REDWOODS COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT
REGULAR MEETING OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE
College of the Redwoods
7351 Tompkins Hill Road, Eureka, CA – Board Room – SS 202
883 W Washington Blvd, Crescent City, CA – Room E8
Friday, September 18, 2015
AGENDA
Members Present: Mark Renner, Connie Wolfsen, Stuart Altschuler, Tim Baker, Kristy Carlsen, Mike
Dennis, Kady Dunleavy, Phil Freneau (phone), Deanna Herrera-Thomas, Ed Macan, Jon Pedicino, Mike
Richards, Wendy Riggs, Sandra Rowan, Lisa Sayles, Mark Winter, James Talavera (for Quang-Minh Pham)
Members Absent: Sally Urban, Quang-Minh Pham
Guest Presenters: Cathy Cox, Marla Gleave, Michelle Haggerty, & Erin Wall
1.
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4.
Call to Order: Copresident Renner called the meeting to order at 1:05 pm.
Introductions and Public Comments: Deana Herrera-Thomas invited Senators to remain after
the Senate meeting to participate in the Multicultural & Diversity Committee meeting, where
much valuable work is in progress.
Approve September 4, 2015 Academic Senate Minutes: Copresident Renner entertained a
motion by Mike Richards, seconded by Sandra Rowan to approve the minutes, and they were
unanimously approved as written.
Action Items
4.1
Approve September 11 Curriculum Committee Recommendations: On a motion by Kady
Dunleavy, seconded by Sandra Rowan, Curriculum Interim Chair Michelle Haggerty
asked that Curriculum agenda items 4.12 through 4.14 be removed from approval
consideration. On a motion by Stuart Altschuler, seconded by Ed Macan items 4.12-4.14
were pulled by a unanimous roll call vote: Altschuler – y; Baker – y; Carlsen – y; Dennis –
y; Dunleavy – y; Freneau – y; Herrera-Thomas – y; Macan – y; Richards – y; Riggs – y;
Rowan – y; Sayles – y. Chair Haggerty then received a question regarding the Certificate
of Completion and whether there is differentiation when these are offered via
noncredit; do the certificates indicate credit or noncredit courses used to earn them?
There was a motion to split the vote, separating the noncredit certification from the
remaining curriculum recommendations. On a motion by Mike Dennis, seconded by
Deanna Herrera-Thomas, splitting the noncredit and remaining items was approved by
roll call vote: Altschuler – N; Baker – y; Carlsen – y; Dennis – y; Dunleavy – y; Freneau –
y; Herrera-Thomas – y; Macan – y; Pedicino – y; Richards – y; Riggs – y; Rowan – N;
Sayles – y. The remaining curriculum recommendations (without items 4.12-4.14 and
without noncredit certificates) were approved by roll call vote: Altschuler – y; Baker – y;
Carlsen – y; Dennis – y; Dunleavy – y; Freneau – y; Herrera-Thomas – y; Macan – y;
Pedicino – y; Richards – y; Riggs – y; Rowan – y; Sayles – y. Mike Richards made a motion
to table the three remaining noncredit certificates until more information could be
given to Senators; the motion was seconded by Sandra Rowan, and approved by roll call
vote: Altschuler – y; Baker – y; Carlsen – y; Dennis – y; Dunleavy – y; Freneau – y;
5.
Herrera-Thomas – y; Macan – y; Pedicino – y; Richards – y; Riggs – y; Rowan – y; Sayles –
y. There will be discussions among Curriculum members, Administration and Admissions
personnel regarding the noncredit course notification on certificates from College of the
Redwoods.
4.2
Approve Senate Suggested Revisions to AP 7217 Faculty Prioritization: On a motion to
approve by Kady Dunleavey, seconded by Stuart Altschuler, Copresident Renner opened
discussion. A friendly amendment to change two instances of “joint agreement” to
“mutual agreement” was moved by Mike Dennis and seconded by Kady Dunleavy and
passed with no one disagreeing (“mutual” conforms to the 10+1 language). With no
further discussion, the document was passed with friendly amended language by roll
call vote: Altschuler – y; Baker – y; Carlsen – y; Dennis – y; Dunleavy – y; Freneau – y;
Herrera-Thomas – y; Macan – y; Pedicino – y; Richards – y; Riggs – y; Rowan – y; Sayles –
y. The AP will be sent to College Council with the amended language.
4.3
Approve Affirmation of Dual Enrollment Oversight Committee Recommendations: On a
motion by Jon Pedicino, seconded by Deanna Herrera-Thomas, Marla Gleave explained
that due to AB 288, which is anticipated to be passed, soon, a College and Career Access
Pathway dual Enrollment program has been developed by the District’s Dual Enrollment
Oversight Committee (DEOC). The Academic Senate wishes to endorse the tremendous
work being done by the DEOC, and this affirmation is offered to let the District know
that the Senate stands behind the work of the DEOC. Unanimous approval for the
statement came by roll call vote: Altschuler – y; Baker – y; Carlsen – y; Dennis – y;
Dunleavy – y; Freneau – y; Herrera-Thomas – y; Macan – y; Pedicino – y; Richards – y;
Riggs – y; Rowan – y; Sayles – y.
4.4
Approve Copresident Signatory Authority on the Annual Basic Skills Expenditure Plan:
Due to Erin Wall’s previous engagement, she would be late for this action item. Per a
motion to postpone the item until after Discussion item 5.3 from Mike Dennis and
seconded by Mike Richards, a roll call vote was taken and the postponement was
approved: Altschuler – y; Baker – y; Carlsen – y; Dennis – y; Dunleavy – y; Freneau – y;
Herrera-Thomas – y; Macan – y; Pedicino – y; Richards – y; Riggs – y; Rowan – y; Sayles –
y (See Action Item 4.4 description below).
Discussion
5.1
Follow-up to Convocation Session on Healthy Workplace Communication: Connie
Wolfsen explained that the Copresidents agree about the importance of continuing the
conversation on Healthy Workplaces. Lisa Sayles then presented the raw data from the
Convocation workshop on healthy workplace, organized by themes. The trainers (Lisa
Sayles, Kerry Mayer, Tracey Thomas and Crystal Morse) then looked into mechanisms
and establishing the next steps. Now we need to discuss where do all the information
and suggestions belong? It has been suggested that the Professional Development
Committee (PDC) might be a good place to start. Other suggestions for continuing the
conversation included: Adding sessions to the Spring flex programs; extending
established meetings for discussion of topic; having brown bag lunches involving the
topic; using internal communication mechanisms; reimagining the PDC, etc. Deanna
5.2
wondered whether plans already in existence were examined so as to keep from
“reinventing the wheel” and item 2.b. “Tie Healthy Workplace Communications focus to
stated annual planning themes and current innovations like “Hope and Growth
Mindset” does address that. As we were deficient in professional development as per
ACCJC, this is a valuable component to address in our self-study. Copresident Wolfsen
asked what Senators thought might be THE highest priority, and some responses were:
• Professional Development Committee, because we need a hub/Tim agrees that
it is important to “reimagine”;
• Annual Plan (2.b, above);
• More behavioral standards as opposed to “hope and growth mindsets”;
• Training sessions, listening, team building, communication;
• The list could be sent to PDC with the challenge to begin to look at behavioral
outcomes;
• GRASS ROOTS
The Senate Executive Committee will work a little more on it, accreditation wise and will
report back to the Senate. The PDC is not well-formulated right now.
Committee Representation and Institutional Effectiveness: Mark Renner explained that
it is not new news that it is difficult to fill committees and ensure that everyone is on a
committee they feel good about. Institutional effectiveness means we shouldn’t allow
vacancies on committees, but we can’t avoid complex scheduling issues. ‘Reimagining’
schedule assignments to keep them from being so burdensome was suggested. Senate
discussion included such items as:
• Scheduling headaches
• Finding people that aren’t on committees, yet
• Division meeting announcements of committee needs
• Include list of committees on load reports
• Point system for tracking and recording work load (some committees are a huge
time commitment and others not so much)
• Posting of committee schedules would be very useful!
• We have many AF on campus, encourage participation by AF; do we volunteer
or not?
• SARTCO for AF who volunteer for committees
• Communication about committees; committee list!
• Friday classes make scheduling hard
• Emails about what you might be interested in
• Let committee chairs know who has shown interest in their committee
• Schedule meetings along with scheduling classes to resolve moving classes to
accommodate (and then the time changes
• Overwhelming amount of emails; a more personal outreach by the CHAIRS
(phone calls, face-to-face, invitations)
• Fixed time for committees, and a list with the fixed times
5.3
• AF would be great for a boost in AF participation; philosophical to pay faculty to
sit on committees; a Senate/CRFO Liaison concern
• Division meeting sort of thing, deans announcing committees in Spring for next
FY.
• Master list of committees? And estimated time involvement; what exists?
• Announcements regarding committees
• Committee to study committees.
Annual Basic Skills Expenditure Plan: Erin Wall explained that revisions were made to
the plan that was presented at the Sept. 2 Senate meeting. Changes were identified and
then discussed; only formats and wording corrections; the committee met today, and
they will be rephrasing but not making any other substantive changes. Connie thanked
her for listening and liked the statistical scoring addition.
As moved and approved earlier, the last Action Item was postponed until after the Discussion,
and appears here in the minutes.
Action Item
4.5
Approve Copresident Signatory Authority on the Annual Basic Skills Expenditure Plan:
Mike Richards moved to approve the Annual Basic Skills Expenditure Plan, and the
motion was seconded by Jon Pedicino. The approval for Copresident signatory
authorization was unanimously approved by roll call vote: Altschuler – y; Baker – y;
Carlsen – y; Dennis – y; Dunleavy – y; Freneau – y; Herrera-Thomas – y; Macan – y;
Pedicino – y; Richards – y; Riggs – y; Rowan – y; Sayles – y.
6.
Reports
6.1
Distance Education Planning Committee (DEPC) Update: Cathy Cox is the new Director
of Library and Enhanced Learning, and is also co-chair of DEPC along with faculty
member Mike Butler. The committee met a week ago and topics included telepresence
and online teaching. There have been minor bugs, but the technology is working
successfully and they anticipate an expanded offering of online/telepresence courses for
spring. Cathy urged Senators to go back to their constituents and ask them for more
distance ed offerings. The switch to the Canvas-only learning management system (LMS)
has had positive feedback, and Reno Giovannetti is available for training and troubleshooting. An Online Teaching and Learning Training (OTLT) is underway, and October 11
is the next OTLT session. The course will inform personnel of info regarding Canvas,
online instruction, and also face-2-face instruction. DE Program review will be
comprehensive and will include feedback from DEPC. DEPC has also made a request for
participation regarding the overlap of EOPS/ADA issues. Compliance issues are very
important, and they wonder who coordinates these issues.
6.2
College Update: Mark Winter reported on DE enrollment, stabilizing and growing
telepresence and online/distance learning. He is asking Deans to review schedules, to
identify course candidates for telepresence. If anyone knows of courses that are low-
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enrolled or cancelled, degrees, certificates and ADTs, that occur once a semester or less;
please advise the CIO/CSSO. Open enrollment is an issue here and at Del Norte. Online
courses to encourage faculty to teach OLTL is FREE and should be taken by online and
faculty NOT teaching online (evaluators and managers, too!); more courses are to be
developed, learn Canvas! The state has created initiatives regarding basic skills, student
equity and student success; these programs may be merging due to increased funding.
Our management of these committees has been in flux due to funding issues; Student
Equity has a smaller cmte than Basic Skills, but directs a greater funding amount.
Funding has not been there in past or linked with SEP goals. The SEP will drive and
reflect specific expenditures. Then there’s the Student Success Advisory committee.
Many other colleges are combining Student Equity and Student Success, or Student
Equity with Basic Skills and making them consistent; we are not there, but his goal is to
bring that consistency, and shared governance exist through the three programs.
Conduct Hearings are happening more frequently, so revising AP 5300 Student Conduct
is in process, adding violations such as media social and its use which also becomes a
faculty issue. G215: Sheila Hall sent out an email; this course is an attempt to bridge the
gap between advisors with articulation and transfer expertise with instructors with
oversight over student’s Major pathway. Please read that email and look forward to
more information.
6.3
Associated Students of College of the Redwoods (ASCR) Update: Quang-Minh Pham was
gone and a report was given by James Talavera, VP of Records. He would like to
advocate for a (for credit) Certificate Cum Laude; they have one new Senator, but are
still looking to fill positions; also working with adding new clubs and having Cal-Fresh on
campus.
Future Agenda Items: Senators are encouraged to request to place an item on a future agenda:
The Executive Committee is examining the Constitution and Bylaws, including the possibility of
reordering the list of agenda items to ‘knock out’ reports before discussion (so guest presenters
do not have to wait). Senator Rowan mentioned that 1) the Associate Faculty (AF) would like a
dedicated website for AF/Canvas/some way for AF to stay connected and wondered who would
maintain the website; and 2) She advocates for help for Connie Carlson who has so many AF to
keep track of and Connie has time constraints. ASCR hired help; perhaps we could consider
helping Connie.
Invitation for Standing Committee Reports: None forthcoming.
Announcements and Open Forum
9.1
Future Agenda Item Discussion - Constitution and Bylaws Revisions
9.2
Science Night!! October 23!!! (http://inside.redwoods.edu/calendar.asp)
Adjournment: On a motion by Mike Richards, seconded by Sandra Rowan, the meeting was
adjourned at 3:03 pm.
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College of the Redwoods does not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, color or disability in any of its
programs or activities. College of the Redwoods is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities. Upon
request this publication will be made available in alternate formats. Please contact Debbie Williams, Academic Senate Support, 7351 Tompkins
Hill Road, Eureka, CA 95501, (707) 476-4259: Office Hours, M-Th - 8 am to 3 pm; F - 10 am to 5 pm (hours vary due to meeting schedules).