Board Committee Meeting Notes
District Standards & Management
Meeting Date: November 29, 2007
Present:
1&2.
Trustee Withrow (Chairperson), Trustees Gulassa and Handy, Vice Chancellor Yee,
General Counsel Nguyen, District Academic Senate President Bielanski, Academic
Senate Rep. Campbell, recording secretary Weyand
Review and Approval the Agenda & Minutes
Today’s meeting agenda and minutes of the July 26, 2007 meeting were approved.
3.
OER Consortium
Trustees Withrow and Gulassa informed those present of sessions regarding cost of textbooks that
were conducted at a recent CCLC conference, facilitated by the managers of the bookstores at City
College SF and Chabot. In many cases, colleges bind their own textbooks. There was discussion
regarding the issue of new editions, recognizing that faculty should have control but that faculty are
not necessarily price sensitive. There was session discussion around the idea of using a used book
pool. Rep. Campbell indicated that within her discipline, instructors try to use the same textbook,
and not use new editions, for at least three semesters so that books can become “used.” Vice
Chancellor Yee recommended investing library money to buy shelved books for borrowing.
Recommendation: Check four libraries to determine if the one-time library funding is used for shelved
books for borrowing.
Speaking to the OER, DAS President Bielanski stated that this topic was discussed at the Academic
Senate’s Fall plenary session, there is a need for someone to take charge of this as it is very labor
intensive. DeAnza has a full time faculty member who meets with faculty to research and download
books.
Vice Chancellor Yee stated that there are no costs involved to enter into an MOU to join the OER
consortium. With DAS President Bielanski and Academic Sen. Rep. Campbell’s signatures, the
MOU will be complete, sent to General Counsel and submitted.
General discussed ensued
regarding the quality and uniformity of textbooks across programs.
4.
Self-Assessment and Other Accreditation Issues
Dr. Bielanski informed that all colleges are actively moving forward on self-studies and full-time and
part-time faculty evaluations. There was general discussion regarding remaining tasks for the
finalization of the accreditation report and team visits in March 2008 and 2009.
5.
Basic Skills Initiative
Vice Chancellor Yee informed that all colleges must conduct a self-assessment before basic skills
monies are released.
Dr. Bielanski informed that the college are in the process of planning
institutional student learning outcomes – each college now has a coordinator for this effort. COA,
Merritt and BCC will receive $100,000; Laney $155,000. Merritt College President Adams and COA
Vice President Jackson have been charged to supervise the basic skills initiative program.
9.
Mental Health and Threat Analysis
Chair Withrow attended a CCLC workshop focusing on mental health and threat analysis within a
student body and staff. Learning from the tragedy at Virginia Tech, many exhibited behaviors and
abuse must be watched closely and not tolerated. Trustee Handy indicated that there is nothing in
existence in Peralta’s colleges that educates or protects our faculty; training needs to be scheduled to
recognize
and report signs. There was general discussion regarding how to identify students who may be in
mental stress and how to manage those students in a classroom setting. The need for college mental
health clinics was stressed.
8.
Course Management Software
Trustees Withrow and Gulassa spoke on a class they attended relative to the Epsilon environment.
It is a state of the art course management program for both residence and distance learning. The
program is tied to a data bank of the New York Times. Vice Chancellor Yee reported that distance
learning is a high priority, and the Chancellor has appointed Drs. Yee and Bielanski to be part of the
distance education committee. Dr. Bielanski recommended sending Epsilon reps to present at each
college or to the next meeting of the committee.
Submitted by Beth Weyand