District Academic Senate Executive Meeting
April 22, 2010, 1:30-3:30 p.m., District Office
Minutes
Attendance: David Beaulieu (President), Kathleen Bimber (Vice President), Angela Echeverri (Secretary, Mission), Alex Immerblum (Treasurer, East), Tom Rosdahl (Pierce), Rod Patterson (West), Kindra Kinyon (Trade), Ken Sherwood (City), June B. Smith (Harbor), Allison Moore (Southwest)
Guests: Deborah Harrington (LACCD), Daryl Kinney (LACCD), Patricia Schmolze (City SLO Coordinator)
1. Call to Order and Approval of Agenda: Meeting was called to order by President Beaulieu at 1:46 p.m. Agenda was approved (Immerblum/Echeverri M/S/P).
2. Approval of Minutes for March 11 Meeting: Minutes for 3/11/10 were approved with corrections (Bimber/Immerblum M/S/P).
3. Public Speakers: June Smith invited all to her birthday party on Friday June 4 at the Boardwalk Café in San Pedro beginning at 4 pm.
4. SLO Coordinators Presentation: President Beaulieu introduced Daryl Kinney, Deborah Harrington, and Patricia Schmolze. Harrington reported that SLO coordinators and the Student Success Initiative (SSI) have been meeting for about a year. Kinney and Harrington co-chair the Advisory Committee for SLOs which is a subcommittee of SSI with all campus SLO coordinators. In the fall of 2009, the group wrote a white paper titled Proposal: Minimum Standards for SLO Coordinators in the LACCD. Harrington distributed copies of the paper; the full report is 93 pages long because it contains the ASCCC paper Agents of Change in the appendix. She also distributed a one page executive summary of the paper. She explained that there are varying levels of support for SLO efforts in the LACCD. They are recommending a minimum of 1.0 total reassigned time for SLO efforts at each campus. Pierce, City and Trade Tech have 1.0 (Correction Note: Trade actually has .6) East has 1.8, and the other campuses range between 0.3 and 0.6 reassigned time. Some of the SLO positions are funded on a D basis (East & Pierce) and others are C basis. Some SLO coordinators do not have adequate space that is centrally located and close to the Research or Senate Offices. The role of the SLO Coordinator is to support the faculty and there should be a line item in the budget. Currently City is the only campus that has the SLO Coordinator expenses in its budget. All nine LACCD colleges had a report due to the ACCJC this year; this is one of the eligibility requirements for accreditation. Every single course, program, certificate, student service, and administrative service needs to identify and assess SLOs by 2012. All full time and part time faculty have to be trained how to do this. The SLO coordinator has to stay current with the requirements. They are asking the DAS to shepherd these recommendations to consultation.
Patricia Schmolze announced that City just had its post probation visit and they have made a lot of progress. She discussed the proficiency standard rubrics from the ACCJC. They really see the system intertwined with program review and want to see how colleges plan resources or budget in response to SLOs. Harrington added that there is a tremendous turnover of SLO coordinators. The DAS needs to propose a minimum level of institutional commitment to SLOs at consultation. Smith suggested having a line item in the district. She added that there was an agreement between former Chancellor Drummond and some of the presidents that the LACCD would pay for some of their accreditation costs. This could be a start for embedding this in the district budget. Patterson stated that this report was long overdue and provides a baseline for institutional support. He added that at West, Lloyd Thomas gives presentations on SLO assessments at Senate meetings. Faculty explain their assessments and distribute handouts to their colleagues. Kinney stated that this was an important professional development activity. Immerblum said once SLOS are identified, the hard work begins. After assessment the Research Office must come in and help with the interpretation of the data. Patterson asked what is the union position was for adjunct participation in SLOs. Beaulieu responded that they can get ancillary pay and professional development credit. Beaulieu asked for consensus support for a minimum of 1.0 reassigned time on a D basis. He will bring this item to consultation and possibly the Student Success Committee. Kinyon asked whether there was a similar push to fund Program Review coordinators. Beaulieu replied this should come to consultation as well. Patterson inquired about SLOs included in courses being uploaded into the Electronic Curriculum Database (ECD). Bimber replied that Steve Holton at the District has been paid to upload courses for the last two to three years. There is an ECD Steering Committee that has been working on this issue.
5. Student Success Report:
· Framework for Success: Harrington announced that an ad-hoc group will met in the Board Room on Monday, April 26th at 12:30 pm and Monday, May 10th to integrate Student Support Services and instruction in support of student success. She invited all to attend; lunch will be served and common assessment will be discussed. Harrington and Beaulieu will meet with the Math Council to discuss common assessment. Harrington announced that the Faculty Teaching and Learning Academy (FTLA) graduation ceremony would be held at the Board meeting on May 26 at 11:30 am at West.
· Transfer Committee: Beaulieu is co-chairing this committee with David Esparza. They met three weeks ago with representatives from the California State Universities and Transfer Center directors. The next meeting will be on Tuesday May, 11th at 2:00 pm to discuss curriculum and the general education (GE) program. Ken O’Donnell will come to discuss GE requirements. Beaulieu added that they don’t have teaching faculty representatives from all of the colleges. They usually meet on Tuesdays at 2:00 pm. Their goal is to boost transfer and to articulate/coordinate with the 4 year colleges, and get transfer information out to all faculty.
6. New Chancellor, Senior Staff Changes: Beaulieu reported he met with Interim Chancellor Tyree Wieder. Incoming Chancellor Daniel La Vista will start his tenure on August 1st and Dr. Wieder will stay on at least through October to help with the transition. She will be away on vacation during the summer for several weeks. Vice Chancellors Gary Colombo and John Clerx will leave on June 30th. Dr. Wieder would like to see Colombo’s job position configured differently. Smith asked who would step in for John Clerx. Beaulieu responded that it is not clear, but that there will probably be an interim position. Vice Chancellor Deborah Hirsch’s position is also up in the air. Incoming Chancellor La Vista will also sit on the president interviews for Pierce and Harbor Colleges. Pierce is interviewing candidates next Thursday and Friday; the plan is to have a permanent president in place by August 1st.
7. Administrative Hiring: Beaulieu reported that HR R-110 (Academic Administrator Selection) is under review. The document will replace Personnel Guides B 456 and B 531. Beaulieu met with Vice Chancellor Deborah Hirsch to go over proposed changes to the document. These changes are summarized below:
(1) Authorization to Fill Regular Academic Administrator Position: The position must be authorized to be filled in accordance with location specific shared governance processes and/or management approvals in place within the district.
Comment: The Senate president should be informed. There is no issue to resolve here; this is a positive step.
(2) Selection Committee: Language was changed as follows: The college president/vice chancellor or his/her designee is shall serve as the responsible “administrator in charge”, and shall may act as the committee chair.
Comment: The language was changed to meet us part way. The compromise is that the president can’t be on the committee, but can appoint the chair.
Committee composition: Immerblum suggested having a majority of faculty. One of the reasons is that administrators have retreat rights into the faculty ranks. The consensus among DAS members was we would not get this concession from the administration. Most agreed to ask for at least 40% faculty representation-equally designated between the faculty guild and academic senate. Moore stated that retreat rights are not the strongest argument for more faculty representation. Instead, she argued administrators should be able to work effectively with faculty. Kinyon added that retreat rights can be abused when deans are moved back into the classroom.
(3) Announcement Components: The selection committee should convene to develop a position announcement to be used for recruitment purposes.
Comment: The position announcement shall be written by entire committee, not only the administration. No issue to resolve, this is a positive step.
(4) Announcement Distribution: Specifies Human Resources will forward the job announcement to all addressees on the interest mailing list and to all faculty.
Comments: Rosdahl suggested additional language to forward announcement to the entire LACCD. The language is clear in the guide but .needs to be enforced at the colleges. Immerblum asked who would be responsible to send out the e-mail to LACDD. Beaulieu replied let they can later figure out whether college or district should do it.
(5) Duration of Recruitment: Announcement postings for permanent academic administrative positions shall be posted for six (6) weeks. Temporary positions (acting or interim) shall be posted for a minimum of three (3) weeks.
Comments: Lucian Carter is researching this. It may be in the California Education Code or Title 5. Patterson suggested a sentence under (III Requirements page 2 or first paragraph second line) stating this procedure is intended for interim /acting positions as well as permanent positions. This policy applies for vice president and dean positions only.
(6) Requirements of Screening Process: Rewriting second sentence to clarify as follows: The committee chair is responsible for ensuring that applicants invited to interview meet minimum qualifications.
(7) Ranking: At the conclusion of interviews, the selection committee shall recommend in alphabetical (not rank) order the three best qualified candidates for the specific vacancy to the college president/vice chancellor for further consideration.
Comments: Immerblum said East ranks finalists; other campuses do not. He asked whether we should ask for ranking. Beaulieu replied that ranking could be part of the local policy. Strike the alphabetical order language.
(8) Authorization to Fill Acting or Limited Academic Administrator Position (Mini-selection): Added language that no interim (or acting) administrator can transfer to a permanent position without a process.
Comments: Immerblum stated that Beth Smith made it very clear at a Plenary Session break out that there should be a one year limit to an acting position. Vice Chancellor Hirsch agreed to add a sentence stating anyone hired as an acting or interim administrator could not be permanent unless they went through a selection process. Immerblum suggested having candidates do a teaching demonstration as part of their interview because they have retreat rights. The teamster contract allows deans to negotiate terms of their contract. Immerblum states another thing that came up was that administrators should have minimum qualifications for the area they will be supervising, but that is not always feasible.
Move to extend the meeting by 15 minutes (Immerblum/Gauthier).
8. EPAC Report: Bimber distributed an application for an evaluation of equivalency in the discipline of English from Anthony A. Lee. She reported that the request had been denied by EPAC and the English Discipline Committee, but that he had the right to appeal the decision to the DAS. He also tried to apply for equivalency through eminence which requires national recognition, but equivalency cannot be approved on the basis of eminence alone. In any case, he didn’t have the coursework in English for a B.A. Applicants must have both eminence and coursework. His argument is that he has written publications, books, and poems. He currently teaches Political Science. After reviewing the application, the vote was unanimous that he does not meet minimum qualifications or standards for eminence.
9. Bond/Energy Review
10. Budget Update: Beaulieu reported that they are getting mixed signals. The budget situation is a bit better by about 10 million, but could get worse after the May revise. Jeannette Gordon has been very supportive with energy group.
11. DCC Report: Tabled
12. Treasurer Report: He received a request for mileage for someone driving to Area C, but he wasn’t sure if it would be covered. Deadline to submit mileage requests is May 13.
13. Spring Plenary Review: Immerblum suggested having a breakout at the next plenary session on transfer and diversity. Elizabeth Atondo is in Sacramento. Both transfer bills passed the State Assembly unanimously and now will go to the Senate. The vote of no confidence in the ACCJC did not pass. Two papers on equity and diversity were adopted. The ASCCC was instructed to do more research on equivalency for an AA degree; there was no action on this item. There was also a resolution on maintaining categorical funding. A resolution on a recommended counseling ratio passed. There was also a lively debate about the Memorandum of Understanding between Kaplan and the State Chancellor’s Office.
14. CTE Stimulus Grants”: Will meet on Friday 5/14/10 at City 9-12 am in Child Development Bldg. The DCC meeting will follow.
15. Sustainability Institute: Will be held tomorrow at 9 am in Board Room. This will be the first meeting not chaired by David Beaulieu. Alexis Navarro (East), George Leddy (Valley), and Lisa Lewenberg (CTE grant) have been hired to work on different areas.
16. Proposed Future Actions and Announcements: Barbara Beno will be speaking at CSUN on Friday May 14, 2010. Two to three representatives from each college have been invited. Need to RSVP by 5/7/10. David Beaulieu announced that Academically Speaking will go out soon.
17. Adjourn: Meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.
Minutes submitted respectfully by DAS Secretary Angela Echeverri
1