December

Budget Cut Blues, What Happened?

As it happens, faculty have not been the only ones concerned about the effect budget cuts have had on student access, and system Vice-Chancellor Patrick Perry prepared a presentation for the Board of Governors for the September 2010 meeting that analyzed demographic changes in the 2009-10 academic year: End Of Year (2009-2010) Analysis Of Changes In CCC System: Students, Courses, And FTES.1

So, what happened?


Federalization of Higher Education and the Expanding Data Bubble

The following is a speech presented by Greg Gilbert, Copper Mountain College to attendees at the Fall Session Plenary on November 12, 2010. Faculty requested that this article be printed in the Rostrum.

Good afternoon. I am pleased to be joined today by Lee Fritschler, President Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of Education. In this problem-solution presentation, I will play the role of the problem and Lee will posit the solutions.

C-ID, SB 1440, and TMC – Frequently Asked Questions

Now that draft transfer model curricula (TMC - note that TMC refers to both individual examples of transfer model curricula and to the collection of transfer model curricula as a whole) are available on the Course Identification Numbering System website (C-ID; www.C-ID.net), the need to be explicit about the relationship between C-ID, Senate Bill 1440 (Padilla, 2010), and TMC is increasing. While there are many elements of the implementation of SB 1440 that are unknown, there are many things that we do know about the roles to be played by C-ID and TMC.

Part-time Issues Highlighted at Fall 2010 Plenary

Although the Academic Senate has always held part-time instructors in the highest regard and sought to involve them (including having a part-time liaison who attends the Executive Committee meetings), at the recently held Fall Plenary part-time issues really came to the fore in a number of ways. The Plenary was immediately preceded by the Executive Committee approval of a part-time caucus, which unfortunately came too late for an organized meeting of the caucus during the Plenary.

Faculty as the GPS for Students

Once upon a time, attendees at a stadium or arena watching a sporting even knew when to cheer and when to be quiet to support the home team, but now the jumbo-tron cues the crowd to “make noise.” There used to be a day when most of us memorized our friends’ phone numbers as well as their addresses. Now each contact (not person) has an allotted number of characters of space in a cell phone. In an earlier day, everyone knew how to read a map, but now a voice from a small device gives directions, gently prodding left turns and exits on freeways.

Just the Minimum Facts

In the aftermath of the 2010 Fall Plenary Session I was reviewing my thoughts about the Minimum Qualifications (MQ) and Equivalency Training breakout that was put on. Not only was it relatively well attended, but it was immediately clear that while there were a few present who were new to the MQ issues, most in attendance were back again for more.

So You Want to Form a Caucus?

In Spring 2009 the Academic Senate passed a resolution calling for the formation of caucuses for the purposes of broadening opportunities for faculty to discuss issues related to diversity and for developing Academic Senate leaders from underrepresented minorities. Resolution 1.05 S09, entitled “Creation of Diversity Caucuses,” placed the responsibility of identifying issues and concerns related to equity and diversity with the Academic Senate representatives from Areas A, B, C, and D. The area representatives would then report their findings to the Academic Senate Executive Committee.

The Case for Reciprocity

REC-I-PROC-I-TY (res-uh-pros-i-tee): noun. The relation or policy in [general education] dealings between [California community colleges] by which corresponding advantages or privileges are granted by each [college] to the [students] of the other. Of course, this definition is not precisely what one would find in a Merriam-Webster’s dictionary; it is, however, a policy being adopted by community colleges throughout California.

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