Taft College Academic Senate Minutes
Monday, February 4, 2013
Cougar Conference Room
Attendees: Jennifer Altenhofel, Kanoe Bandy, Eric Bérubé, Darcy Bogle, Kamala Carlson, John
Eigenauer, Juana Escobedo, Sharyn Eveland, Greg Golling, Lourdes Gonzalez, Gary Graupman,
Daniel Hall, Vicki Herder, Brian Jean, Craig Johnson, Diane Jones, Kelly Kulzer-Reyes,
David Layne, Mariza Martinez, Mike Mayfield, Michelle Oja, Ruby Payne, Harold Pease, Joseph
Polizzotto, Jeff Ross, Rebecca Roth, Sonja Swenson, Tony Thompson, Susan Vaughn, Linda West
The meeting was called to order at 12:14 p.m.
Public Commentary
None
Review of January 17, 2013 Senate Minutes
A motion was made by Michelle Oja and seconded by Diane Jones to approve the minutes as
presented. The motion carried.
Old Business
Sabbatical Process Subcommittee Report Update
Eric Bérubé
Eric Bérubé presented a draft of the Faculty Sabbatical Leave Handbook for Senate review and
comment. The document was developed by Eric, Dave Berry, and Vicki Herder, members of the
Sabbatical Leave Taskforce.
After much discussion, the Senate reached consensus on following modifications and
clarifications to the document:
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Include a statement that sabbaticals cannot be taken in order to complete units used for
salary schedule credit
Eliminate the requirement that the President announce the number of sabbaticals
available at the beginning of each academic year
Modify the process to require sabbatical applications to be submitted one year prior to
the planned sabbatical leave
Include Division Chair input in the approval process
Eric will make changes to the handbook to include the suggestions and bring the document back
to the March Senate meeting for approval.
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IT Issue Update
Tony Thompson
Tony Thompson reported on the process currently in place for removing former employees from
the college’s email system. Adrian Agundez stated that former employees were removed from
the college’s email system upon request from Human Resources. Tony spoke to Jana Peters in
HR who told him she was unaware of the process. Dismissed employees should be removed
from the email system. Retirees have the option of retaining their email accounts. Tony will
follow-up with Adrian to clean up the process.
Tony also reported he had collected all of the comments regarding IT issues impacting
instruction and placed them into a Word document. He worked with David Layne to place the
comments into logical categories and condense them. The document was delivered to Dr.
Maloney who thanked the Senate for their input. She stated that some issues could be resolved
quickly, while others would take more time to resolve. Dr. Maloney stated she was alarmed
about the lack of communication. Tony said he would ask Dr. Maloney for something to bring
back to the Senate.
New Business
Waiting List Numbers
Brian Jean
Brian Jean suggested increasing the number of students that could be wait-listed for a class and
using those numbers for enrollment planning. The waiting list for a class currently permits a
maximum of twelve students. If we increase the number, we could use the number of students
on a waiting list to justify demand for an additional class section.
There was some concern that increasing the waiting list numbers might give students false hope
about getting into a wait-listed class. Also, students might be reluctant to add themselves to a
waiting list if they don’t see a likelihood of being able to enroll in the class. The question was
asked if we could provide students with additional information regarding waiting lists. Darcy
Bogle stated we could utilize Web tailoring to provide students with information.
The discussion regarding this topic will be continued at the March Senate meeting.
Enrollment Management Committee
Tony Thompson
Dr. Maloney believes that the system is sitting on the edge of uncontrolled growth. The
Enrollment Management Committee was formed to help determine where the college should
grow. The committee members include Dr. Maloney, Tony Thompson, Eric Bérubé, Patti Bench,
Brock McMurray, Debbie Hegeman, Sherry Gregory, and Adrian Agundez. Tony asked that
faculty members please let him know is we have an interest in serving on the committee.
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President’s Report
Tony Thompson
Tony encouraged those in attendance to pick up a copy of the Senate Rostrum, the state
Academic Senate for Community Colleges newsletter.
Meeting was adjourned at 12:59 p.m.
The next meeting is scheduled for 12:10-1:00 p.m. on Monday, March 4th.
Respectfully submitted by
Linda West
Academic Senate Secretary
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