Academic Senate President Report

Meetings:

Board of Trustees: As per the SCC faculty and staff community's request, I spoke at the January 21^st
Board of Trustees meeting to express our objections to replacing our Interim Superintendent/ President with an outside Interim. The comments I made can be found below. In essence I expressed that the faculty did not believe that this was the right time for even more administrative/leadership instability and the financial weight that that implied.

Shared Governance Council: SGC and Dr. Waits are committed to moving strategic proposals along and yet there seems to have been some confusion on what our exact charge was for the day. We were to have prioritized strategic proposals that would then move forward to FaBPAC. Instead, we found ourselves discussing our overall budget and planning processes, or the lack thereof, and how strategic proposals fit into that larger, primarily non-existent, process. It was decided that Dr. Waits would forward all the necessary documents, proposals, rating forms, etc… along to SGC so that in our next meeting, we would be able to rate and rank strategic proposals for FaBPAC. Dr. Steinback and I presented on the ASCCC Accreditation Institute. I also made the observation that the Board of Trustees was discussing their Code of Conduct and suggested that SGC adopt a similar code that would reflect how the campus community will/will not engage the Board. This idea was accepted and will be brought back at a future meeting. Additionally, Ross Beck mentioned that he would be providing the college and the media with "talking points" to help negotiate the ACCJC's report that we will receive very soon. Kevin Anderson requested that faculty voice be included in those talking points. I've subsequently sent Senators the list I got from Mr. Beck.

FaBPAC: Cancelled.

Reports:

ASCCC Accreditation Institute: In general the conference was very informative and allowed for some great brainstorming. While the institute didn't give us a "magic bullet" for our accreditation woes, it did serve as a vehicle to see what the Standards are, what other institutions are doing, and what we might do as an institution. The Senate's role in accreditation is to ensure faculty participation in the accreditation document. It is our responsibility to "live the standards". What became clear during the institute as well is that while we thought we'd have a year from receiving notice of our status from the ACCJC (i.e. the letter we are currently expecting to arrive any day,) the reality is that we have a year from when the team came to visit the campus. This means that the clock started ticking in November. Also, we realized that while we need to organize ourselves for the next self-study we need to address the recommendation on budget and planning immediately. Dr. Steinback, Tracy Schneider and I have met as a team and then with IS/P Waits and Rob Simas about re-invigorating our "Recommended Process for Solano Community College's Integrated Evaluation, Planning and Budget". As things move forward with this discussion I will keep you informed. Additionally, you can read the document, too.

Correspondence:

Jonnah Laroche Memorial Scholarship. Two continuing community college students will each receive a $500 award and one student transferring to a four-year institute will be awarded $1,000. Deadline is February 15^th.

Dean of Math, Science, David Redfield has sent proposed wording change for page 43 of the current Solano College Catalog to bring SCC graduation requirements into compliance with his/our understanding of the new requirements of ASCCC.

Also, ASCCC President Mark Wade-Lieu's update is also available. We are mentioned, but not too favorably… gulp!