate up to a maximum of five candidates and $2500 total.”

ACTION: Resolution accepted and passed as submitted

M/S/P (Landess/McBride) unanimously

2. Committees-Kathy Schultz

Kathy reviewed the committee form. Laureen has decided to step-down from the Wellness Committee. Laureen suggested the committee evolve from Staff and Faculty Wellness to Campus Wellness. Kathy suggested the committee meet and decide how they would like to proceed with changes and bring the plan back to the Senate. It was suggested that the committee could also be changed to Health and Wellness. If anyone is interested in being on this committee or any of the other committees that have openings, please contact Kathy by 8/29/07. Laureen also has a list of interested parties who signed up during the AWE fair. Other items related to the committee discussion were:

· If there are any Faculty positions open on a committee not listed on the handout, please let Kathy know

· Kathy will check to see if part-time faculty are allowed to participate on standing committees

· Next year, chairs of committees will be asked to forward information regarding open positions on their committees before summer break.

· There are specific faculty openings on the Curriculum Committee, Facilities Committee, College Scholarship and Staff Development.

· Committees that are open to campus wide participation include but are not limited to: Wellness, Technology, Graduation, Sustainability, Distance Education, SLO Taskforce, Academic Wellness.

3. Faculty Award Plaques-Larry Steuben

Currently we only have the large plaques located in the Rotunda for Teacher and Faculty of the Year. It would be nice if we could give a personal size plaque to the recipients of the awards to keep. Past Faculty award recipients at the meeting indicated they had received individual plaques. General agreement to do individual plaques if we can afford it. Jeri will check on the cost and report back.

4. Equivalency Policy and Procedures-Kathy Schultz

There have been some changes to the ED CODE and TITLE 5 that effects equivalency. Since Equivalency is granted District wide, the Board would like for the procedures to be the same throughout the District. Representatives from both colleges and the District met to go over revised procedures. The differences in size between the two colleges make it difficult to have the same procedures. MJC has an extra layer that we don’t need nor have enough faculty to implement. The new version of the equivalency policy and forms has been developed and Kathy will e-mail it out for everyone to look at. Please review the new policy and forms and let Kathy know what you think; she will be taking this feedback to the district wide group to finalize and bring back to the Senate for approval. The equivalency process at Columbia College is supposed to go as follows: Dean-A.S. President-equivalency committee (members in related discipline) –back to the Dean (There seemed to be some conflict in the actual process just listed. Kathy will look into it and iron out the details). Micha reminded Kathy that the A.S. needs to send an equivalency process letter to the Deans each fall semester.

5. A.S. Goals for 07-08- Kathy Schultz

Faculty who attended the Faculty Retreat were asked to come up with some ideas for goals they would like to see the Academic Senate achieve this year. The following items were suggested at the faculty retreat:

· Clean-up and clarify Flex. Possibly have our Flex on-line like MJC.

· Improve attendance at A.S. meetings. One idea is to have drawings for prizes (Laurie Sylwester is graciously donating some of her art items as prizes) at the meetings.

· Increase faculty get-togethers so that faculty have more opportunities to interact

· Equity in team teaching/Co-teaching.

· Equity in lecture/lab was mentioned and faculty were encouraged to pass their feedback on this issue to YFA reps, Gene Womble or Jillian Daly

The following items were mentioned at the A.S. meeting:

· There are Staff Development funds available; look for a packet with details to come out shortly on how you can apply for the funds.

· Faculty who have other goals they would like to submit are encouraged to send those to Kathy before the next A.S. meeting. At the next meeting these goals will be prioritized for the upcoming year.

6. New Position Proposal- Tim Elizondo

Tim asked the group as a whole for feedback on the need for replacing the open position in Speech and Drama. Do we want a proposal focusing on drama with speech capabilities or focus on speech with drama capabilities or two separate position proposals. Kathy suggested Tim work with both the A&S Dean and other faculty who have created hiring proposals to get the paperwork going. The Hiring Prioritization schedule is not yet out; however, we anticipate a Senate meeting to prioritize the proposals near the end of September.

OTHER INFORMATION ITEMS:

1. Faculty on District Hiring Committees- Kathy Schultz

Columbia College would like to have faculty representation on all District hiring committees that involve Columbia. Faculty have been included on three recent screening committees for facilities positions. Kathy asked Jon Sterling and Tim Nesmith to give us more notice of new hiring committees in order to find faculty who are available to participate on them.

REPORTS:

· Curriculum- Joe Ryan

(Joe had to leave early, Kathy gave a quick review)

1. Curriculum Committee needs the following positions filled:

Voc. Ed, At-Large and Faculty Intern (Rick Rivera may do the Spring At-Large position if someone else is interested in doing this Fall).

2. The new changes in Title 5 will affect curriculum. We will be absorbing and implementing the new changes as soon as possible. There will be training on stand alone courses Sept. 5.

3. There will be updates to Distance Education; new information will be coming out shortly

4. The District purchased Curricunet. The vendor will be working individually with each college. This new program is a tracking database which will be more online and less paper. The Campus wide implementation committee will include Joe Ryan, Kathy Schultz, Lynn Martin and Erik Andal.

· President Elect- Anne Cavagnaro

Due to the lack of time, Anne passed on reporting in detail about the MAC³Conference and will share the information at the AWE Retreat. Anne, Ida, Casey and Shannon went to the conference, MAC³ “Math Across the Community College Curriculum”, and found it to be a very informative conference. Ida and Anne will be spear heading the initiative in the Fall.

· Representative to the Board- David Baggett

David was at the In-service but was unable to attend the meeting since he needed to be at his division meeting at MJC. He sent a letter to Kathy which she read to the Senate.

1. David has arranged for Roe Darnell, the new District Chancellor, to visit classrooms at each college. He will be visiting Columbia on September 19^th, 8am-2pm. If you do not wish to have him visit your classroom, please let David know.

2. David expressed his pleasure in having a one-on-one conversation with Dr. Darnell and hearing the plans and interest he has for YCCD.

*If you are interested in more details on the letter from David, please contact Kathy

· Distance Education Rep.-Melissa Colon

1. Melissa reported that Marty Gang and the Distance Education committee is working with a consultant to develop the College’s Distance Education Plan and it is going very well.

2. Dr. Smith has identified a grant writer who will work with the Distance Ed Committee to apply for some Title 3 grant funds for Distance Ed. (The grant writer is only receiving payment if we receive a grant)

· President- Kathy Schultz

Kathy discussed the main points of the Community College Initiative, which will be on the next statewide ballot.

1. Within the Prop 98 Funding Formula, Separate Community Colleges from K-12

2. Allowing for the Chancellor to select own Vice Chancellors in system office

3. Fee Reduction

Due to the lack of time, Kathy will send out an e-mail covering some topics not mentioned in her report.

1. Faculty Retreat

2. Hot Topics from the State Academic Senate

3. Hot Topics on Campus

· Kathy thanked faculty who have volunteered to be mentors for the new faculty.

· The Board of Trustees expressed an interest in student activities and would like the colleges to share some of the student programs. The last few have been from MJC so we will start alternating with MJC in presenting to the Board each month. Columbia will be presenting the following:

1. September- Vonna Breeze-Martin will inform the Board about the Spain trip this last summer.

2. November-(At Columbia) Update and information on the Middle College program.

Anne mentioned she would like the Career Tools For Excellence course presented if possible.

ADJOURNMENT:

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 pm by Kathy to the Presentation by a FACCC representative and a YFA update.