Mission College Academic Senate

Ext. 5413

Approved  Minutes

Thursday, October 10, 2002  

 

I.       Call to Order/Roll Call

            The meeting was called to order by President Jane Patton at 2:07  p.m. 

Senators

   A

   P

Senators

   A

   P

Brennan    (Ext. 5313)  Comm

     

    X

McAlister (Ext. 5087)  Stud.Dev.

    

   X

Charland  (Ext. 5046)  Stud. Dev.

 

    X

Mancini    (Ext. 5855) AF/HM

 

   X

Dooley    (Ext. 5379)  AAS

 

    X

Martin      (Ext. 5356)  Tech.

    

   X

Estrada     (Ext.5164) CommSvc

 

    X

Musat       (Ext. 5331) Math

 

   X

Guich      (Ext. 5270) Social Sci.

 

    X

Oliver       (Ext. 5427)  AAS

 

   X

Johnson   (Ext.5277) CATA

 

    X

Patton    (Ext. 5296) Comm Stud

 

   X

Lavallo    (Ext. 5399)  Math

 

    X

Rivas       (Ext. 5282)  CATA

    

   X

Light       (Ext. 5717) AF/CIT

     

    X

Rosner     (Ext. 5317) ESL

    X

   

Lynne      (Ext. 5248) CommSvc

 

    X

Sippel      (Ext. 5118) Comm

 

   X

Other: A.Braun (CRC)

    X

    

VanTassel (Ext. 5334) Tech

 

   X

S. Ghiya, S.Hanna  (ASB Rep.)

 

    X

Other:  B.Grayson (Staff Dev)

    X 

 

Guests: K.Armstrong, M.Rounds

 

   X

Guests: J.Delongchamps, S.Kinsella, P.Messerschmidt

 

   X

   X

                   

 II.    Approval of the Minutes

            The minutes for the October 3, 2002, meeting were accepted and approved as submitted (M/S/U- Mancini/Estrada).

 

III.    Order of the Agenda

            No changes were made to the order of the agenda.

 

 IV.    Oral Communication from the Public

            There was no oral communication from the public at today's meeting.

        

  V.    Information & Announcements 

            1.   Senator Estrada advised that she has resource material regarding other colleges on the compressed calendar. 

            2.   President Patton encouraged the Senators to review the State Academic Senate's paper on Alternative Calendars, particularly Pages 2 and 3.

            3.   The Academic Senate for California Community College's (ASCCC) Fall Plenary Session will be held in Los Angeles, October 31 - November 2, 2002.  Jane asked if anyone was interested in serving as the delegate of the District Academic Senate at the session.  This position requires that the delegate attend Saturday in order to vote on the resolutions.  Senators Charland and Estrada expressed interest in attending.   

         4.   Prior to the plenary session, the ASCCC Area B meeting is held to review proposed resolutions and discuss issues prior to the session.  This meeting will be held at Cabrillo College on Friday, October 18, 2002, from Noon to 5:00 p.m.  Jane will be unable to attend and asked for a substitute. 

            5.   President Patton explained that the agendas for the next three Senate meetings will be restricted as follows:

                  •     October 17, 2002 - There will be a short business meeting to handle essential business, and the remaining portion of the meeting will focus on the compressed calendar issue.

                  •     October 24, 2002 - This meeting will be a joint meeting of the Division Chair Council and the Academic Senate to consider new faculty positions.

            •     October 31, 2002 - The regular meeting will not be held as President Patton will be attending the ASCCC Plenary Session in Los Angeles.  President Patton urged that the Senators meet within their subcommittees instead.

            6.   Regarding NISOD, President Patton advised that the "Innovation Abstracts" are only available to NISOD members.  As discussed at last week's Senate meeting, Mission College will not be paying membership dues to NISOD this year.

 

VI.    Administrative Business/Actions/Appointments

  A.    Curriculum Committee  -  No report

 B.     Staff Recognition -  None presented.

  C.    Committee Appointments 

            a)  Student Success Committee  -  Laura Witschi was unanimously appointed to this committee (M/S/U - Brennan/Charland).  Jane urged the Senators to encourage their newer faculty to serve on this committee; it is a rewarding experience.  It was agreed that a second call for faculty will be issued

 D.     Oral Reports

         1.  Staff Development  - No report

         2.  Instructional Technology Committee  .- No report

         3.  Program Review Committee - No report

         4.  District Information Technology Steering Committee  -  Senator Light reported that the committee met last week, but he was unable to attend.  He obtained the minutes for the meeting, however, and they are included in the correspondence folder.

         5.  Other:  

            a)  MERLOT Project - Ian Walton attended the second annual MERLOT International Conferejnce in Atlanta, Georgia this past weekend.  The MERLOT project (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) is a national collaborative of over 1300 institutions that originated in the Calfiornia State University system.  It is creating a free, online resource to catalog and evaluate online teaching and learning materials for faculty to use in their classes.  Its unique feature is the inclusion of discipline based peer reviews of material. 

            The California Community College system is a participating institution.  Ian was appointed by the state Academic Senate as one of eleven faculty in the mathematics editorial board and have been participating in its activities for the last two years.  The mathematics editor is located at South Dakota State University.  There are twelve other discipline areas.  Our system also has faculty representatives in psychology, music, chemistry, history and faculty development.

            Project material can be viewed at www.merlot.org. Faculty and students can also become members at no charge and can then contribute member comments.

 

At this time, the order of the agenda was suspended and moved to Item VII.E.

 

VII.   Old Business

  

    E.  Discuss Senate Seats on Various Committees

            President Patton advised that in her position as Senate President, it is important that she sit on a large number of committees:  CBAC (weekly this semester), DBAC (2/month), GAP (2/month), Equivalency/AB1725 (as needed), District Council (2/month), Board (2/month), Instructional Advisory Team (3 hour retreat coming up), MAT (approximately 1/month), and of course weekly  Senate meetings.  She tries to attend the Curriculum Committee and the Division Chair Council when necessary.   This is a challenge to accomplish with only 50% release time, particularly since she teaches two classes and serves as Department Chair as well.  She emphasized how important it is for the Senators to understand the nature and responsibilities of the Academic Senate President.  She admitted that she did not appreciate the committee load until she took over the position.   She asked for ideas on how to meet the challenge.  Several suggestions were made, such as an increase in release time, ranking committees, expanding the role of the vice-president, etc.   Jane asked the Senators to contemplate the issue for further discussion at a future meeting.

 

The order of agenda was moved to Item IX.

 

  IX.  President's Reports

            1.  The CBAC process for the Mission College budget is healthy, although budget cuts are being made.  The largest number of the committee's representatives are from faculty.

            2.   DBAC needs to continue its current trend of widespread involvement and participation of faculty.  Jane reported that a subcommittee of DBAC intended to look at reductions has been disbanded and DBAC has been charged with the task.

            3.  The Instructional Advisory Team will hold a three hour retreat next week to discuss the college's academic direction and programs.

            4.   Senator Estrada represents the Senate on GAP and she advised that the membership sifts through a great deal of information in order to make decision.  Currently, the committee is discussing the development of a policy or guidelines for maintaining civil and appropriate e-mails for all users.  This matter has been referred to the Technology Committee.

            5.   Shared governance at Mission College is healthy.  Things are working well.  Senator Sippel stated that, for the most part, people do not know what's going on; results are reported but not the process.  She noted that minutes are informative, and she encouraged groups like GAP to send out detailed minutes.

 

The order of agenda was resumed and moved back to Item VII.A.

 

 VII.  Old Business

 

   A.   Consider Policy on Learning Communities

            A proposal to create a new program on Learning Communities was presented to the Senate members.         A motion to accept the proposal for a new program on Learning Communities was made (M/S - Charland/Brennan), and Peggy Messerschmidt began her presentation with a video on Community College Learning Communities (LC's). 

 

            Peggy explained that a number of Mission College faculty have been involved in a learning community program for the last two years.  The basic feature of these learning communities is that they are interdisciplinary and centered around a theme or issue that ties the disciplines together. For example, Nutrition Studies will tie in with an English class centered around, "Food for Thought." The original program was funded through a Packard Grant for under-developed learners. She noted that there are a variety of models to choose from, and the institution can decide the level of integration.  A question was raised whether this is actually a "program."  Peggy responded that this is not a program per se, it is really people from different disciplines creating a learning community.  However, those involved wanted the concept to go through the new program process in order to get the entire college involved, to establish some consistent guidelines while maintaining a range of flexibility.  In addition, if the program is institutionalized, it will be helpful in seeking and obtaining grant funding.

 

            The advantages and benefits of LC's were noted.  In one LC, the same cohort of students takes the same classes from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  The students like working together.  They have stated they feel safe to share ideas and they feel connected to, and support for each other.  Typically, LC's have greatly increased the retention and success rates, and at a minimal cost compared to many other programs.  The concept is pedagogically sound, and all disciplines might find benefit in linking with other disciplines.  Peggy explained that this concept is not only advantageous to the students, but serves as a wonderful and rewarding development experience for faculty as well.  Senator Brennan compared LC's to Student Services' areas that have many 'programs," e.g. EOPS, ACCESS, etc.

 

            There was a brief discussion on the question of WSCH/FTE and load.  Jane explained that the Performance Goals Committee is responsible for dealing with that issue and the Senate must consider the academic value of the LC program.  Peggy stated that the WSCH is not different than the individual classes.  The students attend three distinct classes linked in the schedule and by content.  If grant funding becomes available, it is anticipated that stipends will be paid to faculty during the initial preparation of a learning community. 

 

            The Senators voted unanimously to accept the proposal for a new program on Learning Communities, and Jane thanked Peggy and all the other faculty members involved for their work.  The next consortium on Learning Communities will be held in Asilomar this fall.   

 

B.      Report on Recommended Changes to MCAS Constitution

            Jane explained that the subcommittee on the constitution was unable to meet.  She suggested that the subcommittees on this item and Item C (Overall Review of Curriculum) and Item D (Graduation Requirements) meet for the duration of the meeting.  The Senators broke down into their respective committees to work on these issues from 3:05 p.m. until 4:00 p.m..

           

X.     Correspondence, Publications, & Announcements

         Correspondence

         1.   An e-mail message re: the Division Chair Council's recommendation on the 16 week calendar.

         Publication/Minutes

         1.   The minutes for the October 4, 2002, meeting of the District-Wide IT Steering Committee.

            2.   The meeting notes for the October 2, 2002, meeting of the Instructional Advisory Team.

            3.   An SPSS Executive Report, "Data Mining Applications in Higher Education."

            4.   A publication from the State Academic Senate on, "Empowering Local Senates: Roles and Responsibilities of and Strategies for an Effective Senate."

            5.   The summary notes for the October 2, 2002, meeting of the MC Mission Administrative Team.

            6.   The Executive Committee Resolutions proposed for the 2002 Fall plenary Session of the ASCCC.

            7.   The Spring 2002 Academic Literacy paper, "A Statement of Competencies Expected of Students Entering California's Public Colleges and Universities," from IGETCH, the ASCCC, CSU and UC.

            8.   A position paper, "Faculty as Professionals:  Responsibilities, Standards and Ethics," from the ASCCC, adopted Spring 2002.

            9.   The minutes for the October 2, 2002, meeting of DBAC.

           10.  A copy of the 2001/02 annual report from the MERLOT Project.

           11.  The agenda for the October 9, 2002, meeting of the District Council.     

           12.  The meeting notes for the October 9, 2002, meeting of the Collaboration Group.

           13.  The October 4, 2002, issue of DVC FORUM from the Diablo Valley College Faculty Senate.

           14.  The meeting notes for the September 25, 2002, meeting of the Program Review Task Force.

         Announcements/Conferences

         1.   An Oktoberfest  Reception honoring the WVMCCD Candidates on October 16, 2002.

 

XI.    Future Agenda Items

No new items were introduced at today's meeting.

 

XII.   Adjournment

            The meeting was adjourned at 4:00p.m. (M/S/U - Johnson/Martin).  These minutes are respectfully submitted by Grace Hazán, Academic Senate Secretary.