APPROVED Minutes of REGULAR MEETING
September 11, 2008, 2:20 – 4:11 pm
Board Room in Building 200
Submitted by Ming Ho
Senators
OFFICERS
Senate President
Ming-Lun Ho
Vice President
Mike Absher
SENATORS
Applied Technology
& Business
Mike Absher
Arts & Humanities
Dov Hassan
Counseling
Rachel Aziminia
Dara Greene
Health, Physical
Education & Athletics
Nancy Cowan
Ken Grace
Language Arts
Jason Ames
Linda Barde
Library
Jim Matthews
Applied Technology & Business — Michael Absher
Arts & Humanities — Dov Hassan
Counseling — Rachel Azimina & Dara Greene
Health, Physical Education, & Athletics — Nancy Cowan & Ken Grace
Language Arts — Jason Ames & Linda Barde
Library — Jim Matthews
Part-time Faculty — Anne Brichacek
Science & Mathematics — Dave Fouquet & Wanda Wong
Social Sciences — Kathy Kelly & Sherri Yeager
Ex-Officios
ASCC — Ahmad Asir, ASCC Vice President
CLPFA — Shari Jacobsen, Membership Coordinator
Guests
Jane Church — Counselor and Articulation Officer
Presiding Officer
President Ming-Lun Ho
ITEM = Agenda Item Handout
1.0
1.1
Call to Order
1.2
Approval of Minutes of August 28, 2008 MSC (Matthews/Ames).
2.0
2.1
Social Science
Sherri Yeager
Kathy Kelley
2.2
Chabot-Las Positas
Faculty Association
Shari Jacobsen
ASCC — Ahmad Asir
CLPFA — Dave Fouquet
The FA continues to have discussion over calculation of load factors
2.3
Public Comments
Director of Media Services Steve Piatetsky want to express his grave concern over
the recent thefts of laptops and projectors. There is no money to replace these
expensive equipment. He welcomes suggestions to fight the thefts. ROOMS are being
LEFT UNLOCKED by faculty when they leave. This is one of the problems.
EX OFFICIO
Associated Students
of Chabot College
Ahmad Asir
REPORTS I
● ASCC is attempting to raise $100K for a book rental program, which they adapted
from those at other community colleges that they studied. ● Club Rush is September
23. The theme is Celebrate Diversity, and it will take place at the center courtyard.
There will be a competition to see which club’s stand best shows the theme.
Part-Time Faculty
Anne Brichacek
Science &
Mathematics
Dave Fouquet
Wanda Wong
GENERAL FUNCTIONS
3.0
ACTION ITEMS — None.
4.0
DISCUSSION ITEMS
4.1
College Budget & Budget Committee Structure
Senator Absher, as a co-chair of the Budget Committee and of an accreditation
standard, reported that, despite the State not having passed a budget, the district is
able to use its healthy reserve in this uncertain time to cover its finances until the
State passes the budget. Unlike other districts, we do not need to borrow money from
external agencies. Senator Kelley asked if the reserve would be at risk because of
the state budget crisis. The answer is No, if the budget is signed in time and the
District gets the appropriation to backfill the reserve. Protracted budget stalemate
Chabot Faculty/Senate Approved Minutes of September 11, 2008
would put the reserve at risk, but it appears to Absher that many community colleges
would be in default before the problem hits our district. We appear to have enough
reserve to last through the crisis.
One problem related to finance that Absher identified is that Chabot does not have a
Vice President of Business Services. Instead, we have a district person who is at
Chabot two days a week, and it has an impact on Chabot’s operations. Further, the
job announcement for the replacement is at a level lower than a Vice President, when
a college of our size really needs someone at the VP level.
Another problem is that the charges of the Budget Committee, as documented in the
shared governance structure, do not reflect what it actually does. There are charges
assigned to it that it does not carry out. Another structural problem is that, while
Budget Committee purportedly reports to IPBC, CEMC (which also affects finance)
does not. Changes to the Budget Committee’s charge are under discussion from the
College President’s office, and it will come to Senate for discussion soon.
Senator Kelley expressed that it is contradictory that we are seeking increase in
enrollment at the same time that we claim to have no money to offer more classes for
students. This is an issue that will rely on the expertise of CEMC to help resolve.
Absher also reported more positive news. Though the processes are not perfect, he
feels that we are on a road to better accounting from the district. IPBC is now sending
the budget request to the Budget Committee, and the Budget Committee has
approved at its last meeting $1.65M worth of requests that have been pending in the
last six months.
4.2
Academic Council Proposal
After a change of heart to the result of discussion with President Ho, Jane Church
came to present a proposal for Academic Policy Council again, the same proposal at
the May 22, 2008, meeting. The structure and ideas of agenda items for the proposed
body can be found at http://www.chabotcollege.edu/FacultySenate/doc/H20080911_Church.doc.
She said that she had consulted with others on campus and researched other college
to create this proposal. She reported that Dr. Barberena’s former institution has a
similar body, and the College President offered some suggestions. She provided a list
of examples of issues for such a body. The proposal and list is appended after the
minutes. She also mentioned that there are decisions being made in Admissions and
Records that need to be reviewed and that the college as an institution is slow to react
to Title 5 changes.
Senator Matthews reported that, when he was in the Academic and Student Services
Council, there was no focus there. There were also presented many ad hoc issues
with other venues on campus. He thinks that the issues that Church listed need to
have a place to be addressed, as there is currently a vacuum to resolve them. There
needs to be a mechanism to assign issues to different places so they don’t fester and
to report questions to the correct place.
Senator Kelley asked if an Academic Policy Council would be a duplication of effort
and if it would make more sense to rewrite the mission of the Curriculum Committee
to include some issues. Many who have been on Curriculum expressed that that
committee already has too much to do.
Referencing Title 5 [Article 2 Section 53200], Senator Absher expressed that many of
the issues should come from Senate and suggested creating a standing
subcommittee of Senate as an alternative to having another shared governance
committee. Senator Fouquet is concerned that the Senate not taking responsibility for
its purviews and simply rubber-stamps the recommendations of the proposed council.
Curriculum Committee was offered an example in which the Senate does not review
what Curriculum approves. Matthews countered that Curriculum is a special case
because it has statutory authority under Title 5, and Senate has a particularly
important role in areas that the Board of Trustees will “rely primarily” on the Senate for
recommendation (p. 2, Chabot College Shared Governance and Collegial
Consultation Process, 2006).
Senator Greene offered that Academic Policy Council is needed address issues that
arise from her work as a counselor. She encounters random issues from students,
and these issues result from not having clear policy. She cites an example in which
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Chabot Faculty/Senate Approved Minutes of September 11, 2008
there was an issue with W date. It turned out that the student thought that he had met
the W deadline. Because the course is not a regular term class, the deadline was
actually different, and the student had to pay extra fees. It took an instructor
backdating a drop to assist the student.
Senator Hassan questioned how the proposed body would solve problems and not be
equally ineffective as other committees. Kelley remarked that there often is a pattern
of starting things with no follow through. Church responded she hopes that her
experience and effort would avert the same fate.
Matthews remarked that many problems arise from the college’s not having a
procedure manual. Kelley pointed out that it’s not just that there are no policy for
some things but that there is no documentation of the current practice. Senator
Brichacek suggested that we need to review the policies that we currently have to get
rid of the worst and improve on the best of them.
President Ho asked Church, from her expertise as a counselor and Articulation
Officer, what are some of the priorities from the list she provided, so that regardless of
the status of the proposed body, he can push importantly items as Senate President.
Church declined to respond because it is up to the proposed body, not she, to
prioritize. When Ho pressed that things need to progress while the status of the
proposed is being resolved, Greene expressed that it’s like putting the cart before the
horse to work on specific issues before the committee structure is set. However,
Senator Azimina stated that the proposed body may not come to existence, and we
still need to develop procedures to resolve issues.
4.3
California November Ballot Measure Proposition 8 — Sherri Yeager
The following are the handouts Senator Yeager provided:
•
Proposition 8 Final Title and Summary – See website at
http://www.nclrights.org/site/DocServer/New_Title_and_Summary_7.29.08_FINAL.pdf?docID=3564
•
Ballot Argument Against Proposition 8 – See website at
http://www.nclrights.org/site/DocServer/Ballot_Argument_7.28.08.pdf?docID=3561
•
Personal E-mail from Sherri Yeager to College President Celia Barberena – See
website at http://www.chabotcollege.edu/FacultySenate/doc/Handout20080911_Prop8.doc
Yeager opened her representation with a real-life example that domestic partnership
does not hold the same status in society as marriage. When her partner and she
registered for domestic partnership, there was not a surge of congratulations from
friends and colleagues as when they recently married on July 16, 2008, after being in
a relationship for 23 years. Therefore, lesbians and gays must not be relegated to
second-class citizen status by the passage of Proposition 8. The California Supreme
Court ruling affirmed the constitutional right of lesbians and gays to marry under the
arguments of equal protection, human dignity, and equal rights. She argues that a
constitution must not be used to remove the rights of certain groups and to institute
cultural rigidity.
Yeager shared counterarguments to two common arguments of Proposition 8. The
first argues that Prop 8 protects the sanctity of marriage. However, if convicted rapists
in California and drunk couples in Las Vegas can be married, where is the sanctity?
Another argument claims that the will of the majority must prevail. When we look back
in history at Nazi Germany and Jim Crow South, we see the horror of the
consequences when the majority violates the rights of minority groups.
Referring to the e-mail she sent to Dr. Barberena, Yeager argued that, if the college is
to take seriously the ideas of respect, community, diversity, and civic responsibility—
as reflected in Chabot’s mission, values, and collegewide learning goals—then taking
a stand against Prop 8 follows naturally from those statements.
As Yeager will prepare a resolution for Senate to stand against Prop 8, Matthews
requested that Ho place the item on the agenda for the next meeting. To the question
of public institution’s involvement in political activism, Senator Ames pointed out that
we have demonstrated support for a previous ballot measure on community college
funding, so there is already precedence. Senator Grace hopes that a stand against
Prop 8 doesn’t stop at Chabot’s Faculty Senate but spreads to other bodies on
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Chabot Faculty/Senate Approved Minutes of September 11, 2008
campus as well as LPC and the District. Ho asked the ASCC Rep. Asir to take the
issue back to Student Senate.
Yeager reported that some proponents of Prop 8 have been leaving fliers on the cars
in the parking lot. That’s illegal, and they need to register with the Office of Student
Services to set up a table on campus, just as required of military recruiters.
5.0
5.1
REPORTS II
Senate President — Ming Ho
The Senate President’s Report is attached to the minutes and can be found at
http://www.chabotcollege.edu/FacultySenate/doc/SenPresReport20080911.doc. Furthermore,
President Ho reported that he had had e-mail communication with Director of Security
Ruben Pola about the theft. One thing under consideration is for faculty to get keys to
their classrooms so they can lock them, which Ho did for himself after reading Officer
Pola’s notice. In Ho’s personal communication with Pola, Pola expressed that Deans’
Office can order keys for faculty in its division at once, hence avoiding having
individuals getting keys at the Security Office. Senator Wong showed her chain of
numerous keys and wondered if there are other solutions. Senator Fouquet reported
that the keyless-entry system under planning would ameliorate that problem.
5.2
Senate Committees
5.2.1
Facilities Committee — Dave Fouquet
Most of the Measure B projects are either complete or underway or otherwise in the
design phase with construction dollars committed. The remaining renovation and
modernization projects have been arranged into eight groups so the committee can
best evaluate how to allocate dwindling resources—which are currently about $21M
short of the estimated $97M cost to completion. The eight groups are:
1. B100 Library and Grand Court
2. B1100, B1500 & B2000 Faculty Office Buildings
3. B2300 Student Union
4. B200 Administration
5. B1200 & B1300 Music and Performing Arts Center and Entry Plaza
6. B1400 Industrial Tech
7. B1600 Multi-Disciplinary Labs
8. B1700 & B1800 Math Science Classrooms.
NOTES: (1) State matching funding for Bldg. 100 looks to be delayed for two or three
years; possible revisions to the scope of the project are to be studied in the meantime,
including the possibility of a new building. (2) Celia has offered that the needs in B200
are modest, and that the $3.5M in its budget could perhaps be used to fund other
projects. (3) There is some recent good news from Sacramento, in that B1700 and
B1800 project is currently in the queue for matching funds from the state, for design
work commencing in Fall 09. Seeing as how this project leverages matching dollars
from the state, budgeting the local contribution (about $9.6M) is a high priority.
In its next meeting on September 25, the Facilities Committee will finalize the options
that best meet the needs of the students and the college as a whole.
5.3
6.0
6.1
Senators — None.
Good of the Order
Future Agenda Items
● Enrollment Management and Distribution of FTEF allotments —Kathy Kelly ● Basic
Skills Committee Update — Katie Hern, Michael Thompson ● Public Arts Committee
Update — Don Plondke ● DSPS & Library proposal regarding closed captioning for
DVDs — Norman Buchwald, Kathleen Allen
6.2
Adjournment — MSC (Matthews/Ames) at 4:11pm. Next meeting is September 25,
2008
6.3
Future Meetings — cf. http://www.chabotcollege.edu/FacultySenate/#MeetingDates
4