Handbook

Contents

Preamble and Preface

Part I: Responsibilities

Part II: Duties of a President

Part III: Effectiveness of a Local Senate

Part IV: Linking to the Statewide Senate

Appendices (Samples)

Local Senates Handbook: Part IV. 
Linking the Local and District Senates to the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges

A. Functions of the Academic Senate

As you have inferred from the brief history of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, your statewide umbrella organization functions in much the same way as your local academic senate operates.  As with your district governance, the system's Board of Governors articulates a vision for the California Community Colleges and their mandated missions; it then establishes system-wide policies and regulations to enact that vision and respond to the legal strictures imposed by the legislature or Governor's executive orders.  The Academic Senate contributes its professional assessments and judgments and is relied on primarily for matters declared as academic and professional. 

The System's Chancellor and staff operate under the Board of Governors' Standing Orders that include descriptions of the consultation process.  As part of that consultative process, the Consultation Council (much like a local chancellor's cabinet or council), and its members provide appropriate advice and attempt to reach consensus.  As with your local senate, the two representatives of the Academic Senate express the collective voice of the community college faculty and give direction to the Board of Governors on all academic and professional matters at the system-wide level; additionally, under the Board's Standing Orders, the Chancellor is compelled to seek the Academic Senate's advice on all academic and professional matters.

Also present on the Consultation Council are leaders representing FACCC, CCC/CFT, CCA/CTA and the independent faculty bargaining organization, CSEA, CEOs, CIOs, CSSOs, CBOs, CHROs, and CCLC/ACT.  [Note:  for greater explanation of these many acronyms, consult the Academic Senate Website or review its publication on acronyms, or the Definitions of Community College Terms (1991).]   Members of the Consultation Council can submit items for consideration, discussion, or action by submitting a Consultation Digest Item.  Appendix P illustrates this Consultation Process and offers a sample of an Academic Senate-sponsored Consultation Digest item.  As with consultation processes on your own campus and within your own district, the governing board (in this case, the Board of Governors) has specifically agreed (through its Standing Orders) that they and their designees shall rely primarily on the Academic Senate regarding academic and professional matters.

The Academic Senate's primary mission is, of course, to serve its faculty in California's community colleges, to "promote the best interests of higher education in the state and to represent the faculty of all California community colleges at the state level." To do so, the Academic Senate maintains an office in Sacramento and a professional staff who coordinates its many activities and provides continuity.  Through the resolution process, your local senate delegate to the plenary meetings gives direction to the Academic Senate Executive Committee and permits it to determine its annual workplan. The following table illustrates some of the ways in which your state Academic Senate, funded in part by your nominal annual dues, currently fulfills its constitutional obligations to you: 

B. Area Divisions

The state's community colleges are presently divided into four areas (A, B, C, D),  2 in the North and two in the South (see Appendix Q).  This four-area grouping is the formal basis for local senate representation to the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges.  Each area elects its Area Representative who serves for two years on the Executive Committee; all areas then elect two at-large representatives, as well as North (Areas A and B) and South Representatives (Area C and D).  The Area Representatives are responsible for coordinating two area meetings each year.  At these meetings, held each fall and spring prior to the upcoming plenary session, local senate delegates (often the senate president, president-elect, or past president) meet at a college in their area.  They discuss matters of concern to their areas, review proposed resolutions to be voted on at session, and generate their own resolutions.  The local senate delegate represents the positions and perspectives of their local senate at these meetings and gathers information to take back to the local senate for direction before Session.  Area representatives are also available to consult with or visit local senates.  Requests for such visits should be forwarded through the Academic Senate Office. 

C. Role of the Relations with Local Senate Committee

The Relations with Local Senate Committee serves to augment the work of the Executive Committee in its efforts to provide an opportunity to share information on issues of concern at the local and state levels.  While members of the Relations with Local Senates Committee should be conversant with pertinent statutes and strategies for effective academic senates, their work will be primarily as liaisons and conduits for information and requests for assistance.  To contact your local senate committee representative, visit the Academic Senate Website or call the Academic Senate Office. 

D. Senate Institutes

The Academic Senate sponsors institutes to address faculty and local senate needs in a variety of areas.  Most important to you personally is the summer Leadership Institute for local senate leaders (especially for new presidents) as well as the highly successful curriculum institutes that attract college curriculum chairs and many related staff people. Other institutes may focus on technology, the art of teaching, or occupational education.

A tip for local senate presidents:  Review the information about the planned institutes at the beginning of each academic year.  Doing so well in advance will permit you to

• identify the appropriate sources of funding for your faculty to travel and register.
• encourage faculty to plan for and attend these institutes.
• build into senate activities chances to respond to pre-and post-institute study materials, to examine the impact of and implementation strategies for new concepts,  policies.
• seek scholarships from the Academic Senate Office, when appropriate.

For the most current information about institutes and to register for these significant professional development opportunities, visit the Academic Senate Website frequently.

E. Senate Plenary Sessions

For many years, the plenary sessions have been held alternately in the North and South, on Thursday-Saturday in fall and spring.  The general and breakout sessions permit local senates--their officers (who often also serve as their senate's official delegate), curriculum chairs, and other interested faculty--to be apprised about hot topics, to receive new training to bolster the effectiveness of their senate, to select representatives and officers, and to determine Senate positions and provide the Executive Committee its direction through the resolution and voting processes.  The roles of these delegates are detailed in Appendix R. 

1.      Resolutions

As noted earlier, the Academic Senate resolution process is described in detail in Appendix L.  In short, that resolution process works thusly: 

a. Pre-session resolutions are developed by the Executive Committee (through its committees) and submitted for pre-session review at the Area meetings.

b. At the area meetings, pre-session resolutions are discussed, and new resolutions are generated.

c. The Resolutions Committee meets to review all pre-session resolutions and combine, re-word, append, or render moot these resolutions as necessary.

d. Delegates and representatives of the local senates meeting during the session in topic breakouts and give thoughtful consideration to the need for new resolutions and/or amendments.

e. After all session presentations are finished each day, members meet during the resolution breakouts to discuss the need for new resolutions and/or amendments.  These resolution-writing sessions are organized by topic to facilitate discussion.  Each resolution or amendment must be submitted to the Resolutions Chair before the posted deadlines each day.  There are also Area meetings at the Session for discussing, writing, and amending resolutions. 

f. The Resolutions Committee meets again to review all resolutions and amendments and to combine, re-word, append, or render moot the resolutions as necessary. 

g. The resolutions are discussed and voted upon at the general sessions on the last day of the plenary session.

Resolutions passed by the body are promptly published, disseminated, and then acted upon by the Executive Committee.  They are also posted on the Senate's Website.

2.  Local Senate's Use of Academic Senate Resolutions

Local senates can and do make substantial use of these statewide resolutions to guide their own practices, to provide direction and priorities, to provide justifications and support in their discussions within their own consultation procedures and to provide impetus to their own activities.

3.  Disciplines List Special Procedure

Every three years, in accordance with Title 5 Regulations, the Academic Senate reviews the Disciplines List (Minimum Qualifications for faculty teaching in each discipline).  Revisions, additions or modifications are solicited prior to the fall plenary session held in the year preceding the triennial review.  These modifications are widely disseminated to professional organizations as well as faculty and administrative groups; they are also subject to hearings held across the state, and are reviewed by the professional organizations for college administrators and bargaining agents.  At the conclusion of the hearings,  the body votes upon the proposed changes during its spring plenary session. 

Because the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges must consult with the discipline faculty across the state, it is not possible to amend resolutions in support of proposed changes to the disciplines list.  Those proposed changes must either be voted up or down as originally presented.  Any proposed change on the consent calendar may be pulled and voted on separately. 

F. Participation on Academic Senate Committees

The work of the Academic Senate is conducted primarily by its standing and ad hoc committees and by its task forces, often augmented by participants from other governance groups.   Standing Committees (such as the Executive Committee, Legislative, and Standards and Practices) are identified in the Academic Senate Bylaws; their work is ongoing from year to year. Ad hoc committees, by contrast, are created in response to a particular issue or concern and, like task forces, generally have a sunset attached to their operation.  Academic Senate committees are chaired by members of the Executive Committee, and their minutes regularly appear in the agendas of the Academic Senate Executive Committee; committee chairs can submit agenda items calling for action, or seeking advice and consent. 

As it is with your own local academic senate, committee members and chairs representing the Academic Senate on statewide committees have a particular obligation to report regularly to the larger body.  It is essential that all faculty members serving on committees--whether local or statewide--understand they represent the larger senate and its adopted positions and have essential reporting functions; they must defer from making policy decisions or committing California's faculty without first consulting them through regular written reports to the Academic Senate.    

Appendix S contains a list of current Academic Senate committees, as well as the Chancellor's Office Task Forces and committees on which community college faculty serve are appointed to serve.  As it is within your own college, the Academic Senate must appoint all faculty to such committees or working groups.  Should your faculty be asked to serve outside of this procedure, you will want to first contact the Academic Senate Office.  Consider how you or members of your faculty might serve their colleagues throughout the state:  local senate presidents and past presidents frequently have the judiciousness and experience needed to examine academic and professional matters on a grander scale; faculty with occupational or technological knowledge are needed to lend their expertise; even faculty who have been burned out by service at the local level can be invigorated by and can energize statewide committee membership.  Appendix T is a Nomination/Application Form to indicate your interest or to nominate another faculty member for such service.

G. Nominations for Statewide Awards and Service 

1. Academic Senate Awards    

The Academic Senate presents three major awards each year.  Local senates are responsible for nominating worthy individuals and for preparing much of the nomination materials.  As senate president, you will need to be watchful for the announcements that open the nomination period, and you must adhere to the rigid and often compressed timelines for submission.  These awards, however, honor the faculty and colleges of all nominees for these three awards: 

The Jonah Laroche Scholarship  (awarded to three students annually for exceptional accomplishments; students must have a 3.0 GPA and be from a group historically underrepresented in higher education--ethnic minorities, women and persons with disabilities)

The Hayward Award  (awarded annually to four faculty for commitment to education; service to students' access and success; and service to the institution through participation in professional and/or student activities)

The Regina Stanback-Stroud Award (awarded annually to a faculty member making special contributions in the area of student success for diverse students)

Occasionally you will also be asked to consider nominating your campus' exemplary programs or successful ventures in support of students.  These nominations often carry prestige and recognition, and sometimes are given monetary reward; nominating your programs is a means by which to showcase them and to garner due recognition for hardworking faculty and staff.  Often those programs so nominated become widely emulated by others.  Thus, you and your senate have a solemn obligation to consider these requests and to respond to them honestly and fully when the nomination is warranted.   

2.  Service to the Board of Governors

The Board of Governors includes two faculty, each serving a two-year term.  Local academic senates or individuals may nominate appropriate candidates for consideration.  As the two terms are staggered, the Academic Senate seeks nominations each September.  These nominations are first considered by the Standards and Practices Committee who forward the names of finalists to the Executive Committee; that committee then interviews the finalists and, according to statute, sends to the Governor three candidates from whom he or she shall select the new Board member.  Because of the importance of these faculty positions, the Academic Senate is best served by faculty members who have considerable statewide experience and who have demonstrated a commitment to effective participatory governance.

H. Consultation Process

The voice of the your local senate is expressed through the resolution process (Appendix L) and gives direction to the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate for Community Colleges.  In turn, the collective will of the body and the voice of the California community college faculty regarding systemwide academic and professional matters is carried to the Board of Governors.  To represent your voice, the following must occur:

• Local senates must empower their voting delegates to represent their concerns and will.

• Delegates must articulate that will or those concerns, using the resolution process at the plenary session to give direction to the Executive Committee.

• The Executive Committee, through its delegates to the Consultation Council, must then carry those directives into the consultation process (Appendix P). 

Concluding Thoughts

It is natural to feel somewhat overwhelmed by the requirements of the new job you've take on as local senate president, and you may even feel overwhelmed by this handbook!

Try to focus on the requirements at your college, and then pick a couple of your senate's goals to adopt them as your own.  You can even keep working on them after your term is up.  Use this handbook to remind you of new leadership opportunities and to help you find answers to the inevitable questions you will face.  Enjoy the moment, however, and know that your Academic Senate for California Community Colleges and its resources are here to empower you and your senate.  It's even acceptable to look forward to the moment when you become past president and sage advisor to your senate and to the time when your continued service statewide acknowledges you as the expert you've become.