2017

Emeritus Status for Paul Setziol

Whereas, The Bylaws of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges include procedures and criteria for conferring the status of senator emeritus on individuals;

Whereas, Paul Setziol has satisfied those requirements as a retired faculty member of the California Community College system who has completed the required five (5) years of significant service to the Academic Senate:

Academic Senate Annual Report 2017

Over the past two years, the Academic Senate has been implementing the Strategic Plan adopted by the delegates at the Spring 2015 Plenary Session. As we move forward in the third and final year of the plan, this annual report reflects last year’s accomplishments and provides updates on the goals and priorities identified by the ASCCC Executive Committee for the 2016-17 year.

The Value of Time: Going on Sabbatical? Try OER

The Greek philosopher Theophrastrus once said: “Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” As faculty, we often spend our time on professional development activities. Workshops, research projects, and sabbaticals support our personal and professional growth and lead to improvements in our students’ achievement and learning. One way to invest our professional development time is to work toward the implementation of Open Educational Resources (OER) in your classes.

Student Learning Outcomes: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?

In 2002, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) moved from ten standards to four standards with subsections. One of the major changes was a focus on student learning outcomes (SLOs). At that time, SLOs and the idea of SLO assessment were new to California community colleges; even though assessing student learning was not new to faculty, the systematic cycle of documenting SLO assessment was.

CTE Advisory Committees: Making Them Work for You!

With the inception of the California Community College’s Doing What Matters for Jobs and the Economy initiatives, an urgent emphasis has been placed on maximizing all things related to career technical education (CTE), including efficiently run advisory committee meetings. While this emphasis may seem like yet another hoop through which faculty are asked to jump, these meetings can provide some valuable insight into program need and industry trends. This article will provide suggested practices and tips to maximize the use of your advisory committees.

DACA – Where Are We Now?

Students always face challenges at the start of the fall term: what courses to take; where to find parking; how to ensure that they receive financial aid, or Board of Governors (BoG) fee waivers; or whatever else they may require to be able to balance college and life. This fall, many of our students face an additional challenge: the threat of arrest and/or deportation due to the United States’ Attorney General’s announcement of the government’s intent to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, within the next six months.

Building a Deeper Career Education Candidate Pool--Using Faculty Equivalency Processes More Effectively

With the fall term in full swing, local senates are developing their recommendations for faculty hiring priorities. Given the recent attention to expanding career education[1] in the California community colleges, it is increasingly urgent that we address the need to recruit and hire more career education faculty with industry experience, including any challenges associated with fulfilling that need. When used effectively, the equivalency process should play an important and complementary role to the hiring process.

Focus on Transfer: ADTs, UCTP Degrees, and Community College Bachelor’s Degree Programs

There has been much work regarding the transfer pathways for our students to four-year institutions over the last year. At its September 2017 meeting, the Board of Governors adopted a Vision for Success with specific goals, including “increasing by 35% the number of CCC [California community college] students system-wide transferring annually to a UC or CSU.” As guided pathway programs are considered in the structure of our institutions, transfer will continue to be a significant area of focus.

TOP Code Alignment Project and Impacts on Local Coding

If you have ever worked with Taxonomy of Program (TOP) codes before, you likely encountered frustration, either due to a lack of sufficient details about which programs would be appropriate to the code, or because there was no code that really fit the program. To address these challenges, the TOP Code Alignment Project developed a process to work with local colleges to aid in the identification of appropriate codes. This process engages discipline faculty in the local review of TOP codes while improving accuracy in all statewide data tracking systems.

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