senate capers: October 4, 2012

Thursday, October 4, 2012

October 4, 2012

Senate Notes October 4, 2012

Colleagues – here are the notes from this week’s Senate meeting J Please note: There are 3 important issues to make sure you read about: budget, repeatability, and faculty professional development.

Meeting called to order– Agenda reordered.

Guests: Bob Cosgrove, Kate Clark, Craig Justice, Matt Tresler, Amy Grimm,

Public Comments: 1) Bob Cosgrove (President of Saddleback Academic Senate) spoke about two issues that impact both colleges. The first is the districts policy of granting of honorary degrees – The President of Saddleback attempted to change the language of the policy: instead of actually granting the degrees, according to the revision, the senate merely certifies that the process was followed. Bob said faculty at Saddleback are taking the position that faculty should approve all degrees. Kathy, our Senate president. The district can give away anything else without our approval, but not degrees. 2) The second issue he spoke of dealt with the Student Success Recommendations from the state. Apparently we, as a district, are moving quickly to implement the changes and several are being taken to the board in a form of a presentation. According to Bob, some of the recommendations are in limbo and don’t need immediate implementation. One issue is that the legislation/recommendations also state that schools should “implement only as resources allow.” Recommendations 2 and 3 – approved, others in limbo including the issue of matriculation –might not happen. Placements might stay the way they are for a while now. We might pull back and not go forward with 8 items from success task force to the board. We should talk to the chancellor. Our chancellor believes faculty including part time faculty should be at the forefront of this. 3) Michelle Sharf from counseling announced “UC personal statement” workshops are being offered through counseling and English dept. Let students know.

Presidents Report: Kathy S. 1) Recent district meetings—that Kathy attended—focused on self-assessment and self -assessment tools. 2) Retirement budgetary issues were also discussed. Kathy mentioned the issue of the recalculation of our liability funds as the state came up with new numbers. Our board is being fiscally careful, as usual. A good thing, according to all J3) No growth – the issue is our no growth lid – should we calculate in FTES or, because we are basic aid, should we instead look at our costs using OSH – something to think about. Kathy is going to be pushing this idea to DRAC. The latter approach would put more money in the OSH bucket than in the basic aid bucket. What are your thoughts? We could possibly have more students this way and still not grow – a different calculation. 4) Somebody’s developing an intergroup process of resolution for disputes among faculty - as opposed to the model of reporting to HR. There wouldn’t be records kept that could end up in our files– just a mediation process.

Vice Presidents Report: - Bob Urell 1) SPOBCD [strategic planning] - This is an important item. That committee met and looked at long-term budget planning scenarios with the help of a power point presentation. Bob shared the presentation with us and gave us an overview. These scenarios – both the current year’s budget and forecasting through several years – assumed that our funding will remain the same; they also included paying off some loans, hiring approx. 10 new hires this year, early retirement payments, potential increase in non-resident tuition revenue, etc. All scenarios show the reserve balance steadily shrinking. So – basically, as expenses grow, revenue drops and we head into a deficit situation. We are not in as bad shape as other schools due to our basic aide funding; nevertheless, unless we take steps, we face deficits. In addition, the state will begin to make cuts in such things as categorical funding BUT some of the programs funded that way (DSPS for example) are mandated and so we will have to pay for them. Indeed, our categorical funding comes from the state – and those will be cut if prop 30 doesn’t pass – but there are federal regs that require these programs and we would then have to fund them. (About 92% of our budget goes to salary and benefits.) We’ll likely pursue an efficiency study. What can we cut back on? Glenn has proposed bringing in someone from the outside to look at this—someone who has gone through this before at other colleges. Heads up: you are going to start hearing about this and you will be asked for your input. This process should start soon since we are rapidly heading towards a deficit. Should be and needs to be a campus-wide discussion. Looking for solutions: raising revenue and being more efficient. The OSH vs. FTE’S conversation can be included in this discussion as a way to increase money and lower costs. Roy asked, Just how dire is this situation? “Very,” said Bob U. This year we are okay; next year we aren’t. If we don’t participate in solutions, a plan will be foisted upon us. What have other colleges/districts done when faced with these circumstances? Some schools have canceled summer, or relieved all part-time faculty, etc. Entire programs and departments are being eliminated in at some colleges and universities around the country. Another vulnerable area: classified staff. These are college level decisions that we need to help guide.

Academic Affairs - Roopa M.1) IVC2IVC –Tracy Fahimi will do a presentation on the possibility of a fair election in November. 2) Student Success Summit at Saddleback in Oct.- lunch included. Activity is in Flex tracker. All are encouraged to attend.

Curriculum Chair –Diana H. 1) Diana attended a So Cal regional curriculum meeting this weekend. Pre –reqs discussed there and she will be working on this in the spring. Also, she attended a presentation on course identification numbers. We’ll be relying more on these numbers. Friday November 2 there is a discipline in-group meeting called the DIG – transfer models next – none in our school is in the next group of disciplines. 2) If you have a course up for revision this year, changes need to be in the system by Nov. 1.

Kate Clark – SLO update – 1) Kate extended an invitation for all to join the SLO committee – and mentioned an upcoming in-service activity 2) She reminded us to make sure 8 week courses and off campus and emeritus courses are being assessed for SLO’s. 3) Status report on data entry due Oct. 1 – discovered some anomalies, but we’re fixing them. She thanked faculty for cooperating and helping get so much done in such a short time. Next she gave a school by school update on SLO completion –like grades for schools! - Business Admin., Math Science, Emeritus, and Library – 100%; Humanities seemed to be in good shape – my estimate would be about a B+ – we have just a few parts missing. She’s thankful, enjoyed her time back on campus, and is on her way out the door. Dan Scott proposed an official Senate Resolution to thank Kate for all her work.

Curriculum Approval – Diane listed what was voted and deleted on at the last curriculum meeting. She presented two ballots with approved curriculum to the Senate for approval. The first ballot went through. The second ballot included courses with repeatability issues. Curriculum committee recommended approval of the second ballot. Steve R. asked to amend the motion. He asked the motion be approved with a contingency that would allow faculty to come back to senate and change the repeatability aspect of their individual curricula if they found a way to do so before February, when the catalog is due instead of going all the way through the curriculum process again. He mentioned that we, as a college, seem to jump quickly on changes the state asks for—often before the date required and without enough time to look at all options. There are options that other schools have used and he wants some time to look at those. The motion unanimously passed. Bottom line: if you have curriculum with repeatability limitations that you are concerned about (i.e. – you want /need students to be able to take the course more than three times, or to take it again after passing it the first time-labs-), you can make changes through February to curriculum, if you can find a way to do that, and you can do it without going through the entire curriculum process again. It would come to senate for approval.

Professional Funds allocation - Some history: Professional development is a contractual requirement for full time faculty and the colleges provide funds for that. The amount of money for this is a college-level decision. Before last year, full-time faculty were each limited to $700 and part-timers were limited to $350. Last year Academic Affairs, led by Steve R., submitted a strategy form in to increase the amount of funding. We were given a new budget last year of $60k – a significant improvement. Full time faculty were limited to $1400 and part time faculty were limited to $700. This year, Academic Affairs (with new leadership) asked for an increase in the funding, but did not receive it. Now – fast forward to last senate meeting. As Roy reported, Roopa, as Academic Affairs chair, brought committees recommendation to change limits for approval – they were asking to increase the full time faculty allotment to $1500 and decrease the part time allotment to $500. And, as Roy reported, the Senate rejected this recommendation, questioning the disparity between full and part time faculty and sent it back to committee. Academic Affairs took the amounts back to committee and discussed different options and ways to divide the funding. Committee members contend that $1500 and $500 is fair as it is speaking to full-time contractual requirements for professional development. Part-time instructors do not have this obligation. Also, their research showed no other community colleges paying more than $500 for part time faculty, so we are within current best practices. Discussion ensued and there was debate about the issues – many not pleased with the recommendation. A motion was made [by Mel! 2nded by Roy] to change the amounts back to last year’s numbers – $1400 and $700 – and this passed. Remember, this money is on a first come, first serve basis, so apply soon!

Program Review – list is posted. Early college needs to be added to calendar.

Board Policies –. Honorary degree issue – awarding degree must come from faculty. As mentioned before, this is important – and Kathy said she was “willing to die on this hill.” We encouraged that sort of death.

Senate Recorder – HELP! - We still need a recorder – any takers???

Full Time Tenure - Track Faculty Hiring Priority List – Library Sciences asked for approval to defer their tier 2 position and just keep their Tier 1 position. They can defer it one year. We OK’d it.

Plenary coming up for Senate. – Entire cabinet going.

No comments:

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.]

Thursday, October 4, 2012

October 4, 2012

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