March

While California debates the mission of its community colleges, now is a good time to review the mission for the Academic Senate, as it might be changing as well.  The change of the community college mission raises questions about which communities we serve, how to expand and still keep the quality of all programs and services at the highest possible level, and how to do more with less funding.  All those issues apply to the Senate mission as well. Given recent developments, there are two striking issues that warrant consideration of changes to our mission.

Current legislation and district activities with K-12 adult education providers seem to have sharpened the focus on local curricular offerings and how exactly students navigate between and within our systems.  The seemingly sudden attention on specific course offerings and discussions of modifying our current system, be it mildly or radically, often is creating anxiety at community colleges throughout California.  This article serves as a primer on the current state of affairs regarding adult education in the state of California and how we have arrived at this juncture in our history. 

It can be daunting for academic senate presidents to explain to faculty colleagues at their local college what it’s like to attend a plenary or institute of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC). Plenaries and institutes provide a tremendous amount of information, and the issues and debates can be extremely challenging to convey to non-attendees. And yet, the very purpose of plenary sessions and institutes is to provide important and timely information to local senates so that they can make better decisions on behalf of students and fellow faculty members.

Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) Communication Professor and former ASCCC Executive Committee member Phillip D. Maynard, who taught speech classes for 23 years, passed away on January 4, 2014 at age 66.

The Academic Senate Foundation ended 2013 on a high note at our fall Plenary Session by raising over $5000.  Donations came from the purchase of Area Competition raffle tickets as well as t-shirts and lanyards, often at contributions well above the suggested amounts. The Area Competition is in its second year and is quickly establishing itself as the most successful fundraising event for the Foundation to date.

Since 1961, California state law has required each community college district to allocate no less than 50% of its general fund expenditures to “salaries of classroom instructors,” under a formula based upon the current expense of education.   This requirement, commonly referred to as “the 50% Law,” is the subject of Assembly Bill (AB) 806 as proposed by Assembly Member Scott Wilk in early 2013.  AB 806 would allow colleges to change the ways they determine their compliance with the 50% Law by counting as classroom instructors faculty who are not currently considered to fall under that headi

Higher education in the United States is under attack; references to support this statement are really not necessary to those of us in higher education. We see advances from various fronts relating to all aspects of the way we perform the service that we perform. And, for a variety of reasons, community colleges are the bull’s eye of the higher education target.

Dear Julie,

Our college continues to have flex days despite the lack of funding from the state. We are pleased to have professional development opportunities but also worry about compliance. Faculty want to count almost any activity for flex credit, and we need some guidance on how to make the flex activities work for faculty and the regulations. What do we need to do?

In fits over flex

Dean IFOF,

In Fall 2010 delegates adopted Resolution 1.04 F10 asking the Executive Committee to explore using technology in hopes of improving our spring session elections process. The Standards and Practices Committee discussed the Senate’s election process and offers this article as information about why technology cannot be used in the Senate’s election process.

Student success has hit the press and airwaves as though it is a new idea, an innovative concept. It is bandied about as if no one had ever thought of such a novel idea. Well, California community college faculty have always thought about and planned for student success. Faculty are dedicated to supporting and facilitating student success. In fact, student success is the core guiding principle of our work.