President’s Report to the Senate

Meetings:

FABPAC: Dr. Laguerre announced that on Monday the Vallejo Center was approved as a center by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors (BOG). As a result, the District expects to receive will receive $1 million for 2009-10 and the funding is ongoing. Chancellor Jack Scott commented that his first day on the job was at Solano College. Chancellor said that he's proud of the progress our college has made. Dr. Laguerre reported that the $1 million is allocated towards the Vacaville Center and at the next meeting we will bring forward some initial proposals for allocating the dollars. The District has essential staffing and service needs to fulfill for Vacaville like maintenance & operations, lab technicians, and so on. The Vacaville Center has been receiving $1 million since it achieved center status in the early 1990's.

The Variance Report: In FABPAC, several members indicated that the discussion on the report elicited more disagreement and discontent than was recorded in the minutes. The members had many questions and concerns about the report, the clarity and validity of the numbers, the disproportionate percentages, and were informed that responses were forthcoming. Jeff Lamb and Louis McDermott questioned expending exactly 75% of the year's budget. The report's variance numbers would naturally trigger a barrage of questions—how true are the numbers. Dr. Waits responded to the amendment comments by saying that VP Roth is currently intensely involved with Banner training six out of the last 10 days since the April 21 meeting. The short-term delay is expected to benefit us in the long-term. Generally, we would expect a response, however, it's her understanding that a definite date was not mentioned to respond. Last year's variance report format was provided to VP Roth, which staff is attempting to recreate. The comments will be shared with VP Roth.

SGC: In Shared Governance I provided a regular PERT and Accreditation update. We discussed the possibility of using the CCLC's Policy and Procedures numbering system instead of our own to facilitate the continual revision and editing of our Board Policies.

We further discussed some of the language in the 5000 series Board Policies and reviewed a new one, 1140, on Building Dedication Plaques.

Finally we received from Human Resources an updated ALG BP 4800 that reflects the changes in administrative structure after the reorganization and changes in the title and compensation of the Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs. The new title is Executive Vice President and there has been an increase in salary by $10,000. We were provided with a revised ALG salary schedule that includes a new step 53. Of concern here is that SGC had always expressed concerns about the workload and salary of this position. Dr. Laguerre downgraded it in order to make the re-organization more fiscally palatable. Additionally, the changes to the ALG salary schedule was not presented to that group.

PERT: The FABPAC provided helpful comments to the IPP:

Thoughtful discussion ensued on methods to help the proposer(s) know FABPAC's role and expectations in evaluating a proposal's budget. Comments and suggestions for PERT to be sent from FABPAC via Jeff Lamb include:

• The proposer should have a list of FABPAC's general guidelines on what it will look for. FABPAC agreed to begin the work to develop guidelines for distribution. For example, because FTES apportionment is general fund revenue, should a proposal "claim" FTES as a sole funding source when these dollars already "hit" and are allocated in many areas? Example: A PE Program's funding is proposed to be offset by FTES. A student isn't taking only PE courses. Is there a rule of thumb on what percentage goes to the program or course and what goes elsewhere? What is the expected FTES offset?
  
• We should have a fiscal services "fiscal review" of the proposal prior to the FABPAC committee review. This review would give the committee guidance on how the funding might work.
  
• The Review Groups could play a stronger role. RGs look at existing programs and determine if it's a duplication of efforts and to make a determination of how the new program fits with existing programs.
  
• Proposal needs to take into account the current state-wide budget climate—whether good or bad—to assess viability of passage and funding.
  For example,
  given the current budget climate, proposals should consider the state's focus on basic skills, transfer rates, and workforce development.
  
• It is helpful if the proposer can be present at the meeting to answer questions and mitigate concerns.
  
• One of FABPAC's charges is to identify potential funding sources, and when we do approve and fund a proposal, we have to somehow track all sources. Last year's proposals would be funded if there was money available—no specific budget was identified.
  

 

Additionally, we have been working on the metrics that accompany the Strategic Goals and Objectives.

Accreditation:

In FaBPAC, I expressed concerns that the work accomplished last year in creating the Special Report is in jeopardy this year in terms of accuracy on the fiscal side, vis-á-vis the Third Quarter Variance Report. Dr. Laguerre responded that this report was shared at the Supt/President's Cabinet meeting and they also had questions but there is an explanation for it. He noted that confusion arose because the 2009-10 budget was not set up properly—it was just rolled over. Categorical budgets were either lumped together or did not move over to 2009-10. Excel shadow spreadsheets were maintained to track budgets, rather than fully utilizing Banner. Training is the top priority so data can be extracted accurately, and staff is working very hard to rectify systemic issues. Prior administrators did the best they could with shadow systems—in the short run it worked okay, but in the long run it is not.

 

Events:

I represented faculty at the Vacaville Center Opening Ceremony and gave a small speech.

President’s Report to the Board

Meetings:

Area B: I traveled to Lake Merritt College and participated in the Area B meeting in which we reviewed and discussed resolutions that would come to the floor in Plenary.

ASCCC Plenary: In addition to several great workshops… one that I presented at…J the Plenary is a time of giving guidance to the ASCCC through a series of resolutions. In the resolutions, of note, were several related to:

1. Support for the Consultation Council's recommendations to the ACCJC. (Resolution 2.03)
   
2. Plan to infuse cultural competency (Resolution 1.02)
   
3. Two papers on Equity and Diversity
   
4. The questions of transfer and articulation that Robin Arie-Donche brought to the Senate was referred to Exec. (Resolutions 4.04 and 4.05)
   
5. Opposition to Proposed Modification of the California Community College Mission (Resolution 6.01)
   
6. Chancellor's Office MOU with Kaplan (Resolution 7.03)
   

Additionally, I went to a presentation on CCC Assess. (This links to a 2009 doc that has some information but is not current). It is a system wide effort to provide a "centralized common assessment model". Meeting for statewide faculty input are set for May 7^th and 8^th.

In the Senate:

Academic Council: Dr. Waits brought to the Senate revisions to BP 5200 on the Academic Council that reviews petitions from students on matters pertaining to their academic performance, enrollment status or registration/withdrawal procedures. The Senate is always pleased to get information of this kind from the administration and Dr. Waits is to be commended for doing so. Of note in the revisions presented is the request that students provide documentation to support their claims and that the decisions of the Academic Council are final. (In the past, students were allowed to appeal to the Vice President of Academic Affairs.)

We received a Treasurer's Report. In addition to the budget allocated to the Senate we have monies that are donated by faculty to the tune of about $141 monthly. Our current balance on this account stands at $9,273.00. We will have a few expenses before the end of the semester still.

The Senate is at the beginning of our election process. Daryl Allen is chairing this committee. We have several openings: the Vice President/ President Elect, the At-Large Senator, an Adjunct Senator and a one year adjunct replacement. We have put out a call for nominations and should be holding elections in the coming weeks. I hope to present the new Senate President Elect by the last Board meeting of the semester.

Our Distance Education Committee reported that it has asked all divisions to work on departmental guidelines for online instruction to ensure that we comply with Title V requirements and ACCJC standards. Also, the committee discussed concerns over the excessive workload on our Distance Education Coordinator. While the number of students who login to online courses and the number of online sections has increased, the reassign time for the coordinator has not. The committee brainstormed possible solutions to alleviate the amount of work the DE Coordinator does.

One of our Math faculty members, Corrine Kirkbride, presented questions and concerns about cell phone use in campus buildings, especially around faculty offices. She is looking to create a board policy to this effect. The Senate provided some guidance and input on her proposal. It seems that, in the end, the District's current BP may extend to the areas she is concerned about. More to come on this later…

The Chair of our Distinguished Faculty of the Year Award, Thom Watkins, has put out the call for recipients of this award. Additionally, LaNae Jaimez has agreed to lead our preparations for the Senate Tenure Tea to honor those faculty who receive tenure this year.

Our representative to the Banner Committee, Richard Kleeberg, gave an update on the functions of Banner that are of interest to faculty, namely the Course Studio portion. It seems that there have been some changes in the committees that give input to the decisions around Banner and we are re-grouping, as it were. We expect to hear more on Course Studio in the near future. The potential is to have course web pages for all faculty through Banner.

Other topics:

I spoke with Dolores Davidson who is on the "Relations with Local Senates" committee. I've invited her to come to SCC for our last meeting of the semester to serve as a resource to our new President and Senators. She will be available on May 17^th from 2-3, be present during out meeting, and then be available from 5-6, if necessary.

President’s Report to the Senate

Meetings:

FaBPAC: We discussed the three Strategic Proposals that the Senate reviewed some time ago. The discussion focused primarily on the feasibility of the budget associated with the proposals. It is important to emphasis that this kind of rigor is vital and an important function of FaBPAC in the Integrated Planning Process. Dr. Laguerre also brought forward news that the College has taken steps to have the Vallejo Center receive center status, meaning that we will receive 1 Million more per year to the general fund. Also, there is a good chance that we'll get a one-time payment of 1 Million for this year. We'll know more after May 3^rd when the CCC Board of Governors meets.

SGC: Of note was the discussion on the Board Policy 5000 series. For the most part, what was presented mimicked what Dr. Waits brought before the Senate some time ago. There some additional text added to the BP 5300 procedures. The following language what added:

"10. Mental Health Clearance

Mental Health clearance may be required before a student who has been disciplined for dangerous, abnormal or erratic behavior is readmitted to a particular class or allowed to come onto District property. The Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs (or designee) must receive a letter from a licensed mental health professional providing reasonable assurances that in his/her professional judgment the student will no longer continue the behavior which gave rise to the Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs (or designee) taking disciplinary action against him/her or that the student's continued presence on campus is not a threat to himself/herself or others. The mental health professional must be licensed by the State of California, and the Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs (or designee) must verify that the mental health professional is credentialed to render a professional opinion. The student shall bear the cost and expense of obtaining mental health clearance."

I've been asked if the Senate has issue with this addition.

DE Committee: Agenda topics included;

Area B: I traveled to Lake Merritt College and participated in the Area B meeting in which we reviewed and discussed resolutions that would come to the floor in Plenary.

ASCCC Plenary: In addition to several great workshops… one that I presented at…J the Plenary is a time of giving guidance to the ASCCC through a series of resolutions. In the resolutions, of note, were several related to:

1. Support for the Consultation Council's recommendations to the ACCJC. (Resolution 2.03)
   
2. Plan to infuse cultural competency (Resolution 1.02)
   
3. Two papers on Equity and Diversity
   
4. The questions of transfer and articulation that Robin Arie-Donche brought to the Senate was referred to Exec. (Resolutions 4.04 and 4.05)
   
5. Opposition to Proposed Modification of the California Community College Mission (Resolution 6.01)
   
6. Chancellor's Office MOU with Kaplan (Resolution 7.03)
   

Additionally, I went to a presentation on CCC Assess. (This links to a 2009 doc that has some information but is not current). It is a system wide effort to provide a "centralized common assessment model".

Other topics:

I spoke with Dolores Davidson who is on the "Relations with Local Senates" committee. I've invited her to come to SCC for our last meeting of the semester to serve as a resource to our new President and Senators. She will be available on May 17^th from 2-3, be present during out meeting, and then be available from 5-6, if necessary.

Academic Senate President’s Report to the Senate

Meetings:

SGC: Shared Governance got a PERT update, an Accreditation update (see below), approved the IRB Policy, a Banner update, and spoke at length about the Strategic Proposals. The final ranking of which was: 1) Pathways to Success, 2) TLC Re-Design, and 3) Add a Women's Intercollegiate Sport. Also, Dr. Laguerre made a commitment to have the Tutoring Center moved out of the portables by Fall.

S/P Laguerre: I gave Dr. Laguerre a report on our team's visit to the ASCCC Accreditation Institute. See comments below. We also discussed Distance Education at Solano. I mentioned that in September when we participated in the ACCJC training that DE was an area that might need our attention because it touches on so many standards. I also re-iterated what our current DE Coordinator, Sandy Rotenberg, had shared with him about the growth of online and the need for more support for that position. Dr. Laguerre assured me that he understood the value of DE and had asked Tom Grube to take the idea of more reassign time for the coordinator back to the union executive. Additionally, he asked that our Senate DE Committee begin anew its exploration into new Learning Management Systems. Lastly, we also discussed plans a preparations for this week's Board Study Session/ Dinner with Faculty.

Board: Of significance to the Senate is that all those faculty who were up for review and/or tenure were approved by the Board. Also, for some reason, the SunGuard contract was postponed until the next Board meeting.

Other Items:

Accreditation Institute: In general, the outing was very productive. Solano sent a team with two faculty, two staff, one student and one administrator. The sessions were informative and strengthened our knowledge of the accreditation process. Based on what we learned, what we might want to do is re-examine our Program Review process to ensure that it will stand up to ACCJC standards. We tend to use our Program Reviews and Three-Year Plans as internal planning documents that don't get a full public viewing or attention. It might be a good idea to see about using them as a way of having "productive dialogue about the College's strengths and weaknesses". Also, while we have taken strides forward on SLOs, we need to ensure that we extend program review and Service Area Outcomes (SAO) not only to the Student Services side of the house but also to Administrative Services.

Area B: We went over the different resolutions for the Spring Plenary that have come forward to date. There are some very interesting ones on transfer and accreditation. Consultation Council.

Spring Plenary: I will need to attend the Spring Plenary to take place in San Francisco from April 15-17, because I am presenting, are there any other takers?

ASCCC "Relations with Local Senates" Dolores Davison from Foothill/DeAnza College has offered a visit to our Senate in early April. I have accepted with the idea that it would be a good idea for an ASCCC representative to observe our Senate meetings and serve as a resource for questions and answers about the Statewide Academic Senate. I also thought that our new Vice President/ President Elect would appreciate meeting her and having the opportunity to connect with the ASCCC and to ask questions about how to run meetings and navigate the Senate. When there are firm dates, I'll let Senators know. If for some reason this does not seem like a good idea, please let me know.

 

Senate President Report the Board

Meetings:

PERT: In the Process Evaluation Review Team meeting we reviewed one of the training video modules that Rob Simas and I produced on Operational Proposals, discussed the e-mail that Rob will be sending to $ALL soliciting performance indicators for our Strategic Objectives, and we discussed our systematic evaluation of the Integrated Planning Process to date.

Accreditation: As I mentioned in my Accreditation Update at the last Closed Session, I have held two informational meetings with the Accreditation Committee to give co-chairs guidance on how to move forward with the accreditation self-study this semester. My sense is that working groups have begun to meet and the campus has taken its first steps toward completing the 2011 Self-Study Report. Also, I have activities planned for the March 17 optional Flex Cal day. We had a nice showing for this work session today. Finally, there is a group of faculty, staff, and administrators who will attend the State Academic Senate Accreditation Institute this weekend. I'm sure we'll have plenty to report back on.

American River College: I went with Nancy Konecny and Susanna Crawford to American River College for a tour of their Learning Resource Center and to discuss how they have implemented their Basic Skills Program. We were able to glean some interesting insights that may inform our discussions

Distance Education: Rennee Moore has stepped down as the DE Committee for personal reasons and Dale Crandall-Bare has been selected by the committee to take over her responsibilities for the remainder of the semester.

In the Senate: This week the Senate met and had, as usual, a very full agenda.

Representatives from SunGuard came in to give us a glimpse of what a fully functioning MySolano portal might look like. In particular, Senators were eager to find out about the full range of services to available to facilitate communication with students. (Course Suites). Unfortunately, because while most of the services we were to see are "hidden" and not yet "turned on", the SunGuard rep was working from a remote server that had quite a few problems. The session served the purpose of introducing SunGuard to the Senate, but was not very informative. We do have plans to give it another try in the near future.

As the Board is aware, regrettably this semester because of budget constraints the College has had to eliminate the LD Specialist position and one of our faculty colleagues is being reassigned to another area. The Senate is always concerned about any possible steps toward Program Discontinuance that do not go through the District's approved policies. Our concern was that by eliminating a position there was the potential for a de facto elimination of the Learning Services Program. We had a very healthy and robust discussion of the topic. The Senate's position will be to ensure that the District follows its Program Discontinuance Policy. In our next meeting we are going to engage in the planned annual review of this policy to ensure that it meets our current needs.

The Senate will be holding a series of elections soon. The positions that are up for election are the Vice President/President Elect, one At-Large Senators, and about half of the Division Senator: Humanities Division, Math & Science Division, PE, & Athletics Division, and one Part-Time Representative.

Other items:

As Senate President I have requested faculty volunteers to serve on the FABPAC, the MySolano/ Luminus Committee, the Vallejo Expansion Committee, and the Equivalency Procedures ad hoc committee. Response has been strong for most areas. Mary Ann Haley from Cosmetology has volunteered for the FABPAC, Richard Kleeberg for MySolano, several faculty for the Vallejo Expansion and two reading and one DSPS faculty member for the Equivalency Procedures. I especially wanted to point out the Board the appointments to the Vallejo Expansion Committee. As I'm sure you recall this committee had no faculty voice and the fact that it does now is a very good step for the College.

President’s Report to the Senate

Meetings:

FABPAC: At the Financial and Budget Planning Advisory Council meeting we reviewed and forwarded to the Board the "Proposed Facilities Use Procedures and Fees". I provided an accreditation update. We were also informed that the College would not be going forward with the $1.8 million SunGuard that would include the hiring of the Chief Information Systems Officer.

SGC: The Shared Governance Council meeting of March 10 had PERT, Accreditation, Institutional Review Board, Banner update, Dinner with the Governing Board, Strategic Proposals, Policy 5000, the Board agenda and area updates as agenda items. The IRB will be voted on at the next meeting. It seems that its approval is forthcoming. The Banner update included the information that the College was going to move forward on a two-year, $1.64 million contract with SunGuard to make the last "push" to get the College out from under the Banner rock. This contract will not include the CISO position. SGC was able to discuss the Strategic Proposal on "Adding a Women's Inter-Collegiate Sport" to SCC. We still have two other proposals to discuss.

PERT: In the Process Evaluation Review Team meeting we reviewed one of the training video modules that Rob Simas and I produced on Operational Proposals, discussed the e-mail that Rob will be sending to $ALL soliciting performance indicators for our Strategic Objectives, and we discussed our systematic evaluation of the Integrated Planning Process to date.

Accreditation: I have held two informational meetings with the Accreditation Committee to give co-chairs guidance on how to move forward with the accreditation self-study this semester. My sense is that working groups have begun to meet and the campus has taken its first steps toward completing the 2011 Self-Study Report. Also, I have activities planned for the March 17 optional Flex Cal day. Finally, there is a group of faculty, staff, and administrators who will attend the State Academic Senate Accreditation Institute this weekend. I'm sure we'll have plenty to report back on.

American River College: I went with Nancy Konecny and Susanna Crawford to American River College for a tour of their Learning Resource Center and to discuss how they have implemented their Basic Skills Program. We were able to glean some interesting insights that may inform our discussions

VP ASA hiring committee: I wanted to let the Senate know that this committee has been meeting and is making good progress.

Distance Education: Rennee Moore has stepped down as the DE Committee for personal reasons and Dale Crandall-Bare has been selected by the committee to take over her responsibilities for the remainder of the semester.

The Board: The Board Study Session focused on an accreditation update, an overview federal education budget changes, and the academic calendar. Additionally, they discussed Dr. Laguerre's proposal for the Board to dedicate future study sessions to discussions with faculty, staff and students.

 

Other items:

As I'm sure most of you saw, I sent out e-mails requesting faculty volunteers to serve on the FABPAC, the MySolano/ Luminus Committee, the Vallejo Expansion Committee, and the Equivalency Procedures ad hoc committee. Response has been strong for most areas. Mary Ann Haley from Cosmetology has volunteered for the FABPAC, Richard Kleeberg for MySolano, several faculty for the Vallejo Expansion and two reading and one DSPS faculty member for the Equivalency Procedures.

President’s Report to the Senate

Meetings:

The FABPAC met on Feb. 3^rd and 17^th. The topics included a budget update, a discussion on programs that encroach on the general fund, internal controls relative to the district financial audit report, public records access request issues, and proposed facilities use procedures and fees. When discussion the budget, there have been some interesting comments regarding the inclusion of furloughs (a savings of around $500,000 for the District) and early retirement incentives (another potential $500,000 savings). As for the discussion on encroachment, the district "targeted" four areas (the theater, contract ed, community services, and SBDC) that encroached on the general fund. While these areas no longer of concern, the question remains about what other areas of the college encroach significantly on the general fund. This item has been on the FABPAC agenda for almost a year now.

The SGC met on Feb. 10^th and 24^th. The topics included: a report from the PERT, SCC's "legislative platform", information on accreditation, revisions to job descriptions, a discussion of the academic calendar, strategic goals, the need for coordination between hiring and finance via a staffing master plan, the Institutional Review Board, the introduction of several strategic goals, and a look at the Governing Board agendas. Dr. Laguerre put forth his steps to connect with our elected officials to further SCC legislative initiatives: a Higher Education Center in Vallejo, build a new Library with 50% State matching dollars, build a new Science and Technology Center, and a new Biotech building in Vacaville. We have been discussing the Dean of Academic Success and Learning Resources, the Chief Information Systems Officer and Center Administrator positions. The Calendar Committee has been working with SCFA to fix the academic calendar. The issue revolves around the week of Thanksgiving (and only having two instructional days that week) and compliance with the State. The suggested solution is to take optional days from the beginning of the fall and using them to take the entire week of Thanksgiving off… the problem would be that the Senate, for example, relies on the optional flex at the beginning of fall to meet. A solution is forthcoming. The IRB was presented for information and will be voted on next time. As for the Strategic Proposals that the Senate forwarded to SGC, they will discuss them at their next meeting.

The Board has met for a study session (Feb. 3^rd) and a regular meeting (Feb17th). The study session dealt with: a program partnership with Bay Area Clean Water Agencies, SERP (early retirement incentives), a budget update, a discussion on the Strategic Planning efforts, SunGuard Higher Education Presentation, and Emergency Protocols and Incident Command Center Update. Highlights from the regular meeting included the announcement from closed session that the Board has authorized Dr. Laguerre to issue layoff notices to one faculty position (the person will not be laid off but rather reassigned) and three staff positions. The Women's Soccer team and the Speech and Debate team were honored for their accomplishments this year. Also, Ross Beck presented the opening ceremonies of the Vacaville Center. Of note, too, was a follow-up presentation by SunGuard regarding a two-year contract for our CISO position and other support services that will take us to a full Banner implementation. This was a 1.8 million dollar proposal.

 

PERT: This group has continued to work on reconciling the former Strategic Plan with the new one. Additionally, they submitted a list of recommendations to Dr. Laguerre regarding ways to improve our Integrated Planning Process. The PERT is also discussing was of soliciting input from the campus community on the metrics used to evaluate our progress towards Strategic Goals and Objectives. Finally, the PERT will begin its annual review of the IPP.

Updates:

ASCCC: As I'm sure you all read in the most recent ASCCC President newsletter, the Chancellor's Office signed a MOU with Kaplan University. This was done without consulting the ASCCC or any other statewide groups. The blowback has been noteworthy. The end result is that post facto, the Chancellor's Office may hold meetings with ASCCC and other groups for their feedback. I received information regarding a local Senate Resolution on course section elimination in hard budget times from ARC. It seems that they have experienced difficult cuts without input from faculty. If it pleases the Senate I can present you with the ARC resolution and we can have further discussions at a future meeting.

Accreditation:

As we look to solicit more fully participation and leadership in the accreditation Self-Study, it seems necessary to provide an update on the organizational process to date and the plans for the near and not-so-near future. The goal of this document is to give you a sense of how we plan to move forward and how you fit into the large picture.

 

Where we are?

After our January Flex Cal training in which we used the wiki to facilitate a better understanding of accreditation standards and to provide resources about accreditation, we have a fairly good idea where faculty and administrators fit into the writing of the Self-Study. Cynthia Simon, CSEA President, is updating her list of which staff will participate where and will forward it soon. Ralph Myer, Local 39 President, will provide a list, as well. Nancy Blanc and Connie Adams have pulled together the sign-up sheets and those administrators who have been assigned to specific areas. We should have a comprehensive list for the entire campus shortly. We have also received the ACCJC response to our last Special Report. You can access their finding on the SCC website. In sum, they have eliminated recommendation seven on fiscal stability and we are on-watch for the other recommendations. While we still remain on sanctions, the good news is that the next Special Report won't be due until October 2010, one full year before our Self-Study. This means that they've given us one more extension on the two-year rule to resolve our deficiencies.

 

What's next?

In essence, we are moving ahead on two fronts; preparing for and writing a Self-study and responding to the ACCJC report with a Special Report with Visit. The plan is to keep these two efforts separate while at the same time ensuring that they are highly articulated. As for the October 2010 Special
Report, the goal is to keep those Working Groups related to the recommendations for which we are still on sanctions moving and writing. Look for an invitation to participate, but know that those faculty, staff and administrators who wrote the last response are on the task. As for the October 2011 Self-Study, there are some basic ground rules in place that might be a good place to start. Based on what we've learned since our 2005 Self-Study we know that writing narrative and collecting evidence is the responsibility of all employees. If you are in the Widget Department, expect to work on the area(s) related to your specialty. Deans and other members of the Administrative Leadership Group have participation in accreditation as a part of the formal evaluation. Expect to have accreditation on division agendas. All faculty who participate as a Co-Chair will not have to worry about optional flex hours for the next year and a half. These items have buy-in from Dr. Steinback and Dr. Laguerre.

 

Organization

We are in the process of creating an Accreditation Committee. The membership of which includes the Accreditation Liaison Officer (AL0), the Academic Senate President, the Director of Research and Planning, and the Editor (these individuals are the members of the Accreditation Steering Committee). Additionally, there will be Co-Chairs from each of the larger areas within the standards, eg. two Co-chairs for Standard I A, who are the additional members of the Accreditation Committee.

The Accreditation Committee will be responsible for providing input to the Accreditation Steering Committee and for reporting out to Working Groups, shared governance bodies, the Academic Senate, and the Board of Trustees. It will be asked to lead the College as we develop the Self-Study. This will include input on the pre-writing, writing, evidence gathering and postproduction phases. This group will establish and/or refine our timeline, expectations, and outcomes. They will also be a resource to the campus community regarding standards and "all things" accreditation.

 

Co-Chairs

The Co-chairs have been either selected or nominated by the Superintendent/President, the ALO, the Academic Senate President or the President of CSEA. In most cases they are a faculty/ staff and an administrator. Their job is to:

· Establish timelines

· Assign work

· Review narrative

· Ensure that evidence accompanies narrative

· Communicate and report-out

· Encourage participation

· Be available as a resource

· Use the wiki

· NOT do all the work

· NOT be an editor

In order to begin the process, co-chairs will be given a packet with the following resources:

1. Membership list

2. Timeline

3. Tracking Sheet

4. Style Sheet

5. ACCJC "Dos and Don'ts"

6. ACCJC rubrics

7. ACCJC "Questions to be asked"

Of additional importance as a significant resource for accreditation is that Dr. Laguerre has asked that we explore the idea of an Accreditation Self-Study Coordinator. This would be a one-year, 100% reassign time position that is to be filled by a full-time faculty member. This person would work exclusively on the Self-Study from the Fall of 2010 to the Fall of 2011. This represents a major commitment to the accreditation process.