Cabrillo College Faculty Senate
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
3:04 PM – 5:08 PM
Sesnon House
In Attendance: Eva Acosta, David Balogh, Janus Blume, Virginia Coe,
Becka Fortune, Jean Gallagher, John Govsky, Steve Hodges, Renee Kilmer,
Brian Legakis, Diego Navarro, Francesco Ponce, Beth Regardz, Dave
Reynolds, Georg Romero, Dan Rothwell, Adrienne Saxton, Letitia ScottCurtis, Mary Ellen Sullivan, Alex Taurke
Note Taker: Eric Barbour
1.0 Call to Order
1.1 – The meeting was called to order at 3:04 PM.
2.0 Minutes
2.1 – Reviewed the 3/3/09 minutes. (new additions italicized)
2.1.1 – Changes: “Steve will look for someone to fill (who?) will join”
(3.1.3.7), “Dave should now have has” (3.4.1). Note that CCEU will be
having a joint solidarity event with CCFT (3.5.1) All temp hourly work is
being used appropriately. CCEU is concerned as to whether temp hourly
work is being used appropriately (3.6.2) “ratio rate” (3.9.1) “The grant
writer fee is 5%, contingent upon the success of our application” (3.9.3)
All “Architech” renamed “Arch. Tech”
Amended minutes approved without opposition
3.0 Reports
3.1 – President (Steve Hodges)
3.1.1 – Sesnon is reserved on Friday, June 1st for the End of the Year
Party. CCEU has donated $2000.
3.1.2 – There is a State Academic Senate, Area B “Early Legislation”
meeting Friday, March 27 at Napa Valley College. Steve has a conflict
with instructional planning and Letitia won’t know anyone and won’t have
any legislation propositions so Cabrillo will likely not attend
3.2 – Vice President (Letitia Scott-Curtis)
3.2.1 – Faculty Senate has a new BELA representative: Calais Ingel of
CABT.
3.3 – Secretary (Georg Romero)
3.3.1 – No report
3.4 – Treasurer (Dave Reynolds)
3.4.1 – Bay Federal needs a motion to remove Paul & Rory and a new
motion to add Letitia and Dave, and keep Steve as a check signer in order
for the checking privileges to transition
Motion 1: Remove Paul Harvell and Rory O’Brien from the
Faculty Senate Bay Federal Credit Union bank account.
Approved without opposition
Motion 2: Add Dave Reynolds and Letitia Scott-Curtis to the
Faculty Senate Bay Federal Credit Union bank account. Leave
Steve Hodges on the Faculty Senate Bay Federal Credit Union
bank account.
Approved without opposition
3.5 – CCFT (John Govsky)
3.5.1 –CCEU/CCFT Solidarity event will be April 3rd at Michael
Mangin’s house, 5-8PM
3.6 – CCEU (Janus Blume)
3.6.1 – Thrilled at the idea of a CCEU/CCFT Solidarity Event
3.6.2 – CCEU has gone on record as being in favor of the search for VPSS
after a long and difficult discussion. The deciding factor was the sheer
number of student services employees who need that position &
leadership.
3.6.3 – About 10% of all college staff positions are vacant and frozen at
present time. There are 3 classified staff positions that will be hiring.
3.7 – Watsonville (Eva Acosta)
3.7.1 – The CAP ceremony was yesterday; it was very emotional. The 1st
CAP student from 18yrs ago is back to school and teaching. He shared his
thoughts and feelings with the audience.
3.8 – ASCC (Becka Fortune)
3.8.1 – The Student Senate elections process for ’09-’10 has begun. A
link was placed on the campus webpage and an all campus email will be
going out. Fliers are available for people to pass out to classes and
applications are available in SAC East.
3.9 – VPI (Renee Kilmer)
3.9.1 – The State Academic Senate (ASCCC) is coming up with AA/AS
degree standardizations for CCCs. Under the new policy, AS degrees
would exist for, and only for, math, science, technology, engineering, and
CTE programs. All other classes would offer AA degrees only. More
information about this issue brought in the future. Cabrillo Faculty Senate
consensus: we should be emulating Universities as much as possible, not
trying to solidify as CCCs separately. Universities do not follow any
mandates about how they run their degrees within each program. The
ASCCC has formally passed the proposition but it still has to go before the
Board of Governors and other places before coming into effect.
Motion: Charge our representatives to the next ASCCC to oppose
the decision
Motion postponed until next meeting
On 4/1/09, Renee will go and speak toward this issue in front of the CIO
council. The next ASCCC session will be 4/16-4/18.
4.0 Unfinished or Ongoing Business
4.1 – Budget Discussion and Space Allocation
4.1.1 – Steve reported to the Governing Board that the Faculty Senate felt
the planners did an acceptable job with concept planning but that shortfalls
are recognized and they should be paid attention to as the project
continues on in order to fix any leftover concerns. The Board approved
the most recent edition of space planning.
4.1.2 – CPC was very receptive to our responses to program reduction
suggestions. Many of them will probably be instituted. Steve told the
board that we were pleased with the shared governance process and felt
like we were listened to. Renee will send out a summary of the decided
budget resolution.
5.0 New Business
5.1 – Vice President of Student Services position
5.1.1 – The Vice President of Student Services (VPSS) position opening
was posted on March 9th; the official hiring is scheduled for the 1st of July.
Current VPSS resignation will take place officially on June 30th. A hiring
committee met on 3/13 with 3 Faculty Senate / CCEU appointees. One
appointee is a counselor, one appointee comes from student health
services, and Steve Hodges is an appointee based on his experience with
administrative hiring.
5.1.1.1 – There was some concern over the hiring of a VPSS while
keeping so many classified positions frozen. Brian King:
administrative hires in the spring generally carry the strongest pool
of candidates, so time was of the essence. Classified staff can be
hired at any time.
5.1.1.2 – Georg: the 3 classifieds that are going to be hired are not
widely known about; it might be a part of why there is so much
unrest on the part of staffers about the VPSS hire
5.1.1.3 – Dan: part of the problem was that there was very little
pause in hiring a new VPSS yet we agonized over hiring the 3
classified staff positions. CPC never had a lively discussion about
this issue – the decision was made without any pedagogy; the talks
in CPC came after the fact and the decision itself had no
transparency or semblance of shared governance. Brian King: in
previous situations, there has not been this kind of discussion in the
CPC either. Dan: but it was on the CPC agenda, after the fact.
Under the rubric of budget & cuts, we should have discussed the
VPSS hiring concept as we had been going over everything else
with a fine tooth comb which VPSS should have fallen under.
Brian King: we talked with constituency leaders and the governing
board and attempted to make an informed decision.
5.1.1.4 – Letitia: concerned with the speed of the process; we need
to make absolutely sure that the hire is going to fill all of the issues
that we’ll have because of the new vacancies. Brian King: the
administrative process is generally done this quickly. I have lots of
confidence in the 12 person committee’s eventual decision; the
committee has representatives from all of our departments.
5.1.1.5 – Brian Legakis: VAPA has a sense of dismay and
negativity. People have been cut cut cut cut cut and they kept a
stiff upper lip, but then this just kind of dropped in.
5.1.1.6 – Georg: The library is already losing its director; plans are
that the position will not be refilled for at least 6 months after the
loss. This is an example of an administrator that has already been
lost & not refilled.
5.1.1.6 – Dan: not opposed to VPSS but the process is bothering
him. Brian King needs to make an all-campus public statement
addressing all of the concerns that we have seen here. That CCFT
could not come to a decision shows how split we are. We need all
of these concerns to not die with this body. Something needs to be
done to put to rest all of this psychological unrest. David: need
Brian King to write a very important note to the people on campus
in order to defuse the unhappiness and misunderstandings. Brian
King: email me with what the message is to convey to the campus.
5.1.1.6.1 – Need to describe VPSS’s job to more people so
that they think of it like ‘what if VPI were gone?’
5.1.2 – Testimonies. CCFT did not come to a decision regarding support
of the VPSS hire. 3 mindsets: those who feel the hire is unfair &
shouldn’t be done, those who feel that student services needs the
leadership & the hire should be done, and those who are undecided
because both arguments are good.
5.1.2.1 –Alex’s division’s response to a request for comments was
fairly unanimously opposed to the new hire. It “fails the smell
test;” $550K in classified hiring cuts and yet still hiring VPSS.
Brian King: Every area of campus has felt reductions, including SS
& president’s office.
5.1.2.2 – CCFT audience member: our plans had all presumed the
membership of VPSS; SS has gone through a period without
leadership in the past and they do not want to go through more of
it; need a strong leader
5.1.3 – Hiring an Interim concept. Brian King: an interim VP would
actually be as or more expensive than a full timer. Internal interim hires
are limited by policy and statute to a year, which kind of makes the VPSS
a lame duck
5.1.3.1 – Virginia feels that we should hire an interim now so that
we can review how things have gone once we are a year down the
road.
5.1.3.2 – Alex: an interim appointment would allow for us to spend
time restructuring the troubles with the organization of the VPSS
position like fixing the lack of leadership in counseling dilemma,
etc.
5.1.3.3 – Letitia: a little bit of extra expense on interim might still
be the appropriate action if the effect is to change a lot of problems
which have been plaguing us for years.
5.1.3.4 – Virginia: it might be wise to wait before hiring a
permanent until all territories have been covered. Hire an interim
from internal to Cabrillo.
5.1.3.5 – Alex: hire an interim dean and split the work of VPSS
with the other VPs.
5.1.3.5.1 – Counseling audience member: the spread of the
VPs would not ultimately serve us because there would not
be enough manpower for the work involved.
5.1.4 – Expense of the hiring process: the finalists are reimbursed only
$400 each for interview travel.
5.1.5 – Organization of college. David: are we organized like other
colleges? Brian King: you are unlikely to find a college with fewer than 3
VPs; some have 4-5. A couple of colleges have Instruction & SS
combined but there is a lot of extra support staff to hire in order to
accomplish it.
5.1.5.1 – David: At Cabrillo, VPSS has always been weak relative
to instruction. We need to talk about restructuring the whole
component.
5.1.5.2 – Georg: you don’t want to have a reorganization without
the opinion of the person who has been filling the position being
organized.
5.1.5.3 – Mary-Ellen: we could hire a person who is ready for this
kind of change mid-employment.
5.1.5.4 – Francisco: the VPs & Brian King need to keep from
becoming stuck in their own restrictions and their preservation of
space.
5.1.5.5 – David: maybe we should make it clear to the hiring
committee that we want a person who would become a reorganizer
5.1.6 – Counseling. Francisco: Counseling was a part of instruction at one
point and then it evolved to be underneath SS. Counseling does not have a
dean and when they have to work with an administrator, they report
directly to VPSS.
5.1.6.1 – Eva: people need to have an authority that they can go to.
If chairs & deans, etc. don’t exist or are not able to function,
departments need someone who can pay special attention to their
concerns
5.1.6.2 – Mario Garcia: too many needs to address with VPSS to
get rid of position. Need a layer in between SS & President.
5.1.7 – Hiring to hire. David: will we hire even if we cannot find the right
person, just to ensure that the position goes filled? Brian King: No.
Having a search does not guarantee that we will be making a hire. Where
we are now gives us the maximum number of options. Having posted the
VPSS, we don’t have to hire but you still have the choice to hire. Steve: it
is my understanding that the hiring committee has already decided that
they will find a star player or they will not hire whatsoever.
5.2 – Online Orientation
5.2.1 – Postponed until next meeting
6.0 Open Forum and Agenda Building
6.1 – No items
7.0 Adjourn
7.1 – The meeting was adjourned at 5:08 PM.