TO:Kenneth Sherwood, President
LACC Academic Senate
FROM:Daryl Kinney, Chair
Educational Planning Committee
DATE:December 19, 2007
RE:Additions to the EPC membership
The Educational Planning Committee (EPC) membership is delineated in the By-laws of the Academic Senate which were passed in 1985 and last revised in 2003. Currently, there is conflicting information regarding the membership of the EPC on the Academic Senate web page. Article 1, Section 12 of the by-laws detailing the rules regarding committees contains the following information:
Section 12 The Educational Planning Committee. The membership of this committee shall consist of ten (10) faculty members appointed by the Academic Senate (including the chair of the Chairs Caucus and the Curriculum Committee chair and at least one representative from each Inter-departmental Work Group (IDWG), two (2) AFT Faculty Guild representatives, the Vice President of Academic Services, two (2) additional administrative representatives, one (1) representative of the AFT Staff Guild, one (1) representative of the ASBG, the Staff and Professional Development Committee Coordinator, and the College Dean of Research.
Clause 1 The Educational Master Planning Committee chair shall be a faculty member appointed by the Academic Senate.
Clause 2 The committee shall make recommendations to the Academic Senate on all aspects of the College’s educational programs related to strategic planning and decision making, including the formulation of the College’s Strategic, Educational, Facilities, and Information Technology Master Plans, revision of the College’s Vision, Mission, and Philosophy statements, design and implementation of Program Review for academic departments, program viability review, and all strategic aspects of the College budget planning process that impact educational programs.
Clause 3 The committee shall appoint ad-hoc subcommittees as required to fulfill its charge.
However, on the page describing the standing committees of the Academic Senate, the following information is presented for the EPC:
The Educational Planning Committee
The Educational Planning Committee (EPC) oversees strategic academic planning for all instructional departments at LACC. The EPC makes recommendations to the Senate on all aspects of the College's educational program, including the following:
- Educational Master Planning
- Program Review
- Program Viability Review (program creation, discontinuance, etc.)
- Instructional Budget Allocation
- Additional
The EPC meets on the first and third Wednesday of every month during Fall and Spring Semesters, and during intersessions as needed, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the President's Conference Room. EPC membership includes nine Academic Senate faculty, one AFT Faculty Guild representative, one staff guild representative, one representative of the ASBG, and three administrators.
Over the years, as the work of the EPC has grown, its membership also grew slowly adding both faculty and administrators to the committee. When you assumed the presidency of the Academic Senate last July, you correctly reduced the committee to the membership described in the By-laws so that our work would be validated should anyone question our decisions. However, given the increased amount of work that is required by the EPC in any given year, but especially this year when we have everything we do coming due in the same year (Accreditation, Comprehensive Program Review, writing a new Educational Master Plan, programming not one, but two additional satellite campuses, and dealing with the closure of Franklin Hall), it is imperative that the membership of the EPC be expanded to allow us to do the careful kind of work that EPC is known for.
At its meeting today, the EPC approved the proposal that the following positions be added to EPC membership:
SLO Coordinator, one additional representative from each IDWG (3 positions), Outreach Dean, one student services administrator, and one additional student services faculty member
We understand that this will entail a revision of the Academic Senate By-Laws and we urge the Senate to do this as soon as possible so that the important work of the EPC can continue in a timely manner.