senate capers: • April 16, 2015

Thursday, April 16, 2015

• April 16, 2015

Senate report, Meeting of the Rep Council, April 16, 2015

Senator Roy

During public comments, of which there were few, VP Linda F got up to yammer and murmur like she does. The topic was our planned effort with regard to the LGBTQ community. Kathy S, Ac Sen Prez, opined that there are those who think they’re safe when in fact they ain’t, so maybe we should be careful where we allow this “safe space” designation. (Evidently, people were alluding to some dean or manager who is notoriously less-than-safe and who imagines otherwise.) Linda F got pretty defensive and explained that she is in fact the Title 9 person plus she’s certified in this way and that, and blah blah blah. I dunno.

The gal in charge of CTE—some kind of dean, I guess—had real big hair (not that I’m complaining) and so I was unable to pay attention to what she actually said, which sounded a lot like “blah blah blah.” Not sure. Evidently, her task force is wrestling with the difficult issue of whether they should be a task force or a committee. That’s what I got out of it anyway.

Steve R and others provided an account of the Foundation Awards Gala, and everyone seemed convinced that it was just about the best thing ever. I interrupted to ask, “To what do you attribute this improved state of affairs?” Kathy opined that it was a doubly kind of causation: someone who needed to leave, left, and somebody who needed to enter, entered. Later, the set of persons to whom thanks is owed (for this great success) expanded beyond Dennis Gordon to include Karen Orlando and various other persons. It looks like the Foundation raised possibly $38k that night.

Senate VP Bob U reminded the group that it had decided to return the college to the old “finals week” schedule (i.e., providing special two-hour blocks for exams during the final week of the semester), and he explained that VP Craig J is working on various proposals for how to do that, including “what we used to do.” If you have anything to add about what worked and what did not (in that old system), now’s the time to speak up. Implementation of the new approach starts in Fall 2015!

The seating arrangement of members of the cabinet seemed strange: they were spread out across the room, lengthwise, like there was some kind of BO problem. Not sure what that was about, if anything, but when it was time to discuss the Curriculum Committee, there was a peculiar tension in the air, it seemed (not sure), and maybe that’s why Diana H, chair of Curriculum, was sitting in the far corner of the room, in another time zone and thinner atmosphere.

Roopa M inquired into the progress Diana was making in going through the backlog of curriculum work (there’s a horrible backlog, bottleneck), etc. Diana acted as though she had it all under control, but I’m not sure, since she was so far away and her voice was faint.

Kathy made mention of the notorious faculty hiring policy (BP4011.1). You’ll recall that, fifteen or so years ago, Mean Mathur and the Board made their move to muzzle faculty by unilaterally changing the hiring policy so’s to reduce faculty’s role and increase administration’s role, despite a state statute according to which this policy is supposed to be arrived at mutually between the Academic Senates (on the one hand) and the district (Chancellor and Board) (on the other). In an unprecedented move, with IVC taking the lead (Wendy Gabriella was Prez), faculty sued the district and (to make a long story short) we won, forcing the district to enter into negotiations with the senate to arrive at an agreeable BP. Hence the rather legalistic and cumbersome policy with which we are now saddled. To hear Kathy tell it, the situation is now favorable for replacing the old BP with an AR and defanging it in some ways.

Someone brought up the much-maligned administrative hiring policy—that policy gives to administration too much power and demands little faculty representation. Steve R opined that we should make clear that we don’t like that policy and think that it should be changed soon. So Steve moved that we recommend that the policy be changed by the end of 2015; that passed.

You’ll recall that one of our new hirings—the third tier choice of administration; something about robotics—has been fiaso-esque and worse. The faculty of the Schools involved carped loudly that they had not been properly consulted, and so on. And so, to this day, there is no clear answer to the question, “So, what kind of instructor are the administrators hiring again?”

Kathy opined that the position has evolved into an “Engineering Technician person,” it seems. We’ll see. Kathy’s advice to Glenn is to bring all affected parties together and solicit their input before going forward. Have an “open conversation.” We’ll see what happens. Glenn is, as you know, resistant to any advice that is, well, good.

Cheryl D came up to talk about the mandated SLO website, to be made available to the public. There are two ways of displaying the SLOs for programs, and we opted for the simpler one.

There was more blathering about “CTE [career technical ed] coursework.” My eyes glazed over; I failed to listen.

Evidently, someone hammered out a “workplace mediation and conciliation process.” It’s supposed to deal with disgruntlement between folks so that that doesn’t develop into something serious—gunplay, etc. I think it’s full of the usual truisms and “warm and fuzzies”: listen, consider the other person’s POV, count to 10. I asked what that was about and so Kathy launched into it and I couldn’t take anymore and so I moved that we pass the dang thing and we did.

The senate now has an elections committee, and so we approved that. There’s still time to nominate somebody for Prez of VP—one week extension.

Somebody said something about the “Perkins Budget Steering Committee,” and, again, my eyes glazed over and I fell into a coma. “Send in nominations,” we were told.

We still need volunteers to read the names of students for the upcoming Scholarship Awards event. I do believe that Roopa M and Steve volunteered. We’re still looking for faculty speakers.

We are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to read the DISTRICT TECHNOLOGY PLAN. We’ll be acting on that soon. (Some have expressed strong reservations about some or its elements. See earlier notes.)

We briefly discussed my ill-fated RESOLUTION re SLOs. It was voted down at the State Senate Plenary over the weekend. Before the vote, Kathy had heard only positive feedback about it in the hallways and elsewhere. Possibly, the rejection reflected niggling over details. For instance, evidently there has been some attempt to do a meta-analysis of studies and that has essentially determined that the existing research indicates that the “measurable outcomes” approach flat doesn’t work. That factoid can be included in any future version of this resolution. The resolution is going to Academic Affairs where it will be spruced up accordingly. Possibly, we’ll be able to put it forward at a future plenary. (Kathy implied that a surprising range of officials seemed positively disposed re the resolution.)

Davit K, the VP of budgets (or something) was invited to present, well, the budget. He displayed a SPREADSHEET, which, we were repeatedly told, will be available at the senate website (asenate@ivc.edu). It isn’t the usual non-interactive spreadsheet; this one allows entering different numbers, seeing what difference that makes to the bottom line. And so, owing to all the yammering faculty have been doing about the budget process in recent years, we now have a very transparent instrument for determining the budget, namely, this spreadsheet (if not “the process” that determines its elements).

I and others asked probing questions, some of which concerned the decision to hire so few instructors. It became clear that, as Dan recently suggested, given the existing budget, prospects look grim for future full-time faculty hires. We looked at Davit’s projections, and they were truly dismal.

Obviously, the existing spreadsheet reflects philosophical/value decisions about what the college cares about (e.g., hiring new faculty), and so we should study this spreadsheet and come prepared to challenge the Roquemore-planned direction of the college, which does not seem to include much hiring, despite an uptick in the economy.

We were encouraged to attend the upcoming Trustees “LISTENING SESSION.” Next week.

Evidently, right after that event, there’ll be a shindig for newly tenured faculty. We were strongly encouraged to attend that too.

Item 26 concerned the hiring of full time faculty using student success and support program (SSSP) categorical funds. Evidently, there is some document that is associated with the proposal, and we should read that by next meeting. (I’ll try to find it.) The Learning Disabilities hire comes up here.

Also, please read the EARLY COLLEGE PROPOSAL. It entails very significant changes and improvements. Glenn has made every indication of being displeased with this document and its innovations. And so please read the proposal and give us feedback so that we may represent you properly at the next meeting. (I’ll dig it up again.)

--Senator Roy

Your senators:

Brittany Adams: badams26@ivc.edu

Roy Bauer: rbauer@ivc.edu

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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.]

Thursday, April 16, 2015

• April 16, 2015

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