District Academic Senate Executive Meeting
November 15, 2011
2:30-4:30 pm
District Office
Attendance: David Beaulieu, Don Gauthier, Kathleen Bimber, Angela Echeverri,
Alex Immerblum, John Freitas, Adrienne Foster, and Alfred Reed
Guest: Chanda Williams
1. Call to Order and Approval of Agenda: Meeting was called to order by DAS President Beaulieu
at 3:18 pm. Agenda was approved (Immerblum/Gauthier MSU). Added items 17 and 18 (Pierce
Resolution on Textbooks and Consultation Sign-off form).
2. Approval of Minutes DAS Executive Meetings of 10/13/11: Minutes for 10/13/11 meeting were
approved with a few corrections (Foster/Gauthier MSU).
3. Public Speakers: None
4. Budget Update: Beaulieu reported that the District Budget Executive Committee members are
working on the LACCD allocation model and expect to have a proposal by the end of the
semester. Chancellor LaVista accepted the District Budget Committee (DBC) recommendation
that any mid-year cuts imposed by the state would not be taken from the colleges. Board Finance
Committee members Veres and Svonkin wanted to know at what point the Board becomes part of
this decision; they will meet with the DBC Exec committee. Freitas inquired about the magnitude
of the expected cuts. Beaulieu replied he believed they would be around 5%, but we probably
won’t know what next year’s final budget will look like until January of 2012. He added that there is
a good likelihood of fee increases. Miller announced Valley will be offering a Winter intersession
and they welcome all students from other colleges with priority registration. Gauthier reported that
faculty at City lost SAP on their computers. Carl Carlsson said the LACCD removed access
because they don’t want faculty accessing the information. Beaulieu replied that this is more of a
union issue; we will discuss with AFT President Joanne Waddell.
5. Leadership Transition: DAS members discussed timing of President’s Beaulieu resignation to
allow for an election. Bimber suggested we announce the vice president position is open.
Kathleen Bimber and John Freitas volunteered to be on the Elections Committee.
6. Constitution/By-laws Revision: Gauthier will send out the cleaned up version of the revisions.
There is a provision that a person cannot run for an officer position if they have not attended three
out of the last five DAS meetings. The DAS membership includes 36 senators (4 from each
college) and 4 officers. The Elections Committee will solicit nominations for the vice president
position and the list of candidates will be made public. Alex Immerblum said this is relevant
because one of his DAS members may not attend the next meeting. The consensus was there
should not be a restriction on who gets to vote. In order to be eligible to run, candidates must be
DAS members.
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7. DIstrictwide Priority Enrollment Dispute: Beaulieu explained that an update to Board Rule 8603
has to do with priority enrollment. We can start with non-controversial Board Rule changes to meet
Title 5 standards. One way to approach this enrollment issue is changing the current Board Rule
to get in line with current practice. The DAS can say yes or no to the change. If we say no, it could
be a de-facto veto. The vote might not happen until February of 2012. Bimber argued this should
come to DCC for a vote before it goes to the DAS. Beaulieu argued that not all aspects of the
issue need to go through DCC. Bimber replied that DCC purview includes educational policy.
Gauthier read the description of the DCC roles. Beaulieu said if we don’t vote in December and
wait until February, we will have to wait until the summer for any changes to take place.
Immerblum expressed concern the DAS was not working on modifying the Board Rule language.
Bimber suggested taking the Board Rule and making the state required edits. She needs to be
able to report something back to DCC if it is considered an emergency, because they are looking
at this now. Beaulieu stated that our next full DAS meeting is on 12/8/11. If you vote against a
change, you are supporting current language. Immerblum stated all the current language was
struck in the administration’s proposal. He added that if we don’t draft the language we want, we
would run into trouble. There are several enrollment related issues that need to be addressed: the
19 unit limit, foster youth, and priority enrollment. The correct process has not been followed.
Immerblum stated he was not comfortable going only with data analysis. He argued colleges
should retain autonomy in enrollment matters and need time to implement any changes. The
wording is complicated because Vice Chancellor Yasmine Delahoussaye has added the 19 unit
limit and four different priority categories for enrollment (state required). Foster and Bimber argued
the only thing that needs to come out of the Board Rule is the districtwide priority enrollment.
Bimber expressed concern about voting on this in December; Beaulieu replied this could be done
in February. Bimber will work on the language and send it out to the DAS Executive Committee.
We are proposing a counterchange. Immerblum added that the problem is that they have not put a
stop to current practice, which is in violation of the Board Rule. Beaulieu agreed we could object to
the fact that current practice is not in sync with the Board Rule at our next consultation meeting.
However, we must remember this is not law, just our Board Rule.
8. Winter Unit Question: Josh Miller from Valley raised this question. Admissions and Records
(A&R) Deans are talking about imposing a 5-unit limit for the winter; currently there is a 9-unit limit.
Bimber said she is concerned Bobbie Kimble and the A&R deans have little respect for faculty
input into these types of decisions. The larger issue is the lack of respect for the consultation
process. Immerblum expressed concern about the use of an expedited consultation form, which
really does not equate to an adequate consultation process.
9. Senate Reassigned Time: Gauthier distributed a list of reassigned time by campus and asked
DAS members to review it. LaVista asked DAS members to discuss this with our college
presidents. Rosdahl said he would hesitate to ask for more reassigned time, when we have asked
others to reduce. We are asking for a total of 2.0 reassigned time for senate officers plus 0.6 for
the Curriculum Committee chair.
10. Ed Code Article 33: Former ASCCC President Kate Clark and a former college president Don
Averil went to Trade to try to patch things up and discuss the dispute over Article 33 of the AFT
Contract. Beaulieu and Gauthier will meet with LACCD Counsel Camille Goulet next week to
discuss the DAS concerns regarding Article 33. Goulet may be concerned about the DAS
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complaining about a legal problem at a Board meeting. AFT President Joanne Wadell did express
interest in coming to an understanding over the Faculty Hiring Prioritization Committee. ASCCC
Officer Wheeler North has been supportive and we have discussed the possibility of consulting a
lawyer. If Goulet makes a strong argument against our position we need to go back to the ASCCC
for assistance. Gauthier added that if the union had been engaged in this before AB1725, it would
be grandfathered in under California’s Rodda Act (SB160-Collective Bargaining in California
Public Education). However, this came many years later and the contract needs to be compliance
with Title 5 and California Education Code. Beaulieu reported that Kate Clark and Don Averil said
there has to be a local agreement about faculty hiring and that the senate has to change the
scheduling of its meetings to accommodate Trade Chapter Chair Carol Anderson’s schedule.
11. Viability review/Discontinuance: Bimber briefly discussed the requirements for a viability review
and discontinuance process. When a Transfer Model Curriculum (TMC) degree is replacing a
current degree, colleges should implement a discontinuance process, but a more streamlined local
process can be developed for these degrees.
12. Administrator Evaluations: Beaulieu said LaVista promised he would get back to us on a
timeline and process for vice president evaluations. The meeting is at 2 pm on November 21st,
room to be arranged.
13. Student Success Task Force (SSTF) Recommendations: Beaulieu discussed a memo from
Michelle Pilati dated 11/14/11 and a summary of the ASCCC response to the recommendations
that was e-mailed to senate presidents. The ASCCC summary makes it look that the body is more
supportive of these recommendations than it really is. The SSTF met on Wednesday of last week
and agreed to drop several major recommendations: categorical grouping, differential funding for
courses not in educational plan, de-fund Non-CDCP noncredit. Beaulieu expressed concern that
the implementation timeline has not changed. The SSTF is going to review the recommendations
on December 9th. SB1143 states something needs to be presented to the legislature in March
2012. The complaint has been made that the SSTF started meeting in January of 2011 and did
not present recommendations until August, which rushed the timeline on discussion.
14. 18 Unit Study: There was a breakout at the ASCCC Fall 2011 Plenary Session. Beaulieu is
following up with ASCCC Vice President Beth Smith, the chair of the ASCCC Transfer Committee.
On Thursday Beaulieu will be talking on the phone with faculty from Santa Monica College and
Elizabeth Atondo. Smith is on the Implementation Task Force of SB1440 (Transfer Degree).
15. Bond Cost Projection Overrun: Beaulieu explained that if the colleges build everything they are
planning on building, the LACCD will be over budget by $140 million districtwide. The figure may
be somewhat higher or lower than that. Both Pierce and West have projects they may not be able
to afford. City has three projects on the moratorium list: administration building, landscaping, and
demolition of the old Physical Education building; the senate is bringing forward a resolution.
Beaulieu added that there are district projects that could be cut as well. Rosdahl asked about
American Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance requirements for older buildings. Beaulieu replied that
once you start construction on an existing building, it must be made ADA compliant. Beaulieu
reported that the information was posted on the Build LACCD Dashboard on September 1st but
they did not tell Bond Steering Committee about the cost overruns until November 6th. For
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example, there was a special private insurance arrangement, each college was charged and the
LACCD paid the bill but did not take the money out of the college budgets. After seven years
passed we had a $ 25 million bill that had to come out of the college budgets. From 2004-11 the
accounting was not done and the bill was not paid. We also found out that total CPM expense was
4%, but Larry Eisenberg had it on the books as 3% (which represents another $22 million). The
money has to be found, it all does not have to come from campuses. There was some money ($15
million) set aside for a Career Health Academy and $50-60 million in technology money for fiber
optics. There is also money set aside for satellites at Mission and Valley ($25 million each). The
Chancellor arranged for a 2.5 hour BSC meeting; the idea is that BSC would come up with a
solution.
16. Guidelines for Student Grievance Procedures (E-55): Echeverri explained problems with a
recent Student Grievance Committee at Mission. An administrator appointed two faculty members
to a Grievance Committee in direct violation of the language of E-55.
17. Textbook Pierce: Rosdahl distributed a Textbook resolution approved at Pierce. It will be brought
up for consideration at the December 2011 DAS meeting. There was a discussion about the
profitability of college bookstores. There was a discussion of why college bookstores cannot
compete with online bookstores.
18. Other: Immerblum expressed concern that the latest draft of HR-110 did not specify that the
college president does not sit on an administrative hiring panel. Beaulieu replied that language
stating that the president cannot sit on the panel was struck.
19. Adjourn: Meeting adjourned at 4:54 pm.
Minutes respectfully submitted by DAS Secretary Angela Echeverri
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