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.