senate capers: January 2006

Thursday, January 19, 2006

January 19, 2006

January 19, 2006 Meeting of the Academic Senate Representative Council

[Senate Prez] Wendy [Gabriella] informed us that the Accrediting Agency (ACCJC) is looking for faculty to serve on Accreditation visiting teams. Any volunteers?

Wendy reminded us that, if one wants something on the senate agenda (of a Rep Council Senate meeting), one must inform the Senate cabinet before their meeting, which is scheduled on “off weeks,” again at 2:00.

There are open slots for some “Strategic Planning” focus groups.

1 for Organizational Effectiveness

2 for Resources and Budget

1 for Academic Planning

Nominations are open. Any volunteers?

Wendy announced that the hiring policy struggle is now over, now that the board acted (on a 6-1 vote, with Trustee Fuentes unhappy with the new policy’s alleged potential for faculty “cronyism”) to approve the new policy and they have paid our attorneys (Wendy and Carol). The new policy is “pretty close” to the old 1994 policy, though its language is clearer.

For a time it seemed that we would be hiring new full-time faculty, but in part owing to our enrollment problem, there is no chance of that now (we won’t be meeting our growth cap).

The Accreditation “progress report” has been submitted to the ACCJC, which held some sort of key meeting last week. Evidently, the district did not send a contingent up to Sacramento, and thus it was not necessary for us to do so. (We were concerned that Mathur and Co. would attempt to portray our circumstances inaccurately.) We will likely receive the ACCJC’s decision in early February—perhaps the 1^st. It will come in the form of an “action letter” (this time, we’d better insist on seeing the entire document). We’ll either get new recommendations, or recommendations based on the old ones (from last year’s less-than-glowing ACCJC assessment).

As you know, in part owing to the ACCJC’s recommendations, the district has been pursuing achieving greater clarity concerning the “roles and responsibilities” of the various groups of the district. In particular, Mathur has been pursuing “technical assistance,” a process whereby parties representing (in this case) the faculty and the district come together and attempt to arrive at agreement. Our senate pursued representation from the AAUP (i.e., the American Association of University Professors, an organization that has long vigorously pursued a strong role for faculty), but this seemed to send the State Academic Senate leadership into a tizzy. Negotiations (or discussions anyway) have been ongoing regarding the form TA will take. It now appears that, on February 13, at the district, there will be some sort of confab (called “level 1”)—from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.—in which the two parties will provide “Powerpoint” presentations for two hours. (The current State Academic Big Cheezes will do the honors on our behalf.) All of the trustees will attend this public meeting.

Wendy explained that it is important that faculty attend the meeting also, for apathy on our part will no doubt be used against us. After a break, there will be yet another meeting—called “level 3 issue resolution”—from 5:30 to 9:00. Lewis and Wendy will be our reps. If all goes well, the parties will make headway with regard to defining “roles and responsibilities.”

Faculty will be able to audit but not participate in the latter session, which will be held in the “student lounge” at Saddleback College.

If the session yield a stalemate, it is possible that the AAUP will finally brought in to represent us—at some subsequent date.

Item 14 concerned the “calendar” issue. You’ll recall that our senate endorsed a compressed calendar, but that the Saddleback College Academic Senate has been less enthusiastic about that innovation. Later, however, some sort of movement emerged from among the SC faculty to get on board our calendar proposal. Their senate is at the stage of reflection that we were at about a year ago.

[VPI] Dennis White was in charge of this calendar issue, but he has now been removed from that role, and it has been handed to Dennis McDougal. We have not learned why this has happened. In any case, the deadline for input regarding calendar changes is March 1.

In the meantime, we have a traditional calendar, and, evidently, yearly, a committee decides on the details of that calendar, but, historically, SC has always brought about embrace of a calendar favorable to SC, not to IVC. Much peevishness was expressed about this fact. Julie, however, explained that, in part, the situation that favors SC over IVC has more to do with our inaction than their action.

It occurred to some senators that if we provide “input” regarding this conventional calendar, we are acting in bad faith relative to our proposed reform calendar (I think that was the point). But if we don’t offer suggestions about how best to configure the conventional calendar, we’ll once again end up with a SC-friendly and IVC-unfriendly calendar, should the reform effort go south.

Wendy seemed to hint that the proposed alternative calendar has no future, in part because [SC] President McCollugh is dead set agin it.

Dennis piped up to suggest that the alternative calendar can be adopted as soon as a year from now.

IN the end, we decided to attempt to offer our two cents regarding how to configure the conventional calendar—as a contingency (i.e., if the big reform doesn’t go through). Dennis thought that unwise, for it “undercuts” our work re the reform proposal.

[Biologist] Chris Riegle, it seems, is now a senator for his school. He’s the guy to contact if you wish to provide “input” re how to configure the conventional calendar.

Item 16 concerned the proposed new “Student Conduct/Academic Honesty” policy. Evidently, our school has already provided valuable input, and that will be included in our recommendations. To be ready for the Feb. 2 deadline, we need to vote on this matter at the next senate meeting.

The discussion tended to concern an element of the proposed policy according to which extreme student wrongdoers are given a “Scarlet Letter” that cannot be removed, metaphorically speaking. Lewis seemed to favor that, but some senators pursued a more forgiving policy and seemed to nearly ridicule those who did not understand how, in our youth, we do stupid things, e.g., burning down buildings and the like. The discussion led to a fine “reduction ad absurdum” regarding the notion that we mustn’t do anything to students that “follow them.” Said Lewis, if that is our thinking, we need to eliminate the “F” grade immediately.

It appears that Wendy will arrange for the policy to be sent to all faculty in digital form. Do please read it and tell us (Julie or I) what you think.

Item 17 concerned the “Board Policy review process,” which had been chaired by Tom Anderson, a fellow who is now in charge of gopher holes in Tustin. Mr. Alan McDougal is now in charge, but his committee has grown large and unwieldy. It will be difficult finding times to meet.

Item 18 was a Curriculum Update. We were provided with a sheet that listed all courses “due for Revision Which Have Not Been Received” by the Office of Instuction as of 1/12/06. At first, it seemed to me that none of our courses was involved. But Traci [Fahimi] noted that the course listed as PS (Political Science) 45 is in reality, not a PS course, but a History course (which is cross listed). Hear that Frank and Toshio?

If these courses are not revised, they cannot be offered in the Fall.

Beth Mueller has been given the chief district Bean Counter job (upon hearing this, there was a great communal gasp), and so we’ll need to replace her here at IVC. Nominations are now open for a faculty representative on the search committee. Evidently, we need to offer a nomination within a week (of last Thursday).

Our Research person—Neena V—has moved on to greener pastures, and so we’ll need to hire a replacement. We’ve gotta scrape up two faculty to serve on the committee. As we stared at each other, the situation looked grim, and when someone expressed that someone “might” be willing to serve, that was seized as a full-blown nominations. “”Even a possibility is a nomination,” said one wag.

Item 22 concerned “program discontinuance” for the Electronics program. You’ll recall that, recently, our senate produced a formal program discontinuance policy, and we are now following those procedures re the Electronics program, a program that has everything but students. (Reportedly, Dennis has persisted in viewing that situation as a definite problem.) The senators were charged with finding faculty to serve on the discontinuance “task force” for Electronics. Suddenly, Dennis declared that no members of the School of Math and [......?]

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College and district acronyms

DRAC – District Resources Allocation

BAARC – Basic Aid Allocation Committee

CET – Chancellor’s Executive Team

BPARC – District Board Policy and Administrative Regulations

SPOBDC -- Strategic Planning Oversight & Budget Development Committee

SPAC -- Strategic Planning and Accreditation Council

APTC – IVC Academic Planning and Technology Committee

SSAMMO – IVC Student Success/Access/Matriculation/Marketing & Outreach
BDRPC – IVC Budget Development and Resources Planning Committee See
See What's "Bark"? And what on Earth is the DRAC?

The Faculty's Role in Community College Decision Making*

The Concept of Shared Governance

Shared governance is a process created by the California state legislature that guarantees faculty input in the decision-making process of community colleges. The purpose of the law, AB 1725, was to provide a mechanism to insure that the expertise of the faculty would be used in developing college policies. Although the phrase "shared governance" is not found in the legislation, it has become the commonly used description of the process that provides for faculty input. AB 1725 mandates that colleges "consult collegially" with local Academic Senates (the law also encourages colleges to seek active participation of other constituencies such as classified staff or students in appropriate areas). Consult collegially means that the district governing board shall develop policies on academic and professional matters through either or both of the following:

1. Rely primarily upon the advice and judgment of the Academic Senate

2. The governing board, or its designees, and the Academic Senate shall reach mutual agreement.

The state identified "academic and professional" matters as eleven specific areas:

1. Curriculum, including establishing prerequisites
2. Degree and certificate requirements
3. Grading policy
4. Educational program development
5. Standards or policies regarding student preparation and success
6. College governance structures, as related to faculty roles
7. Faculty roles and involvement in accreditation processes
8. Policies for professional development activities
9. Processes for program review
10. Processes for institutional planning and budget development
11. Other academic and professional matters as mutually agreed upon.

Since each college determines exactly how shared governance will be implemented on its campus, the process varies widely in its scope and details. With relatively few exceptions, shared governance has provided California community college instructors with a vehicle for input into the decision making process unmatched in any other state.

*Provided by 4Faculty

The SOCCCD Academic Senates sue their district (and win)

[UPSHOT: the Chancellor/Board essentially unilaterally changed the district's full-time faculty hiring policy despite a statute according to which the Academic Senate (i.e., the faculty) has important rights in the development of such policies. In the end (2005), faculty entirely PREVAILED.]

Part 1: From Dissent 66, Oct. 7, 2002

LEGAL STORMS BREWING

I counted two and seventy stenches, All well defined, and several stinks. —Coleridge

Intervention sought: During an August meeting of the IVC Academic Senate, it was suggested that, given the Chancellor & Board’s exclusion of the Academic Senate from governance, there really is no point in continuing. It was suggested, too, that the Senate might better devote its energies to seeking redress in the courts.

* * *

On September 12, the exec. cabinet of the IVC Academic Senate sent a letter to State Chancellor Nussbaum, seeking his “intervention” “to secure rights granted to local senates under Title 5” of the Ed Code. The letter cited four examples of the Board’s many actions in violation of “law, policy and process.” The first concerned the Board’s action (Fall 2000) to revise BP6120 (academic freedom), despite objections from the senates. Example 2 was the Board’s adoption (12/01) of a revision of BP5604 (eligibility for admission) despite “vehement” senate objections. Example 3 was the Board’s decision (2/02) to unilaterally revise BP 2100.1 (delegation of authority to academic senates), despite the policy’s explicitly prohibiting such action.

The fourth and most recent example concerned “revisions to District hiring policies,” including revisions to the Full-Time Academic Employees Hiring Policy, developed over the summer by Chancellor Mathur. These revisions, said the letter, “are rife with numerous individual violations of law, policy and good practice.” Despite Title 5, “At no time were any of the governance groups on either campus invited to participate, or even alerted to the existence of the committee.” Further, governance groups were given only 8 days to provide “input.”

* * *

The Senate’s letter yielded a response—a letter discovered belatedly, and already opened, in the senate president’s mail box! Dated Sept. 16, the letter, from Ralph Black, attorney for the State Chancellor’s Office, requested further info to determine whether his involvement “would be warranted.” Black offers a jurisdictional point: “Unless faculty hiring is listed as an ‘academic and professional matter’ under the SOCCCD shared governance policy..., faculty hiring does not fall under the jurisdiction of [the Board of Governors’] regulations.” (More on this later.)

On Sept. 25th, Mathur emailed the Saddleback Academic Senate, suggesting that he is under no obligation to consult the Academic Senates regarding modifications of the hiring policy. To support this odd view, he cited Black’s letter and its point about jurisdiction, but he ignored Black’s remark, in the same letter, that Faculty hiring procedures are covered by [the] Education Code..., which requires that “hiring criteria, policies, and procedures for new faculty members shall be developed and agreed upon jointly by representatives of the governing board, and the academic senate….” (Ralph Black)

Late in 1993, the Board approved a “Full Time Academic Employees Hiring Policy” that makes clear that the hiring policy can be changed only upon mutual agreement between the district and the faculty senates. This, of course, is the crucial “further information” that Ralph Black needs and will soon receive.

* * *

Budget development, of course, is plainly listed among the academic and professional matters of the district’s “shared governance” policy (2100.1). Hence, a failure to consult with the academic senate regarding budget development would be a violation of “shared governance”—one that clearly does fall under Black’s jurisdiction. Mr. Black will be interested to learn that, at IVC, the senate has been excluded from the budget development process for years.

Part 2: From Dissent 67, April 14, 2003

[“Kurt Bozny” is one of Chunk’s alter-egos.]

According to a statute, faculty hiring policies are to be “mutually” agreed upon by the district (i.e., the board) and the faculty (i.e., the academic senates).

During the Summer of 2002, Chancellor Mathur established a committee, including no faculty, that developed a new hiring policy. The faculty were not even informed of this committee’s work. The product of the committee—a truly appalling and incompetent policy—was then adopted by the board.

Thus, at long last, the faculty senate sued the district. (It was about time!) Below describes the serving of papers and its immediate aftermath.

April 14, 2003

Saddleback and Irvine Valley Colleges' Academic Senates Sue the District

By Kurt Bozny

April 8:

Santa Ana, 1:15 p.m.: Wendy files the much anticipated “faculty hiring policy” lawsuit against the SOCCCD Board of Trustees and Chancellor RAGHU P. MATHUR. She’s well-prepared, and so she breezes through the paperwork. Soon, she’s out the door, headin’ south!

2:10: Wendy’s back at IVC. She and I decide to head down south together to serve Mathur with the writ and the attached documents—a big stack. It’s good to bring an observer, cuz some people get way squirrelly when you try to serve ‘em with a lawsuit, and Mathur’s definitely the type.

I briefly search for one of those neon green “legal observer” caps like they wear at the big protests in L.A., but I can’t find one. Dang!

Mission Viejo, 2:40: we’re up on the 3rd floor of the Library, closin’ in on Chancellor Mathur’s office. I catch a glimpse of Mathur exiting his office, movin’ towards Robina Husting’s desk. He hasn’t spotted us yet.

Wendy closes in, holdin’ the thick stack of legal papers in front of her. As it turns out, Mathur is holding a similar stack of papers in front of him. The two meet in the small space in front of Robina’s desk. Mathur just stands there. So Wendy places her stack on top of Mathur’s stack, sayin’, “You’re served.”

Mathur’s horrified. The indecorous fellow now jostles and squirms to avoid holding the papers, but it’s too late—he’s got ‘em.

I’m thinkin’: “Does he actually suppose that the lawsuit won’t happen if he avoids holdin’ this stuff?”

Finally, in a desperate attempt to avoid being served, Raghu shoves the legal papers forward and they fall to the floor. Fwap!

Legally speaking, such fwappage is irrelevant; he’d been served and, once again, he’d attained the title “Respondent Mathur.” Besides, leaving the lawsuit on his secretary’s desk counts, too, so Wendy now picks up the papers and places ‘em there.

Meanwhile, I size up the Chancellor’s unseemly conduct. “How rude,” I proclaim. We exit.

Respondent Mathur struggles to think of a comeback, but Attorney Wendy (and her cap-less Boswell) are already out the door.

Finally, he’s got one. He shouts:

“How rude are YOU!”

* * *

Wendy Gabriella

April [9]: The next day, the district issues a peevish press release. It says:

SOCCCD Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur…commented on a lawsuit filed by the IVC and Saddleback College Academic Senates that disputes a new SOCCCD faculty hiring policy, stating, “The district is following the guidelines established under Title 5 that defines the ‘Delegation of Authority to the Academic Senates.’ There are 11 areas within the scope of academic and professional matters for which the academic senates have primary responsibility.

“The State Chancellor’s office has confirmed our view,” Mathur said, “that our hiring policies do not fall within the primary responsibility of the faculty….”

This is classic Mathur. The State Chancellor’s office does indeed hold that hiring policies are not among the 10 + 1 areas in which faculty are assigned primary responsibility by Title 5, a state regulation.

The problem is that the lawsuit does not mention Title 5 and it does not allege that Title 5 has been violated. Rather, it alleges that the new policies, and the manner in which they were developed and approved, violate an Ed Code statute (EC87360) and utterly defeat the intentions of legislators.

Ed Code statutes, of course, are more than regulations; they’re laws. They count bigtime.

In other words, with regard to the issue of faculty “hiring” policies, we don’t need no stinkin’ Title 5.

Respondent Mathur is ignoring—or failing to understand—that, in reality, the State Chancellor’s office takes the following view:

Education Code section 87360 requires governing board and academic senate representatives to agree on hiring criteria, policies and procedures to be adopted by the board. (Letter from California Community College Chancellor’s Office, Ralph Black, General Counsel, January 29, 2002).

In the District’s press release, Board President Don “So sue me” Wagner offers his own spin, expressing “disappointment” that the senates have decided to force the district to “spend money on attorneys, rather than students.”

* * *

On the 10th, the Register reports that

In an unprecedented move, the faculty senates of both Saddleback and Irvine Valley colleges have voted to sue their district chancellor and trustees over a new hiring policy that gives more power to college administrators at the expense of traditional academic hiring committees.

The lawsuit … asks a judge to set aside the new hiring policy because it was not approved by each college’s Academic Senate.

When the new rules were approved by a 4-3 vote by the …trustees in January, faculty representatives unsuccessfully pleaded with the board for more time to discuss them.

The state’s Education Code requires that hiring criteria and policies for new faculty members must be developed “and agreed upon jointly” by board members and the Academic Senate….

…Typically, new college instructors are selected by hiring committees made up of faculty members who are experts in the field and the head of the department. Their selection is usually ratified by the college president, the district’s board of trustees or both.

According to Wendy Gabriella, an IVC instructor and attorney who filed the lawsuit, faculty members were particularly unhappy with new rules that allow the district’s human resources director to change the scores awarded by committee members if she deems them too far off the norm and to unilaterally change interview questions.

Professors were also displeased with a new ethics and confidentiality section of the hiring policy that allows the human resources director to investigate and punish any member of a hiring committee who is accused of violating confidentiality.

“The policy allows the human resources department to accuse hiring committee members of bias, change their scores and discipline them without any due process or opportunity for appeal,” [said the] Irvine Valley Academic Senate President….

* * *

Also on the 10th, the President of the IVC Academic Senate, Greg Bishopp, sends a memo to IVC faculty. (The Saddleback Senate Prez later spams it to Saddleback faculty.) It says:

The Academic Senates of IVC and Saddleback College have filed suit in California Superior Court to block the implementation of a faculty hiring policy, which they believe to violate … the California Education Code. While the trustees and the administration of the SOCCCD maintain that their new policy, and the process used to develop this policy, does not violate the law, the Academic Senates claim that they do. In violation of the law, the Senates maintain, district administration has failed to allow faculty involvement in developing the procedures for hiring new faculty members. As a result, the adopted policy is fraught with violations of law, policy, and accepted practice.

Prez Bishopp also notes that the senates have “exhausted all internal means of appeal” and that, in January, Wagner “invited the Senates to sue the district to resolve the legality of the Board of Trustees’ alteration of board policy.”

That Wagner is quite a guy!

Bishopp closes by noting that the record

shows who has been responsible for wasting the district’s money in the past. Board President Don Wagner has stated that, “our district will again prevail on this misguided litigation.” However, in the seven legal actions brought by members of the faculty against the Board of Trustees, the courts have sided with the faculty and against the Board every single time, demonstrating that the Board, by violating the law, has been responsible for the suits, not the litigiousness of the plaintiffs. If the Board of Trustees does not wish to spend money on litigation, it should avoid breaking the law.

* * *

The district’s new faculty hiring policies (BP4011, 4011.1, 4011.2) are available online at the Saddleback College Academic Senate website.

Those who wish to read the statute should go to

Statute

To read a review of the statute and its relation to the historic AB1725 legislation, one might start by reading the local senates “handbook” on the State Academic Senate’s website:

Handbook

See you in court! —KB

Part 3

Judge Clay Smith
[10/10/09:]

Here’s what happened next:

Judge Clay Smith ruled that the district had indeed failed to include the faculty in the development of the faculty hiring policy, contrary to law. He thus ordered the district and senates to get together to develop a faculty hiring policy. But, in the end, the district’s representatives and the senates’ representatives did not see eye to eye on major issues, and so the district unilaterally pushed through the version of the policy that it liked, and it pronounced that policy the product of the committee. That policy was almost as appalling as the one that was neutralized by Smith.

Surprisingly, despite the vociferous objections of the Academic Senates to the new policy, Judge Smith ruled that the policy was indeed the product of “mutual agreement.”

It was an absurd judgment.

The Academic Senates appealed.

By summer 2005, the appellate justices unanimously acted to overturn and vacate Smith’s absurd judgment. The board tried one or two last ditch efforts to have the court reconsider, but to no avail. The academic senates had won, and that was that.

The senates had prevailed, period. That meant that the only valid policy was the one developed at the end of 1993 (that one was mutually agreed to). It was good from the faculty’s perspective.

The appellate justices urged the parties to work out their differences, and so, in the Fall of 2005, district representatives (namely, Mathur, the instigator of the original unilaterally imposed policy, and Lang, now the board president) and Academic Senate reps (namely, the two senate Presidents and the union president) mutually developed a policy that both sides could agree on.

That work was completed by late October, 2005. This mutually ageed to policy is a vast improvement.

At the time of writing, it only remains for the board to approve the new policy, and there is every indication that they will do just that. If they fail to do so, then the decidedly faculty-friendly 1993/4 policy will apply.

[The policy was approved.]