http://www.redwoods.edu/district/board/documents/June42013Packet.pdf
Minutes – RCCD Board of Trustees
Page 11
Meeting of May 7, 2013
Trustee Mullery thanked Jerred Scheive for his service as a student trustee.
ACADEMIC SENATE
Michael Richards announced that the Academic Senate approved Faculty
Development Committee recommendations for the third round of “Calls for
Proposals” resulting in allocating $8,596 to Faculty Professional Development
activities and leaving a balance of $76 in the fund.
Mr. Richards reported that the Curriculum Committee Chair Peter Blakemore
presented a proposal to the senate that was initiated by the Multicultural and Diversity
Committee. The proposal is to include a “Multicultural Understanding” aspect into our
general education requirements. There was a good discussion about how to best
achieve this goal and how to mitigate the impact it may have on some of our degrees,
programs, and sites. It was determined that further research and college wide
discussion would be warranted on a decision of this magnitude. Since the academic
year’s end was near, the senate decided to make this a topic for the Fall Retreat
planning session.
The senate reviewed Online Faculty Evaluation Guidelines as proposed by the
Distance Education (DE) Ad Hoc Committee Chaired by Professor Mark Winter. A
slightly modified version of that proposal was approved at the May 3 meeting and will
be forwarded to CRFO and Administration for incorporation into the contract. The
senate also discussed Online Faculty Qualifications Standards as proposed by the DE
ad hoc group. Both of these proposals will be essential to our ACCJC Accreditation
effort to demonstrate continuous improvement. Mark Winter also agreed to Co-Chair
the newly formed district DE Committee along with Mary Grace McGovern and will
continue to provide his valuable expertise in guiding our effort to fully comply with
ACCJC and Chancellors Office standards for DE.
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges recommends colleges
review all prerequisites and corequisites in an effort to get ahead of new Student
Success Task Force changes to Title 5. The Curriculum Committee formed an ad hoc
group that is working on instituting these changes. Biology courses are among the first
to go through this new process and IR will be tracking the impact on student success.
We must exercise caution in our approach to avoid creating bottlenecks for popular
prerequisite courses like English 150 or Math 120 as the intent is to improve student
success and minimalize the impact on accessibility. The Curriculum Committee
should be commended for their efforts to get ahead of this initiative.
Professor Richards reported that Paul DeMark reported on the first meeting of the
newly formed Marketing Task Force. He shared the long and short term goals for the
task force and faculty were very excited to hear about the effort to get positive
messages out to the public. There are so many positives at CR that seldom make the
local news so this effort has great potential to sway negative public opinion and
improve our standing in the community. Art Professor Cindy Hooper very
enthusiastically immersed herself in the work of this task force along with numerous
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Minutes – RCCD Board of Trustees
Page 12
Meeting of May 7, 2013
others. Cindy is compiling faculty profiles to be included in the web directory that will
highlight the competency and passion of CR faculty. The Academic Senate commends
Paul DeMark for taking the lead on this important initiative.
Professor Richards reported that Physics Professor Erik Kramer will be stepping down
as Assessment Coordinator and we all owe Erik a debt of gratitude for the great
leadership he provided in our efforts toward integrating ACCJC Proficiency Standards
into all aspects of our planning cycle. Geology Professor Dave Bazard will be taking
over this critical work.
The Academic Senate voted unanimously to elect Health and Physical Education
Professor, Bob Brown to his second one year term as Senate Co-President and to elect
CIS Geology Professor, Mark Renner from the Del Norte site to his first year as
Senate Co-President.
Trustee Mullery thanked Michael Richards for his contributions in his role as
Academic Senate Co-President.
CRFO REPORT
Michelle Anderson read the following report prepared by Kerry Mayer:
As you may know, the CRFO and District negotiating team have come to a tentative
agreement regarding the faculty contract. CRFO leadership has sent this tentative
agreement to their legal counsel for review and they are awaiting his feedback. Once
they have heard from legal counsel, CRFO leadership will discuss the tentative
agreement with their Executive Committee and will then draw up a plan to make the
tentative agreement available to all faculty members in anticipation of sending the
document out for ratification by their membership.
CLASSIFIED REPORT
Jose Ramirez thanked the Board for adopting the Resolution for Classified School
Employee Week. Mr. Ramirez also thanked the Board for recognizing the classified
who completed the professional development program.
Mr. Ramirez stated that CSEA has a very aggressive negotiation schedule and CSEA
plans on having something ratified by end of the fiscal year.
Trustee Rice reported that classified staff at the Mendocino campus are contributing to
student success.
MANAGERS’ COUNCIL
Joe Hash reported that following the first round of reorganization the managers
continue to work on honing and refining operations and services to best meet the needs
of our students with diminished resources. By continuing to be student centered we
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