Department Chairs Council meeting minutes
Thurs. December 5, 2013
Attendance: Carl Sjovold, Grace Austin, Angela Block, Glennda Wagner, Michael Hunter, Marisa
Alviar-Agnew, Barbara Toupadakis, Daniel Styer, Mel Duvall, Jon Zeh, Amy Zannakis, Lonnie
Larson, Kelly Gould, John Polagruto, Mari Carmen Cargia, Ann Lewis, Debra Crumpton, Josh
Roberts, Chris Seddon, Kenneth Fitzpatrick, Rachel Spangler, Chris Daubert, Melissa Fellman,
Mary Turner, Norman Lorenz, Elaine Ader, Tom Cappelletti.
The purpose of today’s meeting is to continue the conversation which began at the end of our
Nov. 21, 2013 meeting. The focus was on informal evaluation of teaching procedures
(especially for new faculty).
Items presented during our discussion:
 Availability and use of mentors that are assigned to newly hired faculty
o Mentors serving in a supportive role rather than evaluative role
 Newly-hired faculty in 2007 & 2008 were invited and encouraged to attend Lisa
Gunderson’s “New Faculty Orientation” sessions covering a variety of topics
 Sierra College had (and perhaps still has) a semester-long New Faculty Orientation
Program. New hires in tenure-track positions receive release time to participate.
 Question posed: “what kind of advice do you feel that you needed when starting your
career in teaching?”
o Lonnie Larson mentioned Sac State’s peer coaching program that she attended
early in her teaching career – a colleague would sit in on her classes to provide
observations and suggestions. E.g. they would look at how many students were
taking notes, help you find out what your intention of teaching a particular
concept was, etc.
o Another viewpoint presented was that what we currently have far exceeds what
was in place for those who began teaching several years or decades ago. Some
instructors really need mentoring early on while others require very little. Some
newly-hired individuals don’t want assistance or information.
o Two different circumstances: new hires that are new to the classroom need to
have the assistance and information on many levels, others have already been in
the classroom and just need guidance on how we specifically operate here on
our campus [e.g. Socrates curriculum].
o Some “need to know” items are discipline-specific, others are more broad and
generalizable across disciplines.
o Teaching in k-12 requires a teaching credential, something NOT required at the
community college level.
o Teaching requires a skill-set, not just a love for teaching. Our specific culture
here at SCC is important to know; also important to understand the different
student populations across our centers
o Someone mentioned that they would have liked to have a better appreciation for
our course outlines from Socrates before they actually began teaching a course
o Idea to utilize faculty who have retired, how do we pull them back in as a
mentor? Ideally, we could utilize those faculty members before they retire.
We want to be wary of calling anything we do as “assessment” – don’t want new
faculty to be afraid of the assistive process. Even newly entering students come
in with talent, but they can still learn and benefit from acquiring a new skillset.
o If we as in institution are about excellence, then we have an obligation to help
raise our employees to that level of excellence.
o As individuals arrive on our campus, they may only then find out that we’re not a
good fit for them. Some individuals here are not well-suited for teaching –
perhaps early mentoring can reduce the likelihood that this would happen.
o Analogy to “delivering products” required in civil service fields. A tool or
mechanism used early in the hiring process should incorporate conflict
management. An important topic for us to be trained on would include behavior
management, specifically scenarios and ideas/suggestions for resolutions.
o Question of what prompted today’s topic of discussion
o Two different topics seem to have emerged in today’s discussion
 Mentoring and related issues
 Coming up with informal practices for faculty to get feedback they want
on how they teach and interact with their students [content-specific and
personality-driven]
o Question of whether someone without tenure can be a mentor
 Question of whether our contract has any details about this
o Mary Turner is gathering information from attending today to put forth and be
shared with new faculty. Perhaps a mentoring handbook will emerge as well.
o Elaine Ader asked whether there is a role for the Staff Resource Center to
develop and offer workshops to assist with mentoring and support
o Mention of a former UC Davis program for teacher preparation
o Norman Lorenz specified this work we’re discussing as “the vehicle” between
student access and student success. How can we meet the student where they
are today and increase our effectiveness by engaging them, being effective with
them and moving toward completion?
o Any handbook that we seek to develop should include a generous “Best
Practices” section. Sometimes we learn more by watching good teachers teach
than by reading about it or taking a class on it.
Carl asked “how do we move forward?” and “what has come out of this discussion that
we can move forward on?”
o At a minimum, FLEX presentations on specific teaching skills [e.g. “how to grade
an essay” offered through the English Dept.].
o The concept of participating in peer teaching (rather than mentoring) so the
process does not have to be one-way.
o Share what we’re concerned over and hoped for actions with our own
department members
o Encourage faculty to make use of other faculty as other resources [more than
educational or pedagogy consultants]
o English Writing 51 faculty workshops are held monthly and center on pedagogy
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o
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Attending community seminars related to one’s industry to gain information
about teaching techniques as well as content
Taking classes here [or elsewhere] to keep the experience of being a student
fresh