CHABOT COLLEGE ACADEMIC/FACULTY SENATE
R e g u l a r Meeting
Board Room, Building 200
Thursday, September 13, 2007 – 2:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
A P P R O V E D M I N UT E S
Submitted by Bill Johnson and Ming Ho
Senators
Applied Technology & Business — Michael Absher
Counseling — Rachel Aziminia & Dara Greene
Health, Physical Education, & Athletics — Nancy Cowan
Arts & Humanities — Bill Johnson
Language Arts — Susan Gill & Francisco Zermeño
Library — Jim Matthews
Science & Mathematics — Dave Fouquet & Ming Ho
Social Sciences — Michael Thompson & Susan Tong
Part-time Faculty — Anne Brichacek
Ex-Officios
ASCC — Jove Meyer, Vice President
CLPFA — Shari Jacobsen, Membership Coordinator
Academic/Faculty Senate Immediate Past President — Chad Mark Glen
Guest
Dr. Robert Carlson, Chabot College President
Presiding Officer
President Diane Zuliani
ITEM
1.0 GENERAL FUNCTIONS
1.1 Call to Order: President Zuliani called the meeting to order at 2:18 p.m.
1.2 Approval of the Minutes: The minutes of August 30, 2007, as amended were moved for
approval by Michael Thompson, seconded by Francisco Zermeño, and unanimously approved.
1.3 Guest: Dr. Robert Carlson was invited to discuss the Senate’s May 10, 2007, resolution
supporting the Fall 2007 hiring of a Director of Student Life, a position vacant since August 2006.
Dr. Carlson explained that he had informed the Associated Students of Chabot College
(ASCC) that the college budget simply cannot afford two full-time staff members to supervise
student activities and Chabot Student Life. With the anticipated retirement of Student Life
Coordinator Nina Kiger in the summer of 2008, Carlson said he would recommend to the next
Chabot President that a Director or Coordinator of Student Life be chosen at that time.
According to Dr. Carlson, the title is not relevant, as it would be more important to define the
ACADEMIC/FACULTY SENATE DRAFT MINUTES
September 13, 2007
new Student Life Supervisor’s job and then give it a title as commensurate with the job
description of other positions with similar titles. Immediate Past President Glen advised Carlson
that the Student Life Supervisor job description be written with input from college constituencies.
Carlson responded that with a search commencing in February or March 2008, there would be
time to do that. Carlson said he would determine the salary level for the Student Life
Supervisor’s position.
Shari Jacobsen, Senator Zermeño, and ASCC Vice President Meyer argued that an
engaging campus climate for students requires staff leadership for student government and
activities. “The administration that should be working on our behalf doesn’t seem to be,” Meyer
said. Senator Johnson remarked that only six clubs had applied for campus recognition and that
student activity participation should be watched closely, as such participation during College
Hour had already been compromised with many more classes scheduled at that time. President
Carlson responded that it’s also up to the student to step up and lead. He reminded the Senate
that he has had to cut some 20 classified positions in the last four years, as well as some faculty
positions. He claims that these actions are done partly on behalf of those students out in the
street who are not here.
Senator Tong asked about faculty release time to support student activities. Carlson
responded that students already get support from staff and faculty, as part of faculty’s regular
five-hour committee workload. Carlson left the meeting at 2:58 p.m., after assuring the Senate
that we will have a professional Student Life Supervisor by next summer, after Kiger retires.
Senator Zermeño moved to jump to Item 4.1 to continue discussing the student life issue,
with second from Senator Matthews. The motion passed with two-thirds majority. (See
continuation of this discussion below, Item 4.1)
2.0
REPORTS
2.1 Senate President: President Zuliani’s prepared statement is below:
Presidential Search Committee: you may remember from my last report that as Senate
President, the Chancellor gave me the purview to select three faculty members to serve on the
committee to find a replacement for Dr. Carlson, and the FA has the purview to select one.
These numbers were chosen by the Chancellor, and are identical to the numbers LPC has for
their search. Because we have a larger faculty than LPC, I was hoping to be given a fourth
position to select, thus giving us five faculty altogether. I asked Joel for a fourth seat, and,
happily, it was given.
As per Senate’s request at our last meeting, I sent out a faculty-wide call for interested
parties. The list of names I collected was a long one, with some folks contacting me multiple
times with persuasive explanations for their interest. I told you I was not sure if I would select
myself; in the end I did because I want to be part of this and I feel I’ve received a show of
support from the faculty as someone who represents viewpoints across the college. As I had
discussed with Senate previously, the main criterion for the selection process was a track-record
of college-wide service—we know some folks have reputations for working with the good of the
programs in mind, and others work with the good of the college in mind. Another criterion was
that the diversity of our educational missions was represented, so I wanted to make sure transfer
ed, vocational ed, and student services had a voice. Additionally, I wanted the breadth of Chabot
to show, so I did not want to select two individuals from the same division. Finally, I thought it
critical to represent the ethnic diversity of our urban campus and region--which I imagine will be
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September 13, 2007
a new experience for at least some of our applicants. The four faculty named to the committee
are: JoAnn Galliano (Health Sciences); Michael Thompson (Social Sciences/Faculty Senate);
Tram Vo-Kumamoto (Counseling), and myself (Arts & Humanities).
At our last meeting, someone asked for Joel’s outline of the committee membership, which
I’ve provided in a handout.
Accreditation Update: No news yet on the Department of Education/ Council for Regional
Accrediting Commissions debate, but I did learn that the contentiousness of those “negotiated
rulemaking sessions” between the DoE and the CRAC prompted the U.S. Senate to step in,
siding with our accreditors by requesting that the DoE NOT issue new regulations; we still won’t
know until the end of September if there will be new demands for even more accountability data
and impositions of national standardization such as the DoE initially proposed.
For the time being, I am providing you with key pages from ACCJC showing our accreditation
requirements for this current cycle: “Introduction to the Standards;” “Standard I: Institutional
Mission and Effectiveness;” and Part A of “Standard II: Student Learning Programs and
Services,” Part A being the section on Instructional Programs. You should read these pages and
try to piece together for yourself what is required of us with respect to Student Learning
Outcomes.
Basic Skills Initiative Update: as I mentioned last time the Governor originally vetoed and
set aside $33.1 million in on-going funding for the Basic Skills Initiative, but as of two days ago it
was passed by the state Assembly as AB 194 and is on its way to Schwarzenegger. Along with
other Senate Presidents I will be writing a letter encourage the governor to sign it. It is worth
knowing that as the Assembly passed it, the funding now comes with new restrictions and
additional layers of accountability.
Chabot has a spot reserved for the Friday Oct.12 regional Basic Skills Self-Assessment
meeting in Santa Rosa, along with folks from Las Positas. A maximum of 15 people can attend
from each college. I encourage you to contact me if you want to be among those representing
Chabot at this important function.
Meeting Reports: The last Board of Trustees meeting and College Council were cancelled
so no reports from these. SLO Committee will be using its Forums (first Tuesday of the month,
Room 3521) for Chabot faculty who are skilled in the use of rubrics to demonstrate what they’ve
learned with any interested parties. District Curriculum Council agendized its issues for the year,
top priority items being learning the Title IV changes to curriculum and the possible use by our
District of CurricuNet, a curriculum writing software that is now being used by several colleges
in our area. The most encouraging news I heard all week came in the Chancellor’s Council,
when Mary Anne Gularte, the new head of HR said one of her goals is to learn how to read our
pay stubs, and then teach us how to do the same. An item we’ll want to watch closely that came
up in that meeting was that the “advertisement” for the Chabot President’s position has gone to
press. Joel shared that document with me briefly on Convocation day, and asked for my input. I
had about three minutes with it, and I told him I was interested in adding a line that stated that
we were looking for someone who understood “core academic values,” but I had little time to
give the document a thorough vetting. Upon learning at the Chancellor’s Council that it had gone
to print, I protested that we hadn’t been given enough time to review and shape the document,
and I was told by Dr. Carlson and Jennifer Aries that the document is more of an advertisement
and marketing draw, not a job description, and that it doesn’t set parameters for the job.
According to Dr. Carlson, “there is no job description for a college president.” I did not attend the
District Enrollment Management Committee meeting but learned that the idea of a compressed
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September 13, 2007
semester came up there—not quarters but a shorter, possibly sixteen-week semester. There are
possible cost savings in doing so, but here in Senate we’ll want to pay attention to how this
impacts faculty. This issue has apparently been studied at length in other districts from the
economic perspective and the student perspective, but not from the faculty perspective, so while
faculty care about the economic and student impact, we want to make sure faculty are
considered in the discussion. I believe a District committee will be set up to figure this out, and I
will be asking for Senators to be a part of that. I also want to encourage Senators to become
regular attendees of the Facilities Committee meetings. I believe Mike Absher is the current
Senate representative to the Facilities Committee, but the more presence faculty have the better
chance we’ll have of mitigating problems like the chalkboard/whiteboard issue that has recently
come up. If you are interested in attending, the Facilities Committee meets the 2nd and 4th
Tuesdays, noon College Hour, and 11:00 a.m. as needed, during the summer, Room 1506
(unless specified).
[End of prepared statement.]
Many senators felt that the three minutes the Chancellor gave to President Zuliani for reviewing
the job announcement for the search for Chabot President is not sufficient. Some remarked that
for faculty search, the search committee is bound by the announcement in evaluating and
ranking applications. Senators feared that, without proper faculty input, the criteria important to
faculty will not be represented in the evaluation process. The Senate asked President Zuliani to
obtain written assurance from the chancellor that the document really is simply an advertisement
and marketing draw, not a job description to which the search committee is bound. In case of
resistance and to show the importance of such assurance is to the Senate, Senator Gill moved
and Senator Ho seconded the following resolution:
The Academic/Faculty Senate resolves that the Chancellor submit written
statement declaring that the job announcement for the position of Chabot
President does not form the basis for the hiring process (e.g. job description,
interview, etc.) and that the hiring committee shall have discretion in setting the
parameters of the hiring process.
The resolution passed unanimously.
Senator Fouquet said that any discussion regarding the calendar must, by contractual
agreement, include the Faculty Association. Senator Matthews reminded senators that no
proposal of a shortened semester could be considered until both LPC and Chabot College
complete their respective Measure B build-outs because of room scheduling considerations.
2.2 ASCC: ASCC Vice President Meyers reported that all the ASCC executive positions had been
filled with the addition of six ASCC senators included in the student government. There are eight
more senatorial positions that need to be filled.
2.3 CLPFA: Shari Jacobsen reported that FA meetings are scheduled for Sept. 27 and Nov. 1 in
Room 1906.
Fouquet also announced that the Faculty Association of Community Colleges of California
has named Shari Jacobsen Faculty Member of the Year. Vigorous applause ensued.
2.4 Public Comments: Senate Vice President Absher commented that further disruptions of
campus tranquility caused by the ongoing construction needs to be monitored by the Faculty
Senate. There had been cases where construction has interfered with instruction. Any
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September 13, 2007
construction impact on campus, even something as simple as roping off part of parking lot for
temporary equipment storage, should be announced lest there are unintended consequences.
3.0
ACTION ITEMS
3.1 Visits to Faculty Senate by College President: President Zuliani proposed that, as per the
solutions proposed last meeting, we retain the President to come to Senate once a month (every
other meeting) to answer questions on specific discussion items to be identified in advance of
the visit. If no topics on the agenda require the President’s response or counsel, the Senate
President will contact and relieve the President of his or her obligation for that meeting.
It was moved by Senator Matthews and seconded by Vice President Absher that the
Chabot College president be invited to appear once a month to answer specific questions the
Faculty Senate my pose to him in advance. If there were no questions, the president would not
be invited to appear. The motion passed unanimously.
4.0
DISCUSSION ITEMS
4.1 Status of the Director of Student Life position
Senator Zermeño suggested that the ASCC could put forth a referendum to the student
and raise the student activity fee from $8 to support a salary for two staff members to supervise
the Office of Student Life. Senators Tong and Ho advised that the ASCC take initiative and write
job descriptions for supervisor to support the students. Ho recommended that the ASCC first
focus on the duties that the Office of Student Life must fulfill, not the number of staff in the
Office. Vice President Absher encouraged the ASCC to fight for Student Life positions. “If you
fight for it, you can get it,” he said. Senator Thompson urged the ASCC to get busy and
organize a plan to create resources and pressure the incoming college president to support
student life. President Zuliani commented, “Carlson is passing the buck.” Senator Greene
commented, “We’ve been banging heads; it’s not going to happen. [that Carlson hires two staff
for Student Life]. We need to look for a supportive presidential candidate.” ASCC Vice President
Meyer said an ASCC representative will be on the presidential search committee. Senator
Matthews commented, “This is what strategic planning should be about,” [that we identify the
overall needs of the college and have a priority of positions to be filled] rather than a free-for-all
process in which everyone is in competition with one another when a hire opens up. In the past
these issues are always presented as an either-or situation [e.g. Marketing vs. Student Life].
“We’ve got to get out of that,” Matthews said.
4.2 Results of our division polls
4.2.1
Whiteboards/chalkboards
President Zuliani’s prepared statement is below:
Doug Horner (Co-Chair of the Facilities Committee and Facilities Manager for
Chabot) has a meeting scheduled this afternoon and couldn’t come to talk to us today. He
and I have been in email conversation for two weeks now and this is what I know. It is true,
as some of you have heard, that buildings 300, 500, 800, and 900 are all slated to all have
whiteboards. Upon hearing this, math faculty, who use different buildings, apparently
approached Horner with concerns that all buildings were going to end up with whiteboards,
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ACADEMIC/FACULTY SENATE DRAFT MINUTES
and they took a poll of their own faculty to determine faculty preference for whiteboard or
chalkboard. The result of their poll was a majority preference for chalkboards. Susan Gill
suggested at the last meeting of Senate that we take similar polls in each of our divisions,
which we have done.
A piece of this story which you all should know is that the recommendation of the
Classroom Design Subcommittee, of which I was a member during the 2003-04 academic
year and chaired during the 2004-05 year, was that the chalkboard/whiteboard decision—
and other decisions—could come only after consultation with individual classroom users of
the buildings undergoing renovation. Please see handout entitled “Chabot College
Preliminary Guidelines for Classroom Design.” This document took the Classroom Design
Subcommittee a year to produce, and it was formally presented to the Facilities Committee
in 2005, with the consultants present agreeing to accept the document and the
recommendations made within. I emailed this document to Doug Horner, who thanked me
for it and said he’d never seen it. Wayne Philips took over for me as the Chair of the
Classroom Design Subcommittee after I left [which was after we’d met our charge of
creating templates and listing guidelines for three types of technology-enabled classrooms],
and I have sent an email to him asking why this document was ignored and why the
recommendations of the Classroom Design Subcommittee aren’t being met.
[End of prepared statement.]
The result of the division polls on whiteboard vs. chalkboard is as follows:
Division
Applied Technology &
Business
Counseling
Health, Physical
Education, & Athletics
Arts & Humanities
Language Arts
Library
Science & Mathematics
Social Sciences
Whiteboard
Chalkboard
No Preference
9
0
6
10
1
13
9
3
35
Both wherever possible, but
chalkboard in library study rooms.
≈15%
≈85%
About 50-50 split, but want both in
same room whenever possible
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4.2.2
Withdrawal policy: Each division reported that an overwhelming majority of its faculty
favor counting absence by instructional hours over periods for the purpose of withdrawing
students.
4.2.3
Drop language: Each division reported that an overwhelming majority of its faculty favor
the use of “may drop” instead “must drop” in the language on the back of roster regarding
drop policy. Fouquet reported that Scott Hildreth suggested that the Distance Education
Committee examine a drop policy for distance education classes.
4.3 Dean of Counseling Search Committee: President Zuliani reminded Senators that
applications to be a member of the search committee for the next Dean of Counseling Services,
due to last semester’s departure of former dean Darryl Minus, were due Friday, Sept. 14, 2007.
So far, she has the name of one counselor interested.
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5.0
September 13, 2007
REPORTS II
5.1 Senate Committees: No report.
5.2 Senators
Senator Fouquet reported that in making enrollment projections, it would be unwise for the
college FTES number to fall below 10,000 lest the college would not receive extra “large college”
funding. Last year’s FTES target was dangerously close to the 10,000 threshold at 10,050. The
Enrollment Management Committee is the forum for watching this issue, Fouquet answered, in
a response to a question from Senator Thompson. Classes, which normally would have made
their numbers after the start of the term, had been cut this semester before instruction began.
Fouquet asked what the policy by which these classes are cut is. If classes were cut for
financial reason, then it does not make sense to cut those classes that would pick up students to
generate revenue after the start of the term.
Shari Jacobsen and President Zuliani remarked that the new San Leandro Learning Center
has revealed problems that apparently were not considered when planning the center.
Jacobsen said that the needs of scheduling disabled students were not addressed; Zuliani said
there were other unaddressed issues, such as curriculum coordination.
Senator Greene called the attention of the Senate to the overall drop in the statewide
community college transfer rate. Some of this drop was caused by decisions made by Gov. Gray
Davis’ office back in 2002, she said.
Senator Zermeño passed around a promotional invitation for a St. Rose Hospital fundraiser
Oct. 6, and urged senators to participate.
6.0 GOOD OF THE ORDER
6.1 Future Agenda items
6.1.1 Cameras in Labs — Farhad Javaheripour
6.1.2 Title V Curriculum Updates & AS Degree Report — Nolly Ruiz
6.1.3 New Directions for IPBC — Christina Ruggiero and Yvonne Wu-Craig
6.1.4 The “Greening” of Chabot — Francisco Zermeño
6.1.5 Textbook Expense — Kathleen Kaser
6.2 Adjournment at 4:30 PM. Next Meeting: September 27, 2007
6.3 Fall Meetings: 2nd & 4th Thursdays.
October 11 & 25, November 8 & 15*, December 6* & 20*.
(*Special Meetings not on 2nd or 4th Thursday)
BJ/MLH/DZ
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