Taft College Academic Senate Minutes Monday, February 2, 2015 Cougar Conference Room Members Present: President Tony Thompson, Vice President Vicki Jacobi, Jennifer Altenhofel, Nancy Artiga, Paul Blake, Adam Bledsoe, Jill Brown, Kamala Carlson, Bill Devine, Kelly Donovan, Candace Duron, Geoffrey Dyer, John Eigenauer, Juana Escobedo, Sharyn Eveland, Tori Furman, Bruce Ferguson, Shelley Getty, Greg Golling, Gary Graupman, Loardes Gonzalez Jessica Grimes, Dan Hall, Brian Jean, Michael Jiles, Craig Johnson, Diane Jones, Danielle Kerr, Kelly Kulzer-­‐Reyes, David Layne, Steve Lytle, Julian Martinez, Mariza Martinez, Mike Mayfield, Janis Mendenhall, Michelle Oja, Ruby Payne, Joseph Polizzotto, Natalie Ramirez, Stacie Rancano, Joy Reynolds, Terri Smith, Sonja Swenson, Stefanie Walsh, Susan Vaugh, and Karen Ziegler. The meeting was called to order at 12:12 p.m. Public Commentary None. Review of January 12, 2015 Senate Minutes A motion was made by Jennifer Altenhofel and seconded by David Layne to approve the January 2015 minutes. The motion carried. Standing Committee Updates There were no objections to or questions about the Standing Committee Updates that were sent out prior to today’s meeting. Note: Eric Berube will be stepping down from the chair position of the Strategic Planning Committee. Charter for Curriculum & GE Committee Vicki Jacobi Vicki explained that there was no charter found for the Curriculum committee, so they created one based off of the charters of other committees. Vicki is looking for approval of this charter. She also stressed the importance of this document. Tony agreed and added that half of the discussions at the plenary sessions deal with curriculum matters. • Diane Jones suggested changing the wording on item #10 of the charter to read as “Ensure” instead of “approve.” (“Ensure student learning outcomes align with program and institutional outcomes.”) • There was discussion about whether to allow the student representative should have voting privileges or not. As of right now, the charter says that student reps have non-­‐voting privileges. • Craig raised the issue of faculty duties regarding SLOs have not been addressed yet in negotiations. -­‐-­‐ SLOs will be part of the Course Outline of Record. • The length of time for the meetings should state one hour instead of one and a half hours. • Dave made a motion to delay the vote on approving the charter until the March senate meeting. Craig seconded. The motion passed, with Michelle Oja, Sharyn Eveland, and Michael Jiles opposing. Governance Guide Tony Thompson There was discussion about the diagram on page 19 of the Governance Guide regarding the shared-­‐
governance decision-­‐making process. Bachelor’s Degrees in Community Colleges Tony Thompson Tony opened up the topic of the Bachelor’s degrees being offered at California Community Colleges. Stacie raised the question of if there is any research that addresses whether industry will value these bachelor’s degrees from the community colleges. Tony will take that question to the next plenary session. Nominations for Academic Senate Officer positions a. President John Eigenauer nominated Geoffrey Dyer to serve as president of the senate. David Layne seconded. Geoffrey accepted the nomination. David Layne was also nominated to serve as president by Bill Devine. Michelle Oja seconded. David declined the nomination. The senate voted on the Geoffrey Dyer nomination and approved Geoffrey as the next senate president starting next academic year. b. Secretary Jennifer Altenhofel nominated Dan Hall to serve as secretary of the senate. Diane Jones seconded. Dan accepted the nomination. No other nominations were made for the secretary position. The senate voted to approve Dan as the next secretary of the senate. Other • AB3270 follow-­‐up. There is no formal update from the president as of yet. The language was sent to Adrian and he will take it to Dena. John will share our concerns with the classified employees if invited by Velda. • Diane brought up the issues of the agreed upon titles of faculty. Diane recalled that faculty who are tenured have the title of “Professor”, and non-­‐tenured faculty have the “Associate Professor” title. An adjunct faculty member is an “Adjunct Lecturer”. Others recalled that this agreement is likely on the minutes of an Academic Senate meeting and possibly in a bargaining agreement as well. • Tony will update us on filling the faculty position and the CTE director. Administration honored our request to rethink their approach to this matter. Tony and Diane will be meeting with Dena this Friday and will update us on the outcome at our next meeting. Meeting adjourned at 12:49. Respectfully submitted by Dan Hall