CR Committee Digest
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
The CR Committee Digest provides important updates from the Planning and Senate Committees. Visit here for
detailed information about the committee: inside.redwoods.edu
Visit the committee calendar to see the next time each committee meets: CR's calendar of committee meetings
Academic Senate
Academic Senate-March – May 2015
An Academic Senate Ad-hoc committee suggested revisions to AP 3260 Participatory Governance that have been
approved by Senate; the AP will go before College Council. The Academic Standards and Policies Committee
(ASPC) has revised AP 4021 Program Revitalization, Suspension, or Discontinuation, which was approved April 3;
there have been some revisions to AP 7217 Faculty Prioritization, and that procedure has also been approved and
sent to College Council. The Senate has been collecting information via the Student Success Summit, Faculty
Meetings and Senate discussions and has compiled a list of Faculty Development ideas that were cross-walked with
Institutional Plans. On April 17 the Senate approved another proposal from the Ad-hoc Committee that aligns
course, program/general education (GE) and institutional outcomes. It will facilitate mapping of course outcomes,
focus assessment dialogue on specific GE areas, and provide GE outcome assessment that can be used to evaluate
achievement of institutional learning outcomes. The Academic Senate also approved the Senate Copresident Ad-hoc
Nomination Committee recommendations, and the two new Copresidents for 2015-16 are Mark Renner and Connie
Wolfsen. Four Emeritus faculty were also approved: Pam Kessler, Sydney Larson, Ted Stodder and Kevin Yokoyama
were all awarded the title of Emeritus by Senators and were also approved by the Board of Trustees on May 5.
A new Distance Education Handbook was endorsed by the Senate May 1. It will accompany the revised Faculty
Handbook. Senators also approved a revised Distance Education Course Proposal Request form that aligns with the
new handbook. At the May 1 Senate meeting, the new Institutional Effectiveness Goals Framework was introduced
and will be reviewed by all constituent groups. The Academic Senate will bring the subject back to show they are
engaged in the work at the May 15 meeting. Dual Enrollment and Pelican Bay Campus Initiatives were also
discussed on May 1. These initiatives are faculty-driven and task forces are being assigned to them as we work to
have careful, collegial and productive progress.
The Academic Senate website, which includes links to all Senate subcommittee websites, may be accessed via the
Internal Redwoods site at inside.redwoods.edu. Please be sure to let Senate personnel know if you find broken links
or cannot find the items you seek.
The CR Committee Digest provides important updates from the Planning and Senate Committees. Visit here for
detailed information about the committee: inside.redwoods.edu
Visit the committee calendar to see the next time each committee meets: CR's calendar of committee meetings
Assessment Committee
The Assessment Committee met on April 13 and April 27. The committee was updated on the Assessment Report
submitted to the Board of Trustees (in the April Trustee packet) and approval of the new General Education
outcomes and assessment process approved by the Academic Senate (April meeting).
At both meetings, the Assessment Committee reviewed accomplishments for the 2014-2015 year and discussed what
initiatives are unfinished and what needs to be addressed in the next academic year. The following items and
actions were identified:
1. New Assessment deadlines. The new deadline (1 week after grades are due) will be initiated for the Fall, 2015
semester. Faculty will be informed of this change at Convocation and during fall trainings. The Assessment
Coordinator will work with Deans to ensure these new deadlines are met.
2. New GE outcomes and process. The new outcomes will be implemented during the 2015-2016 year, but the first
review of assessment data will likely occur in Spring, 2016. The Assessment Coordinator is currently working with
the Curriculum Committee to incorporate the new outcomes and processes into the curriculum documents. The
faculty will be informed of the new outcomes and processes during Convocation workshops. The Assessment
Coordinator will work with Deans to perform the mapping of course outcomes to GE outcomes.
3. The Assessment Committee is working on a transition to a 4-year assessment cycle. Details will be presented at
Convocation. This cycle will be similar to the new GE cycle and the Assessment Committee will work with the
administration to determine if the assessment cycle can be synced with the program review cycle. Moreover, the goal
of a new assessment cycle will be 100% compliance within the cycle period.
4. The Assessment Committee has identified the reporting template as an area that can be modified with the goal of
increasing the level of quality on reports. This analysis will be undertaken during the 2015-2016 academic year.
5. The Assessment Committee is discussing the use of Canvas in the assessment process, and views this as a goal for
the 2015-2016 academic year.
Basic Skills Committee
The Basic Skills Committee has had a busy and productive semester. We have been following the discussions taking
place in the English and Math Departments with respect to the College’s placement and multiple measures
processes. We have approved funding to support student tutors in the Writing Center for next year and for Jacqui
Cain to attend the three-day, 2015 Conference on Acceleration in Developmental Education this summer. We have
also set aside funds to pursue partnering with the College Transition Collaborative (CTC) in conjunction with
Stanford University. The purpose of this partnership is to develop and implement a program tailored to the specific
needs and culture of College of the Redwoods to improve academic outcomes, including grades, retention, and
persistence of our basic skills students. At our May 1st meeting we approved funding for a 3rd team of English
faculty, who were accepted into 3CSN’s 2015 Community of Practice in Acceleration. The team consists of Sean
Herrera-Thomas (team leader), Lesley Manousos, Shannon Mondor, and Mary Sue Prangley. We also approved
funding of a basic skills computer lab, which was requested to support noncredit, basic skills math through Program
Review. Our final meeting of the semester is Friday May 15th 9-10am in SS104.
College Council
In a continuing effort to update our outdated policies, the College Council has reviewed numerous policies this past
month. 10 different BPs and APs have been distributed to "All" for constituent review via email.
Some of them are new, as required by the regulations of Title IX and the Clery Act. In a continuing effort to update
our outdated policies, the College Council has reviewed numerous policies this past
month. Over 50 different BPs and APs have been distributed to "ALL" for constituent review via email.
Some of them are new, as required by the regulations of Title IX and the Clery Act and some of them are
just needed revisions to very old policies.
If you wish to comment on any of the drafts, contact your constituent group representative on
College Council. You will also note the increased activity in the Board of Trustees agenda packet. If you wish to
comment on any of the drafts, contact your constituent group representative on
College Council.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
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The CR Committee Digest provides important updates from the Planning and Senate Committees. Visit here for
detailed information about the committee: inside.redwoods.edu
Visit the committee calendar to see the next time each committee meets: CR's calendar of committee meetings
Enrollment Management Committee
The EMC recommended a 2015-17 Enrollment Management Plan to the President. The Executive Cabinet will review
the documents and forward a revised draft to Expanded Cabinet and the Institutional Effectiveness Committee for
discussion.
Institutional Effectiveness
The Institutional Effectiveness Committee hosted a successful summit on April 18th. Following much discussion,
the following major actions of focus emerged for next year:
•
Change how the annual plan is developed. The group felt that the plan appeared too high-level and most
employees did not feel a sense of ownership. There was consensus that we should move from the ground up so that
more constituent groups feel involved and have a sense of ownership. The IEC will work to get input from groups
early next year so that they can contribute actions more effectively.
•
Move to one institutional plan. There was consensus that , instead of having a Strategic and an Education Master
Plan, having only one plan would be less confusing and keep us more focused moving forward when the current
plans expire in spring 2017.
•Schedule meetings around class time blocks. Chairs of planning committees should work with divisions to
schedule meetings such that faculty and students have an easier time attending. The IEC will work with the
divisions to reschedule meetings. This will happen over time.
•
College hour was discussed at length. Several suggested the benefits of bringing back college hour, although
challenges to making this happen also surfaced. One option might be to schedule separate college hours for each
division.
The IEC is currently working on adopting the Institutional Effectives Goals Framework to comply with state and
federal guidelines. CR is proposing the following initial long and short-term goals within the framework:
Student performance -- Course completion rate goal: 70 percent, long- and short-term goal
Accreditation Status: Accredited without sanctions, long- and short-term goal
Fiscal viability -- Fund balance: 6 percent short-term goal, 10 percent long-term goal
Compliance with state/federal guidelines -- Overall audit opinion: unmodified, long- and short-term goal
Additional goals within each of the above four areas will be adopted next year.
Student Success Leadership Group
The SSLG have been discussing several issues related to staff orientation, off site services and diversification of staff.
The directors and managers will work with Kerry Mayer to integrate student services information into the fall
2015/spring 2016 faculty orientation program. The group also discussed making sure that student services are
available at locations that CR is offering courses such as Pelican Bay and at the high schools. We also discussed the
importance of diversification of our staff and faculty.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
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