Approved Minutes
Sacramento City College
Academic Senate
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
President: Ginni May
Vice-President: Greg Rose
Secretary: Troy Myers
Past-President: Connie Zuercher
Senators Present: Lewis Bair, Jang Ha Oh, Irma Rodriguez, Gayle Pitman, Steve Cirrone, Josh Roberts, Robyn
Waxman, Chris Seddon, Norman Lorenz, Heather Watson-Perez, Nadine Kirkpatrick, David Fabionar, Lynne
Giovannetti, Andrea Greenwell, Cathy Chenu-Campbell, Mitra Fabian, Julia Kehew, Lori DeLappe, Robin
Roffey, Lori Petite, Jared Anderson, Deborah Gambrell, Andrew Jones, Niefia Zupancic, Marcia Bonawitz, Hsiao
Wang, Debra Crumpton, Kris Janssen, Liam McDaid, Gabriella Nuttall, Amy Zannakis.
Senators Absent: Adam Freas, Jonathan Segal, Dena Chubbic, John Herlihy, Robert Crawford, Laura Leek,
Joshua Carboni, Joseph Steever, Glennda Wagner.
Guests: Jory Hadsell, Ginni Gessford, Carl Sjovold, Alex Bishop, Annette Barfield, Lonnie Larson, Rob
Heiselman.
Call to Order: meeting called to order by Ginni at 12:01.
Approval of Minutes: minutes from 9-4-12 approved by consensus.
Introduction of Guests
High School Outreach “Preview Night”
R. Heisleman
This year Preview night will be October 27th from 5:30 to 7:30. Preview night is an outreach for high school
students, held in our student center. Staff and faculty are asked to have tables from various instructional areas.
Counselors and student services are also present. Bob encouraged faculty to attend. When disciplines are not
represented it has a direct impact on students (and their parents). Flex credit is available; faculty who want flex
credit for attending should email Norman Lorenz.
Announcements:
G. May
All Manila websites will be eliminated. Questions or concerns can be sent to Elaine Ader. Some faculty expressed
concern that the websites are going to be eliminated this semester with little warning. Ginni is willing to put this
issue on a future agenda.
Alex Ishchuck was approved as an Appointed Senator from Chemistry. Gayle Pitman agreed to continue as our
parliamentarian. Ginni is still in need of a faculty tri-chair for Student Equity; Irma Rodriguez volunteered. Bob
Martinelli is pulling together the Food Service Advisory group again. Ginni will contact all who served on it
previously; there is a tentative meeting schedule for October 18th. Deborah Gambrell volunteered.
There is emergency response training being offered at SCC. Any interested faculty can contact Valerie Cox.
Staff Resource Center Coordinator
N. Kirkpatrick
The Staff Development Committee voted to allow an adjunct instructor to serve in this position when the position
is again vacant. They do not get many applicants. Why are people not applying? It is a demanding position with
limited compensation. Since it is a 50 percent position, Nadine feels the right adjunct could work. Could we
streamline resource allocation to the Coordinator, give him or her more autonomy? The position used to be held
by two people each with 50 percent reassigned time; now it is held by just one person with 50 percent reassigned
time. Someone noted that for an adjunct, 50 percent compensation is less than what a full timer receives. Someone
else noted that the job description should be tweaked in response to the decreased funding. Senators were asked to
get feedback from their divisions on whether to open the position to adjunct faculty. Some Senators felt they
needed more information.
Hiring Request Process
L. McDaid
This is our first reading. Ginni has a draft for a new form from the subcommittee that was distributed in email this
morning. Some issues they addressed: What about questions that weren’t questions (“can you finish what you
were saying)? The questions should be real questions and not just opportunities to allow the speaker more time.
Also, the subcommittee feels that if presenters are not here for the first departmental presentation, the first
speaker, they should not be able to present. What about positions created outside the Senate process? Language
regarding such positions should not be on the form. If a presenter fails to show, will we vote on the position? No.
Presenting is a requirement. Someone noted that sometimes administration has information affecting ranking
which is not shared with the Senate by presenters or administration (like how hard it is to find an adjunct in
Reading, for example.). Can we be told what position are critical hires before the Senate ranks? Sometimes that
information changes during the process, but we are supposed to be informed.
Someone asked, do we need to have presentations when there is a packet? The oral presentation is another way to
inform the Senate and we want to be as informed as possible. We also tell the chairs to make an additional plea
during the presentation and not just use the time to restate information already in the packet. Also, it is valuable to
be able to ask questions. Without someone to answer questions we may end up speculating if there is an
information gap in the packet. Historically, questions to clarify information have been necessary. Someone else
felt that maybe we should use the time used for presentation to allow the Senate to discuss the packets. Someone
else thought we could split the presentation time: either the speaker could take the entire time to present, or the
speaker could finish within time and allow time for questions. This would eliminate our ability to ask questions.
Should we shorten the time to two and one for one position and to three and one for more than one? We will vote
next week.
The committee suggested to allow only one designee to act as a substitute. There will be a second reading in two
weeks.
Reports:
Workload Committee
A. Barfield
The committee will be reconvened if Proposition 30 does not pass and we have to face new cuts.
Budget
G. Rose
The Budget was accepted by the Board a week ago; much still hangs on Proposition 30. If it fails, Los Rios will
experience significant cuts, an approximate 4.3 % reduction in FTE district wide as well as the 6 % pay cut.
SLO “Best Practices” Committee
J. Roberts
There are now two Deans on the committee and the group will meet in October.
Program Discontinuance Committee
S. Cirrone
This committee met a week ago and made some small changes to the document; this will be presented at the next
meeting.
Faculty Handbook Committee
Gabriella was appointed chair.
Next Senate Meeting: Tuesday, October 2, 12:00-1:00, RHN 258
Feel free to email Ginni with issues for future agendas.
To place items on future agendas, email Ginni May at mayv@scc.losrios.edu