COSUMNES RIVER COLLEGE
ACADEMIC SENATE
AUG 31, 2007
APPROVED MINUTES
RETREAT
Senators Present: Tamyra Carmona, Norv Wellsfry, Sue Palm, Gregory Beyrer, Dana
Wassmer, Lily Kun, Kale Braden, Darlene Mathias, Rubina Gulati, Ralph Hendrix,
Michelle Barkley, Balbina Chaderjian, Gary Martin, Maha Myren, Rick Schubert,
Georgine Hodgkinson, Travis Parker, Margaret Woodcock, Marlo McClurg-Mackinnon,
Camille Moreno, Colette Harris, Marjorie Duffy.
Guests Present: Leslie Gale, Ruth Oxman, Chuck Van Patten, Ryan Connolly, Marybeth
Buechner, Hoyt Fong, Teresa Aldredge, Allah-mi Allen, Emily Barkley.
Call to order at 11:08 am
Introduction of New Senators
Announcements:
The Northern California Placement Assessment conference will meet at CRC this
October. We need to be careful in our discussions about making a clear distinction
between Placement Assessment and course, program and college Outcomes assessment
in our labels.
Additions to and approval of the Agenda
Classified Staff Hours
Emeritus Professor Status
Representative role of Academic Senate President
Standing Committee Meeting Times
Minutes of 11 May 2007 approved with changes.
Strike word “probably” from IT committee report
Under Health and Facilities – delete SS from the VPASS reference
Add Georgine Hodgkinson as present
Discussion Items
1. Faculty Handbook: The college will attempt to improve and post the Staff
handbook on the web during the course of this year. Much of the handbook is
either out of date or revised but not in the handbook. Draft should be completed
this semester. This change was also mentioned in the faculty forum as a way to
inform the adjunct faculty. This concern about helping adjunct faculty is
mentioned in some unit plans on campus. Handout “Faculty and Staff Resource
Guide” provided. The value of having a one-stop warehouse of information on
the web could allow the owners of the information to change the pages as the
information is updated in the committees. Having blanket write-access rights is
perhaps a bit aggressive, and a handbook should have appropriate rules for
posting. ACTION: Volunteers to help are Kale Braden, Balbina Chaderjian, Ruth
Oxman, Lily Kun and Michelle Barkley. If committee chairs are responsible to
update this resource, rules could be made to control the access easily. Another
web link (not currently listed on the handout) should perhaps include CASSL,
Academic Integrity.
2. Basic Skills Initiative: A planned $33-million for basic skills in California
community college was deleted from this year’s state budget. Some money for
basic skills (approximately $90,000) is left over in the CRC Education Initiative
budget from last year. Most of the ideas in Basic Sills center around English and
Math. ACTION: Jamie Nye, Leslie Gale, and perhaps Catherine Hooper,
Camille Moreno, and Maha Myren and Ralph Hendrix from student services will
work together on how the goals of the Basic Skills need might be met. Marybeth
Buechner from CASSL offered to be a support person on the research side. The
timeline of when the money must be spent was discussed. An accountability
measure will be needed.
3. Best practices for creating new departments: No established process for creating
new departments exists at CRC. There is flexibility in Ed. Code and District
Policy and regulations on how department creation is done. Board regulations call
for consultation between the academic senate president and the college president
in order to form a new department. One guideline seems to center around needing
at least one full time faculty member as seen in a written policy at Folsom Lake
College. As part of a policy making process, perhaps the council of department
chairs could lead this work at CRC. This has also been discussed at the District
Curriculum Coordinating Committee, as seen by the creation of the Program
Placement Sub-committee. Historically, one way to make progress in curriculum
is by using an interdisciplinary approach that has full time faculty to get the
program started. Another broader issue for faculty is about maintaining focus and
direction to a new and developing program. Environmental Technology was
created by using interdisciplinary faculty. Accounting faculty split off from
business by electing a department chair and announcing themselves. In general,
new departments can become a problem in articulation across the district. Hoyt
Fong presented information about wanting to establish a Human Services
department at CRC (despite the lack of a full time faculty member). This will be
agendized for the next meeting.
4. Athlete Progress Report: The Los Rios District and Commission on Athletics
require athletes’ grades be collected two times a semester to maintain eligibility.
At CRC, grades are collected three times a semester. This allows general progress
information and earlier intervention, tutoring, etc. The intention is move this
grade collecting process on line after a faculty survey in Spring, 2007 showed
faculty support for this ability. A pilot of this collection will be done during Fall,
2007, while the hard-copy process of students collecting grades from faculty to
sign-off on progress during the semester. Concern that the PeopleSoft system will
be used for this pilot collection was expressed. CRC’s culture does not include
using the midterm reporting part of PeopleSoft. It was noted at CSU, Sacramento
that faculty receive an envelope identifying student athletes in their classes and
requesting grades.
5. Blackboard: The district is having issues with the Blackboard system. There is
fear of moving to another system because of the time to shift to the new system
and the support for that new system. Blackboard and WebCT are merging as
systems. A broader discussion will be needed to evaluate what’s next for on-line
instruction and course management and presentation.
6. Outcomes Assessment Task Force: The task is to determine what types of
outcomes assessment and best practices will meet the up-coming needs for our reaccreditation, without over working ourselves and still meeting the goals of
teaching and learning.
7. Future Senate Items
a. Times when Standing Committees meet
b. Consequences of Compressed Calendar
c. CASSL representation/reporting/accountability to Academic Senate
d. Union Presentation about upcoming contract changes
e. Faculty defacto supervision of classified staff
f. Academic Integrity Committee’s Academic Honor Code
g. College Hour
8. Community College Initiative: A promotional video was shown by CRC LRCFT
President Chuck Van Patten. A campus-wide forum will be held on Sept. 26.at 3
p.m. Donations would be appreciated.
9. Faculty Forum: Issues from the forum have been presented to Francisco. He has
requested a work group where faculty and administration can work toward
solutions. Contact Jamey Nye if you want to assist on this workgroup.
10. Accreditation: Accreditation Faculty co-chair Norv Wellsfry presented a handout
with the draft 2009 Accreditation Process Self Study Planning Timeline. Four
primary standards replaced the previous 10 standards. A theme committee will
also be needed. Interim Vice-President of Instruction Chris Hawken will be the
Accreditation Liaison Officer. Many volunteers will be needed.
Chat with President Francisco Rodriguez
1. Update: Enrollment for CRC is 13,730 this Fall. Productivity is also up. A target
is 525. 527 was the count as of 8/31/07. This could ultimately mean more
faculty. Of course, there is also unfunded growth. District-wide we’re up to
86,000 (more than 10% growth). Going from 18 to 16 weeks can translate into
2.5% growth automatically, but the rest is all just new bodies. The best retention
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tool is the faculty. However, the persistence from semester to semester is still flat
at 63%. Some loss is obvious (transfer, jobs, degrees) but others disappear when
they could be coming up. 42% persistence is the national average. On average it
takes our students seven semesters at nine-units a semester to graduate. Given that
50% of our student population is at or below the poverty line, but still yielded 502
graduates with a avg. GPA above 3.0 means our faculty really deliver graduates
who are honor students.
Master Plan: President Rodriguez presented 10 bullet points at convocation that
were issues to be addressed. Does he have a master plan? He said most of the
issues will be handled in the shared governance committees, but more help is
needed. Either policy of new resources may be the result. Linking our resources
to our planning will be necessary. Building consensus and moving toward
accreditation in the areas like assessment portability, green technology will be the
goal.
Growth and Publicity: Faculty suspected The LRCCD ad campaign this year was
well received compared to the previous year’s bling campaign, perhaps in
contributing to growth.. Great learning, shorter term.
Banners and logos: Welcome banners are liked. Francisco pointed at another set,
Our Strength is Our Diversity. The last one is a CRC seal. The logo “C” and the
other CRC seal do have rules for when they are supposed to be used.
Role of the President. Chancellor Brice Harris mentioned how the roles of college
president have changed during his convocation presentation. President Rodriguez
pointed out he has a lot of confidence in the team he has to run the college. The
work with the Chamber of Commerce, with the Elk Grove Unified School District
with Sac State and UCD all take time. He teaches a class at Sac State every
semester. When we’re out there, we’re building community, but also building
support for the college and our students.
ECE / Family Consumer Science: Is there a home for a FCS program in the new
building as it works with other interdisciplinary programs.
Light Rail: Target is 2010. A joint meeting with the Board of Trustees and the
Regional Transportation is set for October. But a Memo of Understanding is
being prepared to solidify this progress of Light Rail toward CRC. This has
federal attention as well. It will include a parking structure (some may not
receive this well), but it makes more sense to go up than to go out. This is
coming. It will have an 18-month construction cycle. The station will stop right
before our entrance. Students are using the UTP (universal transit pass).
Student Services: Library building expansion? It’s still too early to know
definite plans, but one goal is to make the Library a one-stop students’ services
area. Financial aid will go to the third floor and DSPS will come to the first floor.
Improvements will come both esthetically and educationally. The Forum is an
untapped resource.
Student Union: Not in a master plan and mentioned at accreditation. How can
student life be improved? Problem is the state doesn’t fund a student union. It
would require either a student referendum, state bond, or private funding.
However, the college center (cafeteria) is slated for an expansion. Currently,
expansion is scheduled for 2014. The fountain quad area will be our next public
gathering place.
Agenda items
1. Classified Staff Hours
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Emeritus Professor Status
Representative role of Academic Senate President
Standing Committee Meeting Times
Human Services Department Request
Senate connection to new administrators
Meeting Adjourned at 2:50 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Gary Martin
Academic Senate Secretary