Board of Trustees Report

Board of Trustees Report
August 20, 2008

President’s Report
Over the summer as the new Senate President, I participated in ASCCC Faculty Leadership Institute, made several hiring committee appointments, and participated in several meetings.

Reports
The Curriculum Committee Chair, Erin Farmer, reported that the college has purchased Curricunet and it will be ready to implement in the Spring of 2009. There will be training for this new software during the fall and spring semesters. She also commented that the new majors that were revised due to discrepancies with Title 5 (Interdisciplinary Studies and University Studies) have been well received by the System’s Office and only need minor changes to be in full compliance. Then she spoke of the success of the Curriculum Institute that took place over the summer.

Distance Education Chair, Renee Moore reported that eCollege is rolling out its new platform .NeXt and that some of our faculty are participating in a pilot program. Training for .NeXt took place during Flex Cal. Ms. Moore also mentioned that the MySolano transition was not an easy one for eCollege students. There were some glitches that have, for the most part, been resolved. Distance Education Coordinator, Sandy Rotenberg, was also on hand to answer senator’s questions about our online offerings and how the more technical aspects of the Banner conversion went. She offered up a summary of online course offerings and other information in this report.

Our Flexible Calendar Committee Chair, Chuck Spillner, reported about our Flex Cal day and its theme based on the video “Discounted Dreams”. He also mentioned that there are two new members to the Flex Cal committee, Erin Duane and Kevin Brewer. The committee is considering the creation of a “Master List” of approved optional Flex Cal activities that Division Deans could sign off on and make receiving optional flex cal hours more streamline.

Information/ Discussion Items
We had planned to discuss when the Senate would meet over the year, but were short on time, so this item has been tabled. Erin Farmer, who is the Accreditation Midterm Report editor, gave an assessment of the progress on the document. See her comments here. It is quite clear that there are gaps in the information necessary for Erin to adequately do her job as editor. She can’t edit what she doesn’t have. Subsequent to Erin’s report the Accreditation Midterm Report has been distributed to the necessary representatives of the campus community and it is hoped that the holes will be filled. As President of the Senate, I have told the faculty in attendance at the Senate meetings, the Faculty luncheon during Flex Cal and to VP Steinback and S/P Fisher that I cannot, in good conscience, sign-off on an incomplete midterm report or one that has not been vetted through the shared governance process.

Other reports to the Senate came from VP Jay Field on the current status of Banner and PIO Ross Beck.

The Senate had to postpone its discussion on “Senate Goals” for 2008 and 2009 because we simply ran out of time. However, senators will now have the opportunity to get input from their constituents about which goals they support. During our next senate meeting, we will engage in a full discussion of what our plans are for this year. Some of the goals that I put forth for debate were to update our by-laws, enhance the Senate’s use of technology, continue our discussion on academic integrity/ freedom, further explore proportional representation, define and fully realize the accreditation and SLO subcommittee, consult with Academic Affairs and Student Services about policy review, and explore the senate’s relationship to budget development.

During the Joint Meeting: Academic Senate and Educational Administrators we were given a report on Solano College students by VP Waits and Rob Simas. This snap shop was helpful to see who our students are, what they do, and how this impacts our programs. For the full document, click here. VP Steinback picked up from there and gave an update on our Strategic Goals and Objectives, basing her comments on the Educational Master Plan Goals Progress Report 2007-2008.

Josh Stein gave an update on the Basic Skills Initiative. BSI continues to make strides in peer mentoring, information competency, tutoring, supplemental instruction, and reading, writing and math labs. We held our first College Success Institute enrolling 25 students, 24 of whom are continuing this semester as full time students. There is a website available in addition to some great YouTube videos of students. The college owes thanks to Brenda Tucker and Pat Vogelpohl for their hard work.

Finally, gave an overview of where the college is with SLOs. Her nine bulleted comments got right to the point and it was easy to see how we are progressing in this area. Here report is here.

This concludes the Solano College Academic Senate report.