Board of Trustees Report

Reports

Academic Affairs
VPAA Steinback gave update on the Accreditation Midterm Report and explained the role of the Shared Governance Council as the de facto primary “last review” body because of the representative constituents on the council. Additionally, the VPAA requested the Senate’s participation in the reviewing the 5000 and 6000 Board Policy series. I believe that it would be fair to say that the Senate appreciates the inclusive leadership our VPAA is modeling.

Curriculum
The Curriculum Committee Chair Erin Farmer reported that the committee has met once this year and was able to go over training on the approval process for Stand-Alone courses at the college in addition to issues related to linked courses within Banner.

Information and Discussion

2008-2009 Goals (in no particular order)
1. Update By-Laws (including proportional representation)
2. Accreditation and SLO Committee
3. Academic Integrity II (Academic Freedom)
4. Exploring the relationship between the senate and budget development
5. Review Board Policy 5000 and 6000

Accreditation Midterm Report
Senators are reading and reviewing the current draft of the report and will be ready to cast an informed vote during a special Senate meeting on Monday, September 22nd at 3:00.

Student Learning Outcomes
Tracy Schneider, the SLO Coordinator, provided the Senate with an update on where the campus is and where the college is headed on SLOs. She and her team are working to code course SLOs to the Core four.

Institutional Review Board
The Senate continued a discussion about forming an Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Solano College. This idea has been brought forth by Rob Simas and the Senate, while still waiting to officially vote to endorse the creation of an IRB task force, has asked that I put out a call for participants. Ultimately the task force would define the scope and composition of the IRB, but the general idea is that it would function as the authority to review and authorize any research conducted involving faculty, staff, or students – former, current, or prospective. Rob Simas has collected policy and procedural materials from other institutions that can be used to begin define our IRB.