Department Chairs Council Minutes

19 April 2012

Attendance: Carl Sjovold, Chris Daubert, Chris Seddon, Tom Cappelletti, Craig Davis, Patti Redmond, Melissa Fellman, Melodi Randolph, Linda Nuss, Mel Duvall, Gabriella Nuttall, Dave Whittington, Daniel Styer, David Wyatt, Beth Forrester, Jon Zeh, Alan Keys.

Last meeting of DCC for this semester.

Mel Duvall

Mel Duvall reported that state-wide community college data reveals that the average student on campus enrolls in 8 units at the beginning of the semester and completes 6 units. Based on this, an average student spends five years to obtain their 60 units for a degree or transfer.

This brings up the need for some mandatory placement testing or other pre-requisites such as an education plan, a resume, etc. The Chancellors’ office will be pushing education plans and assessments for students. These are likely good ideas due to the preparation level of many of our students. Mel’s experience is that the assessment part and the education plan are very important for the students and helps them tremendously to achieve goals.

The state data shows that the trend is improving (in terms of success rates).

GCOM has been doing a student workshop/meeting every first and third Thursday of the month to meet with students and have various workshops ranging from resume workshops, education planning, profiling different comm studies programs, scholarship workshops, information about graphic communications, etc. Ranges from 3 to 20 students attending based on popularity of the topic. Other programs have done a once-per-semester workshop on their program, education planning, transfer planning, etc.

CSU Transfers...

CSU has issued a statement that students will only be accepted for Spring 2013 transfer if they take the complete the AA-Transfer degree (with no deviation and limited to 60 units)...must get the CSU package, not our package. For many departments such as Sciences, Engineering, etc the AA/AS process has more than 60 units, therefore are not accepted for transfer. Need a new SCIGETC process for these situations. Only eight CSU campuses are willing to accept CC transfers for Spring 2013. The rest of the CSU campuses are not accepting any CC transfers for Spring 2013.

SLO Assessments

To satisfy accreditation, we need to do SLO assessments. However, there is no contractual requirement to address these assessments. Hence, should the faculty contract be changed regarding these assessments? The Union is unlikely to push for these changes. Mary Beth needs to prepare a report on how SCC is doing with the new SLO assessment standards and would grade SCC at this time at a C-minus.

The Academic Senate took up the issue of SLO assessment reporting at its last meeting, where it was agreed to organize a subcommittee to propose some recommendations for how to resolve this. The chairs discussed the issue of whether they would prefer a “hard” solution to this by revising the contract, or whether a “softer” approach might accomplish the same objective. Mel Duvall pointed out that revising the contract (even as an addendum) would be far more complex and time-consuming, insofar as it would necessarily involve so many constituencies across the entire district. Bureaucratic “molasses” was his term for it. For this reason, the chairs indicated their preference for a “softer” approach, such as drawing up a program of “best practices” that would specify a stronger role for the deans in managing and directing SLO assessment reports.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the chairs indicated their wish to have some sort of meeting with the managers at the beginning of the fall term. When the chairs meet again in the fall, they will take up the work of organizing a “Department Chairs Handbook.” The chairs will also continue their discussion of SLO assessment reporting. Insofar as Carl Sjovold is sitting on the Academic Senate subcommittee on SLO assessment reporting as a representative of the DCC, he will consult with the chairs next fall when that subcommittee meets to work on this issue.

Carl Sjovold agreed to serve as chair of DCC for the 2012-13 year.