CHAPARRAL

The Senate recessed from early December until late January (shortly after this column was written.)  Consequently, there is not a great deal to report in terms of actions taken.  Rather, I can offer a heads-up of what to expect in the spring.

Senate electorate meeting
     The Senate constitution provides for at least one annual meeting of the Senate electorate, i.e., all faculty.  For the last two years the topic has been the transition to the new administration.  Likely topics for this spring may include the following:

● Interpretation of technical assistance:  on January 30, representatives from the Community College League of California (an association representing community college trustees and presidents) and the Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges (aka the state Academic Senate) will be facilitating a workshop to promote effective shared governance at the college.  By the spring semester we should receive a report from the two representatives.  We will circulate that report for discussion and possible action.

● Online election of at-large Senators:  the Senate will conduct its annual election of at-large Senators this year in an online format.  The hope here is to be a little greener by reducing the use of paper as well as to make the act of voting more convenient.  At the same time, we aim to maintain or improve upon the level of confidentiality achieved in the past.

Accreditation
     The accreditation process is advancing in preparation for the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges site visit a year from this spring.  Many of you were involved in the collection of evidence for the four accreditation standards and now, under the leadership of Roger Bowerman, the self-study report will be produced.  A draft should be ready to go out to selected readers for editing.  (These editing teams will be assembled during the winter.)  After editing, a copy of the draft will be made available to the wider campus.

Formation of a joint task force with the Academic Senate of Los Angeles City College
     As many of you know, LACC is building a satellite campus at the old VanDeKamp bakery in Atwater Village (abundantly visible from the 2 freeway.)  The site will be 60,000 square feet with twenty-eight classrooms.  Naturally, there is concern on the main and Garfield campuses about the potential for enrollment decline.  In December, representatives from GCC, LACC, and the Los Angeles Community College district met and agreed to let the two college Senates take the lead in coming up with an instructional services agreement to coordinate offerings so as to encourage a synergistic rather than cannibalistic outcome.

Miscellaneous items likely to see Senate action

● Potential changes to the process and scheduling of program review

● Creation of new governance committees to coordinate planning and to approve new
Career and Technical Education programs

● Consideration of our graduation requirements and their impact on student success

● Consideration of the college’s Basic Skills improvement rate as presented in the GCC Accountability report presented to the Board of Trustees in December

● Dealing with the academic and professional consequences of the state fiscal crisis

     The Senate Executive will also be busy making appointments to governance committees to fill the many vacancies created by retirements last semester.  Many of these retirees were among the most active faculty on campus and will be sorely missed.  Accordingly, we will need faculty to step forward to assure the vitality of our shared governance system.

     Finally, remember that the Senate ordinarily meets the first and third Thursdays of the month at Los Robles 105 from 1:15-3 p.m.  Our meeting dates in the spring are:  March 5 and 19; April 2, and May 7 and 21.  The Senate website is: http://www.glendale.edu/senate/. And the Senate telephone extension is 5394. &

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