Cosumnes River College
Academic Senate
Orchard Room
October 24, 2008
APPROVED MINUTES
Attendance: Georgine Hodgkinson, Marjorie Duffy, Grant Parker, Ruth Oxman, Darlene
Mathias, Kale Braden, Balbina Chaderjian, Ralph Hendrix, Gregory Beyrer, Michelle Barkley,
Dan Dubray, Tamyra Carmona, Margaret Woodcock, Dana Wassmer, Debra Welkley, Maha
Myren, Rick Schubert, Norv Wellsfry, Travis Parker, Lon Davenport, Hiram Jackson, Monica
Cranston.
Announcements:
Norv Wellsfry reports with Jamie Nye the district will be funding a .6 FTE for the CASSL and
SLO Coordinator positions at all of the colleges. This funding is set for one year. At CRC, the
Professional Development Committee also funds the CASSL at a .2 FTE. Since the Faculty and
Academic Senate are proposing a new position for CASSL in the latest round of hiring, this
special funding nearly assures this position would be funded.
The Child Development Center has a workshop Oct. 29, 2008 titled “Principles that Inspire:
Practices that Work; The RIE Approach to Working with Infants and Toddlers.”
President Francisco Rodriguez is asking for Senate support for Mary Beth Buechner for a
professional development national award sponsored by the University of Texas. The senate
agreed to support this nomination.
Action Items
Approval of the minutes for 26 October 2008: Additions to the minutes of 26 October 2008 in
the area of the Faculty and Staff Resource Guide and the Desire 2 Learn area were suggested.
Approval was postponed until the next meeting Nov. 14.
Updates
Graduation Requirements R-7241. (document attached) This draft recommendations have been
approved by the District Academic Senate and still require approval of the administration
through the Chancellor’s cabinet. Because of new state law, these regulations are needed to
make LRCCD legal in this area. The proposal, however, also includes the ‘reading’ area, which
is not specifically covered by the state law. The English and Math areas are covered by that law.
It was felt this parallel structure would make this process easier overall. The primary change in
process allows the competency committees and the District Curriculum coordinating Committee
to maintain the approved course lists within the curriculum data base, instead of having the list
held in district regulations. The new regulation also allows the competency committees to be
chaired by faculty instead of administration. Other members will include discipline specific
faculty, counselors and administration.
Some language in the requirements may be incorrect, including a reference in page six that
references accreditation groups. Norv Wellsfry will propose some suggested language and get it
to Jamey Nye. Other typographical edits about subject/verb match were suggested. The lack of
mention of Advanced Placement students may need to be specifically referenced. Catalogue vs.
Catalog should match. In reference to the Reading and Math competencies, there is reference to
when and how they take competency tests, but is there a reference to how many times they can
take it, for example, at one college and then at another college until they pass through multiple
tests.
Shared Governance Committee Charges: Budget, Cultural Competency and Equity, Curriculum
and Health and Facilities are under review this semester. Chair Grant Parker presents the Budget
charge revision. The budget committee charge has a few changes, including removal of some
tasks that are simply not done anymore. The committee discussion included a more general task
list including its role in prioritization of capital outlay items. Curriculum’s charge will be
distributed for discussion by e-mail.
Hawk-a-thon Fundraiser: This benefit for the CRC Annual fun and Travis Parker’s Alpha
Academy. SME division has pledged 1,700. HSS is approaching $1,000. The overall goal is
targeted at $3,000 but total pledges are now near $4,000. Although it is not a competition,
President Jamey Nye reports SME clearly is the divisional winner.
Faculty Forum Follow-up “Shared Conversation”: This meeting with the administration is
Nov. 21. There will be a getting ready meeting the week before including representation from
the union, academic senate, the Council of Chairs, plus Francisco Rodriguez and a few other
administrators.
Discussion
Faculty Involvement in Selection of Interpreters for Deaf Students: The district has apparently
gone to a district-wide contract for who is hired to provide this service for our students. The
District Senate reports this process may not have included faculty input before implementing the
contract. Both the ASL and DSPS faculty at CRC have been contacted by Jamey about this
issues and he will report back at District Senate.
Request for Grade Change From #91708: The change proposed says a dean could change a
grade in the absence of the needed faculty. An alternate would be for a department chair (or
their designee) to handle this approval, leaving the assigning of grades in the hands of faculty
instead of administrators. The language of the proposed form has incorrect job titles in the area
of deans and department chairs, so this language should be corrected for a district wide approval
process. Further discussion surrounded #3 which deals with a faculty member who is found
“incompetent.” This language should be considered very carefully. A review of the language
in the referenced district Policies P-2423 and P-2412 should be done. An extreme concern was
noted that someone not even from this campus could change a grade. Likewise, it should be
noted that ANY grade change should be reported back to the original instructor. This lack of
notification means the faculty don’t know if the properly requested change has been made.
Likewise all changes, no matter what, should be reported back to the instructor by admissions
and records as a method of tracking whether improper changes have been made. ACTION:
Jamey Nye is directed to contact Admissions and Records to get the ‘official’ policy for further
discussion.
CASSL and SLO Coordinator Positions Descriptions: In the area of this position, the fear of
having someone making new tasks, policies and procedures which add to workload creep for the
faculty to need to do the bulk of the work. Does this job in fact eliminate any work for the line
faculty who must do the work ‘required’ by WASC standards and accreditation desires. A new
suggestion of how this job description might resolve some of this workload creep. Two areas for
language might be valuable in the area of having the coordinator actually help departments do
this work, but more importantly, isn’t much of that work just clerical work. The danger of not
specifying the language, might relegate this ‘faculty’ position to the task of clerk. This position
might need to have some control over its own budget, for faculty innovation and improvement of
student learning and have the person become an advocate for getting funds for this purpose.
Should the person in this job be tasked with assesses what the job description should include
based on all constituency needs for the future. ACTION: President Nye will report to Kathy
McLain that the Senate supports this position but would like to have a more extensive discussion
on the specific job duties/tasks over the next couple of months.
College-wide Interests for Faculty Prioritization: The Academic Senate’s broader interest of
what criteria should be used or prioritizing faculty positions needs to be determined over the next
week. Interests include in non-ranked order:
*Replacement Faculty [Anthropology, Psychology, Art, Business Technology, General
Counselor]
*Basic Skills Support/New Graduation Requirements
*One Person Departments
*Excellence in Teaching
*History of Position and Need for Position
*Adjunct Availability
*Full-time/Part-time Ratios
*Changing/Increasing Fulltime Faculty duties [i.e. vocational faculty with outside agency duties)
Future Agenda Items
Amplified Sound Policy
Student Athlete Grade Reporting
Planning Summit