ESL Department Meeting Minutes

April 30, 8:30 – 10:30 a.m.

ESL105

(action items in red)

Present: Randall, Sucher, Harclerode, Hoover, Nightingale, Marasco, Lodmer, Jaffe, Garate, Graziadei, Baseri, York-Herjeczki

General Info:

  • Textbook orders for fall – if you’re teaching a core course (10G/W, 11A/B, 21A/B) CONFER with the course coordinator about the texts; course coordinators are meeting with me on the 13th of May to consult w/each other and confirm texts, including pilots, for F10;we will invite David and/or Robert from the bookstore to talk at our last dept mtg about ways to reduce costs for students.
  • Teaching requests for W11 will be distributed May 31st with a deadline of June 7th. W11 will duplicate W10.
  • IEP teaching positions – deadline for applying is May 7th; interviews to be held shortly thereafter; right now they’re concentrating on the beginning course for Su10; what the program will look like in F10 and beyond is still undecided; hiring between 6-8 instructors with variable schedules; I’m meeting with Assoc Dean Denise Kinsella to compose the interview questions and review the process; she has told me that she hopes to see applicants from among our existing credit and noncredit faculty; even if you cannot teach with the IEP this summer, apply if you are interested in teaching in future semesters as they are creating a pool of qualified instructors from which to draw;
  • SLO assessment – Sp10 Sharon, John, and I will assess the CE SLO for 21A. No one else needs to do anything. Our department will participate in the pilot F10; how many sections/courses will participate is as yet undecided;
  • Meeting with Internat’l Counseling (4/28). Counselors were very interested in the CEP. One suggested that it could be a 1 unit class – interesting idea. I carefully reviewed with them our courses, emphasized the support courses that students should be taking at each level, and initiated the discussion about what to do with students who don’t pass the first of a combo course. No solutions for now, but we are both aware of the problem. Also, I suggested that we all get together for a catered lunch sometime in our dept. We will invite MLC and Internat’l Counseling to meet with us the end of this semester to further develop ideas for a 1-unit CEP course and ways to address the problem of students who mid-semester drop under 12 units. It was decided that:
  • F10,we will cap a few sections of 10G/W, 11A, 21A so new F1’s will be assured of classes;instructors of capped sections WILL NOT add ANY students the first week; I will send a list of the capped sections ALONG with ADD CODES to Gail and COUNSELORS will distribute them to students. They will send us a list of the students to whom the add codes were given so instructors can check to make sure the add codes weren’t abused. Any student who used an unauthorized add code should be reported to Penchansky and Gail, and be dropped from the class. AFTER the first week, if there are any unused add codes, the instructor will be notified so that he/she may add waitlisted students.
  • Hiring Cmmt EEO’s. If your cmmt has to meet during your class time, you may request a sub.

2.Updates:

  • Doc read cameras (Kathy) – please sign them out before using them
  • Common Essay (Emily, Elena) – there are 3 separate prompts this time and 2 readings; a questionnaire will be distributed to faculty at the norming session to determine if we should move the C.E. to the 9th week and other issues. We are in the process of creating a C.E. shell in eCompanion to which all ESL instructors (and many English) will be able to access materials past and present and a videotape of Julia Morgan’s workshop.
  • Curriculum Cmmt(Judy); now History gets the seat for 3 years, but I’ve asked the incoming Chair of History, Suzanne Borghei if they would allow us to fill that position if no one from their department is interested in doing so. Emily Lodmer is willing to be nominated should History decide not to nominate anyone from their department. Judy reports that the committee is still discussing alternative ways for students to fulfill the global citizenship req for the AA degree: perhaps a sustainable works project or Counseling 11 should satisfy the req.
  • Academic Senate (Sharon)
  • Noncredit program (Melody) – they are in the middle of revising their course outlines and assessments.
  • Faculty Assoc (Keith, Anne, Elena, Tracey); no elected ESL seats open this time – Anne York-Herjeczki MAY run for secretary.
  • BSI Smartcart workshops (Keith) – next workshop is May 14, 11:15-1:15; ALL are encouraged to attend.
  • Global Council (Toni) – subcommittee meeting (Student Relations) next week (Kravitz and Cue, co-chairs)
  • Honor Council (John) – so far there have been no cases brought before the Honor Board; please encourage your students to view the plays by Bruce Smith to be presented during activity hour on 5/4 and 5/6.
  • Piloting of statewide placement assessment (Janet) – volunteers needed to test in the next week or so. Nearly all present at every level volunteered, so she’s covered. It appears that standardized placement assessment is coming down the line. Janet volunteers to hold a workshop on assessment for us if we’d like.
  • Academic Senate elections: Please support Janet Harclerode for President and Keith Graziadei for part-time faculty rep!

3.New Business:

  • ESL24 (onground?online?modules?) – because there are so many possible configurations, discussion is postponed until the summer.
  • ESL Certificate of Completion– we will work on this over the summer.
  • 8-week workshop modules(Sharon) – we will discuss this as well as a possible 1-unit CEP class during the summer and fall with input from International Counseling.

4.Announcements:

  • Julia Morgan's C.E. Workshop Friday, April 30th, 11:30-12:30, ESL105

Our last meeting of the spring semester is Friday, June 4th, 11-1 in ESL105.