California State University Dominguez Hills

Academic Senate Minutes

October 17, 2007

Voting Members Present: Berlin, Best, Bordinaro, Butler, D’Amore, Erbe, Fawver, Ferris, Fisher, Furtado, Furusa, Ganezer, Gould, Hancock, Herbert, Jacobs, Jones, Kalayjian, Kaplan, Levine, Ma, Malamud, Pawar, Russo, Sneed, Wang, andWeber.

Voting Members Absent: Bohman, Clark, Faraji, Harvard-Hinchberger, Heinze-Balcazar, Kowalski, McCarthy, Murrey, Needham, Papa, Park, Vanterpool, Welch, and Zoerner.

Ex-Officio Members Present: Bergmann, Blue, Bradfield, Dote-Kwan, Garcia, Gordon, Hohm, Maki, Parham, Robles, Rodriguez, M., Strong, and Wiley.

Guests:No Guests Signed In.

1.The meeting was called to order at 2:30 p.m.

2.The agenda was approved MSP.

3.The minutes were approved with minor amendments MSP.

Time Certain: 3:00 p.m. Margaret Blue-Catalogue-Blue passed out a letter that was given to all Department Chairs and Program Coordinators, and College and Library Deans. The letter informed every one of the errors in the new print catalog and indicated that Academic Programs was attempting to determine the extent of those problems. It appears that when the catalogue was built the new software picked up the old copy in some instances. Blue requested all departments to look very closely at their copies of the catalogue and if they find errors to please copy the page and make corrections and send it to Academic Programs. Blue noted that any changes that were made after December 1, 2006 would not be included in this catalogue and to please not add them. Blue said that in the future the copy will be given to the deans and they will take responsibility for the content within their colleges. Blue asked that when they hand back the correct copy on November 1, 2007 to please assess and let her know if they should reprint the catalogue or just add an addendum. There was a discussion about how often the catalogue should be printed and Malamud said that a new updated catalogue should be on line every year. Gould said that it made sense to keep up to date copy on line and to not use addendums. Blue said that the University does not have the personnel to update every semester. Malamud asked why the updates were not done on an on-going basis. Hohm said that the printed catalogue is a contract and therefore what is the student responsible for? Making

updates on an on-going basis instead of academic year to academic year could be a problem for the students. Gould suggested putting an effective date on revisions.

Chair’s Report-Butler-Butler reported that he attended a campus senate chair’s meeting in San Francisco. All the senate chairs meet in the morning with the Statewide Executive Committee and then in the afternoon they meet with the provost’s and vice presidents from all the campuses. There were several issues discussed. Butler gave the Senate a few. They discussed the importance of the chair’s group and the 23 campus senate chairs as an independent and credible voice. The chair of the Statewide Senate will draft a letter to Roberta Altenburg inviting Trustees to come to our meetings when we meet as a group of 23 senate chairs. We also looked at the relationships between the Statewide Academic Senate, CFA and Administration post contract and we felt that some bridge building is necessary in that area. We are going to be working with our campus presidents to bring trustees to our campuses and give them a better idea of what faculty do. Another issue discussed was the function and current character of BOT and looking at trying to understand new members of the board and where they stand on certain issues. With regard to current initiatives there was a task force that was put together on drops, withdraws, incompletes and repeats. We are pulling together and trying to see from the 23 campuses how much variance there is. The first of the year there will be a report done. Butler said they discussed the College Learning Assessment and there are many concerns among senate chairs. One of the questions was “does the assessment do what it says it does”. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of evidence that it will do what it says it will do. It has been difficult to get seniors to take the test and some campuses are offering incentives like money. The test is produced by Rank Corporation and our chancellor sits on their board. Butler said that a joint task force has been created to look at student evaluations of faculty. The taskforce consists of the CFA, CSU, SWAS. Butler said that a task force is being formed to look at intellectual property issues. Butler reported there was a heated discussion about the graduate business fee, and a task force is being formed about that. The issue of campus autonomy was brought up and the need to have a common calendar. The potential CSU online degree programs and policies related to facilitation to graduations were discussed. The drop/withdraw incomplete, repeat polices were discussed and lastly, the ever creeping workload.

Parliamentarian Report-Kalayjian-None

EPC Report-Jacobs-None

FPC Report-Furusa-Furusa reported that his committee is making steady progress with the PTE Instrument. They are working with a focus group and there will be a complete report April 1, 2008. Brian Hu is working on the analysis and we will use the information to determine what kind of instrument we need. Malamud said that all of this is a waste of time and resources. He wanted to know why we are re-inventing the wheel and that other universities have already done this research. He said that we can pull the information from another campus and use that. Furusa said that if we were to do that there might be a good possibility that it would not work for our campus and our needs. Pawar said that we are trying to find out what works for us. Malamud said that it had already been two years. Furusa said that the senate wanted his committee to do this research and analysis.

Statewide Senate Report-Bordinaro-Bordinaro reported that this past week the intermediary committee meetings took place, she was not able to attend but did review the minutes. The Faculty Affairs and GEAC Committee met. She received several emails of faculty interested in representing the campus for the system wide GE colloquium. A sub-committee was formed and they will report back to the full committee in November. There is a desire to hold a system wide meeting no later than February. Bordinaro will contact the chair of GEAC and respond to all who have contacted her with interest to serve. There was a lot of energy with regard to who should attend that meeting and what their role will be.

Provost’s Report-Wiley-Wiley reported that the meeting in San Francisco October 4th and 5th included senate chairs, statewide senate, academic affairs vice presidents’, provosts and students. They discussed a number of things.

  • The new draft of the system strategic plan was discussed.
  • You can review the draft on the Chancellors Website and give feedback--contact Trudy Hernandez at .
  • The Academic Technology Initiative was discussed.
  • Public pressure for accountability was discussed.
  • The need for higher trained and better educated workforce.
  • Students who are better prepared for college coming in.
  • Sustaining institutional effectiveness-convincing people of our value.

Wiley said there is public pressure at the federal and state level for students to demonstrate accomplishment and to graduate students who are well educated. There is a danger of standardized measures to be imposed.

Wiley reported that we will receive for Academic Technology baseline funding in 2008 30 million dollars, and in 2009 another 30 million and in 2010 there will be 25 million received for a total of 85 million. The areas that need support are the infra structure, hardware and software, smart classrooms, accessibility, and transforming course design.

The provost’s have been asked to identify 3 or 4 courses on their campuses with 3 characteristics: 1) serves a large number of students, 2) the success rates are less than desired and 3) technology would be used as a solution.

There will be a group consisting of 3 or 4 provosts and campus information officers who will decide how the money will be split up.

President’s Report-Millie Garcia-Garcia reported on a few of the items she is working on: 1) building community and 2) Dominguez Hills points of pride 3) financial stability. Garcia said that with regard to building community she wanted to thank everyone for the reception she received and she said that the student reception she gave last night was very diverse. She said that a content analysis is being done on a stake holder survey. She said that college staff needs to be heard. She had breakfast with the midnight crew and they gave her a lot of good ideas. She said that she has had a very fruitful discussion with UPC and regarding the strategic plan they have decided to reinstate SPOC and will prepare a report as WASC comes on campus. She said that universities are being looked at by how students are prepared and by the actual evidence and data.

Dr. Garcia reported on the sexual assault incident that occurred here on campus. The police have provided many programs on how to keep yourself safe. She and Maryann Rodriguez got in a cart and drove around the campus around 7 or 8p.m. and looked at places not lit well. They did find lights that were burned out. The president said that the university does have police and escorts but it is difficult to keep the escorts, not that many students want to do this because of their own schedules. Community volunteers are a good resource except that the community and police department use them so they are hard to come by. Dr. Garcia said that our campus is one of the safest campuses in the CSU and that this horrible incident that occurred was a symptom of society. Levine said that he appreciated how quickly the president gets information out. Malamud said that at night the parking lots are pretty empty and the perception of a safe campus may not be accurate. We need more police cars driving around. Garcia said that there are currently 4 openings for police officers. She said that it is difficult to keep them. We train them, send them to the police academy and they work for us for one year. The city recruits them because they can pay them a higher salary.

Garcia reported that regarding celebrating Dominguez Hills Points of Pride she thanked Rod Butler and the Music department for their great work on the NASMA accreditation. She said that NASMA gave her an exit interview and they spoke extremelyhigh of the music department and their high quality instruction and faculty. They said that it was a program of distinction. Garcia said that the Guitar Foundation of America Event is wonderful and she encouraged all to get tickets. The performance last night was wonderful and very high caliber. Garcia said that she hosted Liz Bayer who is the publisher of the Daily Breeze Newspaper. Garcia gave her a tour of the campus and she was very impressed.

Tony Plana from “Ugly Betty” was a guest on the President’s Notebook and wants to come into partnership with the Dominguez Hills Theater Department.

Garcia reported on enrollment management and said that with regard to enrollment management we need a comprehensive strategic way of thinking collaboratively. One person will be responsible in reporting to her. She will bring in someone who will be in charge of enrollment management and who will collaborate with all of the faculty and staff and administrators.

Garcia reported that the Provost Search has begun and Boice Bowman will be the chair.

Open Forum-Fawver thanked people involved with the step up program. Furusa said that the Division of World Cultural Studies is working with high schools to learn cross cultural collaboration and Furusa is in charge of the program. Furusa said that 900 students from high schools came to campus in the summer and about 500 this semester so far. This is a great program that gets high school students involved with the University.

Jacobs reported that if anyone sees flyers for term papers for sale to please remove them from bulletin boards and reminded everyone that this is not a part of the campus policy. She asked that if anyone noticed these flyers with an ASI stamp on them to remove them and bring them to Student Affairs.

Meeting Adjourned at 4:05 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted By,

Mary BrooksRod Butler

Chair’s AssistantChair