March 06, 2017 Meeting

Agenda

Taft College Academic Senate
Senate-of-the-Whole Meeting

Monday March 6, 2017

12:00pm to 1:00pm, Cougar Room

Call to Order
Public Commentary
Approval of Minutes of the February 6, 2017 Meeting
Comments on Standing Electronic Committee Updates
Agenda

Information/Discussion Items
1. Guided Pathways Update (Jacobi)—2 Minutes

  1. Replacing Retiring Faculty/Faculty Position Requests (Jacobi)—10 Minutes
    Action
    3. Nomination for Emeritus Status/AP 4115 (Jacobi)—5 minutes
  2. Resolution Honoring Dan Hall—First Reading (Jacobi)—3 Minutes
    5. Accreditation Follow-up Report (Berube)—10 Minutes
    6. Distance Education Plan (Hall)—10 Minutes
    7. SLO Assessment Guidebook (Jacobi)—10 Minutes

Other/Open Forum
Adjournment

 

Next meeting of the Academic Senate-of-the-Whole is Monday, April 3, at noon in the Cougar Room. Next meeting of the Academic Senate Council is Wednesday, March 15 at noon in the Cafeteria Conference Room.

Minutes

Taft College Academic Senate Minutes

Monday, March 6, 2017

Cougar Conference Room

 

Members Present: Vice President Vicki Jacobi, Secretary Candace Duron, Gary Graupman, April Hanawalt, Stephanie Salomon, John Kopp, Leigh Golling, Kristi Richards, Veronica Van Ry, Juana Escobedo, Jessica Grimes, Tina Mendoza, Joy Reynolds, David Mitchell, Jon Carrithers, Debora Rodenhauser, Don Thornsberry, Ruby Payne, Mariza Martinez, Julian Martinez, Diane Jones, Kelly Kulzer-Reyes, Sharyn Eveland, Lori Sundgren, Eric Berube, Janis Mendenhall, Mike Mayfield, Brian Jean, Dan Hall, and Kristi Richards.

 

The meeting was called to order at 12:12 PM.

 

Public Commentary

None

 

Approval of February 6, 2017 Senate Minutes

  • On a motion by Ruby Payne, seconded by Diane Jones, the February 6 minutes were approved as corrected.

 

Comments on Standing Electronic Committee Updates

None

 

Guided Pathways Update – Jacobi

  • The Academic Senate Council voted not to apply for the California Guided Pathways project.
  • Guided pathways are moving forward as a theme for The Governance Council Retreat on the 24th of March.
  • The President extended an open invitation to faculty including adjunct. If adjunct faculty in your area would like to attend, give Vicki their name so that she can pass the information along.
  • Copies of the book, Redesigning America’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success by Bailey, Jaggars, Jenkins are available in Office of Instruction for those interested.

 

Replacing Retired Faulty/Faculty Position Requests – Jacobi

  • The historical perspective document on replacing retiring faculty written by Geoffrey Dyer was reviewed.
  • The President has stated that faculty vacancies due to retirement will not automatically be replaced.
  • Faculty ranking of positions as part of the faculty position request process was once held in May and was changed to August in-service. A possible solution could be to move the ranking to January in-service. Faculty could be encouraged to make retirement plans known prior to the ranking.
  • The replacement of retiring faculty positions could be part of a criteria used for ranking or it could be kept separate, automatically moved to the top of the requested faculty position request, and/or authority granted to the division in which the retirement is housed to make a determination as to the need.
  • Discussion points included:
    • The criteria for ranking faculty positions presented by Michelle Oja and Jennifer Altenhofel was voted down at the last Academic Senate meeting and should not be brought back in.
    • Encouraging faculty to disclosure retirement intentions early may be helpful.
    • Administration has the ultimate decision on the hiring of faculty positions (new or retiring) but has historically not made the decision known in a timely manner.
    • Moving the ranking and position requests to January in-service lends itself to a delay in job posting which could negatively affect Taft College’s ability to be competitive in recruitment and quality of new faculty.
    • Not replacing retiring faculty positions will impact the 50 percent law requirement. The Faculty Associations has an upcoming meeting to discuss the issue.
    • With the retirement Gary Graupman who teaches Speech among other subjects, the concern of who would teach such a critical course needed to transfer to the California State University System. Each term, there are enough sections of Speech to warrant a full-time position alone, not including the other subjects taught by Gary.
    • Other general education subjects, such as sociology, are taught entirely by adjunct faculty.
    • Option two in Geoffrey Dyer’s document does not have to be either/or but the Senate could adopt both suggestions of retiring positions could:
      • Deserve automatic refilling, in the eyes of the senate, regardless of new position requests.
      • Be modified, per the division of the retiring faculty’s discretion, and endorsed by the senate, still having precedence over new position requests.
    • This topic will go back to the Academic Senate Counsel March 15th meeting for the drafting of a resolution to bring back as an action item to Senate of the whole.

 

Nomination for Emeritus Status/AP 4115 – Jacobi

  • Gary Graupman, Eric Berube, and Susan Vaughn have been nominated by their division for Emeritus status based on their years of service and contributions to the college.
  • On a motion by Mike Mayfield, seconded by Greg Golling, the recommendation for Gray Graupman, Eric Berube, and Susan Vaughn to be granted Emeritus status was approved.

 

Resolution Honoring Dan Hall (first reading) – Duron

  • On a motion by Ruby Payne, seconded by Mariza Martinez, the first reading of the resolution honoring Dan Hall’s contribution as Senate Secretary was approved.

 

Accreditation Follow-up Report – Berube

  • The Accreditation Follow-up Report was reviewed.
  • The report will go out to the site team members; they will contact the college with any questions or need for additional evidence. The team is scheduled to visit on April 18.
  • The Accreditation follow-up report is a comprehensive report that addresses the recommendations and provides links to all plans and guides including the Distance Education Plan and SLO Assessment Guidebook.
  • On a motion by Diane Jones, seconded by Mike Jiles, the Accreditation Follow-up Report was approved.

 

Distance Education Plan – Hall

  • The Distance Education (DE) Plan was reviewed.
  • Taft College receives a disproportionately higher amount of FTES from distance learning than other colleges system wide but the success rates are consistent with the state average. Taft College distance education retention rate is higher than the state average.
  • Three main categories of the DE plan include:
    • Coordination with Student Services
    • Improvement in the quality of online instruction
    • Improvement in the quality of DE for incarcerated students
  • Discussion regarding goal 2.1.1. to establish a minimum threshold of professional development that all DE faculty will complete ever two years by June 2019 to reach an outcome of 80% of all full-time DE faculty and 50% of all adjunct DE faculty will attend at least one professional development event related to DE included:
    • The type of event/training can be different for each faculty and be shaped appropriate to desired improvement.
    • The event could be a webinar.
    • Faculty members are to have a voice in the types of events offered.
    • Why is the distinction made between the desired outcome for full-time faculty and adjunct faculty? Consider making them the same.
    • Although this is an honorable goal, what happens if the goal is not met? Is it then re-evaluated?
    • A Recommendation was made to change the term “will” to “should.”
  • On a motion by Ruby Payne, seconded by Sharyn Eveland, the Distance Education Plan was approved.

 

SLO Assessment Guidebook – Jacobi

  • The SLO Assessment Guidebook was reviewed.
  • The guidebook is to be reviewed annually and updated/changed as needed.
  • The most recent change was from a six-year cycle to a four-year cycle to be in line with the ISLOs. Vicki Jacobi will email the Senate and post to the web the most recent version.
  • On a motion by Mike Jiles, seconded by Diane Jones, the SLO Assessment Guidebook was approved.

 

Other/Open Forum

None

 

Meeting adjourned at 12:55 PM.

Submitted by Candace Duron, Secretary.

Approved 4.3.2017

Supporting Docs

 

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