FINAL MINUTES
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
September 7-8, 2012
I. ORDER OF BUSINESS
A. Roll Call and Welcome Guests
President Pilati called the meeting to order at 11:08 a.m. and welcomed members and guests.
Members Present: Julie Adams, Kevin Bontenbal, Julie Bruno, Dianna Chiabotti, Dan Crump, Dolores Davison, , Stephanie Dumont, Michelle Grimes-Hillman, Lesley Kawaguchi, David Morse, Wheeler North, Michelle Pilati, Beth Smith, Phil Smith, and John Stanskas.
Guests Present: Barry Russell, Vice Chancellor, Chancellor’s Office; Dennis Frisch, FACCC Liaison; Jeff Michaels, CCCI Liaison; Samantha Elliot, Student Senate Liaison; and Sonia Ortiz-Mercado, Dean, Matriculation, Student Equity, Early Assessment, Student Leadership, and Division Administration-Chancellor’s Office.
B. Approval of the Agenda
Members discussed adding action item M (Member Senate request) and discussion item D (Low-unit Certificates)
MSC (Chiabotti) to approve the agenda.
C. Oral Communications from the Public
No oral communication from the public.
D. Calendar
Adams informed members that the deadline to submit program outlines for the Accreditation and Vocational Educational Institute are due by the agenda deadline for the October meeting.
E. Dinner Arrangements
The Executive Committee discussed dinner arrangements.
II. CONSENT CALENDAR
A. Minutes June 13, 2012
MSC (Chiabotti) to approve June 13, 2012 minutes.
III. REPORTS
A. President’s Report
Pilati informed members about her recent activities. She attended the CCC Assessment meeting where discussions took place regarding how to use existing limited funds to move towards a statewide common assessment. One option would be furthering the progress of the home-grown ESL assessment test that has long been under development.
Pilati informed members that ICAS has established teams to work on drafting op ed pieces on Prop 30 from three different perspectives: higher education, students, and the overall effects of budget cuts. ICAS has also been contacted by the California Department of Education about their interest in sending a liaison to the ICAS meetings, particularly to update ICAS on the common core implementation.
Pilati updated members about the recent discussions of MOOCs and a visit to two MOOC “providers”, Coursera and Udacity. Both were founded by Stanford faculty. Coursera hosts and facilitates the development of courses by others, offering access to courses developed by well-respected universities. Udacity develops its own MOOCs that may or may not be full courses. The interest in MOOCs has resulted in a discussion of how MOOCs might be used on our system. One possibility might be to offer a MOOC as a means of preparing students for assessment for placement tests.
Pilati also attended the CSSO retreat, the Intersegmental Coordinating Council meeting, the Curriculum Institute, and the Basic Skills Summit. She also participated in a Technical Assistance Visit at San Francisco City College where she and Scott Lay met with campus constituent groups to discuss the current issues on campus.
Pilati concluded by informing members that she attended the Intersegmental Oversight Committee (IOC) meeting and that the marketing for transfer degrees has kicked off. Sample book marks were distributed to members.
B. Executive Director’s Report
Adams reported on her recent activities. She then provided members with operational updates and announced staff changes.
C. Foundation Report
B. Smith reminded members that the Executive Committee reviews and approves the strategic plan for the Foundation each year and then highlighted activities in the plan.
MSC (North) to approve the Foundations Strategic Plan
MSC (North) to adopt the Strategic Plan for Foundation.
D. Liaison Reports
- AAUP Liaison
No report
- CCA/CTA Liaison
No report
- CCCI Liaison
Michaels informed members that CCCI will host its semi-annual conference in early October. He then noted that CCCI pushed for amendments to SB 1456 (Lowenthal).
- CFT Liaison
No report
- FACCC Liaison
Frisch reported on FACCC’s upcoming events such as the Diversity Conference, the Part-Time Faculty Symposium, and the Veterans Summit. He noted that FACCC received additional funding from Chase Bank to contribute to this year’s Veterans Summit. Frisch concluded by noting FACCC has new positions on the propositions: support Proposition 30, Oppose Proposition 32, and remain neutral on Proposition 38.
- Part-time Faculty Liaison
No report
- Student Senate Liaison
Elliot noted that Rich Copenhagen was recently elected President of the Student Senate. The Student Senate will hold its General Assembly November 2-4, 2012 in Rancho Mirage. She concluded by informing members that the Student Senate took a position of support on Governor Brown’s Initiative and will be making a huge push for Proposition 30 and Proposition 39.
- Chancellor’s Office Liaison
Russell noted that the Chancellor’s Office is moving forward with output from Basic Skills Summit. He also noted that the Professional Development Summit will take place in mid-September. Russell updated members about the MOOCs. He also highlighted the pros and cons of MOOCs. Members were also provided an update on the 1440 degrees. Russell noted that the Curriculum Inventory V.2 will be up and running in late September and that the stand-alone certification is due at the end of September.
Ortiz-Mercado provided members with a Chancellor’s Office update from the Matriculation unit. She noted that the Chancellor’s office has joined the Smarter Balanced state team along with the Department of Education, CSU Chancellor’s Office, and the UC Office of the President in an effort to share information about how the common core will be implemented in California from a higher education perspective. She also noted that Linda Michalowski is the official representative on the team from the Chancellor’s Office. Partners at the state level are still trying to determine how to include higher education and they would appreciate input from the Executive Committee, particularly regarding college and career readiness, aligning the standards between K12 and the university/community college systems, and assessing community colleges students entering the California Community College System.
Ortiz-Mercado updated members on the achievement level descriptors. Achievement level descriptors are the framework of the new assessments to achieve a smarter balance. She informed members that a workgroup was formed and B. Smith has been appointed as the representative for the community colleges.
Ortiz-Mercado concluded by giving members an update on enrollment priorities. The CCC Board of Governors is expected will approve system-wide enrollment priorities at its September meeting. She noted that the policy is designed to ensure more students reach their educational goals. The enrollment priorities are intended to ensure that classes are available for students seeking a wide array of goals. It would also reward students who make progress towards their educational goals. The regulations will be implemented in Fall 2014. Colleges should begin informing students of the new policy in Spring 2013 so that those on probation will have an opportunity to seek help to improve their academic standing.
E. Legislative Update
Crump presented members with an updated legislative worksheet listing current bills and highlighted specific bills relevant to the Senate. He noted that August 31, 2012, was the last day for each house to pass bills and September 31, 2012 is the last day for the Governor to sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature prior to September 1, 2012.
IV. DISCUSSION
A. Board of Governors/Consultation Council
Pilati noted that the Board of Governors now has a standing agenda item that will require 1440 updates at every meeting. At their July meeting, Pilati was also able to provide members with an update on the Senate Office and its projects and the role of C-ID and 1440. The next Board of Governors meeting will be Chancellor Scott’s last meeting. At Consultation, there has been some discussion about establishing a task force to discuss issues related to accreditation.
B. C-ID/1440 Update
Pilati updated members on the work of C-ID and 1440, particularly of conversations in the Intersegmental Curriculum Workgroup (ICW). She highlighted a few of the implementation problems that have arisen and are being addressed by the workgroup.
C. SSTF
The Executive Committee was updated on the implementation of the recommendations from the Student Success Task Force, including updates from work group members.
D. College Readiness
The Executive Committee discussed the plan to define and address college and career readiness. Crump informed members that college and career readiness is mentioned in several of the recommendations of the Student Success Task Force. He also noted that the CCC/CSU EAP Program and Common Core State Standards and Smarter Balanced are all factors in this discussion. Members were provided handouts which synthesized a collection of articles discussing college readiness.
E. Emerging DE Issues
The Executive Committee was updated on issues related to distance education, accreditation, and financial aid. Pilati noted that there are two issues that exist: one relates to accreditation and the other relates to financial aid. She noted the consequences relating to the concerns of distance education that emerged from the expansion of DE in the private for-profit sector. New rules have been implemented that impact all institutions that offer courses via DE. Most notably, there is now a requirement related to student course participation and institutional authorization to offer DE in other states. These requirements have not been well-publicized and there is great confusion relating to both regulations.
V. ORGANIZATIONAL ACTION ITEMS
A. ASCCC Response to Proposition 30
The Executive Committee discussed whether or not to establish positions on Propositions 30 and Proposition 38. B. Smith provided members with a draft of a possible motion from the Executive Committee. Members provided comments.
MSC (North) to approve moving forward with the language to endorse Proposition 30.
Action
· Pilati and B. Smith will finalize language to send to the field. The Academic Senate will endorse proposition 30 and encouraged others to educate voters about the interaction of 30 and 38.
B. Fall Session Planning
The Executive Committee discussed the keynote presentations and breakouts for the 2012 Fall Plenary Session.
C. Senate Budget Performance and 2012-13 Budget
The Executive Committee reviewed the Senate’s 2012–13 Budget and discussed the resources to local senates. North informed members that the Senate office has aggressively taken action to reduce costs in the budget.
MSC (B.Smith) to approve the Senate’s 2012–13 Budget.
D. Executive Committee Meeting Action Items
The Executive Committee discussed changes to the Executive Committee agenda item process that would allow items to be submitted for one reading. Adams reminded members that at the June Executive Committee meeting members discussed how many times the rules of the meeting were suspended. Members suggested that the Executive Committee consider changing the rules to allow only one reading for most action items. Adams and Morse worked on the language in the packet, which would allow a “motion-second-pass” process for all items except policy decisions, papers, and events.
MSC (P. Smith) to suspend the rules to take action on this item.
MSC (P. Smith) to approve the Executive Committee agenda item process as amended.
Action
· Adams will update the Agenda Item form and send to members.
E. Committee Charges
The Executive Committee discussed the charges of the newly restructured Senate Standing committees. Members discussed whether the charges needed to be in the same format or not. By consensus, this year each committee can determine the format of the charge, particularly since this year is a pilot year.
MSC (Kawaguchi) to approve the committee charges as revised.
Action
· Adams will work with Sabler to update the website with the new committees and charges.
F. Curriculum Regionals
Bruno presented the draft agenda for the fall Curriculum Regional Workshops.
MSC (Chiabotti) to approve the Curriculum Regionals Workshop Program
Action
· Information about the regional meetings will be circulated to the field via listservs.
G. SLO Institute
The Executive Committee discussed the SLO Institute and the SLO/Assessment Regional Meetings. Pilati advised members that the discussion for the SLO Institute and the SLO/Assessment Regional Meetings will be placed on hold until further notice.
H. Program Discontinuance Paper
The Executive Committee discussed two papers on program discontinuance (Items H and L). Members agreed that the original revision of the existing program discontinuance paper (Item H) would go forward at this time and that an outline for Item L (Budget-Necessitated Reduction of Course and Program Offerings) will return to the next meeting for discussion and direction.
I. Professional Development Survey
Chiabotti noted that professional development is an ongoing dilemma at colleges and presented a draft survey. The Professional Development Committee would like to produce a survey to distribute to the field to inform the work of the committee in addressing professional development needs. By consensus, Chiabotti will work with her committee to determine if a survey is needed.
J. Resolutions
The Executive Committee discussed resolution topics to forward to the 2012 Fall Plenary Session.
K. Caucus Recognition
Members discussed a request to recognize a caucus on math pathways for non-STEM students’ caucus. Concern was voiced regarding approving a caucus focused on such a narrow topic—instructors that teach only one class. The intention of the caucuses was to promote inclusiveness. Members discussed a past example with the paramedics. In this example, the paramedics group expanded their focus to be more inclusive and expanded the caucus to all vocational faculty. Members suggested that the math pathways for non-STEM students be expanded to include all math.
Action
• Adams will contact the requester and explain the Executive Committees concern.
L. Budget-Necessitated Reduction of Course and Program Offerings Senate Paper
See Item V. H.
VI. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE DISCUSSION ITEMS
A. Area Representatives Roles and Responsibilities
Grimes-Hillman presented an outline for a proposed handbook entitled “Area Representative Roles and Responsibilities.” She noted that she worked with area representatives to develop the outline. By consensus, Grimes-Hillman will continue to work with the other Area representatives to develop the handbook for Executive Committee consideration.
B. Caucus Guidelines
Members discussed the recently approved caucus guidelines.
Action
· The SEAP Committee will reconsider the guidelines based on conversations during this meeting.
C. Local Senate Visits
No discussion.
D. Low-unit Certificates
Members discussed the role of low-unit certificates and the implications for students. Colleges can, and do, offer such certificates that are locally approved and not transcripted. P. Smith noted that there is currently a push to have students receive low-unit certificates. Members discussed concerns related to incentivizing the creation of certificates that would increase the workload of curriculum committee and may or may not have real values for students. By consensus, members felt that they needed more information about this issue.