The Academic Senate for CCC held its 29th Fall Plenary Session at the LAX Marriott Hotel October 30 - November 1. Over 350 people attended the session representing 107 Community College faculty. The participants addressed a number of important issues during the 41 breakouts presented by the ASCCC Executive Committee. This year's theme, Access And Excellence: The Primary Role Of Faculty, evoked a variety of topics such as: Changes in "regular personal student contact" requirement for distance education in Title 5; rewriting of the Education Code as being done by the Chancellor's Office; implementing the new CalWORKS legislation; implementing Prop. 209; and program discontinuance.
Although the session was made up predominately of faculty, other participants included Board of Governors members David Lawrence, Vishwas More, Phil Forhan, Julia Wu, Yvonne Boddle, Pat Siever, and CC Chancellor Tom Nussbaum and a number of his staff. This added some counter discussion (if not unifying points of view) to the three days of diverse, informative and often provocative educational activities. Pat Siever, new Board of Governors member, past VP ASCCC and Professor of History in the LACCD, received a standing ovation after an inspiring speech at the Friday luncheon. As many faculty commented, it was good to have one of our own as a member of the Board of Governors in attendance at our Fall Session. Other speakers included: Jacqueline Woods, Liaison for Community Colleges; David Katz, Global Education Industry Manager for 3Com Corporation; and Sally M. Havice, California State Assemblyperson. Anthony Gamble, Senate President, West LA College gave the opening welcome on Thursday.
The positions that the Senate takes on important statewide issues ultimately affecting local college concerns were informed at the traditional voting session on Saturday. This year 86 resolutions were presented. The final breakdown on the disposition of the resolutions was: 63 adopted, 2 non-urgent, 10 failed, 5 referred to the Executive Committee, 3 moot, 2 withdrawn, and 1 called out of order. As of this writing the Fall 97 resolutions in final form have been mailed to faculty Senate Presidents at each college statewide and should be available for your examination.
Although a lot of work was accomplished during the three days, there was time for participants to unwind and have a little fun. The Thursday night dinner and entertainment, which included the outstanding dance performance by the Lula Washington Dance Troupe, was enjoyed by all of us. The Halloween party after dinner included a "howling" dance performance by the Executive Committee. The performance began as a ghoulish resurrection from an imaginary cemetery where members drifted into the audience and dragged bystanders back onto the dance floor. Exec. members who anticipated foul play (ask Len Price about this) hid while the others gathered for the pre-dance instructions. It was a hoot!