November 02, 2015 Meeting

Agenda

TAFT COLLEGE ACADEMIC SENATE MEETING

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2015 12:00PM—1:00PM, COUGAR ROOM

Call to Order Public Commentary Approval of Minutes from October 21, 2015 Meeting
AGENDA
Information/Discussion Items
1. Faculty Position Requests Postponed/Title 5 Requirements on Action
and Voting—Dyer—1 Minute
2. Online Education Initiative: Responses to Canvas—Hall—9 Minutes
Action Items
3. Distance Education Committee Proposal/Charter (First Reading)—
Hall—10 Minutes
4. SLOASC Charter Revisions (First Reading)—Jacobi—10 Minutes
5. New Athletics Program Proposal: Golf (First Reading)—Bandy—10
Minutes
6. Taft College Academic Senate Constitution and Bylaws—Dyer —10
Minutes
Other Adjournment
Next meeting is Wednesday, November 18, at 12:00pm in the Cougar Room. Tentative agenda items are 3-6 (above), tutoring, actions to maintain accreditation, AB 288 (Dual Enrollment), and report on ASCCC Fall Plenary.

Minutes

Taft College Academic Senate Minutes

Monday, Nov. 2, 2015

Cougar Conference Room

Members Present: President Geoffrey Dyer, Vice President Vicki Jacobi, Jennifer Altenhofel, Kanoe Bandy, Paul Blake, Adam Bledsoe, Jill Brown, Joe’ll Chaidez, Bill Devine, Candace Duron, John Eigenauer, Sharyn Eveland, Tori Furman, Shelley Getty, Greg Golling, Lourdes Gonzalez, Jessica Grimes, Gary Graupman, Dan Hall, Abbas Jarrahian, Diane Jones, Danielle Kerr, Kelly Kulzer-Reyes, David Layne, Steve Lytle, Julian Martinez, Mariza Martinez, Mike Mayfield, Janis Mendenhall, Tina Mendoza, Michelle Oja, Ruby Payne, Joseph Polizzotto, Robin Polski, Natalie Ramirez, Juana Rangel-Escobedo, Joy Reynolds, Terri Smith, Lori Sundgren, Tony Thompson, and Susan Vaughan.

The meeting was called to order at 12:10 p.m.

Public Commentary

  • No public commentary was offered.

Review of Oct. 21, 2015 Senate Minutes

  • Correction to the Oct. 21st It was Kelly Kulzer-Reyes who motioned to approve the Oct. 5th minutes. Jennifer Altenhofel seconded the motion and the motion passed.
  • Jennifer motioned to approve the Oct. 21st Jessica Grimes seconded. The motion passed.

Faculty Position Requests Postponed – Dyer

  • In order to make sure all of us have the opportunity to be present during the business of ranking faculty positions, Geoffrey worked with Division Chairs, the administration, and the Strategic Planning Committee to postpone the voting of the ranking of new faculty position requests to the January in-service.
  • The chairs have already put together their proposals and Geoffrey will send those out later today. This gives faculty two months to review the proposals before voting in January.
  • Geoffrey will work with our Vice President of Instruction, Human Resources, and the division chairs to make sure that the job descriptions of all eleven new faculty positions are crafted in advance of our voting. The intent of this is to not delay the hiring of new faculty.

Potential Canvas Adoption – Hall

  • Dan gave four reasons why we should adopt the Canvas CMS/LMS:
  1. It is a better CMS than what we are currently using (as determined by the CCMS Committee)
  2. Adopting Canvas will save us $35,000 per year.
  3. In order for our courses to be included in the Exchange, our courses have to use the Canvas CMS.
  4. Dan is concerned about Etudes future ability to support, maintain, and innovate in light of losing a large percent of their clientele.
  • Thirteen TC faculty will pilot the use of Canvas in Spring 2016. These faculty will then inform the senate of their experience with using Canvas.
  • The senate will vote in late Spring 2016 or Fall 2016 on whether to adopt Canvas.
  • If the senate votes to adopt Canvas, we can start moving some courses over to Canvas in Fall 2016, or Spring 2017.
  • If adopted, all courses will be moved to Canvas by Summer 2017. Etudes and Moodle will no longer be used.
  • The pilot faculty can choose to use Canvas with one or more of their Spring 2016 courses.
  • Adopting Canvas does not mean that our courses will automatically be a part of the Exchange. We have to decide of whether we want our courses to be placed in the Exchange, and if we do, each of the courses will have to be evaluated by the OEI before being placed in the Exchange.
  • Becky reported (via email) on the feedback she has heard from various faculty attending the ECE professional forum.
    • The response to Canvas is not as positive as she would like it to be.
    • Some reported that Canvas is bland and that you can’t tailor it to suit your liking.
    • Some say the support is not as good as the support that Etudes provides.
    • Some said that moving from the Canvas home page to other areas was confusing for students.
    • On the positive side, Canvas has good tools and the students like the consistency between courses.
  • From an accessibility standpoint, Joseph is in favor of moving to Canvas. Based on his sources, Canvas is very accessible. The OEI is devoting significant funds towards training faculty on how to use Canvas with accessibility in mind.
    • Joseph would like to assist our pilot faculty in looking into some of the accessibility components of Canvas.
  • It is very likely that some level of Canvas professional development will be offered at the May in-service.
  • Greg asked if we would have to accept science courses offered on the exchange that includes lab components.
    • Vicki noted that most colleges are not conducting science labs in an online environment. The UC and State University systems are not accepting science courses that include online lab components.
  • Terri reported that at a recent Librarians’ convention, faculty at SFCC have created Information Literacy modules within Canvas and are willing to share this project with the system. Terri would like to have the option of utilizing these resources.

Distance Education Committee Proposal/Charter – Hall

  • Michelle Oja suggested that based on the frequent interactions that the front desk staff have with students, a staff member from the front desk should be a part of the DE committee.
    • Dan would like to include Jill Brown on the committee because of her frequent interactions with our distance education students.
  • Sharyn asked where this committee would fit in relation to all of the other committees.
    • Geoffrey offered that since this committee will deal with curricular issues, it has to be a subcommittee of the Academic Senate.
    • Geoffrey suggested that the charter would benefit from adding specific details to the Relationship With Other Committees
  • Joseph expressed the need for this committee and that an additional responsibility for this committee would be to include accessibility in all of our DE offerings.
  • Michelle asked if this committee would count towards one of the committee assignments for faculty. Geoffrey said that it would need to go through the established procedures to make that determination.
  • Bill motioned to approve the DE charter with three revisions:
  1. Elaborate on how this committee fits amongst other TC committees
  2. Include the promotion of accessibility practices to the list of responsibilities
  3. Add this committee’s relationship with, or responsibility to address the accreditation standards regarding distance education.
  • Kelly seconded the motion. The motion passed.

SLOASC Charter Revisions – Jacobi

  • Vicki reviewed the revisions made to the SLOASC charter.
  • Sharyn raised the issue of where this committee sits in relation to the other committees and its function with the accreditation standards.
    • Geoffrey indicated that this committee is also a subcommittee of the Academic Senate and that the tasks of this committee are substantially supported by the accreditation standards.
  • Bill motioned to approve the first reading of the charter as is. Michelle O. seconded the motion and the motion passed.

New Athletics Program Proposal: Golf – Bandy

  • The Athletics department has been requesting new athletic programs in their Program Review since 2012.
  • The colleges within the conference in which TC competes average nine sports programs.
  • Budget, staffing, potential income, and facilities are all typical challenges of any sports programs. Each of these issues currently seems to be favorable toward the proposed Golf program.
  • The athletics department would like to continue to grow along with the college.
  • Bill moved to accept the Golf program proposal. Tony seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Academic Senate Constitution and Bylaws – Dye

  • Tori motioned to adopt a senate of the whole with senate council representation aka the Senate Hybrid. Robin seconded the motion.
  • Ruby is in favor of senate of the whole. Ruby suggested that we move the agenda items that require voting be moved to the later half of the meeting.
  • Paul asked Geoffrey’s opinion on which senate structure would be the most efficient. Geoffrey’s response was that senate representatives who meet frequently are the most efficient structure but that does not mean that structure is the best for us.
  • Shelly asked how Napa Valley College manages senate-of-the-whole given the number of their faculty. Some colleges lower the quorum to 20 percent.
  • The motion carried with Joy, Ruby, and Sharyn voting against the motion.
  • Geoffrey, Bill, Tony, Paul, and Terri are willing to construct a draft of the constitution

Meeting adjourned at 1:05

Respectfully submitted by Dan Hall

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