Department Chairs Council meeting minutes
October 16, 2014
In attendance: Carl Sjovold, Jeff Karlsen, Chris Seddon, Norman Lorenz, Josh Roberts, Robin
Roffey, Doug Copely (for Mike Richardson), Kelly Gould, John Polagruto, Bill Doonan, Angela
Block, Michael Hunter, Tim Taylor, Susan Griffin, Daniel Styer, Marisa Agnew, Rachel Spangler,
Mel Duvall, Grace Austin, Debra Crumpton, Jon Zeh, Chris Daubert, Barbara Toupadakis, Kevin
Clark, Mari Carmen Garcia, Tanya Anderson, Annette Barfield, Kimberly McDaniel, Jim Collins
Tyler Wykoff.
Susan Griffin made a brief announcement regarding the Writing Center Advisory Committee.
The committee seeks to promote better communications between the Writing Center and
campus departments. They meet on the 3rd Friday of the month, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m. Faculty
members from departments that assign writing projects are welcome to attend/join.
Annette Barfield discussed a Crisis Intervention Chart and focused on student discipline and
safety on campus. She felt that faculty may not yet have received appropriate information on
“threat assessment” (included in the language of the new contract). The request of a threat
assessment involves a three day turn-around time. A FLEX session focused on this topic is
forthcoming. A dept. chair (who has made a call and got no response) asked the question of
how many officers are available on campus at various times. Officers are given schedules where
they may be at a sister campus at certain times of the day. A question followed regarding
whether any part of the process involves making a student referral. We can call or email
Kimberly McDaniel as needed (especially when we may not be sure about the type of issue it
really is). Discussions are continuing over our ever-present need for mental health services on
our campus. Issues of confidentiality were mentioned, although questionable student behaviors
that take place during class are not considered confidential. Annette interacts with the Crisis
Team among our campuses. A follow-up question was raised about faculty right to know who
the repeat offenders are on our campus. It was noted that providing this information may carry
some legality issues.
Tanya Anderson runs many first-year experience events on campus. She runs Senior Saturday,
Summer Bridge program, Freshman Welcome, Week of Welcome (ALL at SCC only). Preview
Night will be held on Thurs. Oct 30 and involves the displaying our campus to not-yet enrolled
students. About 400-500 students/parents attend Preview Night. Tours are given at the same
time as the fair, and are then followed by workshops in Financial Aid, etc. This event lacks the
presence of many academic departments for the one-hour session when departments
showcase their degree and program (5:30-6:30 p.m.). Tanya will email the department chairs
inviting their department’s participation and asking whether they have any special needs
(electrical outlet, etc.) for their display tables that evening. Carl reiterated how important it is
for us to represent ourselves as a college community. If you need materials (a computer to use,
etc), let Tanya know. A suggestion was made to print out copies of degree flyers to hand out to
attendees.
Jim Collins is the lead person in drafting the student equity plan, which has been required for
community colleges for the past 15 years or so. Now there is a spotlight on this initiative. The
SSSP and the Student Equity plan are integrated but different entities. The student equity plan
has an advisory board, about 20 members, and is continuing to grow. Sample information from
the Student Equity Plan Summary sheet (handout) was highlighted. This data ends up in the
Student Equity Plan (bigger handout). This continues the details of the previous document.
They’re following a 3-prong strategy for year one.
1. What are we doing that’s working? And do more of it.
2. What can we do better? And do what it takes.
3. How do we engage the college community about these issues? Tying in the SSSP basis
for this.
We think that for this first year, we just need to focus. Course completion is the single most
important thing students can do to transfer outcomes, especially Math and English. This plan is
especially focused on African Americans, Hispanics, the disabled and the poor.
This is a multi-year plan, lots of conversations will continue about all of this.
The current draft must be ready to send forward tomorrow (to leadership constituency groups),
then it will be sent on to the district, with final approval by Board of Trustees by November 5 th.
A fundamental difference is that this plan covers the time from when students show up on
campus until when they leave, while SSSP is focused on first-year students. Student equity
needs to start before students get here – if they arrive unready to work, they’ll spend longer
here (and more likely fall away). We have to partner with high schools and CSUs. After talking
to EOPS, CalWorks, Rise and other campus offices, they report it is not just students’ lack of
preparedness at the root of the issue. These students face medical/mental health,
transportation, food, and/or housing challenges. 65% of our students are categorized as poor.
The idea is to formulate connections with outside agencies to help our student attain what they
need (outside of campus) which will then assist students with being successful here. This can be
a shared responsibility. Several good models exist around the country.
There is brand new money coming to the college to meet student needs. Counseling is deeply
involved in this. The Student Senate was receptive to this information yesterday.
Norman Lorenz talked about new legislation regarding professional development. Tyler
Wykoff, the Student Administrative Asst. of the Staff Development Center (SRC), reiterated
some of Norman’s points. AB 2558 expands the charge of the SRC to provide professional
development for faculty, staff and management (no longer just focusing on FLEX for faculty).
Norman is asking for us to communicate with our departments and programs to focus our unit
plan objectives and see how the SRC can help us attain them. Let Norman know if our
objectives require some assistance from SRC.
A question was raised regarding what the implications are from this new law. Tyler indicated
that the SRC schedules events at the best times/days/months of year for certain groups on
campus (eg. classified vs. faculty availability is often different). Reimbursement, it is expected,
will be based on completion rates.