Empowering Local Senates: Roles
And Responsibilities of And Strategies For An
Effective Senate
Preamble
We, the faculty of the California
Community Colleges, through the local academic
senates, do hereby establish the Academic Senate
for California Community Colleges, Inc., in order
to promote the best interests of higher education
in the state and to represent the faculty in all
California Community Colleges at the state level.
From the American Association of University Professors
document Governance and Academic Freedom Section
V: The Academic Institution: The Faculty“Agencies
for faculty participation in the government of
the college or university should be established
at each level where faculty responsibility is
present. An agency should exist for the presentation
of the views of the whole faculty. The structure
and procedures for faculty participation should
be designed, approved, and established by joint
action of the components of the institution. Faculty
representatives should be selected by the faculty
according to procedures determined by the faculty.”
Preface
Congratulations on being elected
as the senate president at your college! Your
election is a statement of your faculty's trust
and their faith in your leadership. Even if you
have served your college before in this capacity,
you will find the duties may have shifted. Thus,
to assist you in assuming these new responsibilities,
this document was compiled as a resource for you;
it serves to remind you that you now join hundreds
of others who, through their local senates and
statewide service, assist the faculty and their
students in the California community colleges.
In this handbook, you will find information intended
to supplement the wealth of data contained on
the Website for the Academic Senate of California
Community Colleges. We urge you to familiarize
yourself with the site's contents; this document
will make frequent references to materials contained
on that Website or linked thereon. Contained on
the pages of this handbook, you will find information
about the legislation and regulations that affect
academic senates (Part I); your unique responsibilities
as a senate president (Part II); as well as suggestions
for ensuring that your faculty can be most effective
in meeting their academic and professional responsibilities
(Part III). The appendices contain samples of
materials you may duplicate or download* and modify
as needed.
This document also affirms your
link with the auspices of the Academic Senate
for California Community Colleges--its Executive
Committee and its office staff who are here to
serve your needs. The last section in this handbook
(Part IV) on the Academic Senate for California
Community Colleges will remind you how our organization
can assist you at the local level through its
many publications, its Website, its plenary sessions,
the institutes it sponsors, and, on your campus,
through formal workshops and speakers, and informal
visits and dialogue. We recognize that there is
great variability among districts, and especially
between large and small colleges. When you need
to know what’s working on campuses similar
to yours, the Academic Senate for California Community
Colleges can help put you in touch with leaders
at those colleges. You are free, at any time,
to contact the statewide Senate through any of
its Executive Committee members, whose phone numbers,
mail and email addresses are provided in the annual
senate Directory and on the Website. You can also
call the Academic Senate Office with your requests,
or contact your Area Representative or your representative
on the Relations with Local Senates Committee.
At least once each year, your representative on
the Relations with Local Senates Committee will
contact you personally to determine if there are
issues with which the Academic Senate might assist
you. Your Area Representative and Local Senates
representatives will also keep you up to date
on emerging statewide issues through regular emails,
and will generally function as your most immediate
“living link” to the statewide Academic
Senate.
In becoming a local senate president,
you have become bound to the statewide Academic
Senate in a common determination to provide a
quality education to over two and a half million
students. Your job as a faculty leader will be
challenging, but you are not alone: the Academic
Senate for California Community Colleges welcomes
you to the family of California academic senate
leaders and stands ready to assist you in your
efforts.
