District Academic Senate Executive Meeting March 11, 2010 12:00-2:00 p.m. District Office Minutes Attendance: David Beaulieu (President), Kathleen Bimber (Vice President), Angela Echeverri (Secretary, Mission), Alex Immerblum (Treasurer, East), Tom Rosdahl (Pierce), Don Gauthier (Valley), Kindra Kinyon (Trade) Guests: Financial Aid Directors: Vernon Bridges (City), Dennis Schroeder (Mission), Anafe Robinson (Pierce), Linda Fong (East), Cynthia Sandico (LACCD Office); Director of Accounting Andres Guerrero (LACCD) 1. Call to Order and Approval of Agenda: Meeting was called to order by President Beaulieu at 12:15 p.m. Agenda was approved (Kinyon/Gauthier M/S/P). 2. Approval of Minutes for January 28 Meeting: Minutes for 1/28/10 were approved with corrections (Immerblum/Gauthier M/S/U). 3. Public Speakers: None 4. President’s Report: Beaulieu reported that five candidates for the chancellor position are being interviewed today and tomorrow by the Board. All of them are external. An announcement may be made as early as tomorrow. He mentioned that some of the Board members wanted to prescreen the candidates in the beginning of the process. The new chancellor may not be in place until July. The next consultation meeting will be on Monday 3/22/10 at 2:00 pm. Bimber asked members to get curriculum chairs to go over the Board rules and administrative regulations (E-regs) under review. The next DAS meetings will be on 4/8/10 (West) and May 13 (Valley). 4. Late Exclusions, Grades (Andres Guerrero): Mr. Guerrero stated that the late submission of exclusion and grade rosters is affecting financial aid and state apportionment. Each semester, a list of pending exclusion rosters is given to Academic Affairs. One concern is that students may get financial aid improperly if they are excluded too late. Additionally, state auditors may question enrollment figures and seek reimbursement of funds and/or fine the district if the rosters are not on file. Guerrero distributed a handout with a list of the compliance rate of exclusion roster submissions by campus. One campus, Mission has gone completely electronic and has 1 the highest compliance rate (80%). The lowest compliance was 31% and the district average was 49%. He added that grades also affect financial aid eligibility, because students placed on academic probation do not qualify for financial aid the following semester. 5. Financial Aid Support (Cynthia Sandico): The Financial Aid Managers discussed how faculty could help advertise and increase student awareness of financial aid opportunities. Some faculty are reluctant to allow classroom visits and distribution of materials by financial aid staff. Robinson reported that this year’s financial aid disbursements were ahead of last year’s total of $140 million. However, we are still not reaching a lot of students, especially those who think (incorrectly) that they have to save their financial aid for later years. Fong stated that many students do not understand the difference between the Board of Governors (BOG) fee waivers and Federal Financial Aid (FAFSA) applications. Beaulieu inquired whether financial aid might be treated in the budget as a “flexible” categorical program. He added that the ASCCC has dragged its feet on promoting financial aid, postponing a plenary breakout dedicated to the topic. Echeverri mentioned that in the Faculty Teaching and Learning Academy (FTLA), she had developed a list of campus resources, including financial aid contact information that could be included in the syllabus. Rosdahl agreed that information in the syllabus would be very helpful to students. Gauthier suggested having this information included in their orientation. Rosdahl suggested giving presentations to new faculty as well. Immerblum reported that East will be awarding 10,000 students financial aid this year. The term Financial “Awards” is viewed more positively than Financial Aid. Beaulieu invited the group to come back to address the entire DAS and urged the Exec members to keep up their efforts to boost awareness. 6. Bond Steering Update (tabled) 7. Budget (tabled) 8. Honorary Degrees and Professorships 9. Financial Transactions by Faculty 10. Student Success Report: Kinyon said she was presented with ARCCC data indicating that ESL success rates at Trade are lower than those of their peers (and lower than English rates). She stated she was not sure how to interpret the data. Beaulieu suggested she discuss the figures with George Prather. Transfer Update: Efforts are going well, there is now a teaching faculty representative attending from almost every college, along with the transfer center director. The next meeting will be 4/6/10 at 2:30 pm at Trade. Seven California State University representatives have been invited. The next meetings will be on May 11 and June 1. Faculty Teaching and Learning Academy (FTLA): The 2010 FTLA is going very well at Mission and will be featured in the next issue of Academically Speaking. Kinyon asked about the status of the proposed Personal Development class (College or Academic Success), which has counselors up in arms at Trade, as they argue that they alone have the minimum qualifications to teach such courses. Bimber replied that Personal Development does not have MQ’s defined at the state level. Instead it is a subject that we have come up with and faculty can develop multiple MQs. She added the goal is to involve more faculty in teaching the class and weave it into the departments and 2 programs. The counseling portion would be under Personal Development 20 or 40, but the discipline specific class could be taught under the departments. It also might be team taught. Beaulieu replied that a committee was formed to look at this issue, but it has languished. Additionally, under the current budget crisis it is unlikely that a mandatory Personal Development course will be offered any time soon. Rosdahl opposed a mandatory course, especially for CTE students. Beaulieu replied it was never designed for students taking CTE or personal enrichment classes, but rather for those planning to transfer. However, Vice Chancellor Gary Colombo and Dean Deborah Harrington have not really supported the idea of a stand alone class. Basic Skills Initiative (BSI) Staffing: Bradley Vaden is now working two days a week on technology for the BSI. Lynn Wright from Pasadena City College will become the BSI Director in two weeks. Dean Deborah Harrington will become the administrator over BSI. As a result, only 20% of her time will still be dedicated to BSI, as opposed to close to 80% up until now. Common Assessment Exams: Beaulieu reported that Trustee Sylvia Scott-Hayes has been pushing for a common assessment instrument for Math and English. The assessment tests from one college are honored at other campuses in the district, but the cut scores are skewed somewhat depending on the student population at different campuses. Beaulieu added that having a common assessment tool does not necessarily mean all schools would use the same cut scores. He added that he is open to the idea, and that we need to have the discussion in any case. Echeverri mentioned that there are problems with English assessment at LAMC, because a large percentage of students have been reported to be misplaced into English 21 and usually have to wait a year to be retested. Bimber replied there should be a challenge for the assessment tests. Beaulieu added that if we are not going to adopt a common assessment, we should provide Trustee Scott Hayes with an explanation. Immerblum said a common assessment would result in potential cost savings. Beaulieu stated he would like to discuss the issue with the Math Council, but they always meet on Wednesdays, when he has either DBD or a Board meeting. He added that the state is considering a common assessment as well. Immerblum said that he had concerns about cheating. Kinyon replied that Trade uses ACT compass, which has an enormous bank of questions. She inquired whether the Cal States have a common assessment 11. Administrator Hiring: Beaulieu stated that this topic came up in consultation and the DAS should have some influence on the process. Six or seven years ago, after the Board adopted the faculty hiring policy, work was supposed to have been done on a district administrator hiring policy. However, nothing was ever developed, and Vice Chancellor Carleo assumed it would happen locally between the faculty leaders and the administrators. In fall of 2009, Immerblum heard that the Personnel Guides were being rewritten and renamed Human Resource (HR) Guides. This was denied when Beaulieu inquired at that time, but work has now been done. One essential question is the faculty role in administrator hiring. At Valley, President Tyree Wieder and Leon Marzillier (the Valley Senate president at the time) worked out an administrator hiring policy. The policy provides for faculty participation, but it is not assured at the district level. The draft of the new district policy calls for faculty participation on all administrator hiring panels, faculty senate and AFT representatives (at least one each), and possibly more if the committee is larger than five total. Vice Chancellors Clerx, Hirsch, and Barrera argued that faculty participation on administrative hiring panels was not part of their 10+ 1 duties. Beaulieu was told the new HR guide would be finalized in two weeks. Immerblum said that he was also concerned 3 about college presidents sitting on interview committees because it could unduly influence the committee members. He argued the policy should specify in writing that a president should not sit in on first round administrative interviews. Furthermore, he stated he did not know why candidates could not be ranked. East does rank faculty finalists. Bimber replied that City does not rank. Immerblum discussed the issue with ASCCC President Jane Patton who believes faculty should be involved because administrators have retreat rights into the faculty ranks. The voting ratio on a faculty hiring panel is 4 faculty to 1 administrator. Echeverri felt we would not be able to get agreement on the president not sitting on the committee and Bimber concurred. Beaulieu added that traditionally at East faculty had up to 40% representation on administrative hiring panels. 12. Union Issues Faculty Hiring: Echeverri stated that there was an issue at LAMC in which two counseling positions were posted by the Vice President of Student Services without going through the prioritization process. Beaulieu stated it would be good to get a statement from Chancellor Wieder that faculty hiring is primarily a Senate issue. He expressed concern about articles 32 and 33 of the AFT contract. Kinyon inquired as to the time limit on replacements, before positions get swept off the books. Bimber said there is no automatic replacement policy at City. Rosdahl said they consider full time/part time ratios heavily at Pierce. Immerblum stated that at East everybody applies the same way, but they have created two lists: one replacement list and one growth list. Kinyon added that the President of Trade requests a growth list only and specially funded positions are not included in their hiring document. Bimber said most CTE deans are not following these processes. Bimber replied that SFP’s are normally treated differently. 13. NSF Grants, CTE Stimulus Grants (tabled) 14. DCC Report: Bimber reported that six action items are coming to DCC tomorrow and will be on the DAS agenda in May. One is a fix in the system to address an old Board Rule on the transferability and degree applicability of ESL 3 and above. They are trying to get the changes into the DEC system to transcript all the way to 1978. Vice Chancellor Clerx is supposed to finish this before he leaves. Linda Larson-Singer is also working on it. 15. EPAC Report: Bimber distributed a list of HR denials broken down by campus. She stated that community college credential permits need to be renewed every year by the vice presidents, but some campuses are slow to get this completed. Carlos Covarrubias went through the list yesterday. Beaulieu added that the situation is getting much better. There is a very small number of faculty that are currently teaching without minimum qualifications. 16. Academically Speaking: Beaulieu reported that the next issue can include campus reports. Send him your information and pictures. 17. Sustainability Institute (tabled) 4 18. Proposed Future Actions and Announcements: Beaulieu stated that he needs a faculty representative from each college for the Dolores Huerta Advisory Board. It is the Senate President’s call. He added that all campuses also need a representative on the Technology Policies and Planning Committee. 19. Adjourn: Meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m. Minutes submitted respectfully by DAS Secretary Angela Echeverri 5