Whereas, Caucuses are charged to serve a critical role in the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) by “serving as groups of independently organized faculty to meet, network, and deliberate collegially in order to form a collective voice on issues of common concern that caucus members feel are of vital importance to faculty and the success of students as they relate to academic and professional matters”;
Whereas, Students with disabilities are legally entitled to equal access to education and are required to receive reasonable academic accommodations under federal and state law;
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) rules allow for candidates for officer and representative positions to be considered for any positions for which they qualify if they do not prevail in the election for the highest position they seek, a practice referred to as “trickling”;
Whereas, Objective 2.2 of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) Strategic Plan is to “Increase the diversity of faculty representation on committees of the ASCCC, including the Executive Committee, and other system consultation bodies to better reflect the diversity of California”;
Whereas, Attendees of ASCCC plenary sessions have expressed the perception that being elected to the Executive Committee is unreasonably difficult due in part to the longevity in office of some incumbents;
Whereas, The Rules of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges specify an order for conducting elections as president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, area representatives, north representative, south representative, and at-large representative and allow nominees for elections to stand for other positions if they do not prevail for the first office nominated;
Whereas, Of the representative positions, the at-large representatives need to win the votes of the largest number of delegates, demonstrating more statewide support;
Whereas, In certain circumstances the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) rules currently allow for nominations from the floor for positions to serve on the Executive Committee;
Whereas, Candidates nominated from the floor on Saturday of a plenary session are afforded the opportunity to present a candidate speech closer to the time of balloting, which may provide an advantage over those candidates who publicly presented their candidate speeches on Friday;
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges typically schedules elections in Areas B or A;
Whereas, The attendance at plenary sessions and, in particular, for the entire voting day might be larger for delegates living in closer proximity to the plenary location due to more travel flexibility;
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) currently uses majority voting for officers and representatives, and in each election, each delegate only votes once per ballot;
Whereas, Elections to the Executive Committee at the ASCCC spring plenary sessions often require multiple runoff elections, extending the time that delegates need to remain present on Saturdays of spring plenaries;
Whereas, The bylaws of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC), Section 2, currently indicate the beginning and ending dates for terms of elected members of the Executive Committee as commencing on June 1 and concluding on May 31 of each year;
Whereas, In practice the ASCCC Executive Committee’s last meeting of the academic year occurs between May 25 and June 10 depending on site availability, calendar considerations, and scheduled professional development or consultative meetings; and,
Whereas, Thebylaws of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) include procedures and criteria for conferring the status of Senator Emeritus for the purpose of recognizing the meritorious service of a faculty member upon or after retirement, and Marie Boyd has satisfied those requirements as a faculty member of the California Community Collegessystem who has completed the required five years of significant service to the Academic Senate;
