Cabrillo College Faculty Senate
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
3:07 PM – 5:01 PM
Sesnon House
In Attendance: Eva Acosta, Winnie Baer, David Balogh, Janus Blume,
Virginia Coe, Becka Fortune, Jean Gallagher, John Govsky, Steve Hodges,
Calais Ingel, Renee Kilmer, Brian Legakis, Diego Navarro, Beth Regardz,
Dave Reynolds, Georg Romero, Dan Rothwell, Adrienne Saxton, Letitia
Scott-Curtis, Topsy Smalley, Mary Ellen Sullivan, Alex Taurke
Note Taker: Eric Barbour
Signed-in Visitors: Francine Van Meter, Margery Regalado, Diane Putnam,
Mary Planding, Madeline Vidibor
1.0 Call to Order
1.1 – The meeting was called to order at 3:07 PM.
2.0 Minutes
2.1 – Reviewed the 3/17/09 minutes. (new additions italicized)
2.1.1 – Changes: “10%”  “About 10%” (3.6.3), Changed all “State
Academic Senate” references (after the first) to “ASCCC” (3.9.1). CPC
was very receptive to our responses to program reduction suggestions
(4.1.2) Vapa changed to VAPA (5.1.1.5) Alex’s division’s response to a
request for comments (5.1.2.1) “We need to talk about restructuring the
whole college component.” (5.1.5.1)
Amended minutes approved without opposition
3.0 Reports
3.1 – President (Steve Hodges)
3.1.1 – All Faculty Senate division positions are now filled; however there
is a Sp09-Fa10 at-large position vacancy; Steve may appoint someone to
fill in the short term vacancy – people who have previously run did not get
elected are good candidates for appointment.
3.1.2 – Question to consider: how well does the senate communicate with
the overall faculty of the college? Do we want to do anything beyond
division rep and at-large senator communication? Should we send
agendas and approved minutes to faculty members? Instead of
attachments, should we send emails containing links so that people can
find the information without bogging down servers? Send out monthly?
3.1.2.1 – Letitia is willing to do a summary of points instead of
sending out formal minutes – based on specific subjects that may
be of interest to faculty. The message would be, “The Faculty
Senate feels that (certain item) is important – if you care about it,
let us know”
3.1.2.2 – Currently the agenda is sent to ~70 people on the senate
mailing list. Alex: sending out an email once every two weeks
should be manageable for faculty members. Georg: We should
consider what we are trying to accomplish. If we want to inform
people about what is coming up then we must send every agenda;
if we want to report about what we have been discussing, we can
send just once every few months or a few times per semester.
3.1.2.2.1 – Virginia: Why not do both? Steve will send out
an all campus email as an experiment and then report back
regarding people who do not like it. The email could
include a link to information so as not to jam up the system
with attachments. There might be some roughness at first
with some people receiving two emails as the current and
all campus emails crossover.
3.1.2.3 – It may be good to include an article about the Faculty
Senate in the CCFT newspaper; include a text-only summary of the
agenda? Contact Steve for more information
3.1.2.4 – Presently agendas are sent in .pdf form and minutes are
send in .doc; it would be good to mainstream our delivery format
because right now we’re using both.
3.1.3 – Steve cannot attend the Basic Skills Initiative meeting at Cañada
College on April 26-27. The event is no cost and there are travel
reimbursals if travel time is at least 2 hours or 150 miles; Cañada College
is about 1 hour away so it may or may not apply.
3.1.4 – Steve has begun to assemble an End of Year Party Committee
including Letitia Scott-Curtis, Mary-Ellen Sullivan and Margery
Regalado; Rory O’Brien will be sending his old notes to the committee
3.1.5 – The 2010-2011 school calendar is being worked on; there is a
question about when to schedule spring break. Easter will be 4/24/11,
corresponding to week 11-week 12 of the semester. Should we have it
earlier, toward the middle of the semester? (Renee) The old rules are to
try to have it as close to week 8 as possible; no earlier than week 7and no
later than week 9. (Dave) if we make up our plans early enough, we can
report our plans to other schools and allow them to coordinate their plans
with us; this would be convenient in allowing for the possibility that
parents and children may take spring break together.
3.1.6 – Shelley West contacted HR about the possible conflict of interest
of Steve serving on her review committee. Steve will be moving to
Barbara Ingard’s committee and Winnie Baer will take over for Shelley
West’s.
3.1.7 – Officer compensation: it is confirmed as strictly a senate purview
to arrange compensation for its officers; the current proposal is to remove
the present (5-0-0) unit compensation for VP-Secretary-Treasurer and to
amend it to a compensation of (3-1-1) units. It would take about 3 weeks
to get everything set up. Should we do it or do we need to talk?
3.1.7.1 – Motion: confirm the above proposition for Fall ’09
semester onward
3.1.7.1.1 – Letitia is fine as long as the compensation is
equal to the work involved
Motion passed without opposition
3.1.8 – Spring Plenary Session
Alex – Resolution 10.02 appears to restrict the ability of people to
be hired on as faculty on the basis of eminence in their field.
Motion: Charge our representative to the State Academic
Senate to speak against Resolution 10.02.
Motion passed without opposition
3.1.9 – Governing Board Report: Based on input from faculty and staff
campus wide, the Governing Board decided not to eliminate the proposed
IT position whose potential removal had developed a significant degree of
controversy in the latest plans for reduction. Steve informed the
Governing Board that, in his opinion, the cut would not be a wise idea
though he did not have an official position from the Faculty Senate. After
removing the IT position, the reduction plans passed 4/3.
3.2 – Vice President (Letitia Scott-Curtis)
3.2.1 – Serve on the End of Year Party committee! Otherwise there will be
stale crackers and bad beer…
3.3 – Secretary (Georg Romero)
3.3.1 – Georg will be tidying up on website over spring break. Please
contact him if there is anything that people need changed.
3.3.2 – Clicking on the new picture links the old picture. Georg will look
into it.
3.4 – Treasurer (Dave Reynolds)
3.4.1 – absent
3.5 – CCFT (John Govsky)
3.5.1 – The solidarity party was a success – lots of people came and had a
great time.
3.5.2 – CCFT could not come to an agreement on the issue of scheduling
spring break for ’10-‘11.
3.5.3 – Still looking into merging the Community College Association (of
the California Teacher’s Association) with the Community College
Council (of the California Federation of Teachers) on the state level
3.6 – CCEU (Janus Blume)
3.6.1 – The party was wonderful; Janus is hoping for more solidarity
building in the future.
3.6.2 – CCEU has recommended a withdrawal of 2 positions from future
reduction plans and recommended a freeze rather than elimination of two
others.
3.6.3 – The decision was made to freeze but not eliminate another 3
positions that CCEU was concerned about. A position was frozen which
was occupied by a person on-leave. That person will not be able to return
to their job.
3.7 – Watsonville (Eva Acosta)
3.7.1 – Happy to have a parking lot; the old library spot is now temporary
parking.
3.7.2 – Lights were somehow not on last night. Eva is going to talk with
Rachel to see about the issue.
3.8 – ASCC (Becka Fortune)
3.8.1 – Madeline Vidibor: the Student Senate is finalizing plans for
Earthweek. They are trying to unite the campus to raise awareness on
protecting the earth and trying to launch a pilot composting program.
There will be composting workshops and a county waste coordinator as
speaker. A 3D-Art competition will be sponsored by Palace and will
include prizes. $5 aluminum water bottles will be sold. Hosting a musical
performance and knows that noise is a concern for the Faculty Senate.
The Earthweek Planning Committee was advised that 4/23 at 12:30-2:00,
the amphitheater would be a good place. Plans could be changed to the
Quad or outside of SAC but Madeline prefers the amphitheater.
3.8.2 – Madeline Vidibor: there is a “Just Turn It Off” campaign April 22
(earth day) from noon to one o clock. The goal is to turn off all unused
lights, power strips, etc to show the effect of unused waste. Madeline has
fliers and is trying to cover campus with them; asked if anyone would like
to take one.
3.8.2 – The Student Senate has funded many requests lately: an Honor
Society Convention, an Archaeology Club Conference, the Organization
of Latin Americans’ Latino Graduation, the Nursing Department’s Pinning
Ceremony, and a senate-run GLBT event.
3.8.3 – This Friday at noon is the deadline for applicants to next year’s
Student Senate. The Student Senate would greatly appreciate any
assistance with publicizing this deadline. See Becka after the meeting if
anyone would be willing to have Student Senators speak personally to
their classes.
3.8.4 – The Student Senate has endorsed a proposition from a company
called “Concept Adz” who is willing to provide Cabrillo with a free
photocopier for staff and student use. Concept Adz would deliver the
copier, provide free paper, do all maintenance, etc. at no cost however
every page printed would have an advertisement on the back. The college
would reserve the right to strike ads if they did not like one in particular
and Concept Adz would not send ads containing controversial or harmful
material. All copies would be made on recycled paper with soy-based ink.
The Student Senate would like to take an unofficial census on the position
that the Faculty Senate might have on this proposal.
3.8.4.1 – Georg: where would this copier be located? Most likely
next to the for-pay copier in the cafeteria
3.8.4.2 – Winnie: no objection to paper that is being re-used but
concerned about automatically pre-used paper. Regardless, would
accept any paper that students turned in.
3.8.4.3 – No Faculty Senate member expressed serious concerns
about Concept Adz’s proposal
3.9 – VPI (Renee Kilmer)
3.9.1 – Brian went to Seattle to discuss ITEC grants – Cabrillo is pursuing
$1.5M for platinum certification. Seattle is recommending grant approval;
the next step will be DC.
3.9.2 – The AA/AS standardization was passed by the State Academic
Senate in Sacramento fall ‘07 or ’08. It goes to BOG in May. The
proposition passed through the Consultation Council as well. Steve will
continue working on it but doesn’t know if any advocacy can save it at this
point.
4.0 Unfinished or Ongoing Business
4.1 – No items
5.0 New Business
5.1 – Online Orientation
5.1.1 – Part of the matriculation update is an online orientation. Students
will be able to complete their orientation requirement from home with new
option. The orientation page is viewable at https://sirena.cabrillo.edu
5.1.2 – More than 100 students participated in beta testing – they all loved
it regardless of age (16-88) and original language.
5.1.3 – Stars across the state with our 508 compliance.
5.1.4 – There were a few outdated things in athletic life which are difficult
to change at this point because the program is up and running already but
the text portion has been updated so up-to-date information is available.
5.1.5 – Online orientation gives a broad background of things at Cabrillo
and students can follow links or see counselors for more detailed info.
5.2 – Basic Skills Update
5.2.1 – The Basic Skills Committee name had evolved into Emerging
Scholars and now goes under the title ACES (Academic Community for
Educational Success). There is a new website which is no longer tied to
the website for the Faculty Senate. The new website is found through
Student Services webpage
5.2.2 – The program is an umbrella organization which includes PUENTE,
Digital Bridge Academy and several basic skills classes including English
255 and Reading 255
5.2.3 – The new website includes both Cabrillo and community resources;
some resources are also available on the Student Services webpage such as
Financial Aid, Transportation, and Learning Skills. The page also
includes a link to ECE, the Health Center, and the Community
Information Database hosted by the SC public library system, data basing
every community resource agency of the area.
5.2.4 – The webpage is more student-oriented now, less for the internal
use by the committee than it used to be. ACES is moving toward being a
standalone campus organization rather than a subcommittee of the Faculty
Senate, pending the Faculty Senate’s blessing. They feel as if they have a
lot of ongoing input from the Senate but also a great deal of participation
campus-wide, thus making them more of a campus program.
5.2.5 – ACES is reviewing their action plan for this year; they have
completed or made progress with almost everything. Only a few things
are left for review.
5.2.6 – They are sending a team to the On Course conference in October
in Raleigh and sending representatives to the National Summer Institute
on Learning Communities (Evergreen College, Olympia, WA) for a
weeklong activity.
5.2.7 – There will be a free regional activity focusing on first year
experience programs, tutoring centers, and cross-disciplinary activities
April 23rd and 24th. ACES is trying to patch together a team for that.
5.2.8 – Trying to sponsor an On Course activity for flex week
5.2.9 – Supporting a lot of tutoring and faculty development
5.2.10 – High Engagement Enrollment Process program in the fall to assist
students who are enrolling full time from a basic skills level. More info
on this & staff and faculty development activities in the future.
5.2.11 – ACES Coordinator will be stepping down to go on sabbatical next
year; looking to find a person who would like to become next coordinator;
half time position (7 units in fall and spring). Adela Najaro has been
elected the English Department Chair starting next year. Email Renee
regarding suggested names for staffing BSI/ACES advisory group.
5.2.12 – Students who go full time are the pilot group for expansion of the
project; other students will hopefully participate in future.
5.3 – Distance Education Update
5.3.1 – Developed a plan to formalize the Distance Education (DE)
program. Addressed the integration of online components in on-campus
classrooms
5.3.2 – Over 7000 students using blackboard, 248 faculty, and 96 classes.
5.3.3 – The committee is trying to address Title V requirements for DE
such as students’ regularity of contact with faculty; they are also revising
the instructor evaluations for online format.
5.3.4 – The CCFT Distance Ed Task Force is working with the Distance
Ed Committee and decisions will be forwarded on to CCFT and the
Faculty Senate.
5.3.5 – There is a liberal arts degree available from only taking online
classes and 6 programs which have more than 50% of their coursework
available in online format. Take a look at the full report on
www.cabrillo.edu/services/disted/DEStrategic Plan2009_CPCrevised.pdf
5.3.6 – Next step for the DE plan is to go to the Technology committee,
CPC, and then to the Governing Board as info.
5.3.6 – FS can review report and retains veto power but doesn’t have to
take any action. 27th April is next committee meeting; they will have a
final review of report and an opportunity to massage the wording. 5 more
slots left for the online teaching conference – tell Francine Van Meter by
tomorrow if interested.
6.0 Open Forum and Agenda Building
6.1 – Alex still concerned about the AA/AS standardization problem; the only fix
that he’s seeing under present circumstances is to work toward a proposal of
reversal. The effective date of the decision is 2011. Nothing prevents us from
bringing it forward but Steve thinks that most likely the motion of reversal will be
voted down minutes after introduction. David Balogh: Contact the people who
were spearheading the proposition to try to understand their logic. Need to
understand what has been said in the past few years in order to adequately rebut
the plan as currently made.
6.2 – Virginia: for those who are taking part in the Administrative Review
process, the next step is to be contacted by HR. The review process will be
moving forward after spring break.
7.0 Adjourn
7.1 – The meeting was adjourned at 5:01 PM.