Academic Senate

Whereas, The number and possibly the geographical distribution of local member senates is different today than when the representative positions (Area A, B, C, D, North, South, and At-large) of the Executive Committee were established;

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges evaluate whether or not the current representative positions (Area A, B, C, D, North, South, and At-large) of the Executive Committee are adequate and equitable to the number and geographical distribution of local member senates and report the findings to the body by Spring 2015.

Whereas, Election rules and procedures of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) have not been evaluated to determine their effectiveness in serving the needs of the ASCCC for at least a decade;

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has always been a proponent and champion for ensuring the right of all persons to participate in academic discourse and democracy where the ability to participate in such discourse potentially affects them;

Whereas, Over the course of the last eight years the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has received ambiguous, inconsistent, conflicting opinions from multiple legal representatives concerning the applicability of the laws requiring open meetings (Brown Act or Bagley-Keene Act); and

Whereas, Academic Senate Resolution 1.02 S13[1] directed the Academic Senate to “create a task force consisting of equal numbers of Executive Committee representatives and member delegates to develop a process of periodic institutional review for assessing the operations, processes, policies, and programs of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges including the composition of the review team, what standards of accountability will be used, what components would comprise such a review, the number of years between reviews, and how commendations and r

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Communi ty Colleges believes in a fair, democratic, and inclusive election process and that disqualification of a ballot and the corresponding representation that is denied should be kept to a minimum;

Whereas, During the Spring 2013 balloting for the A cademic Senate for California Community Colleges officers and representatives, a significant number of ballots were disqualified due to signature discrepancies; and

Whereas, The physical condition of our college facilities has a direct impact on the ability to execute our educational master plans as they apply to items 4, 5, 7 and 10 of the academic and professional matters as defined by Title 5 regulations, and is an area of review within Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges Standard III.B-Physical Resources;

Whereas, The Rostrum is a publication of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges and features important research and articles for the faculty at member institutions of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges;

Whereas, The current budget situation has resulted in funding cuts to individual colleges as well as to the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges itself; and

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges represents all faculty currently teaching in our California community colleges, serving as the voice of all faculty in academic and professional matters;

Whereas, The Academic Senate strengthens and supports all local California community college academic senates, many of which currently have part-time faculty designated seats and/or representatives, and supports diversity and equal opportunity for all faculty; and

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has difficulty recruiting faculty statewide for involvement in Academic Senate committees and leadership positions due to a general lack of knowledge of the work of these committees;

Whereas, The work of various committees is specialized, and each committee has its own unique areas of responsibility that may not be apparent to those faculty who may be interested in participating;

Whereas, Some faculty perceive the existence of barriers to involvement in the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges and its committees and may not volunteer for service due to mistaken beliefs about who should and should not seek to serve at the state level;