Taft College Academic Senate Minutes
Monday, September 2, 2014
Cougar Conference Room
Members Present: President Tony Thompson, Vice President Vicki Jacobi, Secretary Linda West,
Nancy Artiga, Kanoe Bandy, Wendy Berry, Adam Bledsoe, Jill Brown, Joe’ll Chaidez, Bill Devine,
Geoffrey Dyer, Juana Escobedo, Sharyn Eveland, Tori Furman, Greg Golling, Lourdes Gonzalez,
Gary Graupman, Dan Hall, Brian Jean, Diane Jones, Kelly Kulzer Reyes, David Layne, Mariza Martinez,
James May, Michelle Oja, Ruby Payne, Joseph Polizzotto, Kristi Richards, Stefanie Walsh, Karen Ziegler
The meeting was called to order at 12:15 p.m.
Public Commentary
None.
Review of August 21, 2014 Senate Minutes
A motion was made by Michelle Oja and seconded by Sharyn Eveland to approve the minutes as
presented. The motion carried unanimously.
Standing Committee Updates
Strategic Planning Committee
Eric Bérubé
No report.
Academic Development Committee
Kelly Kulzer-Reyes
Kelly reported the ADC now meets on the 3rd Wednesday of the month from noon to 1:00 p.m.
Kelly stated that the Basic Skills Initiative allocation for the college was reduced by 10%. Our
allocation dropped from $90,000 to $81,000 and we are already over budget.
Budget Committee
Bill Devine
Sharyn Eveland and Bill reported the committee received a budget update from Brock
McMurray at the last meeting. Brock stated it appears the college will be receiving sufficient
funding to cover our budget and isn’t anticipating any big surprises.
Curriculum & General Education Committee
Vicki Jacobi
Vicki reported we currently have 208 courses with course outlines of record that are five years
old and older. All updated course outlines must be submitted with SLOs. She also stated that
additional transfer degrees are being discussed. Curriculum and GE Committee meeting times
have been extended to 90 minutes to accommodate the extensive agenda.
Vicki reported that eLumen will be updated by first census. On-demand workshops will be
scheduled and a big workshop is scheduled for November.
High School Articulation/Dual Enrollment
Darcy Bogle & Sam Aunai
Darcy reported the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has developed
recommendations to support high school to college activities and reduce unnecessary barriers. As a
result, Darcy is proposing some changes to Taft College’s articulation policy where it pertains to
secondary schools. A secondary school can request to articulate any comparable course in the TC
catalog. Articulation agreements are driven by the faculty and division. Before a course is deemed
comparable, it must be evaluated by the appropriate discipline/division, Articulation Officer, and Vice
President of Instruction. All must be in agreement before an articulation agreement is finalized.
Articulation agreements are subsequently reviewed every three years.
Currently, a student doesn’t receive the units of credit for the articulated course until he or she is
attending Taft College and completed 12 units in residence. Student must then submit a form requesting
credit for completion of the articulated course. The student must have completed the course at the high
school with a grade of A or B and passed the final exam. Once the requirements have been met, units
are awarded in the form of credit by exam.
A White Paper released by the state Academic Senate recommends a more streamlined process. No
change is recommended in the articulation process which will continue to be faculty and division driven.
The recommendation is to remove the residence requirement for students completing the articulated
course at the high school. Credit by exam units would be recorded on the student’s Taft College
transcript once they apply for admission.
Articulation agreements are typically developed for non-transfer level courses. Welding is a good
example. The interest isn’t in losing enrollment, but in streamlining certificate patterns for students and
increasing student success.
Darcy emphasized that there is no interest in changing the course articulation process other than how
the units are awarded to students.
Diane Jones reported that a high school representative had expressed interest in being able to sign off
on High School Special Admit Forms in lieu of the instructor in the event the instructor was unavailable.
Members felt the instructor signature was an integral part of the process and were unanimously
opposed to the idea of a high school representative signing in lieu of faculty who teach the course.
Committee Assignments
Tony Thompson and Mark Williams
Tony distributed a table listing the number of faculty requests for membership on campus committees.
Requests range from 14 on the Staff Development committee down to 2 on the Tech Review and Safety
committees. Tony and Mark expressed concern that committee assignments are out of balance.
Some committees limit the number of faculty and Craig Johnson asked if those limits were negotiated.
In the past few years, faculty have selected their committee assignments although that was not always
the case. Bill Devine said he didn’t think it was just a “numbers game” and some committees might
require more members. Michelle Oja thought it might be helpful to gather input from committee chairs.
Mark asked that we shuffle ourselves around voluntarily to avoid the current imbalance.
Other
Tony Thompson
At the request of a faculty member, Tony asked, “What is the current status of the $2 million loan that
the general fun made to the TIL program?”
Sharyn Eveland stated that she would take the question to the next meeting of the Budget Committee
and request a response.
The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 6th.
Meeting was adjourned at 1:04 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by
Linda West, Academic Senate Secretary
Attachments