Academic Senate

Whereas, Some key terms in the Bylaws of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (e.g. "senator," "voting delegate," and "member") are unclear;

Whereas, The parts of the Bylaws of the Academic Senate are not organized in the way we conduct business;

Whereas, The Academic Senate should have a constitution that identifies its functions and principles--as it had before the descriptions of the functions and principles were incorporated into the Bylaws; and

Whereas, the Bylaws of the Academic Senate will be more readable if well-edited;

Whereas, The Academic Senate, at its Spring 2001 Plenary Session, approved Resolution 1.03 S01;

Whereas, The Academic Senate is a progressive, democratic institution that strives to develop policies and processes that are then submitted to the body as a whole to be voted on;

Whereas, The Academic Senate process for selection and approval to serve on a Senate committee must be made as clear as possible to the membership at large per resolution 1.03 S01; and

Whereas, The Academic Senate is a mature organization that has developed structural mechanisms to ensure continuity and fidelity to its principles and that mentors its leaders through service on standing committees and the Executive Committee;

Whereas, Article VIII of the Bylaws of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, which sets forth the ways by which the Bylaws may be amended, is ambiguous about key details of that process; and

Whereas, The process for amending the Bylaws of the Academic Senate must be as clear as possible;

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges amend Article VIII as presented in Appendix A.

Whereas it is difficult to know the functions of the standing committees of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges,

Resolved that the Academic Senate recommend the amendment of the rules of the Academic Senate to include a descriptive goal statement for each of the standing committees.

Whereas local academic senate presidents often serve terms of only one year, and

Whereas the California community college system distributes a large number of documents to local senate offices, and

Whereas current and subsequent local senate presidents and faculty need easy access to those valuable and useful documents,

Resolved that the Academic Senate Executive Committee develop an appropriate filing system for all California community college system documents distributed to local academic senates, and

Whereas the Forum is a valuable publication which highlights the contributions of the community college faculty, and

Whereas budgetary restrictions may make the publication appear optional,

Resolved that the Academic Senate recommend to the Executive Committee that it continue to support publication of the Forum.

Whereas the local senate delegate is responsible for insuring that the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges information is presented to their colleagues for discussion and input prior to the fall and spring sessions, and

Whereas the geocluster and area meetings are often scheduled close to the time of these sessions, and

Whereas it may be difficult for the delegate to review and disseminate the presession resolutions to the appropriate departments or disciplines affected and solicit feedback in this short amount of time, and

Resolved that the Academic Senate direct the Executive Committee to take positions on legislation based on whether or not concepts in the proposed legislation are consistent with established Senate resolutions.

Whereas AB 2895, AB 3696, SB 2011, and AB 2898 are examples of legislation empowering the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) in areas of "academic and professional matters," master plan reform, and higher education, and

Whereas CPEC is not accountable to faculty or to any of the three higher education segments in California,