CHAPARRAL

It has been a while since I’ve written about recent Senate actions, so here goes!

 Middle College High School
      The Senate approved a report proposing a middle college high school on campus with the proviso that under present budget conditions, funding for the program, including classroom space, would have to come from the Glendale Unified School District.  In a middle college high school program, high school students attend both high school and college classes at the same time.  Typically the program is housed on the college campus.  The task force determined that under the right conditions such a program could be academically sound.  Those conditions include targeting students with high academic potential, careful screening of students to avoid discipline issues, and initially restricting the program to 11^th and 12^th graders (and assessing the program before possible expansion to 9^th and 10^th graders.)  The report also advises the district to conduct a thorough cost/benefit analysis before proceeding.

     You may have noticed an e-mail from me citing an article in The New York Times about such programs.  Here’s the link again:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/education/08school.html?ref=us 

Graduation Requirements
     In March the Senate will take up a report on graduation requirements.  The task force will present alternatives to the Senate to maintain current requirements, reduce requirements or increase requirements.  The task force also looked at the college’s philosophy of the associate’s degree, a key consideration in this debate. 

     In the fall, the Senate addressed a related issue when it addressed the now-defunct “transfer” associate’s degree, i.e., a degree granted by GCC when students fulfilled the IGETC requirements for the UC and CSU systems.  The state community college system ended the awarding of such degrees as of fall, 2008.  However, students who started at Glendale College before that date still have the catalog rights to that degree.  This gets pretty technical so here’s the exact Senate motion: 

[The Senate moves] to allow double counting of the American Institutions, State and Local Governments, and American History graduation requirements in areas 3 and 4 of the IGETC retroactive to fall 2007 for the purposes of fulfilling the requirements for both the UC and CSU versions of the AA transfer IGETC degree.

     The argument was presented that some students were able to circumvent the additional courses in areas 3 and 4 by declaring they were going to transfer to UC when in fact they were really bound for CSU.  I know this makes my head spin, so if you are mystified by this, I suggest you talk to your senator, because space does not permit a further elaboration.  The counseling faculty senators, Richard Cortes and Greg Perkins, are particularly expert in these matters.

     It is very likely that the Senate will schedule an electorate meeting (i.e., a meeting of all college faculty) in the spring to discuss both the graduation requirement report and the middle college high school proposal. 

Religious Practices
     In response to a query from the administration, the Senate also passed a motion on student absences for religious reasons.  The motion reads:

Glendale Community College recognizes and respects students’ religious practices.  Instructors will excuse student absences for religious holidays to the same extent any other student absences would be considered excused. Students may be required to make up missed work.  This policy is to be added  to the faculty handbook.

     Thus, if you have a policy for excusing absences and makeup work for any reason, you must extend this option to students who miss class for religious observances.  The Senate requested a legal opinion from the district’s attorneys and adopted language that in its view was least onerous to faculty.

Course Substitutions
     The Senate recommended changes to Administrative Regulation 5119 (Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities.)  That regulation sets up a process that includes determining if a course substitution is appropriate when requested by a student with a verified disability.  The Senate acted to strengthen representation of the division of the course in question (i.e., the one for which there would be a substitution.)  Again the Senate acted after consulting with the district’s attorneys for the law in this area.  The Senate’s recommendation will be considered by the Student Affairs committee where the revision process
originated.

Recording in Classrooms
     The Senate also gave input on another proposed change to Administrative Regulation 5420 (Standards of Student Conduct.)  The Student Affairs committee had suggested the following amendment to the regulation:

The use of any electronic listening or recording device in any classroom [is prohibited] without the prior consent of the instructor, except as necessary to provide reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities.

     The Senate asked the Student Affairs committee to advise the faculty of the implications of choosing to give their consent to such recording.  The Senate was concerned that such permission might result in posting recordings on the web or possibly violating the privacy rights of other students in the class.

Suggestions in Response to the Technical Assistance Report
     You will recall that in November of last year, the college received a report from a team of consultants on campus climate and shared governance practices. 

The Senate motion reads thusly:

The Senate response to the Technical Assistance Report of November 2009 is as follows:

1. In order to promote understanding of roles and responsibilities between the Board and the CSEA, Guild & Senate during Board meetings, the Senate
recommends:

a. The Board may request input from CSEA, Guild & Senate on any item on the agenda;

b. CSEA, Guild & Senate may request to give input on any item on the agenda;

c. CSEA, Guild & Senate may comment on any item on a past, present or future Board agenda during their respective communications, as well as give their usual reports on their constituency groups;

d. In the event that during communications, CSEA, Guild & Senate wish to respond to comments made by the Board or the administration, they may do so during the closing “Comments from the Audience” (but they may remain at the dais.)

2. The Senate recommends that trustees attend Community College League of California leadership development workshops at least once every two years and within the first year of being newly elected.
 

3. The Senate affirms that students, faculty, staff, administrators, trustees and the public are welcome to Senate meetings.
 

4. The Senate recognizes that the Board controls its own agenda.  Items arising from governance committees and the administration, however, must be first approved by the Campus Executive committee, with the exception for urgent actions as noted in the Governance Document.  As dictated by law, the Senate retains the right to put items on the Board’s agenda.

     This policy went to the Campus Executive committee which will most likely incorporate it into a resolution for Board of Trustee consideration.

Presidential Evaluation Policy
     The Senate proposed a new board policy for the evaluation of the superintendent/president which would formally include input to the Board of Trustees from college constituency groups (the executives of the ASGCC, CSEA, the Senate, the Guild, and the Administrative Cabinet) as well as survey 10% of the faculty, staff and managers every two years.  In the off year, the evaluation would be made by the Board of Trustees alone.  The Board of Trustees has already had one reading of the policy and will reach a decision on it by the March meeting.

Miscellaneous

     The Senate recommended:

• that a student equity coordinator position be given released time and referred the matter to the RT/EP committee;

• that the Mutual Gains document and the Governance document be formally incorporated as administrative regulations;

• that a task force be established to enhance the evaluation of faculty (adjunct, tenured and tenure track) by clarifying the evaluation process, establishing best practices, the possible creation of a manual, etc.

Upcoming Items

• Senate Elections
  The Senate will be conducting its elections in the spring.  There will be four at-large positions up for election, including the adjunct senator.  Four divisions are also scheduled to elect their faculty to division seats.  A notice will go out early in the spring advising the campus of the process.
   
• Accreditation
  The accreditation process moves into its final phase this spring with the site team scheduled to visit between March 15 and 18.  The team will be interviewing students, administrators, classified and faculty and also be holding open meetings on the 16^th and 17^th.  If you have not already read the self study, now is the time to do so!  http://netra.glendale.edu/accreditation/GCC_AccreditationReport.pdf .

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