District Academic Senate Executive Meeting
June 24, 2010, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
District Office
Minutes
Attendance: David Beaulieu (President), Kathleen Bimber (Vice President),
Angela Echeverri (Secretary, Mission), Adrienne Foster (West), Lourdes Brent
(Trade), Ken Sherwood (City), Allison Moore (Southwest), Don Gauthier
(Valley)
Guests: Kenadi Le (LACCD), Kindra Kinyon (Trade by phone)
1. Call to Order and Approval of Agenda: Meeting was called to order by
President Beaulieu at 2:15 p.m. Agenda was approved (Sherwood/Gauthier
M/S/P).
2. Approval of Minutes of May 27, 2010 Meeting: DAS Executive minutes
for 5/27/10 were approved with several corrections (Gauthier/Brent M/S/P).
3. Public Speakers: None
4. Dolores Huerta Labor Institute Update (Beaulieu/Le): Beaulieu reported
that DHLI Director John Delloro recently passed away very unexpectedly at
the age of 38. Kenadi Le, the program coordinator of DHLI, is now the
acting director until things get settled. Le reported that they are considering
new strategies and ways to go forward given the current environment. She
added that the DHLI needs to increase its support on each campus and to
get more faculty involved. Services provided to faculty by DHLI range from
assistance with technology to how to publish a paper. The DHLI Advisory
group met for the first time two weeks ago. Beaulieu inquired who the
advisory group members are on each campus. Le replied that the members
of Advisory Committee so far are: Wendall Eckhardt (City), Sherrill
Hendricks (City), Daniel Ortega (SW), Lilamani De Silva (Mission), Michael
Colling (East), Maria Dolores Carlo (East), Bruce Anders (West), Don
Gauthier (Valley), Zack...?, Pat Allen (Valley), and Bill Loiterman (Harbor).
Beaulieu stated that the appointment is the Senate President’s, but that the
AFT presidents want to vet the person to make sure they are sympathetic to
union issues.
On the other hand, the DHLI Steering Committee is a smaller group and
consists of Carl Friedlander, John McDowell, David Beaulieu, Gary
Colombo, Kent Wong (UCLA), Lou Siegel (labor activist and adjunct at
Trade who sought the seed money from the unions) and Kathleen Yasuda
(Associate Director of the Labor Center at Trade). Le stated that it is
important to emphasize the academic focus of DHLI and to work to grow the
program. Beaulieu emphasized that the role of DHLI is not to do labor
organizing; it is supposed to be an academic program. Le reported that they
are planning a district wide conference. They want to pair faculty with
external resources, such as authors, to support instruction. Beaulieu added
that John Delloro had wonderful contacts and brought in many distinguished
speakers. Le stated that she would like to build on that and asked the
Senate Presidents to let her know what each campus needs. She added
that she would like to develop a scholarship and requested ideas from
faculty. Beaulieu added that Kenadi Le has a law degree from UC Davis.
Her brother recently graduated from LAVC. She stated she is looking
forward to meeting with everyone at the campuses. Echeverri suggested
she visit all the campus senates in the fall. She added that the future
direction of the DHLI could also be discussed as a DAS Summit breakout
topic.
5. DCC Report:
 Discipline List Proposal Process: Bimber distributed a handout titled
Discipline List Proposal Process and asked that Senate presidents
please forward the information to faculty. The deadline for new proposals
is September 30, 2010. She reported that the dance group wants to add
dance specialties to the list as a non-MA discipline. This is for folk
dancing at Valley; it must go through the Academic Senate. There is also
a proposal planned for architecture.
 Cooperative Education District Work Plan: Bimber distributed a draft
of the LACCD Cooperative Work Experience Education Plan. A revised
plan has to get to the state by September 1, 2010. The previous plan
dates from October, 1998. A few months ago we (???) learned that there
was a window of opportunity to develop a new, more flexible plan. We
asked for assistance and obtained all the Coop-Ed Director names, but
nothing happened. Meanwhile the CTE deans and Julie Benavides wrote
the draft Cooperative Work Experience Education Plan. Under the old
plan, if a student wants to take a Cooperative Education class they had
to have a minimum of seven units. Several faculty have expressed
concern. Bimber stated that this should be a faculty driven project. It
needs to get through DCC in July and to the LACCD Cabinet and Board
by August. It is due at the state by August 31, 2010. The draft has been
sent out to all Coop Ed chairs. Bimber asked DAS members to please
encourage faculty to send their questions, concerns and comments to
her. She added that they may have to have an emergency DCC
meeting. The problem is that if we do not submit a new plan now, we
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cannot change it until they next open it up again for revision (last time
was 1998).
John Clerx Retirement: Bimber reported that there was a very nice
farewell reception last Thursday to celebrate Vice Chancellor Clerx’s 30
years of service to the district. The DCC gave him a gift certificate,
award, and a roasting. Beaulieu expressed disappointment that more
senior administrators did not attend the celebration.
6. Shared Governance Problems (Mission/Trade):
Trade: Beaulieu reported that the selection process for a Vice President of
Academic Affairs at Trade had some egregious flaws. There was a panel
with 13 members out of which only two were faculty appointments.
Additionally, the President appointed a faculty member on his own, which is
not allowed. Faculty representation is supposed to be roughly 40%. Brent
added that there was another classified person on the committee not
representing anyone. The committee members were pressured by the chair
to forward a name in a permanent capacity even though they only wished to
forward a name in an acting or interim capacity. Then the President
apparently interviewed two other people that were not recommended by the
committee. The issue went to consultation on Monday and it was brought to
Interim Chancellor Tyree Wieder’s attention. Wieder assured Beaulieu not to
worry because Senate President Brent and the college president had
recently met and worked things out. Beaulieu later found out that this was
not the case. Lourdes Brent and David Beaulieu wrote a letter and sent it
out Monday evening. The college president has given a verbal offer to the
person; the key question is whether the job has been offered in writing.
They have ignored the consultation and gone ahead with the hire. Brent and
Beaulieu will meet with the college president this afternoon and will ask for
the committee to be reconstituted. He has the prerogative to appoint
someone in an acting position. There was unanimous agreement to go to
the Board next Wednesday if they do not relent and to raise the issue as we
did two years ago when Rolando Cuevas was hired at East. Beaulieu will
contact Joanne Waddell to work jointly on this. Vice President Burke-Kelly is
leaving Trade and Beaulieu stated he is very concerned about accreditation.
Cheery said this situation underscores the need for a district-wide
administrative hiring policy.
Kindra Kinyon called in over the phone and expressed her concerns about
the punitive use of the program viability process at Trade. Marcy Drummond
invoked the right to put several programs on viability in 2009-10, including
ESL, CAOT, CIST, Business, Electronics, LVN and others. The viability
process did not begin until this year. About half of them are finished and
they all went through with flying colors, but the college president has not
signed off on any of them. In the meantime, these programs have not been
able to get resources, hire, or apply for grants. Ms. Drummond is now
claiming that the viability process is not valid because there is not a signed
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copy anywhere. Board policy says that any administrator, department chair,
or senate president has the authority to trigger a viability review process.
Mission: Echeverri gave an update on the status of the Dean of Student
Services position at Mission.
West: President Mark Rocha is leaving to become the President at
Pasadena City College. Foster stated she did not know who would take over
the presidency; it is not clear if an interim can run for the permanent
position. Beaulieu replied that the district doesn’t usually allow interims to
apply for the permanent president positions.
7. Hiring Issues (Administrative/Faculty): Beaulieu reported that there has
been no response yet on the proposed changes to the Administrative Hiring
Policy. Since Vice Chancellor Deborah Hirsch is leaving, Deputy Chancellor
Adriana Barrera will have to deal with it. Apparently the faculty hiring policy
has undergone a technical revision without Senate input and a question has
emerged about the number of candidates forwarded. Foster reported that
since she became Senate President at West, a dean will be taking over her
faculty position as Director of Disabled Student Programs and Services
(DSPS). It is not clear what will happen when she returns to the classroom.
This is also a union issue because she will be penalized for taking the
Senate position.
8. Transfer Legislation Update: A bill (SB 1440) is out of committee and has
been passed and is at the budget committee. Beaulieu said there may have
been a change on the 18 unit major/area of emphasis requirement issue,
but he doesn’t have the latest update. There was a transfer committee
meeting after the last DAS meeting and they were unanimous about their
opposition to the 18 units.
9. Bond/Energy Update: Gauthier reported that Dr. Robert Schistel from
UCLA has turned in a proposal to do a study on the safety of the use of
titanium dioxide. The LACCD Bond Steering Committee unanimously
approved having a study done to assess the safety concerns. Titanium
dioxide has already been applied on 1 million square feet of buildings in the
LACCD. It is a whitener used in paints, toothpaste, sunscreen, etc. There
are concerns surrounding its environmental and health effects when it falls
into the soil.
Beaulieu reported that the DWP PV installation fiasco is still not settled. The
DWP has not signed the energy agreement so Harbor and Pierce can’t
proceed and now we’re told that DWP doesn’t have to sign. Beaulieu said
the Board needs to know this. Sherwood said City has another problem
because they cannot incorporate 10% electricity generation and it is
physically impossible for them to do so. DWP is a municipal utility (it’s at six
of the campuses); whereas Edison (at SW, West and East) is a private
utility, and they have to buy back some of the energy generated by the
campuses. There was a discussion on the Capstone total report versus
summary. Sherwood found out that SW is not participating in the whole
building commissioning process. Beaulieu stated he is beginning to have
some concerns about the responsiveness of Lloyd Silberstein, the new
Director of Build LACCD.
10. Budget Report: Beaulieu reported that Presidents Mark Rocha and Ernie
Moreno argued sharply at the last FPRC meeting. Moore expressed her
concerns about Jeanette Gordon. Beaulieu acknowledged Moore’s
complaints, but added that Gordon is honest, concerned about the LACCD
budget, and has been very helpful with the bond program. The FPRC had a
good initial discussion on the allocation formula. Carl Friedlander will
become the co-chair of the DBC and Southwest President Jack Daniels will
probably step in for Mark Rocha. Sherwood asked if the budget of the
LACCD office would be discussed. Beaulieu replied that Larry Serot is
coming in as a consultant. Moore stated what Serot was said at the FPRC
meeting was different from what is in the report and that he backed off from
criticizing Southwest. Friedlander and Beaulieu will share the budget
responsibilities as well as the 0.2 reassigned time. Beaulieu will work with
Vinh Nguyen and Jeanette Gordon. Smith stated we can not allocate all of
the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) to salary increases without taking out
step increases; each COLA costs at least $1 million.
11. District Administrative Changes: Dawn Bastin in charge of Business
Services is stepping down. Vice Chancellor of Human Resources Deborah
Hirsch is leaving July 6th. Diane McBride is leaving October 1. Three names
have been forwarded for the Interim Vice-Chancellor replacing John Clerx
and Gary Colombo. Chancellor La Vista is interviewing candidates over the
phone and an announcement is expected soon. The announcement for
Marvin Martinez’s position opens next week and will close late in August. In
the meantime, Chito Cayajon will hold the fort down. The LACCD is also
announcing for an associate vice-chancellor position for research who will
report to the new Interim Vice Chancellor to replace George Prather (who is
classified).
MOVE TO EXTEND (Gauthier/Foster)
12. DAS Workload: Beaulieu summarized several upcoming changes. He is
going to go on vacation one week in July and two weeks in August. We may
need someone at the Resource Table during his absence. Bernadette
Staine’s office assistant position may be reduced to half-time. There is a
possibility that she could work somewhere else in the building for the other
half. With the savings we can create a 0.2 reassigned position and bring in
someone to help on special projects such as DCC and DBC minutes,
bringing discipline committees together, etc. Eloise Crippens still gets 0.4
reassigned time to do equivalency applications. Bimber does all the work
with the disciplines and Human Resources. The number of requests for preemployment equivalencies is increasing. The problem is that they have to
have a denial before they can submit an equivalency request.
13. Summit Preparation: Two dates were proposed for the upcoming summit:
September 24 and October 1, both are Fridays. The location will be at
Valley College’s Monarch Hall. After a brief discussion, October 1 was
chosen as the summit date.
14. DAS Meeting Dates: DAS Exec will not meet in July.
The following dates were proposed for DAS Executive meetings:
 Thursday, August 19 at 10 am (tentative)
 September 23, 2010 at 1:30 pm
 October 28, 2010 at 1:30 pm
 November: None
 December: Not sure.
The following dates were proposed for General DAS meetings:
 September 9th (Southwest)
 May: Date TBA (Valley)
15. Adjourn: Meeting was adjourned at 4:27 p.m.
Minutes submitted respectfully by DAS Secretary Angela Echeverri