Preamble and Preface

Preamble

We, the faculty of the California Community Colleges, through the local academic senates, do hereby establish the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, Inc., in order to promote the best interests of higher education in the state and to represent the faculty in all California Community Colleges at the state level. From the American Association of University Professors document Governance and Academic Freedom Section V: The Academic Institution: The Faculty“Agencies for faculty participation in the government of the college or university should be established at each level where faculty responsibility is present. An agency should exist for the presentation of the views of the whole faculty. The structure and procedures for faculty participation should be designed, approved, and established by joint action of the components of the institution. Faculty representatives should be selected by the faculty according to procedures determined by the faculty.”

Preface

Congratulations on being elected as the senate president at your college! Your election is a statement of your faculty's trust and their faith in your leadership. Even if you have served your college before in this capacity, you will find the duties may have shifted. Thus, to assist you in assuming these new responsibilities, this document was compiled as a resource for you; it serves to remind you that you now join hundreds of others who, through their local senates and statewide service, assist the faculty and their students in the California community colleges. In this handbook, you will find information intended to supplement the wealth of data contained on the Website for the Academic Senate of California Community Colleges. We urge you to familiarize yourself with the site's contents; this document will make frequent references to materials contained on that Website or linked thereon. Contained on the pages of this handbook, you will find information about the legislation and regulations that affect academic senates (Part I); your unique responsibilities as a senate president (Part II); as well as suggestions for ensuring that your faculty can be most effective in meeting their academic and professional responsibilities (Part III). The appendices contain samples of materials you may duplicate or download* and modify as needed. 

This document also affirms your link with the auspices of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges--its Executive Committee and its office staff who are here to serve your needs. The last section in this handbook (Part IV) on the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges will remind you how our organization can assist you at the local level through its many publications, its Website, its plenary sessions, the institutes it sponsors, and, on your campus, through formal workshops and speakers, and informal visits and dialogue. We recognize that there is great variability among districts, and especially between large and small colleges. When you need to know what’s working on campuses similar to yours, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges can help put you in touch with leaders at those colleges. You are free, at any time, to contact the statewide Senate through any of its Executive Committee members, whose phone numbers, mail and email addresses are provided in the annual senate Directory and on the Website. You can also call the Academic Senate Office with your requests, or contact your Area Representative or your representative on the Relations with Local Senates Committee. At least once each year, your representative on the Relations with Local Senates Committee will contact you personally to determine if there are issues with which the Academic Senate might assist you. Your Area Representative and Local Senates representatives will also keep you up to date on emerging statewide issues through regular emails, and will generally function as your most immediate “living link” to the statewide Academic Senate.

In becoming a local senate president, you have become bound to the statewide Academic Senate in a common determination to provide a quality education to over two and a half million students. Your job as a faculty leader will be challenging, but you are not alone: the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges welcomes you to the family of California academic senate leaders and stands ready to assist you in your efforts.