Taft College Academic Senate Minutes
Monday, March 4, 2013
Cougar Conference Room
Attendees: President Tony Thompson, Vice President David Layne, Secretary Linda West,
Jennifer Altenhofel, Kanoe Bandy, David Berry, Eric Bérubé, Darcy Bogle, Bill Devine, Geoffrey Dyer,
Sharyn Eveland, Tori Furman, Greg Golling, Dan Hall, Vicki Herder, Brian Jean, Craig Johnson,
Diane Jones, Tim Markowitz, Julian Martinez, Mike Mayfield, Michelle Oja, Ruby Payne,
Joseph Polizzotto, David Reynolds, Sonja Swenson, Susan Vaughn
The meeting was called to order at 12:11 p.m.
Public Commentary
None
Review of February 4, 2013 Senate Minutes
A motion was made by Vicki Herder and seconded by Michelle Oja to approve the minutes as presented.
The motion carried.
ITS Issue Update and Document
Tony Thompson
Tony met with Dr. Maloney and Adrian Agundez to discuss Academic Senate concerns regarding the IT
Department. Dr. Maloney expressed her alarm at the lack of communication. The miscommunication
could be attributed, in part, to an inconsistent service request system and no clear feedback process.
Adrian was asked to develop an action plan to address the areas of concern expressed by the Senate and
provide a completion date for resolving the issues. Areas of concern, proposed actions, and completion
dates are summarized below.
•
Acknowledgement of requests for service with follow up and completion of requested service.
Proposed action: Develop a user friendly menu for the TC service request system. The system
will send an acknowledgment to the user submitting a request. Provide proper training of the IT
work order system to the entire campus. In addition, add a webpage to the ITS site listing all inprogress or unassigned requests. Completion date of May 1st
•
Service requests not completed in a timely manner and/or lack of follow up regarding request
status.
Proposed action: Establish service level responses and inform service requestor with an
estimated completion date. Provide service status updates at timely intervals. Notify requestor
by email when service request has been completed. Completion date of May 1st
1
•
ITS office does not provide sufficient support to faculty and staff working at night.
Proposed action: ITS department staff hours have been adjusted to accommodate evening
hours. The ITS department will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday
during Fall and Spring semesters. Completion date of March 4th
•
Data is lost when computers or laptops are sent to ITS for services.
Proposed action: Back up instructions will be provided to all uses requesting a computer rebuild.
ITS staff will request confirmation from the user that the data is backed up before deleting the
hard drive. “Favorites” and “My Documents” folders will be available on the college fileserver
drive to provide staff with a convenient location to copy their IE favorites and documents before
a computer is serviced. Completion date of April 1st
•
A more timely response is needed for classroom hardware issues.
Proposed action: ITS will test classroom computers and AV systems prior to the start of classes
each semester. A TCSR ticket will be created and signed off that the room was tested and
checked for problems. All classroom service requests will be added to the TCSR system.
Completion date of April 1st
•
A more timely response is needed for removing unnecessary equipment from classrooms.
Proposed action: Any request for equipment removal will be completed by the next business
day. Completion date of March 1st
After reviewing the ITS document, the Senate made some suggestions and comments. It was suggested
that faculty might benefit from an in-service session regarding effective backup procedures. Darcy Bogle
stated that data was lost in the past not because of user oversight, but because IT wasn’t backing up the
data on their end. In addition, there was concern that extending the ITS staffing hours to the evening
would mean less help would be available at other times of the day. Sonja Swenson thought they might
consider extending the coverage beyond 7:00 p.m. to better accommodate evening classes.
Sabbatical Process Update
Eric Bérubé
Eric Bérubé presented another draft of the Faculty Sabbatical Leave Handbook for Senate review and
comment. The latest draft incorporated the modifications suggested at the February 4th Senate meeting.
A motion was made by Diane Jones to accept the draft as a working document. The motion was
seconded by Brian Jean. The motion carried unanimously. The document will be forwarded to the
bargaining unit for approval.
2
“State of the College” Forums
Tony Thompson
Dr. Maloney will be presenting two sessions regarding the “state of the college”. Sessions will be held on
Wednesday, March 13th at 1:30 p.m. and Tuesday, March 19th at 3:00 p.m. Both sessions will be held in
the Cougar Room and all are invited to attend.
Strategic Planning Update
David Layne
David reported that the Strategic Planning Committee is interested in looking at results and feedback
regarding the planning process. He also stated that the college will be reporting under the new
standards during the upcoming accreditation process and it appears they’re leaning towards a
comprehensive review.
Budget Subcommittee Update
Sonja Swenson
Sonja’s update is included as an attachment to this document.
Other
Tony Thompson
A motion was made by Diane Jones to recognize Patti Bench for her contribution of twenty-four years of
service to the district and confer upon her the title of Professor Emeritus at her retirement. The motion
was seconded by Vicki Herder. The motion carried unanimously.
Waiting List Numbers
Brian Jean
A discussion regarding the use of waiting list numbers for planning purposes was continued from
February’s Senate meeting. Darcy Bogle stated that the number of students permitted on a waiting list is
a local decision. Wait lists are currently limited to a total of twelve (12) students. Darcy stated a report
could be generated of wait listed students and the numbers could be useful in the program review
process.
After some discussion about the number of students to permit on a wait list, a motion was made by
Diane Jones to increase all wait lists to thirty (30) students. The motion was seconded by Vicki Herder.
The motion carried. The recommendation will be forwarded to the Office of Instruction.
President’s Report
Tony Thompson
None
Meeting was adjourned at 12:57 p.m.
The next meeting is scheduled for 12:10-1:00 p.m. on Monday, April 1st.
Respectfully submitted by
Linda West
Attachment
3
Budget Committee Report
Swenson’s Report to faculty
Report from Budget Committee of the Governance Council
The committee met for the first time in several months on Tuesday, February 5, 2013. Dr. Dena
Maloney served as facilitator of the meeting.
There were 3 agenda items:
1 Review of the Budget Committee Charter
a) The members present described the activities of the committee last fall
b) The collected group evaluated the effectiveness of the former process
c) It was decided that “costing” projects was not the best use of the members’ time and
level of expertise.
d) It was agreed that as TC moves through the ongoing process of program reviews.
Therefore it would be a collective waste of the committee’s time to continue with the
“costing” activity.
e) Dr. Maloney stated that as a representative committee our charge should be to
understand the budget process and share that understanding with our respective
constituents
2 Community college Funding and Budget Process (led by Dena Maloney)
Dr. Maloney presented a printout of a PowerPoint which will likely be uploaded to the TC
intranet website. We also received a copy of California’s Community College League 2013-14
Budget Points from Dr. Maloney
NOTE: I have a copy of both which I will keep in a binder in my office should any faculty want to
see it or discuss it. I will attempt to get a copy of all materials placed on reserve in the TC library
so that any TC employee who desires to do so can see the documents.
Over the years I have been at TC I have acquired a basic understanding of the typical budget of a
community college, which some of you also have, but I learned several things at this meeting.
Therefore, I will focus on what was new information and the current challenges/threats to our
funding for this year.
• In the 2012-2013 TC budget the percentage of revenue from local property taxes is 67%
• SB 361 passed in 2006 leveled the playing field for all community college in CA. That
resulted in a revision of the way districts are funded. At that time there were 6 districts
including West Kern CCD whose FTES funding under the old formula was higher than the
new SB361 equalized funding. These districts had their existing base FTES at that time d
• PBF base “grandfathered” at their old rate – any new FTES they produced after that
point in time is funded at the SB361 equalized rate in 2011-12, the District generated
2478 FTES.
Budget Committee Report
•
“Lottery revenues are Unrestricted General Fund revenues that “shall be used
exclusively for the education of pupils and students.” No funds shall be spent for
acquisition of real property, construction of facilities, financing of research, or any other
noninstructional purpose” (GC §8880.5).
• There are several items in the Governor’s proposed budget which could have a
significant impact on the amount we receive from the state this year. One item is a
$197 M in new funds which may be used to restore access (adding sections and serving
more students) and/or COLA. The legislature is working on its own budget proposal
which then will be negotiated with the Governor to produce a state budget for 201314.We will not know the final budget for the community college system until that
process is completed in June. Additionally, the Governor has proposed some policy
changes including a funding formula based on completion rather than on the current
census- date formula we have today
Discussions will continue between the administrators and the community college
systems, and I would hope between the State level Academic Senate and the
community college system. Tony Thompson would be the source of information about
this topic at the state level AS.
• Proposed expansion of statewide online instruction through a proposed “portal” where
students could locate a needed class with space available at any college in the state.
This would enable students to continue progressing along their choose
degree/certificate pathway by eliminating the obstacle of no available space in their
local CC.
The Governor has proposed moving Adult Education to the community colleges rather than
through K-12Passage of Prop 39 will generate an estimated $46M for the community college
system. The Governor has proposed that these funds be used for launching new green energy
programs and/or funding campus retrofits so that campuses are more energy efficient. This is
also subject to discussion and negotiation between the legislature and the Governor, with input
from the Chancellor’s Office.
3 Next Steps
a. Decided to continue to meet monthly and next meeting will be in March