| Speaking
of the Senate by Glenn De Lange |
 Glenn De Lange, President, Academic Senate |
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These
are the dog days when the Academic Senate puts its shoulder to the
grindstone as it forms the task forces that do the detailed work of the
Academic Senate. Our task
forces are addressing a wide variety of academic and professional
issues.
Three of last year’s task forces are near conclusion of their
work: The Adjunct Hiring
Procedures task force and Budget Process Revision Task Force both have
been discussed in divisions and are in their final stages of resolution.
The Student Success Task Force, which has been examining the
effect of our compressed schedule on student success, has submitted its
final report for senate approval. The
report soon will be available on the Academic Senate web site. This year the senate is examining a
variety of academic and professional issues: College Services Hiring Allocations—The
senate recently has developed a procedure for providing faculty input
into the process of assigning new hires to programs.
This task force will develop a parallel procedure for College
Services. Mutual Gains—AB
1725 empowers local academic senates with broad powers. The ten specific powers given local senates are: ¾ curriculum,
including establishing prerequisites, ¾ degree
and certificate requirements, ¾ grading
policies, ¾ educational
program development, ¾ standards
or polices regarding student preparation and success, ¾ college
governance structures, as related to faculty roles, ¾ faculty
roles and involvement in accreditation processes, ¾
policies for faculty professional development activities, ¾ processes
for program review, ¾ processes
for instructional planning and budget development.
The local senates may also be empowered with other academic and
professional matters as mutually agreed upon.
This law was written assuming the “dean” rather than
“division chair” management structure.
Thus, Glendale College has negotiated a mutual sharing of these
powers to accommodate its division chair structure.
This document is called the “Mutual Gains” document.
This task force will reexamine the mutual gains document to
ensure that it accurately reflects current practice at Glendale College. Program Sunset Policy—The
state requires that all community colleges have in place a policy for
program discontinuance. This
requirement has existed for ten years.
The academic senate has developed a policy that (1) provides
criteria for identifying “at risk” programs, (2) develops a plan and
provides the resources for program improvement, and provides a process
for developing a consensus when programs should be discontinued.
If such a plan is in place, emergency program elimination plans
should not be necessary. Non-contractual Grievance—Our
current grievance policies for non-contractual issues date back to the
1970s. This task force will
work with the administration, guild, and grievance officers to review
and update these policies. Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)—This
has been, and will continue to be a hot button for academic senates
across the state. The statewide senate stance continues to be that
assessment of student learning outcomes is untested (Shouldn’t someone
do a study that clearly demonstrates that the assessment of SLOs leads
to improved SLOs?), an intrusion into academic freedom, an unfunded
mandate. Locally, we face
the imposition of college-wide assessment (accreditation) based on the
use of SLO measurement to drive institutional improvement.
Facing this dilemma, the Academic Senate has developed a task
force that will examine how to address SLOs in a manner that will answer
the 2004 Accreditation Standards while respecting our local culture and
campus-wide interests. Planning—
During the spring semester we will examine the composition of our Master
Plan Task Force and Steering Committee.
This task force will develop clear guidelines for the composition
of these two vital campus entities. Senate
task forces rely on broad campus input and participation.
The task forces, through the full senate, work with campus-wide
governance structures to develop policies, processes and guidelines, and
to clarify “who is in charge” of the complex academic and
professional issues that confront our college community.
The senate is thankful to all the college personnel who volunteer
professional time to make these task forces work.& |
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