May

Given the emphasis on budgeting and planning in our accreditation standards, our colleges and districts have developed detailed planning processes including department- and division-level plans, college-wide master plans, and district-wide strategic plans as well as regular cycles of program review. And yet, in this time of deep budget contraction, I’m finding that many of our planning and program review processes seem woefully inadequate for helping us decide how to reduce our curricular offerings.

As local senate leaders, it is not always easy to communicate to faculty what you actually do. The Statewide Academic Senate shares this difficulty, and in order to address this issue, Executive Director Julie Adams worked with the Executive Committee to produce the first annual report from the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, What Has the Academic Senate Done for You Lately?

The approval of a motion on assessment by the Board of Governors at its March 6, 2007, meeting has set off waves of anxiety across the system. As the chair of the task force approved by the Consultation Council to address the Board of Governors' motion, I hope to alleviate some of that anxiety by clarifying what the motion is asking for, what I perceive to be the motivations of the Board, and what the task force convened by the Consultation Council to respond to the motion is going to do.

To begin, here is the Board's motion in its entirety:

The California State University (CSU) system has been working on implementation of the Lower Division Transfer Pattern (LDTP) project for two years. So where are they? And where are we? Since its inception, the project has been somewhat controversial. First, the CSU faculty were not delighted that legislation (including SB 1415, Brulte and SB 1785, Scott) mandated them to look at the major preparation courses for the top majors at all 23 campuses to align the lower division curriculum and devise course numbers for them.

According to the Honors Transfer Council of California (HTCC) website (http://www.honorstcc.org), over 50 of the California community colleges belong to the council, represented by an honors or scholars' program director (a faculty member) and a designated honors or scholars' counselor. The Equity and Diversity Action Committee's survey of honor programs administered earlier this year elicited 58 college responses, though only 36 from colleges with an honors or scholars' program.

At last year's spring plenary, the Equity and Diversity Action Committee invited Dr. Arturo Ocampo, Diversity Director at San Jose/Evergreen Community College District and Project Director of the Model Equal Employment Opportunity Plan, to present an overview of the different components to the plan. At the breakout, he highlighted elements of the plan and recommended annual training in several key areas, particularly in diversity and cultural proficiency.

Information competency is a topic that has been discussed by the Academic Senate, especially through breakouts facilitated by the Senate's Curriculum Committee and the Counseling and Library Faculty Issues Committee. This is not just a library issue, but is of importance to all faculty. And it is becoming even more relevant as many groups, including the Senate, the System Office, CIOs, CSSOs and CEOs, discuss and implement the Basic Skills Initiative.

The Academic Senate has been designated in Education Code (87357) as being responsible for developing the lists of minimum qualifications for service as a faculty member, commonly known as the Disciplines List. The List currently consists of two categories of minimum qualifications, the one category being for those disciplines in which a Master's is available and the other category for those disciplines that do not generally offer a Master's degree (commonly known as the "non-Master's list").

I had the opportunity to participate in three breakouts for the Spring 2007 Plenary Session on three different and divergent topics. I will relate my three breakouts in three of my different personas-as the chair of the Legislative and Governmental Relations Committee, as a member of the Standards and Practices committee, and as a library faculty member.

Legislation-What's Happening in Sacramento and DC?
by Dan Crump, Chair of the Legislative and Governmental Relations Committee

"Every happy family is alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in their own way."

Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

In Spring 2006, the Senate passed Resolution 13.05, "Research the Effectiveness of Multi-College Districts," which includes the following resolves: