Fall

Access? To What?

Among the principle values California community college faculty hold dear is ACCESS as a tenet for the education and services we offer to California residents. Concepts of access also apply to hiring of faculty, staff and administrators: do our workplaces reflect, like a microcosm of our state, the diversity of race, gender, ethnicity, and abilities that characterize our society?

Political Mobilization

If you're a local senate president you should already be well aware of the student/voter mobilization project initiated by the Academic Senate President in the fall semester. You should have received a package of material in the mail, or perhaps electronically, that talked about the need for this project and that provided sample letters to distribute to faculty and students. You may also have received a follow-up phone call or email from one of the Local Senates Committee to ask if you had used any of the material.

Power and Paranoia: Effective Senates are Victors, not Victims

At the first Summer Leadership Institute I ever attended, Jim Higgs from Modesto Junior College told me that the local academic senate president was the most powerful person on campus. I wonder why more of them don't feel that way.

Jim, who is now deceased, was a big, blustery man, who wore a fedora and loved the blues. He is on my mind today, as I've recently returned from Mississippi, where I toured delta blues shrines and attended seminars and concerts and catfish dinners. Jim once spent a summer in Mississippi engaged in similar pursuits.

Counselors and Librarians-What's Up!

Well, it is never a dull time for library and counseling faculty. But of course, all we do is read books and tell students what classes to take in college. Right!! At present, the Telecommunications and Technology Infrastructure Program (TTIP), possible changes in matriculation, legislative proposals in support of textbook rentals, and the budget are all the issues that keep us busy at the moment-in addition to reading books and counseling our students.

Principle and Integrity in the Academy

The approach of April 15 seems to be an appropriate time to address questions of integrity. Most of us attempt to file tax returns as favorable to us as possible. within the rules. It is when we stretch or break the rules for personal gain that we must question our own integrity. On the campus and in the classroom, our personal integrity is the foundation of the integrity of our profession. And it is the faculty, through modeling and encouragement, who ought to foster integrity in our students.

Separate but Equal?: The Brown v. Board of Education Decision, Then and Now

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of this landmark decision, educators, legal experts, and authors prepare to celebrate the historical civil rights decision known as Brown v. Board of Education. To this day, efforts continue across the country to realize the dream of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the efforts of the families named in the original Supreme Court case. This article reminds us of that critical decision and suggests why it requires us to continue to enact its principles.

AA/AS Degree Requirements

This year the Senate's Curriculum Committee is charged with writing a paper to inform faculty about the issues raised during discussions about AA/AS degree requirements in math and English. For years, the Academic Senate has discussed whether the current levels should be changed. The essential issue is this: are the current allowable levels of math and English appropriate, or should the Academic Senate recommend a change, and if so, what change? Title 5 requirements currently read:

55805.5. Types of Courses Appropriate to the Associate Degree.

Disciplines List Review Preparation

Maintaining a high degree of professionalism is critical to the health of the California Community College system. By insisting on high standards for new faculty hires, we assure that our students will have educators well prepared to teach and render other students services necessary for our students' academic success. Fundamental to the various processes that we use to select highly qualified faculty is the Disciplines List for minimum qualifications that defines the academic and experiential preparation for faculty in all of the recognized disciplines.

Conversations about Leadership

Let's face it: when we talk about faculty leadership, we are usually speaking about a fairly limited group of people. Though there are dozens around the state, leaders of every local academic senate and leaders of faculty in various statewide organizations, the number is really very small.

Those individuals make an appreciable difference in the way the faculty roles in governance look. However, many of those leaders are now moving on to other phases of their lives or careers; large numbers of faculty have retired or plan retirement imminently.

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