Senate President Report Board Report

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Mary Swayne Update

Meetings

Superintendent/ President Meeting: Our discussion items included accreditation, institutional planning and budget, the final exam schedule mishap, curriculum and outreach, and a rumor about the State budget and SCC reserve funds.

• I presented her with an application form and information on a joint ASCCC and CCLC presentation to our college on budget processes.
  
• We discussed faculty forums to get our input on the upcoming possible 7% cuts. Dr. Waits has proposed that we hold a forum this semester (actually it happened today)and then subsequent forums in the spring. (See Plenary below).
  
• She also accepted a suggestion that I passed along from Erin Farmer's that the college actively survey the community about the kinds of courses they might see us offer. This would not only allow us to serve the community's needs, but would help improve our image across the county.
  
• At the Academic Senate Plenary, we had heard a report that the State had the legal right to take back reserves in excess of the 3-5% state recommended amounts.
  

RI/ Grant writer: I've been working with Josh Stein, Tracey Schneider and Rob Simas on creating a Strategic Proposal for an Institutional Researcher and Grant Writer position for Solano College. For now, we have identified need, written draft language on the job description, have plans to propose the formation of an Academic Senate Grants Committee and generally been "dreaming" about how helpful this would be for the college. I'll pass on the documents as we get further along in the process.

Misc

Senate Plenary: (Program and presentations available at link)

• As a response to a recent legal decision interpreting Title 5 as prohibiting the failing of a student from a course based on ONE incident of academic dishonesty, the senate has passed a resolution to create a working group to develop a position paper promoting stronger faculty guidance in this area.
  
• The Senate voted to create a resource library compiling SLO materials from all colleges. This information-sharing will aid in the development and refining of SLOs and reaffirmed its opposition to use of student attainment of SLOs in faculty evaluations.
  
• There was an interesting presentation called "You Can Do It! Effective Governance that Addresses Accreditation Deficiencies (aka Getting Off Probation)" 1st Presentation 2nd Presentation
  
• In the course of chatting with faculty colleagues at other institutions, as well as during a keynote address from Bill Scroggins, CEO at the College of the Sequoias, we learned that at least two colleges have discontinued the services of Zampi and Associates in order to save money and to reduce contention between faculty and administration. The Ohlone College Senate representative noted that their college had spent approximately 3 million in legal fees in just a few years. And CEO Scroggins reported that one of the first things he did when he took over as CEO was to fire the firm because it was too costly and did not serve the faculty and students' interests.
  
• We also heard from several faculty members that their CIOs reported that they had learned at their recent conference "CCCCIO Fall 2008 Conference: CIOs Open the Golden Gate'" that the state can confiscate local district reserves beyond the minimum required by the state. This raised concerns for us as it might mean that our district could lose a substantial sum that would have served students, faculty and staff.
  
• Several workshops were dedicated to senate leadership in institutional planning and budget development. While the senate does not control the budget, we were reminded that the senate can and should take a leadership role in the college's budget processes. Considering the fact that colleges may face budget cuts of 7-10%, our first question should be, "How can all constituent groups participate in the decisions as to how these cuts will occur?" Some other districts, Santa Rosa JC, for example, have already established faculty advisory committees in anticipation of cuts.
  
• Information presented at a breakout session on the state of Information Competency at various colleges confirmed that Solano is among the leaders in local implementation of an Information Competency requirement.
  
• The state Academic Senate also passed of resolutions that may impact accreditation. One recommends that the ASCCC conduct research to gather data from colleges and share this research across the system while another recommends that ACCJC develop and implement more complete and thorough training for accreditation teams.
  

Accreditation Ad Hoc: Will meet again with the group on Friday.

Correspondence: I've received the following letters from the ASCC

• The ASCCC dues collection ($2,230.90)
  
• A reminder about the Board of Governors nominations.
  
• The ASCCC President's update.
  
• Exemplary Program Award
  

Senate Meeting

Reports

• Curriculum Committee – Erin Farmer commented on a presentation she attended at the Academic State Plenary on Pre-requisites. Of note was the "AB1725 Curses and Blessings: Pre-requisites and Basic Skills Alignment" Presentation that highlighted the need for us to reassert rigor into our coursework through a critical analysis of course level expectations and pre-requisites required to meet them.
  
• Articulation Officer – Robin Aire-Donche sought input from the Senate on an offer by "For-Profit" institutions like Kaplan University to use Solano College as an articulation partner as a means of marketing their institution. The Senate agreed to NOT support such pseudo-articulation.
  
• Flex Cal Report – Chuck Spillner. While not available to present, he did provide the Senate with documents to update us on our upcoming Flexible Calendar day dedicated to improving faculty knowledge of DSPS services.
  
• Study Abroad – Ferdinanda Florence posed a question brought forth by her committee about study abroad and academic rigor. The question was, just because you CAN offer a short term, two week study abroad program, should you? No immediate consensus was reached, the Senate will continue to discuss this question.
  
• Treasurer's Report – Thom Watkins
  
• IRB—Thom Watkins reported that this IRB Taskforce has met twice and is moving forward with their duties. They've elected Rob Simas as Chair of their group. When they provide me with results, I'll forward them on in a Board Report
  

• Information / Discussion Items
  
  • Fire Technology Program – Robert Johnson, Roy Pike and two representatives from the Vacaville Fire Department gave an informative presentation, similar to the one given at the Board a month or so ago, to the Senate. The Senate was grateful for their time.