Academic Senate MINUTES Monday, January 23, 2017 3:00 4:45 p.m. Room 1108 Executive Committee Members Present x Cathy Anderson x Kate Ashbey Keith Brookshaw Toni Cancilla x Katy Cottrell x James Crockett x Cheryl Cruse x Leo Fong x Keith Foust x Lenore Frigo x Scott Gordon x Robb Lightfoot x Jennifer McCandless x Sara McCurry x Susan Meacham x Ray Nicholas x Brian Spillane x Chuck Spotts x Linda Thomas x Craig Thompson x Joanne Tippin x Susan Westler x Don Cingrani (N/V) Ron Marley (N/V) x Morris Rodrigue (N/V) Other Faculty Present Guests x Stacey Bartlett x Will Breitbach x Tim Johnston 1. Call to order: Meeting was called to order at 3:03 p.m. 2. Approval of Minutes (Attachment) December 12, 2016: a. Susan Westler moved to approve the December minutes; seconded by Kate Ashbey. Motion carried unanimously. 1
3. Opportunity for Public Comment a. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons desiring to address the Executive Committee on any matter not on the agenda. No action will be taken. Speakers are limited to three minutes. 4. Reports a. Report from the Academic Senate President (Cathy Anderson) i. No report. b. Report from Instructional Council (Susan Meacham) i. Because Susan s teaching schedule this semester prevents her from attending Senate meetings, she sent Cathy her report on Instructional Council. The meeting last week was cancelled, but Instructional Council s focus currently is on prioritizing budget initiatives. c. Report from College Council (Morris Rodrigue or Cathy Anderson) i. No report. d. Reports from Standing Subcommittees (Reports are given by the Co-Chair or delegate as i. Curriculum Council (Co-Chair: Ron Marley) ii. Scholastic Standards Committee (Co-Chair: Don Cingrani) iii. Faculty Excellence Committee (Co-Chair: Teresa Doyle) iv. SLO Committee (Co-Chair: Sara McCurry) 1. Sara reported that the committee has been meeting with division deans and department coordinators to ensure that their faculty know what the requirements are for SLOs this semester. There will be a series of workshops this semester on helping faculty update and revise their SLOs, and the schedule for these should be out next week. The Learning Outcomes Resource Center webpage will be up and running on the college s website next week also. v. General Education Committee (Co-Chair: Carolyn Borg) e. Reports from Joint Committees (Reports are given by the Co-Chair or delegate as i. Distance Education Committee (Co-Chair: Anthony Eckhart) ii. Student Success Committee (Co-Chair: Teresa Doyle) f. Reports from Affiliate Committees (Reports are given by the Co-Chair or delegate as i. Textbook Committee (Co-Chair: Heather Wylie) 5. Informational Items a. Senate Representatives for Spring 2017 (1 attachment) 2
i. Cathy provided an update on Senate membership for this semester. She was pleased that all positions have been filled. Chuck Spotts is now the Math representative; Cheryl Cruse is the new Library representative; Robb Lightfoot is back, replacing Terry Turner, and serving as Past President; Craig Thompson is now the PEAT representative; Linda Thomas is the HSUP representative for the spring; Jennifer McCandless is back this semester as an at-large representative; Kate Ashbey will substitute for Kathryn Gessner-Calkins, who is on sabbatical this semester; Sara McCurry is replacing Linda Thomas as an at-large representative. 6. Discussion/Action items a. BP 4030 2 nd Reading (1 attachment) i. Cathy provided a review of the changes made to BP 4030 from the November 28 th meeting. Scott Gordon moved to approve BP 4030; seconded by Jennifer McCandless. Robb Lightfoot was concerned about the phrase there are other recognized views in part 2.b and how it would be interpreted. Don Cingrani asserted that the statement that immediately follows, [the instructor] carefully distinguishes between personal opinion and documented fact, makes a distinction between individual opinions and factual evidence. Kate Ashbey proposed removing the word recognized from the phrase other recognized views ; Robb agreed with this change in part 2.b. Scott s motion was amended to reflect this. Lenore Frigo noted that the distinction between personal opinion and documented fact was too extreme and broadly drawn; she acknowledged the importance of professional opinion or professional judgment within particular disciplines. She gave as an example views within the field of psychology that clash with popular views, and she suggested including mention of professional standards ; adding to this, Jennifer McCandless proposed the phrase accepted views and theories within a discipline. Sara McCurry suggested removing the second sentence in part 2.b entirely; she believed that the first sentence alone is sufficient. Some also argued that the first and last sentences in part 2.b would be sufficient, with the word personal added to qualify the word opinion, with the full wording being: That the instructor avoids prejudicial indoctrination. He/she avoids imposing his/her personal opinion regarding controversial topics through the pressure of his/her authority in the classroom. Scott Gordon amended his motion to reflect these two changes to part 2.b. Robb Lightfoot raised concern about the word indoctrination in the first sentence of part 2.b and part 2.c. Lenore Frigo proposed replacing the word teacher with instructor in part 2.d. Scott Gordon amended his motion to reflect this change in wording. Chuck Spotts proposed removing part 2.c entirely because it s redundant; he didn t see religion as necessarily a separate issue, but Lenore Frigo pointed out that this would provide more cover for instructors. Linda Thomas suggested adding such as religion and politics to the end of part 2.a. Morris Rodrigue argued that religion needs to be explicitly mentioned because there s a common misunderstanding involving religion and free speech that college administrators frequently encounter. Susan Westler proposed adding political along with religious concepts and deleting and does not become sectarian indoctrination in part 2.c. Motion carried unanimously. 3
b. Tenure Review Committee Proposed Changes (1 attachment) i. Cathy reviewed the changes to eight TRCs; the majority of the changes reflected Stacey Bartlett replacing Ralph Perrin as Dean of ACSS. Ray Nicholas moved to approve all the changes; seconded by Lenore Frigo. Motion carried unanimously. c. Senate Vice President Position There has been a change in our current VP s schedule for this semester. i. Because Marvin Abts retired, Susan Meacham had to take on an Anatomy lab that is scheduled during Senate meetings. Cathy discussed this with Susan; they read the Senate Bylaws and checked that the Senate liaison to Instructional Council doesn t have to be a member of the Executive Committee, so Susan will continue serving in this role. The Senate Bylaws also mention that the Past President of the Academic Senate can assume duties of the Vice President if the Vice President is absent. Susan suggested several options: 1) She will serve as Vice President this semester in absentia, with the Past President Robb Lightfoot assuming the duties of the Vice President; 2) elect a new Vice President to serve this semester. The first option was the consensus. Cathy asked about how to handle the Instructional Council liaison role. The consensus was that Susan would continue as liaison and email her regular reports to Cathy. d. Senate President Position Planning ahead for next year; is anyone interested in serving as President? i. Because there are so many complications this semester, Cathy proposed delaying the revision of the Senate Bylaws, which would have set a two-year term for President. With the current Bylaws, the President s term will still be one year. Cathy wanted to know if anyone would be interested in serving as President next year. Ray Nicholas expressed interest in this. e. Enrollment Management Plan (1 attachment) - The Enrollment Management Committee completed a draft of the next Enrollment Management Plan. The committee is seeking feedback. i. Tim Johnston brought a draft of the updated EMP to Senate for review; this updated plan will cover the years 2017 and 2018. He provided an overview of the changes made it s now a two-year plan rather than a three-year one in order to make it more responsive to enrollment needs, and there were changes in the plan structure, built around four basic goals. Tim asked that any feedback on the plan be sent to him or Mike Mari. f. SLO Committee Draft Bylaws (1 Attachment) The SLO Committee is revising bylaws and seeking input. i. Sara McCurry reviewed the revisions made to the SLO Committee Bylaws. These include size of the committee (10 instead of 14 voting members); definition of a quorum; terms of membership; appointments; and committee goals. Will Breitbach suggested changing Student Services representative to Non- Instructional representative to be more inclusive. Jennifer McCandless pointed out that the administrative co-chair is a non-voting member, so another voting member needs to be added; Sara suggested adding another at-large faculty representative. Don Cingrani proposed using the term majority rather than half in the definition of a quorum. Cathy noted that the Senate does not need to confirm committee members, only the faculty co-chair. Robb Lightfoot asked about how representatives would be selected and recruited. Would this be 4
done by the Senate President? By the division deans? Sara agreed that this question needed to be discussed further by the SLO Committee. For the appointments process, it was suggested that select replace appoint ; Jennifer McCandless noted that there needs to be language about the appointment of at-large representatives. Don Cingrani suggested adding in the duties of the faculty and administrative co-chairs, and he pointed Sara to the Scholastic Standards Bylaws as a model that the SLO Committee could use. Sara said she would take these suggestions and incorporate these changes for another revision. 7. Other? 8. Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 4:45 p.m. 9. Next meeting: Monday, February 13, at 3:00 p.m. The Shasta-Tehama Trinity Joint Community College District ( Shasta College ) does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religious preference, age, disability (physical and mental), pregnancy (including pregnancy, childbirth, and medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), gender identity, sexual orientation, genetics, military or veteran status or any other characteristic protected by applicable law in admission and access to, or treatment in employment, educational programs or activities at any of its campuses. Shasta College also prohibits harassment on any of these bases, including sexual harassment, as well as sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. 5