District Academic Senate Exec. Meeting
September 13th, 2007
District Office
Minutes
Members Present: David Beaulieu, Kathleen Bimber, Alex Immerblum, June Burlingame Smith, Tom Rosdahl, Eloise Crippens,
Donald Gauthier, Lina Chen, Angela Echeverri, Ken Sherwood, Chini Johnson-Taylor.
Guests Present: Beverly Shue (Harbor), Pamela Watkins (Harbor), Bernadette Staine, John Clerx (LACCD Vice Chancellor)
1.
Call to Order and Approval of Agenda: Meeting was called to order by President Beaulieu at 1:38 p.m. Beaulieu added an
item titled “Field Trips” to his report below.
2.
Approval of Minutes: Minutes for 7/12/2007 and 8/9/2007 DAS Executive meetings were approved (Crippens/Rosdahl M/S/U)
3.
Public Speakers: Beverly Shue announced that she will be the new accreditation coordinator for Harbor College.
4. President’s Report
--Website and Academically Speaking Update (Deborah Kaye and Beaulieu): The new D.A.S. website should be up on the
District server tomorrow, as an empty template. The website format will allow us to plug in minutes, agendas. Deborah Kaye needs
reports from several campuses for Academically Speaking. The newsletter must go to the printers by tomorrow night to get out by the
end of September. Shue inquired whether it would be out by the date of the summit.
--Academic Integrity Proposal: Vice Chancellor Clerx approached Beaulieu with recommendations described below.
Chapter IX (Campus Life), Article VIII (Conduct on Campus) of the LACCD Board Rules is under revision. A draft of a new section
9803.28 titled “Violations of Academic Integrity” was distributed which includes and defines the following:
a) Cheating on Examinations
b) Plagiarism
c) Fabrication
d) Collaboration
e) Multiple Submissions
Crippens stated that she would support these changes if we also discipline faculty for academic dishonesty. Sherwood stated that he
more explicit the rules on student conduct were, the better.
Status: Will go to EPAC. Latest version will be sent to the DAS Executive Committee.
Also in case of expulsions, transcript violations will be documented. Beaulieu approached Leon Marzillier about the status of the
Academic Integrity Taskforce, but not much has happened since the February workshop. The taskforce still needs someone to co-chair
it along with Vice President Yasmine Delahoussey.
--Consultations with Chancellor: First formal consultation with Chancellor Drummond will be on Monday, November 5 th at 2 p.m.
Beaulieu stated D.A.S. attendees should try to communicate and be on the same page before the meeting. In the past there were
typically four or five DAS representatives at consultation. The Chancellor will be visiting the colleges over the next few Tuesdays and
Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to discuss the “Vision for the LACCD and Each College.” Schedule of campus visits will be:
Southwest (Thursday 9/13), Trade (Tuesday 9/18), Pierce (Thursday 9/20), Valley (Tuesday 10/2), East (Tuesday 10/9), City
(Tuesday 10/16), Harbor (Thursday 9/18); Mission and West meetings (T.B.A.). Crippens stated that she is inviting all faculty at West
to attend the meeting with Chancellor Drummond.
--Field Trips: A geology instructor at Harbor has been running field trips and collecting fees through the bookstore. He was audited
and told that students cannot be charged for field trips because there is no material involved. The faculty member is at a loss as how to
conduct a field trip given these restrictions. Shue stated that under Title 5 colleges can charge a materials fee in which a student can
take something of lasting value. Beaulieu stated he will discuss the problem with John Clerx and if he cannot solve it will take this to
consultation. Later at the meeting, Clerx stated the auditor needs to show the regulation that prohibits collecting fees and that auditors
hired by LACCD (KPMG) are not always right. Faculty members can tell the auditor to write them up. Then it can be challenged. He
suggested taking guidelines from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and putting a policy together. Clerx added
that there is new Title 5 language stating that a student cannot be excluded from a field trip for the lack of ability to pay. We need to
identify administrators that can help the faculty member resolve this issue.
5. Vice President’s Report (Bimber)
--Provisional Equivalencies Update:
EPAC: Had their first meeting and reviewed two equivalencies for Japanese. The Foreign language discipline committee met and
approved the alternate criteria for degrees where a BA is not commonly offered in specific languages. This will facilitate evaluations
of transcripts for hiring in the future.
Vice President Bimber distributed an updated discipline committee list dated 9/13/07 and asked the Executive Board to please submit
changes and corrections. This list greatly facilitates equivalency review by the disciplines so accuracy is very important.
Provisional equivalency update: Beaulieu met with Information Technology people. Campuses have been changing end dates from
the one semester approved for a Provisional Equivalency to multiple semesters. Human Resources is deciding whether to cancel the
classes with instructors who are currently teaching after the one semester Provisional Equivalency even though the semester has
started.
Beaulieu stated that he was asked for an authorization to cancel the assignments, but it is not under the DAS purview. Associate Vice
Chancellor Carleo’s response was that if they don’t qualify they simply should not be teaching. There were three instances of
unqualified individuals still teaching at three different colleges.
Discipline Day Update: The DAS is planning a Discipline Day kick off to energize and revitalize the district discipline committees,
especially those that do not regularly meet. It would cost around $4,500 with 100 people from 10 or more disciplines attending at the
Marina del Rey Hotel or some other venue. DAS will ask the district to cover half of the costs. In a meeting with Bimber and
Beaulieu, Vice Chancellor Gary Colombo expressed concerns about the cost and the need to meet at a hotel or conference center.
Colombo felt use of one of the colleges would be all that is needed. The DAS would like the District Discipline Day to model the
IMPAC Project to instill a feeling of collegiality and communication that will foster dialogue on a variety of topics as student success,
alignment of curriculum, development of common student learning outcome and sharing best practices. It was felt that to highlight the
importance of the role of District Discipline committees it was necessary to take it out of the day- to-day environment at least for the
kick off event. The event will need a facility with several rooms; maybe the USC conference center, Loyola Marymount, or
Pepperdine University. October 26th was not possible; new tentative date is Friday, December 7th, 2007. Shue suggested clustering
related disciplines. Watkins stated that IMPAC did not start with all disciplines. Shue and Immerblum held a discipline day at Trade
several years ago.
--District Curriculum Committee Approved Items for DAS Vote:
John Clerx
LACCD Administrative regulation E-65 Changes:
Proposed changes were put through District Curriculum Committee and were approved by DCC (w/o CIO changes) on 3/16/07.
A 13 page handout titled “Curriculum Development and Approval: Standards and Procedures” was distributed and discussed. The
changes are summarized below:
Section 3. Curriculum and Planning
a. New Courses
1. Approval Criteria (Pages 2-3)
Approval criteria for new courses have the same criteria for new programs.
Section 3. Curriculum and Planning
a. New Courses
2. Procedures (Pages 3-5)
The word discipline was replaced by the word subject throughout most of the document.
Added steps 7-10 to allow a Districtwide Discipline Committee to slow down, but not veto the curriculum approval process. Step 7
gives the district discipline committee or any member of the district curriculum committee the ability to postpone course approval for
20 days, but it does not give the DCC or discipline committee veto power. Rather, it slows down the process to allow for further
discussion. District discipline committee must have a letter signed by a majority of the members.
The review period will still be 20 days. Beaulieu asked about what would happen over the summer with the 20-day period.
Section 3. Curriculum and Planning
a. Changes to Existing Courses 1. Procedures (Pages 5-8)
The following new language was added to Step 7 (page 7):
Future Changes to District standard course attributes will be effective in the next available semester. An available semester is one
where schedule production has not commenced at a college where the course is approved.
Bimber asked if these changes were seen at local senate meetings and asked members to take this to their Senates in September and
October.
Clarification: Page 9.
Working day means a day when a majority of the colleges in the LACCD are in session, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, and
summer and winter session days.
Shue expressed concern about confusion over the use of the word subject instead of discipline (page 6).
In the past subjects and disciplines were used interchangeably.
This change was instituted from a concern by Sheri Berger that discipline is really synonymous with minimum qualification areas.
In the Education Code discipline is in the minimum qualification area.
Example subjects: anatomy, microbiology, biology are different subjects within the same discipline (Biological Sciences).
There was a discussion about what is the proper DAS notice period: whether it is from the preceding meeting or just 72 hours in
advance. You may notice in October and vote in December. Shue replied that Brown Act should not be confused with Robert’s rule
of order.
Parliamentary Procedure: Smith: If you have a document that requires review, 72 hours meets the legal requirement. However it is
best to notice as an information item and then vote on it. Do not put on as a notice item because cannot change the text, put it in as an
action item so that you can make changes.
Outcome: E-65 will to go back to the DCC tomorrow to hash out the discipline/subject issue. The 20 day period has been thoroughly
discussed. It will be sent out to all senate presidents, listed as an action item to DAS in October and voted in December. Smith
repeated that action items can be changed, noticed motions cannot.
Need a summary of the changes and a restatement of the rationale.
Vice Chancellor Clerx stated that we will need to make further changes to E-65 because of recent Title 5 changes.
Board Rule 6701: Course repetition due to substandard grades (See handout).
Nursing programs want to adopt additional standards on course repetition. The following language was added:
The Chancellor, in consultation with the DAS, may adopt regulations to limit course repetition within specific programs.
This change opens the possibility of future policy change.
Title 5 has changed and now allows second repeats without extenuating circumstances.
In nursing programs multiple repetitions of courses back up the pipeline for incoming students.
Smith stated that nurses need to have tools to assure a quality nurse graduate.
Clerx states that a lot of lawsuits have occurred as a result of students getting kicked out of nursing programs and that the LACCD
needs a sound policy.
Status: Goes to DAS for action.
6. Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Chen stated that local assistance funds are ready for disbursement. Shue inquired whether
Plenary conference registration should be done through the district or individually. Delegates need to pre-register by 10/20/07. Senate
president must attend Area C meeting on Saturday, October 20 th, 2007 in Pasadena on Saturday. Chen will pre-register delegates, as
this will save time for the college presidents. They do have to be sure, however, that their college has a voting member present at the
Plenary. Otherwise, there will be a penalty the next time.
7. DAS/District Summit Update: Summit will be held at the Marina Hotel on Friday, September 28 th from 8:00 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Please submit 12 names (with disciplines or titles of attendees) ASAP (7 faculty, 5 administrators). All schools have the same number
of slots, but we may allow a few more from the four larger colleges if slots become available. Shue requested that the Senate role in
Program review, Educational Planning, and Viability Review be emphasized in the breakouts.
8.
Student Success Initiative Updated: Postponed
9. DBC Report: Postponed
10.
Bond Steering Committee Report: Postponed.
11.
Announcements and Indications of Proposed Future Actions : None
12.
Adjourn: Meeting was adjourned at 3:38 p.m.
Minutes submitted by Secretary Angela Echeverri