Local Senates

Resolved that the Academic Senate Relations With Local Senates Committee study the reassigned time needs of local faculty senate leaders and report its recommendations at the1987 Spring Conference.

Resolved that the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges recommend that the Chief Executive Officers Organization urge its constituent members to grant local academic senate officers and/or major committee chairs adequate reassigned time to fulfill their responsibilities in the governance process.

Resolved that the Academic Senate Relations with Local Senates Committee continue to study ways to facilitate local senates' access to information, both at the state and local levels.

Resolved that the Academic Senate Relations With Local Senates Committee develop a list of faculty experts on academic and professional issues for use by local senates.

Whereas there is an increasing call at all levels for faculty to become more involved in the governance of community colleges, and

Whereas a greater involvement in governance means more work for community college faculty, who generally find themselves already very busy with the responsibilities of teaching and working with students, and

Whereas numbers of full-time faculty members are diminishing at many community colleges, and

Whereas some faculty have never worked at a college which assigned them a meaningful role in governance, and

Whereas Title 5 regulations have long stated that local academic senates represent the faculty in academic and professional matters which clearly include curriculum, and

Whereas new Title 5 regulations empower local senates to establish curriculum committees by mutual agreement with local administrators,

Whereas the empowerment of academic senates with regard to curricular and other professional matters implies the assumption of further responsibilities by the faculty, and

Whereas these responsibilities necessitate staff development,

Resolved that the Academic Senate establish a joint committee of members of the Research Committee and the Local Senates Committee to initiate systematic research as well as faculty training on internal governance in community colleges, with primary emphasis on curricular matters, and

Resolved that the following replace the original motion:

Whereas local senates anticipate greatly increased responsibilities and duties, and

Whereas the present duties and responsibilities of local senates are already overwhelming,

Resolved that each local academic senate be encouraged to request, and that chief executive officers be encouraged to provide, at least one full FTE of reassigned time to be distributed as the local senate determines among its officers and committee chairs, if such reassigned time is not already provided.

Whereas, according to the Chancellor's recent "Study on Part-Time Instruction," six of ten California Community College faculty members teach part-time (less than 60 percent load) and teach one-third of all college class hours, and

Whereas the primary function of the academic senate is, as the representative of the faculty, to make recommendations to administration and to local governing boards with respect to academic and professional matters (Title 5), and