President’s Report to the Senate

Meetings:

The FABPAC met on Feb. 3^rd and 17^th. The topics included a budget update, a discussion on programs that encroach on the general fund, internal controls relative to the district financial audit report, public records access request issues, and proposed facilities use procedures and fees. When discussion the budget, there have been some interesting comments regarding the inclusion of furloughs (a savings of around $500,000 for the District) and early retirement incentives (another potential $500,000 savings). As for the discussion on encroachment, the district "targeted" four areas (the theater, contract ed, community services, and SBDC) that encroached on the general fund. While these areas no longer of concern, the question remains about what other areas of the college encroach significantly on the general fund. This item has been on the FABPAC agenda for almost a year now.

The SGC met on Feb. 10^th and 24^th. The topics included: a report from the PERT, SCC's "legislative platform", information on accreditation, revisions to job descriptions, a discussion of the academic calendar, strategic goals, the need for coordination between hiring and finance via a staffing master plan, the Institutional Review Board, the introduction of several strategic goals, and a look at the Governing Board agendas. Dr. Laguerre put forth his steps to connect with our elected officials to further SCC legislative initiatives: a Higher Education Center in Vallejo, build a new Library with 50% State matching dollars, build a new Science and Technology Center, and a new Biotech building in Vacaville. We have been discussing the Dean of Academic Success and Learning Resources, the Chief Information Systems Officer and Center Administrator positions. The Calendar Committee has been working with SCFA to fix the academic calendar. The issue revolves around the week of Thanksgiving (and only having two instructional days that week) and compliance with the State. The suggested solution is to take optional days from the beginning of the fall and using them to take the entire week of Thanksgiving off… the problem would be that the Senate, for example, relies on the optional flex at the beginning of fall to meet. A solution is forthcoming. The IRB was presented for information and will be voted on next time. As for the Strategic Proposals that the Senate forwarded to SGC, they will discuss them at their next meeting.

The Board has met for a study session (Feb. 3^rd) and a regular meeting (Feb17th). The study session dealt with: a program partnership with Bay Area Clean Water Agencies, SERP (early retirement incentives), a budget update, a discussion on the Strategic Planning efforts, SunGuard Higher Education Presentation, and Emergency Protocols and Incident Command Center Update. Highlights from the regular meeting included the announcement from closed session that the Board has authorized Dr. Laguerre to issue layoff notices to one faculty position (the person will not be laid off but rather reassigned) and three staff positions. The Women's Soccer team and the Speech and Debate team were honored for their accomplishments this year. Also, Ross Beck presented the opening ceremonies of the Vacaville Center. Of note, too, was a follow-up presentation by SunGuard regarding a two-year contract for our CISO position and other support services that will take us to a full Banner implementation. This was a 1.8 million dollar proposal.

 

PERT: This group has continued to work on reconciling the former Strategic Plan with the new one. Additionally, they submitted a list of recommendations to Dr. Laguerre regarding ways to improve our Integrated Planning Process. The PERT is also discussing was of soliciting input from the campus community on the metrics used to evaluate our progress towards Strategic Goals and Objectives. Finally, the PERT will begin its annual review of the IPP.

Updates:

ASCCC: As I'm sure you all read in the most recent ASCCC President newsletter, the Chancellor's Office signed a MOU with Kaplan University. This was done without consulting the ASCCC or any other statewide groups. The blowback has been noteworthy. The end result is that post facto, the Chancellor's Office may hold meetings with ASCCC and other groups for their feedback. I received information regarding a local Senate Resolution on course section elimination in hard budget times from ARC. It seems that they have experienced difficult cuts without input from faculty. If it pleases the Senate I can present you with the ARC resolution and we can have further discussions at a future meeting.

Accreditation:

As we look to solicit more fully participation and leadership in the accreditation Self-Study, it seems necessary to provide an update on the organizational process to date and the plans for the near and not-so-near future. The goal of this document is to give you a sense of how we plan to move forward and how you fit into the large picture.

 

Where we are?

After our January Flex Cal training in which we used the wiki to facilitate a better understanding of accreditation standards and to provide resources about accreditation, we have a fairly good idea where faculty and administrators fit into the writing of the Self-Study. Cynthia Simon, CSEA President, is updating her list of which staff will participate where and will forward it soon. Ralph Myer, Local 39 President, will provide a list, as well. Nancy Blanc and Connie Adams have pulled together the sign-up sheets and those administrators who have been assigned to specific areas. We should have a comprehensive list for the entire campus shortly. We have also received the ACCJC response to our last Special Report. You can access their finding on the SCC website. In sum, they have eliminated recommendation seven on fiscal stability and we are on-watch for the other recommendations. While we still remain on sanctions, the good news is that the next Special Report won't be due until October 2010, one full year before our Self-Study. This means that they've given us one more extension on the two-year rule to resolve our deficiencies.

 

What's next?

In essence, we are moving ahead on two fronts; preparing for and writing a Self-study and responding to the ACCJC report with a Special Report with Visit. The plan is to keep these two efforts separate while at the same time ensuring that they are highly articulated. As for the October 2010 Special
Report, the goal is to keep those Working Groups related to the recommendations for which we are still on sanctions moving and writing. Look for an invitation to participate, but know that those faculty, staff and administrators who wrote the last response are on the task. As for the October 2011 Self-Study, there are some basic ground rules in place that might be a good place to start. Based on what we've learned since our 2005 Self-Study we know that writing narrative and collecting evidence is the responsibility of all employees. If you are in the Widget Department, expect to work on the area(s) related to your specialty. Deans and other members of the Administrative Leadership Group have participation in accreditation as a part of the formal evaluation. Expect to have accreditation on division agendas. All faculty who participate as a Co-Chair will not have to worry about optional flex hours for the next year and a half. These items have buy-in from Dr. Steinback and Dr. Laguerre.

 

Organization

We are in the process of creating an Accreditation Committee. The membership of which includes the Accreditation Liaison Officer (AL0), the Academic Senate President, the Director of Research and Planning, and the Editor (these individuals are the members of the Accreditation Steering Committee). Additionally, there will be Co-Chairs from each of the larger areas within the standards, eg. two Co-chairs for Standard I A, who are the additional members of the Accreditation Committee.

The Accreditation Committee will be responsible for providing input to the Accreditation Steering Committee and for reporting out to Working Groups, shared governance bodies, the Academic Senate, and the Board of Trustees. It will be asked to lead the College as we develop the Self-Study. This will include input on the pre-writing, writing, evidence gathering and postproduction phases. This group will establish and/or refine our timeline, expectations, and outcomes. They will also be a resource to the campus community regarding standards and "all things" accreditation.

 

Co-Chairs

The Co-chairs have been either selected or nominated by the Superintendent/President, the ALO, the Academic Senate President or the President of CSEA. In most cases they are a faculty/ staff and an administrator. Their job is to:

· Establish timelines

· Assign work

· Review narrative

· Ensure that evidence accompanies narrative

· Communicate and report-out

· Encourage participation

· Be available as a resource

· Use the wiki

· NOT do all the work

· NOT be an editor

In order to begin the process, co-chairs will be given a packet with the following resources:

1. Membership list

2. Timeline

3. Tracking Sheet

4. Style Sheet

5. ACCJC "Dos and Don'ts"

6. ACCJC rubrics

7. ACCJC "Questions to be asked"

Of additional importance as a significant resource for accreditation is that Dr. Laguerre has asked that we explore the idea of an Accreditation Self-Study Coordinator. This would be a one-year, 100% reassign time position that is to be filled by a full-time faculty member. This person would work exclusively on the Self-Study from the Fall of 2010 to the Fall of 2011. This represents a major commitment to the accreditation process.