March 04, 2013 Meeting
Agenda
Academic Senate Meeting
Taft College
Monday, March 4, 2013
Cougar Room
Call to Order
Public Commentary
Approval of Minutes, February 4, 2013
Agenda
- IT update and document – Tony Thompson – 20 minutes
- Sabbatical Process – Eric Berube – 10 minutes
- “State of the College” forums – Tony Thompson – 2 minutes
- Wednesday, March 13th @ 1:30 – Cougar Room
- Tuesday, March 19th @ 3:00 – Cougar Room
- Strategic Planning Update – David Layne – 5 minutes
Old Business (If time allows; otherwise tabled until next meeting)
Discussion of WL numbers
Other
President’s Report
Next meeting – Monday, April 1, 2013
Minutes
Taft College Academic Senate Minutes
Monday, March 4, 2013 Cougar Conference Room
Attendees: President Tony Thompson, Vice President David Layne, Secretary Linda West,
Jennifer Altenhofel, Kanoe Bandy, David Berry, Eric Bérubé, Darcy Bogle, Bill Devine, Geoffrey Dyer, Sharyn Eveland, Tori Furman, Greg Golling, Dan Hall, Vicki Herder, Brian Jean, Craig Johnson,
Diane Jones, Tim Markowitz, Julian Martinez, Mike Mayfield, Michelle Oja, Ruby Payne, Joseph Polizzotto, David Reynolds, Sonja Swenson, Susan Vaughn
The meeting was called to order at 12:11 p.m.
Public Commentary
None
Review of February 4, 2013 Senate Minutes
A motion was made by Vicki Herder and seconded by Michelle Oja to approve the minutes as presented. The motion carried.
ITS Issue Update and Document – Tony Thompson
Tony met with Dr. Maloney and Adrian Agundez to discuss Academic Senate concerns regarding the IT Department. Dr. Maloney expressed her alarm at the lack of communication. The miscommunication could be attributed, in part, to an inconsistent service request system and no clear feedback process.
Adrian was asked to develop an action plan to address the areas of concern expressed by the Senate and provide a completion date for resolving the issues. Areas of concern, proposed actions, and completion dates are summarized below.
- Acknowledgement of requests for service with follow up and completion of requested service.
Proposed action: Develop a user friendly menu for the TC service request system. The system will send an acknowledgment to the user submitting a request. Provide proper training of the IT work order system to the entire campus. In addition, add a webpage to the ITS site listing all in- progress or unassigned requests. Completion date of May 1st
- Service requests not completed in a timely manner and/or lack of follow up regarding request status.
Proposed action: Establish service level responses and inform service requestor with an estimated completion date. Provide service status updates at timely intervals. Notify requestor by email when service request has been completed. Completion date of May 1st
- ITS office does not provide sufficient support to faculty and staff working at
Proposed action: ITS department staff hours have been adjusted to accommodate evening hours. The ITS department will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday during Fall and Spring semesters. Completion date of March 4th
- Data is lost when computers or laptops are sent to ITS for
Proposed action: Back up instructions will be provided to all uses requesting a computer rebuild. ITS staff will request confirmation from the user that the data is backed up before deleting the hard drive. “Favorites” and “My Documents” folders will be available on the college fileserver drive to provide staff with a convenient location to copy their IE favorites and documents before a computer is serviced. Completion date of April 1st
- A more timely response is needed for classroom hardware
Proposed action: ITS will test classroom computers and AV systems prior to the start of classes each semester. A TCSR ticket will be created and signed off that the room was tested and checked for problems. All classroom service requests will be added to the TCSR system.
Completion date of April 1st
- A more timely response is needed for removing unnecessary equipment from
Proposed action: Any request for equipment removal will be completed by the next business day. Completion date of March 1st
After reviewing the ITS document, the Senate made some suggestions and comments. It was suggested that faculty might benefit from an in-service session regarding effective backup procedures. Darcy Bogle stated that data was lost in the past not because of user oversight, but because IT wasn’t backing up the data on their end. In addition, there was concern that extending the ITS staffing hours to the evening would mean less help would be available at other times of the day. Sonja Swenson thought they might consider extending the coverage beyond 7:00 p.m. to better accommodate evening classes.
Sabbatical Process Update – Eric Bérubé
Eric Bérubé presented another draft of the Faculty Sabbatical Leave Handbook for Senate review and comment. The latest draft incorporated the modifications suggested at the February 4th Senate meeting.
A motion was made by Diane Jones to accept the draft as a working document. The motion was seconded by Brian Jean. The motion carried unanimously. The document will be forwarded to the bargaining unit for approval.
“State of the College” Forums – Tony Thompson
Dr. Maloney will be presenting two sessions regarding the “state of the college”. Sessions will be held on Wednesday, March 13th at 1:30 p.m. and Tuesday, March 19th at 3:00 p.m. Both sessions will be held in the Cougar Room and all are invited to attend.
Strategic Planning Update – David Layne
David reported that the Strategic Planning Committee is interested in looking at results and feedback regarding the planning process. He also stated that the college will be reporting under the new standards during the upcoming accreditation process and it appears they’re leaning towards a comprehensive review.
Budget Subcommittee Update – Sonja Swenson
Sonja’s update is included as an attachment to this document.
Other – Tony Thompson
A motion was made by Diane Jones to recognize Patti Bench for her contribution of twenty-four years of service to the district and confer upon her the title of Professor Emeritus at her retirement. The motion was seconded by Vicki Herder. The motion carried unanimously.
Waiting List Numbers – Brian Jean
A discussion regarding the use of waiting list numbers for planning purposes was continued from February’s Senate meeting. Darcy Bogle stated that the number of students permitted on a waiting list is a local decision. Wait lists are currently limited to a total of twelve (12) students. Darcy stated a report could be generated of wait listed students and the numbers could be useful in the program review process.
After some discussion about the number of students to permit on a wait list, a motion was made by Diane Jones to increase all wait lists to thirty (30) students. The motion was seconded by Vicki Herder. The motion carried. The recommendation will be forwarded to the Office of Instruction.
President’s Report – Tony Thompson
None
Meeting was adjourned at 12:57 p.m.
The next meeting is scheduled for 12:10-1:00 p.m. on Monday, April 1st. Respectfully submitted by
Linda West Attachment
Swenson’s Report to faculty
Report from Budget Committee of the Governance Council
The committee met for the first time in several months on Tuesday, February 5, 2013. Dr. Dena Maloney served as facilitator of the meeting.
There were 3 agenda items:
1 Review of the Budget Committee Charter
- The members present described the activities of the committee last fall
- The collected group evaluated the effectiveness of the former process
- It was decided that “costing” projects was not the best use of the members’ time and level of
- It was agreed that as TC moves through the ongoing process of program Therefore it would be a collective waste of the committee’s time to continue with the “costing” activity.
- e) Maloney stated that as a representative committee our charge should be to understand the budget process and share that understanding with our respective constituents
2 Community college Funding and Budget Process (led by Dena Maloney)
Dr. Maloney presented a printout of a PowerPoint which will likely be uploaded to the TC intranet website. We also received a copy of California’s Community College League 2013-14 Budget Points from Dr. Maloney
NOTE: I have a copy of both which I will keep in a binder in my office should any faculty want to see it or discuss it. I will attempt to get a copy of all materials placed on reserve in the TC library so that any TC employee who desires to do so can see the documents.
Over the years I have been at TC I have acquired a basic understanding of the typical budget of a community college, which some of you also have, but I learned several things at this meeting.
Therefore, I will focus on what was new information and the current challenges/threats to our funding for this year.
- In the 2012-2013 TC budget the percentage of revenue from local property taxes is 67%
- SB 361 passed in 2006 leveled the playing field for all community college in CA. That resulted in a revision of the way districts are funded. At that time there were 6 districts including West Kern CCD whose FTES funding under the old formula was higher than the new SB361 equalized funding. These districts had their existing base FTES at that time d
- PBF base “grandfathered” at their old rate – any new FTES they produced after that point in time is funded at the SB361 equalized rate in 2011-12, the District generated 2478 FTES.
- “Lottery revenues are Unrestricted General Fund revenues that “shall be used exclusively for the education of pupils and students.” No funds shall be spent for acquisition of real property, construction of facilities, financing of research, or any other noninstructional purpose” (GC 8880.5).
- There are several items in the Governor’s proposed budget which could have a significant impact on the amount we receive from the state this year. One item is a
$197 M in new funds which may be used to restore access (adding sections and serving more students) and/or COLA. The legislature is working on its own budget proposal which then will be negotiated with the Governor to produce a state budget for 2013- 14.We will not know the final budget for the community college system until that process is completed in June. Additionally, the Governor has proposed some policy changes including a funding formula based on completion rather than on the current census- date formula we have today
Discussions will continue between the administrators and the community college systems, and I would hope between the State level Academic Senate and the community college system. Tony Thompson would be the source of information about this topic at the state level AS.
- Proposed expansion of statewide online instruction through a proposed “portal” where students could locate a needed class with space available at any college in the This would enable students to continue progressing along their choose degree/certificate pathway by eliminating the obstacle of no available space in their local CC.
The Governor has proposed moving Adult Education to the community colleges rather than through K-12Passage of Prop 39 will generate an estimated $46M for the community college system. The Governor has proposed that these funds be used for launching new green energy programs and/or funding campus retrofits so that campuses are more energy efficient. This is also subject to discussion and negotiation between the legislature and the Governor, with input from the Chancellor’s Office.
3 Next Steps
- Decided to continue to meet monthly and next meeting will be in March