A colleague recently asked whether or not a standing shared governance committee could make, rule, and un-make its own sub-committees autonomously of the reigning shared governance body. Certainly this is going to depend on the existing policies and bylaws of the board and shared governance body(ies).
It's autumn again. time to meet new students, catch up on summer news with colleagues, and-plan for your first Academic Senate meetings! Oh the tasks that lie ahead for our senates! what's the hot topic on your campus? Enrollment shifts? Lack of faculty, staffing, equipment or facilities? Challenging relationships between the faculty and administrators, the board or the community? how about the status of hiring?
Most of us are just coming back from summer break and the California Legislature is about to go on break, but they call it "interim recess." The Legislature operates on a two-year session cycle and they are just completing the first year of the 2005-06 legislative session. September 9 is the deadline for both the assembly and senate houses to pass bills and October 9 is the deadline for the Governor to sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature.
Do any of you remember when you received faculty development funds from the state? Yes, it seems like it was only a few years ago that we lost the state funding. what has happened at your college since the budget cuts? Is your local senate abiding by its role in faculty development? In the next few months expect a survey to come to your local campus senate office asking about how your college is dealing with faculty development. The rumor is that many of you are doing great things with very little to no money.
The ASCCC Curriculum institute held this July was an amazing event, to be sure! I was fortunate to have been able to present with several knowledgeable folks regarding distance education and the curriculum process. In the beginning of a session on this topic, we asked the participants to write their questions down and then to give them to us to respond to. While I think we hit most of them, I did bring them home and found several great questions that I wasn't sure we answered that day. This article, then, is an effort to do just that.
This year's Curriculum institute employed an experimental approach that was well-received; the emphasis on collaboration allowed participants ample opportunity to share their experiences and provided the facilitators with a forum that enabled them to rapidly change directions and respond to the needs of the participants. Alas, however, my experience was not without its downside.
The current road to changes in Title 5 to revise the graduation requirements for the Associate's Degree began with a resolution in Fall 2001 calling for a review of the mathematics and english requirements for graduation. Breakouts to discuss the implications and issues were held at Academic Senate Plenary Sessions from Fall 2002 through Fall 2004. Two colloquia were held in Spring 2004, at which testimony was solicited that helped inform the development of a discussion paper, disseminated Fall 2004 .
Dear Julie,
The 2009-10 state budget devastated many college budgets, and we understood that the Academic Senate received a budget reduction as well. Will the Senate still be able to support local senates? How will your budget cuts affect us?
Just Wondering
Dear J.W.,
In the past several years, the body of the Academic Senate passed two similar resolutions on the topic of Reading Competency. This past year, a small group of reading faculty (Dianne McKay of Mission College, Anne Argyriou of De Anza College, and Tim Brown of Riverside Community College) and I developed a plan to complete those resolutions. This article describes the work done.
Background information:
Norbert Bischof passed away on August 29, 2009. While his students and colleagues in the Peralta Community College District will remember his nearly 50 years of service to their district as a faculty leader and as an outstanding member of the mathematics and philosophy faculty, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges remembers Norbert largely for his vision and engagement, both of which have made the Academic Senate what it is today.