MiraCosta College
Academic Affairs Committee
Meeting Minutes
Corrected
November 6, 2009
9:00 a.m., OCN-1202
Members Present:, Julie Cord (Chair), Rob Archer, Brandi Blahnik, Pam Deegan, Jeanine
Donley, Rica French, Christina Hata, Susan Herrmann, Lynda Lee, Melissa Lloyd-Jones, Jane Mushinsky, Jennifer Paris, Edward Pohlert, Nancy Schaefer, Chris Sleeper, Denise Stepheson, Steve Torok, Edwina William
Members Absent: Dixie Maroney, Ric Matthews, Vicky Noddings, Andrea Petri
Others Present: Pat Connolly, Louisa Moon
Call to Order
Persons Wishing to Address the Committee
Julie Cord, Academic Affairs Chair, began the meeting by welcoming the committee’s newest member, student representative Edwina Williams.
I. Consent Calendar – October 2, 2009, AAC Minutes
MSP [3-abstentions] (Herrmann/Mushinsky) that the Academic Affairs Committee approve the October 2, 2009, minutes as corrected.
II. REPORTS
Cord developed, and distributed, a list of AAC members and the Task Force or Sub-committee each member is on. The reports included:
a) RFP Task Force for an Education Master Plan (Deegan, Pohlert)
The task force met twice this week and are coming up with models. Questions have been asked about timing and where and how this will be funded. Some things will be funded automatically such as associate faculty overload, needed support, and hourly help. The task force should be finished soon.
b) Program Nexus Task Force (Deegan, Hata) – this Task Force is finished.
c) Flex-PDP (Hata, French, Donley, Stephenson) - today is the deadline for submitting flex proposals and there are already about 50 of them--schedule should be finalized sometime next week. One of the events they plan to have is a GIFT (Great Ideas for Teaching) Panel
on “Teaching Sustainability.”
Last month NCHEA (North County Higher Education Alliance) held a dinner and one of the topics for dinner discussion was on ways the three schools (MiraCosta, Palomar, CSU San Marcos) could collaborate. They are considering an open house during the spring semester so faculty from the three institutions can talk about their disciplines and get to know each other.
d) Staff Development (Blahnik, Hata, Matthews) – the only report is that Sheri Wright is back to work half time and will be a resource for this group.
e) Textbook Affordability (Archer, Donley, Hata, Hoffer, Lloyd-Jones, Matthews [Chair]) – recently had an informative meeting that included Todd Hannan, former MCC Bookstore manager, and presentations from Steve Isachsen and Jim Austin. The group anticipates: 1) making a book rental program available to MCC; 2) doing more flex workshops to increase faculty awareness on how to make textbooks more affordable to our students; and 3) adding another person to this subcommittee—Jeanine Donley volunteered. There was also some discussion on online books and a book rental program. The latter has several logistical issues to be worked out.
f) Hiring (Paris [Chair], Cord, Deegan, Mushinsky, Nodding, Petri, Torok) –a few retirement announcements have been forwarded to the President’s Office. There
was no opposition to filling those positions or the two failed hires from last year. Departments will be notified so they can begin writing their ads. Faculty who are either retiring or resigning are: Jose Orrantia, Bea McWilliams, Suzanne Sproul, Janet Megill, and Arlie Zolynas,
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This year, through program review and PERCY, 13 requests for new faculty were received but only six growth positions are available. The subcommittee looked at both qualitative and quantitative data this year, e.g., ratio of full-time faculty and full-time equivalent faculty, percent of students taught by full-time faculty; enrollment increase; other information that might be department specific, and state mandates for non-classroom faculty. Once the committee is finished with this phase of work it will begin drafting new hiring procedures. The proposed list for faculty hires below will flow from the subcommittee to AAC then to Senate Council on November 20th.
1. Child Development Instructor
2. Noncredit Career Counselor (CLC)
3. Biology
4. Dance
5. Kinesiology
6. Accounting
7. Counselor – Transfer
8. Philosophy
9. Sociology
10. Art History and Museum Studies
11. Earth Sciences
12. Media Arts & Technology
13. Athletic Director/Coach/Trainer
g) Calendar (Stephenson [Chair], Cord, Deegan, French, Lee) – the Calendar subcommittee will develop a process to take the calendar to the faculty for feedback. They can now be found on the portal.
h) Distance Learning (Deegan) – Distance Learning is a group that is not considered a committee. Mario Valente and Ric Matthews have been working on distance learning, along with several individuals from POT (Program for Online Teaching), to come up with a plan to ensure there is adequate support for the program. It is essential for
the college to have everything for online students that it has for on-ground students.
i) Honors (Mushinsky [Chair-fall], Sleeper [Chair-spring], Schaefer, Torok) – the
Honors Program has been taken twice to the Steering Council and they still don’t know how to charter! The program itself is going well and their main focus this
year is on advertising and recruitment to those who are not yet a part of Honors,
and on selecting which courses to have faculty write for. They have grown to the
point that they had to hire a bus to take 28 students to UCLA. It was noted that recommendations made by the committee have gone to the President and information
is going to the Budget & Planning Committee.
Cord reported that she took the AAC members’ discussion about bringing others onto its subcommittees to the Steering Council and was unsuccessful. She was surprised at the feelings the topic engendered. It was mentioned several times at Steering Council that other committees meet twice a month and that is something that AAC might consider. As committee members talked about Cord’s experience at the Steering Council, thoughts on the matter included:
1) This is the first year doing the new structure as a committee.
2) AAC has some challenges because it is made up of members from different committees. However, it is accomplishing a lot without the addition of more committees.
3) Meeting once a month works for AAC because it has so many subcommittees that meet and report to the full committee.
4) Although there cannot be any new members added to the committee, anyone can be consulted as resources.
5) Having a voice and having a vote are two different things.
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6) It is hoped, after a year, there will be a reevaluation of the process.
Cord was thanked for her leadership and ethos in all of this.
III. Team Teaching Statement (Pat Connolly)
Cord explained that she and Pat Connolly, who team teaches with Thao Ha, have talked about team teaching. She suggested that he and Ha offer a flex workshop on it but that is not the way they want to go. They would like a statement of support on team teaching, as another viable teaching modality, from the AAC.
Connolly provided the committee with a paper on team teaching and noted that there is a lot of support for it “at institutions of higher education across the nation.” It is believed that team teaching is pedagogically sound and enhances the student environment as well as dialogue. Results of the survey the he ad Ha had sent to colleagues showed that generally there have been a number of people who have team taught here or at other schools. They have also found that there are people who would consider team teaching now that this has been brought up. While the committee was in agreement with the concept of team teaching there are other factors to consider such as compensation and where the financing would come from. The college has already dipped into its reserves by several million dollars. While team teaching would be good from a pedagogical point-of-view, it would mean doubling the cost of classes.
MSP [1-abstention] (Stephenson/Archer) that the Academic Affairs Committee approve the concept of team teaching.
IV. Board Policies & Academic Procedures (BP/APs) (Louisa Moon)
Louisa Moon went through the Board Policies and Academic Procedures before the committee, including BPAP 3715 (Intellectual Property) and 4010 (Academic Calendar). She pointed out that BPAP 3715 was written by Ric Matthews and herself, using text suggested by the CCLC (Community College League of California). The CCLC template was checked by lawyers and enhances what we have already. The point person for this BPAP is the Vice President of Instructional Services, Pam Deegan. A controversial part
of the BPAP is the status of the syllabus. Moon explained the use of the syllabus, where it can be used, and the fact that it cannot be used for evaluations or student grievance.
AP 5530 (Student Grievance) was written to clarify when a syllabus may be requested. A suggestion was made to include something about an instructor writing anything required by their students donating any proceeds. The committee talked about this and offered a couple of other suggestions: a) instead of requiring money be donated have a provision that any books for personal profit have a peer review; or b) include a statement that an instructor cannot profit from materials written that are required by students. Moon will get an opinion from Dave Larsen, the college’s attorney. It was pointed out that most people don’t write for the purpose of profiting from students.
BPAP 4010 (Academic Calendar) – the significant change to the calendar is that process- ing it will begin a year ahead of time. The new process will allow time to address any issues that might come up about the calendar. In addition to ten days of flex, they have been asked to solidify spring break at the eighth week of the semester.
BPAP 4040 (Library and Other Instructional Support Services) –the library services and other instructional services were grouped together, including Media Services. It was felt
it would be best to have three Administrative Procedures.
MSP [1-abstention] (Pohlert/Stephenson) that the Academic Affairs Committee approve BPAPs 3715 (Intellectual Property), 4010 (Academic Calendar), and 4040 (Library and Other Instructional Support Services).
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AP 4021 (Program Discontinuance) – according to the statewide Senate booklet on this
a lot of the work will fall to the faculty. It took 2-3 years for MCC faculty to write the college’s first process for program elimination. A new title has been instituted by the state for this item, either “Program Discontinuance” or “Program Revitalization,” instead of “Program Elimination.” The idea is for efforts to be made to revitalize a program if possible and not to terminate a program because of an instructor. Because it would take about three years to terminate a program, it was recommended that there be something in place to discontinue a program sooner if everyone is in agreement that the program is no longer viable. Moon will take this to the Courses and Programs Committee.
Moon was thanked for getting these BPAPs through and for all the work she has personally done. Cord also thanked all of the subcommittees for their work.
V. Spring AAC Meeting Schedule – will be addressed at the next meeting.
VI. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
VII. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 10:58 a.m.