May

In the past few years, many faculty members in the California community colleges have seen their professional development programs cannibalized.  While administrators and boards recognize that professional development is an essential part of faculty responsibilities, it is often one of the first things that is cut or eliminated whenever budget concerns arise.  For evidence of this unfortunate tendency, one only needs to consider the lack of funding that accompanied the most recent attempt to bring Professional Development to the fore, AB 2558 (Williams, 2014), which was signed into law in S

A few years ago, I volunteered to read applications for the Hayward Award. I had no idea what to expect, but I was told that it would be a great experience. While reading the applications, I got a glimpse into some of the amazing work that other faculty were doing at their colleges. Reading those applications provided me with an opportunity to see the work being done by other amazing faculty and it provided me with an incentive to do even more at my college.

This Rostrum article is not intended to be exhaustive review of literature and research but rather to serve as a working document that can help guide the efforts of academic senate leaders.  The purpose is to discuss the importance of a diverse faculty and its positive impact on our student body.  It should serve as a beginning to this discussion and as a call to action for local senates as they question their status quo in regard to hiring practices and the current makeup of their local senate leadership. 

On Saturday, April 11, at the 2015 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session, the delegates considered Resolution 1.06 S15, In Pursuit of a more Inclusive and Transparent ASCCC.  The stated intent of this resolution was to create a process for the ASCCC that provided greater transparency and promoted more diversity regarding the manner in which appointments are made to Academic Senate standing committees, task forces, ad hoc groups, and Chancellor’s Office groups.

During the 2014 ASCCC Fall Plenary, delegates passed Resolution 07.06, Re-enrollment Information for Admissions and Records Staff.  This resolution was a response to concerns raised by career technical education (CTE) faculty that colleges are struggling to secure permission for students to re-enroll in a course due to a significant change in industry standards or licensure or due to a legally mandated requirement (Title 5 §55040 (b) (8 and 9)).

For many years, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has urged local senate presidents to see themselves as working on the same level as their college presidents or chancellors.  The logic behind this philosophy is not an attempt to assert power or contest authority, but rather to encourage the senate presidents to see their relationships with administrative leaders as partnerships.

Have you ever been to the arcade where the water pistols are used to shuffle the horses along on a race? It seems like it is always the same two horses neck and neck for the win. If these two horses represented questions from the field regarding minimum qualifications, they would be named equivalencies and interdisciplinary. This article focuses on the latter of the two in a FAQ format.

Are interdisciplinary questions curriculum questions or minimum qualifications (MQ) questions?

At the Academic Senate’s Student Success: Basic Skills Across the Curriculum Institute, one breakout was on hiring faculty and what we can do to ensure that we hire the “right” faculty – whomever that might be. While a discussion of the how and what to do was planned, what emerged from this interactive breakout was a new concept – viewing the faculty hiring process, from beginning to end, like a really good course outline – integrated, purposeful, comprehensive, and explicitly planned.

In the fall semester of 2010, my college began a mentorship program for graduate students interested in becoming community college faculty. I was asked to work with Lee, a very bright young woman in the final semester of her M.A. program. Lee had no previous teaching experience or pedagogical training, but she had tremendous enthusiasm and excellent potential. She sat in on my classes and office hours throughout the semester, discussed assignments, lessons, and classroom procedures with me, and eventually, with my supervision, presented several different types of lessons in class.

Plenary Session Presentation