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Here’s an update on recent
actions and other items looming on the Senate’s agenda.
So far this semester, the
Senate:
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Voted to increase the term of
its appointees to Strategic Master Plan Team A from one to three
years. The Senate appointees were also modified to include two
representatives from Student Services.
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Defined programs for the
purpose of student learning outcomes based on the definition of
the Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges and the
Research and Planning Group. That definition is as follows:
“Cohesive sets of courses that lead to degrees and certificates
along with student services and with administrative units are
programs. Divisions may further delineate and define programs
based on their assessment needs.”
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Heard from President Lindsay
and Vice Presidents Mirch and Perez, who were invited to come
for questions and discussion. We expect Trustee Peroomian, the
chair of the Board, at our October 15 meeting.
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Agreed to form a joint task
force with the Academic Affairs committee to review board
policies and administrative regulations in the academic area.
Issues to be taken up in the
near future include:
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Consideration of and input to
the self study for accreditation. This is part of the larger
consideration of the self study by the college’s standing
committees, as well as individual faculty, staff, administrators
and students.
-
A response to the
facilitation workshops, campus forum and written report from the
team of John Nixon and Phil Maynard. Possible action being
bandied about includes a retreat for the Board and faculty
leaders to talk directly about their respective roles.
A reconsideration of the Quality in Distance Education task
force report, which first came to the Senate in early September.
The task force made recommendations about mandatory training of
faculty before they taught distance education courses,
accessibility issues, student conduct, etc. The Senate was
interested, among other things, in the possibility of students
taking a one-unit preparation course to get them ready for
distance education, workshops for counselors about distance
education, and the potential budgetary impact of the expansion
of such courses.
-
A revisiting of the
graduation requirements for the Associate’s degrees, as well as
certification of requirements for transfer to Cal State and UC.
A Senate task force will compare the college’s graduation
requirements, transfer requirements, numbers of degrees and
certificates awarded, etc. to other community colleges. A
discussion of the relation of our requirements to our
institutional learning outcomes and accreditation standards is
also likely. The Senate recently had a preview of this
discussion when it considered “double-counting” the U.S.
Institutions and American History requirements to meet the CSU
Breadth social science requirements. (This particular issue was
referred to the task force which we expect to report in
November.) That discussion was impressive in its probing
analysis of the meaning of graduation requirements, so the wider
debate should be even more illuminating. It is possible that
this topic will be the subject of a Senate electorate meeting,
i.e., a meeting of all faculty.
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A recommendation that the
Mutual Gains document (an agreement between the Senate and the
Academic Affairs about the division of labor on academic and
professional matters) be incorporated as an administrative
regulation. The Senate has also asked the Governance Review
committee to look into incorporating the entire Governance
document as an administrative regulation as well. You can find
those documents at http://www.glendale.edu/senate/mutualgains/Mutual%20Gains%20revised%20Feb08.pdf
and
http://www.glendale.edu/staff/governance/governance%20document/Govdoc2008.pdf
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A Technology and Aviation
division request that the Senate add Environmental Technologies
to the college’s Disciplines List.
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A report from the Pilot
Training Enhancement/Sunset task force. The task force
recommended that the program undergo enhancement. You can find
the Enhancement policy at:
http://www.glendale.edu/senate/Enhancement-Sunset%20%20Policy.pdf
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A report from the tenure
track task force (a joint task force with the Guild) on
revisions to the contract with regard to tenure track processes.
The Senate will review the report and no doubt have
recommendations for subsequent negotiations with the district.
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Reports from task forces on
Los Angeles City College’s Atwater campus and the possibility of
a Middle College High School. The latter will probably report
this semester. The former has been on hold while our
counterparts at LACC’s Senate form their half of the joint
committee.
New issues are constantly
bubbling up to the surface, so watch this space for further
developments!
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