District Academic Senate Exec. Meeting
October 23, 2008
Los Angeles Valley College
Minutes
Attending: David Beaulieu, Angela Echeverri, Alex Immerblum, Ken Sherwood, Tom
Rosdahl, June B. Smith, Rod Patterson, Don Gauthier
Guests: Beverly Reilly (Rio Hondo College) and Jane Patton (Academic Senate California
Community Colleges)
Discussion with ASCCC Vice President Jane Patton: Patton discussed several major topics
with the DAS Executive Committee:
The current status of the Basic Skills Initiative (BSI): Jane Patton stated that the California
Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) had sent out a Request for Applications
(RFA) for the next phase of the BSI. The only district that submitted an application was Los
Angeles, which proposed to form a consortium with 10-15 colleges statewide. The next phase
will focus on the establishment of a faculty institute, regional resource centers for faculty
development, and a virtual center.
Senate-Union Relations: DAS President Beaulieu expressed his growing concerns about the
trend of the faculty union-American Federation of Teachers (AFT 1521) to encroach on issues
under the senate’s purview. Two examples Beaulieu mentioned included the AFT’s attempt to
include an academic freedom policy into its contract and recent attempts to form a task force to
rewrite the nursing program curriculum. He added that the AFT contract specifies that there
should be a union representative on the Curriculum and Faculty Hiring Prioritization
Committees of each campus. The AFT President’s position is that if there was such an
agreement before 1985, AB 1725 allows for grandfathering it in. Beaulieu stated that faculty
are asked to approve the AFT contract without seeing it. He added that the union recently
signed a memorandum of understanding to link faculty compensation to the enrollment of
online courses. Beaulieu stated that part-time faculty dominate the union membership by a 2 to
1 ratio. Patton replied that the campus delegates may want to draft a resolution on SenateUnion relations to bring to the next Area C meeting. She suggested having one of the resolves
to recommend the formation of a task group to look at such relations. The task group should
include members from different campuses. Beverly Reilly mentioned that the Senate President
sits on the union executive committee at Rio Hondo College. Immerblum stated that part of the
solution may be educating our union colleagues, adding that the union does business in a much
less deliberative manner than the senate. Patton suggested using the old ASCCC paper on
Senate-Union relations as a resource.
Accreditation: Patton stated that the state senate has worked hard to build a relationship with
Accreditation Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC). The ASCCC has an
ad-hoc Accreditation Committee, which includes Janet Fulks and Lesley Kawaguchi. She
added that there are many unresolved concerns about the accreditation process and that a
growing number of colleges that have been disciplined by the ACCJC. She stated that this
might change somewhat after the new administration in Washington takes power. In the CTE
arena, there is a troubling attempt to replace teacher evaluations and grades with third party
evaluations. The ASCCC is also concerned about amount of time that faculty are putting into
accreditation mandates. Patton added that last spring a resolution that proposed to examine the
cost of accreditation was referred to the ASCCC Executive Committee, but it will be back for
consideration at the Fall Plenary Session.
Full-time Faculty Ratios: Due to the current fiscal crisis, the Board of Governors is
considering suspending the enforcement of the Full Time Faculty Obligation Number (FON).
Patton suggested that a resolution on this issue may be important to help prevent further
erosion of full time faculty hiring.
1. Call to order and approval of Agenda: Meeting was called to order at 2:20 p.m.
Beaulieu introduced Beverly Reilly, the Academic Senate President of Rio Hondo College.
2. Approval of Minutes for October 6th Meeting: Approval of minutes was postponed until
the next Executive meeting.
3. Public Speakers: Beaulieu was at the BOT meeting at Pierce College yesterday. He stated
that Patrick McCallum’s contract was only renewed for one year; Chancellor Drummond
wanted the contract renewed for three years. McCallum also has contracts with Peralta and Los
Rios Community College Districts. The BOT was divided on the issue; the vote was 5 to 2.
Sherwood expressed skepticism that McCallum could represent several districts and wear so
many different hats without a conflict of interest. Beaulieu discussed the Personnel
Commission and stated that the AFT needs to seriously consider the possibility of eliminating
it. He added that the DBC should also examine the merit of keeping the Personnel Commission
in light of the current fiscal crisis. Immerblum agreed that the Personnel Commission issue
needs to be examined further (see discussion below).
4. Area C and Plenary Arrangements and Preparation: The Area C meeting will take place
at Compton Educational Center on Saturday, October 25th from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 pm. The
Plenary Session will be held at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles from
November 6-8. Several colleges will be sending additional representatives to the Plenary
Session in addition to the voting delegates, including West (Eloise Crippens), City (Fleur
Steinhardt), Mission (Gary Prostak), and Harbor (Pam Watkins). The Westin Bonaventure is a
three block walk from the district office. Hotel parking is $24. Beaulieu will reserve 12-14
parking spaces at the district office for conference attendees.
5. Functional Map Discussion/ACCJC Issues: Postponed.
6. DBC Report: The Chancellor has set up a small ad-hoc group, the Emergency Response
Group to look at emergency financial situations and make recommendations. The task force
includes David Beaulieu, Carl Friedlander, Bob Garber, Mark Rocha, Adriana Barrera, and
Velma Butler. This group will have a discussion about what could be done to make dramatic
cuts. A lengthy discussion on the Personnel Commission followed. Smith said that the
Personnel Commission rules are so rigid, that it interferes with the ability of employees to do
their jobs. Immerblum inquired whether the commission is ever audited for best practices and
who oversees them. Beaulieu replied that the commission members are appointed, but must be
approved by the BOT. Sherwood asked how we could justify the size and expense of the
Personnel Commission when the cost to the LACCD is about $3 million and the loss of
efficiency is hard to calculate. Beaulieu replied that the law is set up so that the classified unit
has to vote to abolish the commission. No one can imagine that vote taking place without
Velma Butler (AFT Union President for classified employees) being on board. The consensus
was that the LACCD needs to demonstrate the benefit of eliminating the commission.
Patterson stated that the LACCD will have to develop rules and policies to replace those of the
commission. The original purpose of the commission was to protect classified employees from
abuse, but it may have outlived its usefulness. Patterson argued that the BOT should be able to
have a group come in to audit the Personnel Commission. Rosdahl added that Pierce has a
tremendous need to hire Information Technology people on campus, but they don’t want to fill
the positions because there are problems with the candidate list. Beaulieu replied that there are
two ways to pursue this; one is a systematic effort behind the scenes to persuade the classified
and another is to go public. Beaulieu added that Carl Friedlander and Sylvia Scott-Hayes have
given up on this issue. Six years ago Velma Butler initially supported eliminating the
commission, but then backed out. Echeverri asked how many districts in the state have
Personnel Commissions. Beaulieu replied that six or less; Glendale recently got rid of theirs.
The consensus was that the LACCD has not tackled this issue in order to keep the classified
union happy, even though their contract gives them sufficient protection. Immerblum said
faculty currently have no input in the design of the classified hiring process; at the very least
we should push for redesigning hiring practices. Rosdahl agreed. Patterson added that this
would require establishing job classifications and schedules, which should be negotiated in the
contract. Pierce has a Human Resources (HR) Office, City has a personnel director. Patterson
suggested that the way to start might be to staff every campus with a functioning HR office. He
sees this as a five year plan. Beaulieu stated that the recently completed District/College
Functional Map, would help understand how this could be accomplished. He added that
elimination of the Personnel Commission would probably require some sort of buyout.
7. DCC Report: Beaulieu stated that the DCC passed a framework of Student Success and
Essential Academic Skills across disciplines. The suggestion was to add the Essential
Academic Skills to the Course Outline of Record (COR). That led to some complaints by
faculty that the COR was too long. Vice Chancellor Clerx feels once the curriculum system
goes online in the spring of 2009, the concerns about the COR length would be a moot point.
Beaulieu added that half of the Essential Academic Skills are required by title 5, including
critical thinking and writing. Rosdahl said his faculty felt it was repetitive and that we need to
tweak the COR so that the information is not in twice. Immerblum stated he spoke at length
with former East Curriculum Chair Karen Daar about the changes. He added that curriculum
committees have a lot of work, and cautioned we should only add what is absolutely necessary
to the COR. Beaulieu replied that his perspective and that of Deborah Harrington, Gary
Colombo, and Kathleen Bimber is that the COR is a living document.
Immerblum feels that the COR needs to be reviewed by the faculty and used as a basis for the
syllabus. Self-reflective learning is not in title 5. He asked how a curriculum committee would
enforce this. Immerblum added we may not be ready for this and may need to proceed in
stages. Beaulieu replied that we have already taken out the reference to student services, even
though Deborah Harrington was against its removal.
8. EPAC: Beaulieu and the Human Resources Office gave a presentation on the provisional
equivalency process last Friday. About 150 people department chairs and deans attended. In
order to avoid a high number of denials, chairs and deans must look at transcripts. Last year the
LACCD hired approximately 125-130 people to teach who should not have been hired. The
presentation was advertised as acquainting the new chairs with the contract. David Beaulieu
said there used to be a functional map of the equivalency process. Eloise Crippens and
Kathleen Bimber each review equivalencies two days a week, which has sped up the process.
Anita del Rosario brings the requests right in to the office. After the one semester equivalency,
applicants must go to discipline committee for permanent equivalency. Last year, out of 90
recipients of provisional equivalency, only 20 applied for permanent equivalency.
Patterson asked whether he could get a list of members on the discipline committees. He
wanted to know how many members were required for a quorum. Beaulieu replied that it
depends on the discipline. Some committees only have three members, for example auto
technology is only offered at three campuses: Trade, Pierce, and East.
Beaulieu stated that the discipline committees have been meeting regularly and most
equivalencies have been taken care of in a timely manner. Immerblum argued that if discipline
committees are meeting regularly, the idea of nine colleges having unique Student Learning
Outcomes (SLOs) seems like a duplication of effort.
9. Salary Increases for Senior Staff, DO Staffing: Discussed this last time. Beaulieu stated
we can bring it up during the next consultation.
10. Automatic Deductions for Senate Dues: Beaulieu stated he has not heard back from any
other colleges. East wants to do it, but the district won’t proceed unless other colleges agree.
They would permanently set up SAP so can deduct dues from paycheck. Rosdahl the Pierce
Treasurer set up a Paypal account to collect dues. East, West, Valley, City and Mission are
interested. Beaulieu will check whether Trade and Southwest are interested. Beaulieu will
inquire how the accounts would work, including any restrictions.
11. Academic Matters in Contract: Refer to conversation with Jane Patton above.
12. Academically Speaking: Reviewed new edition.
13. Proposed future actions and announcement: None
14. Adjourn: Meeting was adjourned at 3:50 pm.
Minutes respectfully submitted by DAS Secretary Angela Echeverri