Teddy, cat

SOCCCD is way below state average in percentage of full-time faculty: see the data

    Gosh, lately, faculty at IVC have again been carping about the low rate at which the college, led by Glenn Roquemore, hires full-time faculty. Some have recently noted, for instance, that Saddleback College seems to hire far more full-timers than does IVC, a discrepancy not accounted for by the two colleges’ differences in size. (This year, SC seems to be pursuing 16 hires while IVC seems to be pursuing 6.)
     What gives?
     Maybe it’s time for some comparisons to other colleges and districts.

     This morning, I had occasion to view the standings of local (i.e., OC) community colleges via the so-called STUDENT SUCCESS SCORECARD, a cluster of official metrics made available by the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office. At that site, one can select individual colleges and learn such factoids as a college’s “percentage of full-time faculty.” (Actually, these percentages seem to be for the entire district in question, not for individual colleges.)
     Below, I present the data for the state, taken as a whole, and for each of the Orange County community colleges (presented by district). 
     Statewide, the percentage of full-time faculty is about 56%, which matches the rate at the Coast Community College District and which is far exceeded at both the Rancho Santiago CCD and the NOCCCD.
     One district, however, seems to stand alone in this regard. It falls way below the statewide average. That would be the South Orange County Community College District.
     Oh my.

Statewide

Percentage of Full-Time Faculty

56.1%

RANCHO SANTIAGO COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT:
Santa Ana College

Percentage of Full-Time Faculty

63.1%

Santiago Canyon College

Percentage of Full-Time Faculty

63.1%

NORTH ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT:
Fullerton College

Percentage of Full-Time Faculty

61.7%

Cypress College

Percentage of Full-Time Faculty

61.7%

COAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT:
Coastline Community College

Percentage of Full-Time Faculty

56.8%

Orange Coast College

Percentage of Full-Time Faculty

56.8%

Golden West College

Percentage of Full-Time Faculty

56.8%

SOUTH ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT:
Irvine Valley College

Percentage of Full-Time Faculty

49.1%

Saddleback College

Percentage of Full-Time Faculty

49.1%

(Note: re the currency of the data: for the entries per college, we’re told, “The student population and course sections offered described in the tables are based on the 2013-14 academic year.”)

     Looks bad. My guess is that IVC ranks significantly lower than SC. I wonder what the figure is? Glenn?
     We suck, and we suck hard.

MORE FACTOIDS:

     Check out the "Student Counseling Ratio" Statewide: 722 students per counselor. The rates for Fullerton, Cypress, Golden West, and IVC are in that ballpark. Not so everyone else (way worse).

SIZE (by FTES):

Santa Ana:             20,087

Fullerton:               18,964

Orange Coast:        16,558

Saddleback:           15,506

Cypress:                 11,018

Golden West:         10,000

Irvine Valley:           9,386

Santiago Canyon:    8,601

Coastline:                6,036

COMPLETION:

What's "bark"? And what on Earth is the DRAC?

The Kearsarge Lakes Basin, Sierra Nevada (CA)

By Roy Bauer

     The Academic Senate is about participating in “collegial consultation” (aka “shared governance”). Arguably, that boils down to faculty representation on committees. 
     Below is a list of college and district committees most of which have faculty representation. (These lists are likely to be a bit outdated.)

     I have highlighted some familiar acronyms with which you might not be, um, familiar.

     A few years ago, the ceaseless and stupefying proliferation of committees struck many as absurd and unwise, and an attempt was made to pare them down to a manageable number. But then they started proliferating again, especially at the district level. 
     Feel free to complain loudly and angrily about the byzantine committee structure at the college and at the district. Couldn't hurt. Might help.

IVC Strategic Planning Committees

BDRPC – IVC Budget Development and Resources Planning Committee

APTC – IVC Academic Planning and Technology Committee

SSAMMO – IVC Student Success/Access/ Matriculation/Marketing/Outreach

IE – IVC Institutional Effectiveness Committee

IVC Environmental Leadership Committee

District Committees

See

https://www.socccd.edu/about/documents/DistrictCommittees.docx

DRAC – District Resources Allocation

BAARC – Basic Aid Allocation Committee

CET – Chancellor’s Executive Team

Chancellor’s Cabinet

Docket

Leadership Team

Vice Chancellor’s Coordinating Council

District Academic Calendar

District-wide Planning Council

District-wide Technology Committee

BPARC – District Board Policy and Administrative Regulations Committee

Calendar committee

IVC Task Forces

[This list might be a bit out of date.]

IVC Accreditation

IVC Cafeteria

Safety Committee

IVC Commencement Speaker

IVC Teacher of the Year

IVC Bookstore

IVC Scholarship Selection

SLO Task Force – Student Learning Outcomes Task Force*

CTE Task Force – Career and Technical Education Task Force

Distance Education Task Force

Technology Advisory Task Force

IVC ‘Classified Hiring Priority List’ Development (is there still a committee?)

TWO MORE:

SPOBDC - Strategic Planning Oversight & Budget Development Committee 
SPAC - Strategic Planning and Accreditation. Council
and See

*Re SLOs:

http://www.ivc.edu/resources/administration/governance/asenate/Documents/SLO's--Definition of Terms.doc

• August 20, 2015 Senate Meeting

August 20 meeting of the IVC Academic Senate (Rep Council)

   We discussed the idea of joining a program known as “Studies in Grad Education,” a Cal CC Internship Program. It is affiliated with UCI. See

http://www.grad.uci.edu/academics/programs-internships/index.html

   How shall we proceed?

   We decided to agendize the matter for the next meeting.

   Nevertheless, this discussion refused to die. I made a special effort to kill it. No dice.

Exec reports:

Prez Kathy Schmeidler:

     Blah, blah, blah. Kathy asserted that our budget situation looks healthy. I raised questions about the number of projected faculty hires this year (6, I believe). Seems low. Reflects budget? Kathy was unclear about the answer. She said that Saddleback College always has more discretionary funding than we do. Not clear why that is. Trying to figure it out. A mystery. (Obviously, part of the answer is a reference to Roquemorian  values, which obviously do not give priority to hiring full-time faculty. Also, with regard to some tasks, we seem to have limited understanding of how things get done at Saddleback College.)

     We discussed the fuzziness of past projected numbers; last year, etc. (The unstated thesis seemed to be something like this: administration's intentions and thinking are often unclear or are poorly communicated at IVC. An ongoing and vexing problem.)

Vice Prez Bob Urell:

     Bob reported on BDRPC (Budget Development and Resources Planning Committee) meeting, yesterday. (Budget.)

     Bob discussed resource requests. There’s a new resource allocation model. Change: choosing of the funding source. One should click appropriate funding sources, not check every box, hoping for a miracle. Etc.

     B200 renovation and HVAC upgrade: blah blah blah

     A400: a real mess. Water damage. “Tumbleweeds are blowing through the building,” said the facilities guy, reportedly. But it looks like the builder has a lot to lose by attempting litigation or foot-dragging. A long move-in period in Spring—that’s the hope.

     Steve R raised issues about naming A400 the “Liberal Arts Building.” Was the School of H consulted? Nope, we said. Kathy noted that there was at least one member of the school of H on SPAC, and no complaint was voiced.

     Brett asked about ATEP. When will it be finished? Brittany noted that, since it is the “School of the future,” ….. That got a good laugh.

Ac Affairs Chair: Brett McKim:

     We’ve not “had an affair” yet this term. Will be working on professional development. More funds than ever. ($60K/year?) [It must be said that Brett’s leadership of AA has been weak. Any volunteers? Be thinking of running in May.]

     We were allotted a special amount of money last year. Was anything left over? Yes. Rolls over.

     Senators discussed such issues as whether the allotment to adjuncts should be increased; also, the allotment to full-timers.

Curriculum Committee Chair: Diana Hurlbut:

     Dept chairs got due dates about curriculum during Flex Week. Nevertheless, evidently, many faculty haven’t gotten the word. The deadline for new courses: Sept 1. Get the word out. Can be fairly arbitrary what triggers “newness.”

     If you miss that deadline, a new one pops up: Feb 1. Those new courses precessed in Feb can be offered in the Spring of the following year (not the Fall).

     Over 300 courses need to be revised. Make sure everyone relevant knows the deadlines. You can make requests about the deadline; if you don't, you'll be assigned a deadline. That can go badly.

     All SLOs must be in a Word attachment in CNET. A change. Just have that attachment ready. ACCJC requires this.

     Distance Ed committee: new DE form to help meet new Accred requirements.

     A huge push on CTE (Career Technical Ed) is happening. These courses are relatively costly.

Item 7: ARs and BPs:

     The faculty hiring policy is going to the board in minimized form next week (Monday). Reconfigured by putting much of the regulation into an AR, out of BP. The biggest blemishes were revised. We were about to bring it to the board back in Nov or so. But then litigation popped up, and the district’s attorney made recs—and that weirded out Bugay. Much squealing and worry. Luckily, contra Poertner, the board is OK with these changes. They’ll likely pass off on these changes, which is good.

     The most important element in the AR: spirit of “this is what we’ll try to do.” If we have to do something different, we can.

      Coming up: 5618, credit by exam. AR 5626, about email. 5404—Sexual and Other Assaults on Campus. Laws have been changing about this, makes it a moving target. Joint workgroup, both colleges, working on that. Also: policies on students rights and responsibilities—supposed to parallel grade grievances. Some controversy about this: where the law is silent, we shouldn’t fill the void. (I think.) Faculty disagree with the district. The district wants an AR on professional development; this makes Kathy very uncomfortable. Stay tuned.

Item 8: grade grievances:

     We’ve been working with a small crew (pool). Any volunteers? Please volunteer! Even if you’re only willing to do ONE. You’re only deciding if there’s enough in the complaint to go forward as a grievance. If it goes forward, there’s one more hour-long meeting, but many of these complaints do not go forward, since students exhibit much cluelessness about the process.

     A handful of people (including our own Brittany) volunteered. Anyone else?

Item 10: club advisor handbook:

     New advisor couldn’t make it. She’ll be here next time.

Item 11: Ac calendars and finals calendar:

     The new finals week schedule is very similar to the finals week schedule of old. It’s available at the college website. Pretty easy to read, use. See:

http://academics.ivc.edu/schedule/pages/finals.aspx 

     Someone noted that our schedule does not match Saddleback’s schedule. Never does, said Kathy. She also opined that Saddleback’s schedule is “weird.”

Item 12: contract ed, etc.:

     Cathleen not present. We’ll push this to next meeting.

Item 13: planning and decision making manual:

     The PDM. Please read draft, available online. Look especially at the paragraph on “consultation.” Prez Roquemore objects to it. We don’t. Check it out.

http://www.ivc.edu/resources/administration/governance/asenate/Documents/Forms/DispForm.aspx?ID=115

 Item 14: ASCCC Curriculum committee meeting, 8/29:

     DIGRESSION: Steve reminded us of our efforts to have the state senate challenge the ACCJC on its adoption of the SLO philosophy. Kathy was reminded that we should make another attempt to get the state senate to adopt an appropriate resolution.

Item 15: Curriculum chair assistant:

     Chris Loeffler (Anthropology) has agreed to take this on. She’ll run Tech Review 2.

     We approved her appointment.

School reports….

     I mentioned Henry’s difficulty. Kathy had been involved in the efforts to overcome the problem and she said: the key question is--

     What happens about tenure if he fails to get the right kind of visa? That’s the core issue. We hope it’s a question we never have to answer. So far so good.

--Roy

Heads up! August 20 Senate Meeting (nothing to get excited about, I guess)

Sunny the cat, RIP

By Senator Roy

     We’ve received the agenda for the August 20 meeting of the Rep Council for the Academic Senate (aka the “senate meeting”). Here are some highlights/lowlights and commentary, etc.
     It doesn’t look like it will be a very important meeting, but you never know!

Item 7: Board Policies and Administrative Regulations 
 • BP and AR 4011.1 Recruitment: Full-Time Faculty Hiring [no action needed; headed for the Board of Trustees] [This was duly discussed last semester. The new and improved regulations will be a vast improvement over the old ones, though the changes don’t address the more philosophical objections that some of us have to the hiring status quo: unfortunate power/involvement of HR, primacy of college president’s judgment, etc.]
• BP 4309 Duties and Responsibilities of the Faculty [no action needed; headed for the Board of Trustees]
 • BP 4077 Personal Leave [revised to work with WorkDay]

Item 10: Faculty Student Club Advisor Handbook 
     “Senators have requested an update on the Faculty Student Club Advisor Handbook.” [Some have complained about the handbook, urged that it be improved.] 

Item 12: IVC Faculty Involvement in Contract Education, Community Education, and Continuing Education 
     “Senators requested that information be provided as to the process of determining faculty involvement in Contract Education, Community Education and Continuing Education.” [Unsurprisingly, some faculty have grown concerned about what goes on in these forms of instruction. Faculty should monitor this stuff carefully. Let's not forget the outrages of the past (at Crean, etc.).] 

Item 15: Senate Appointment: Curriculum Chair Assistant 
     “Shall the Representative Council open nominations, close nominations and appoint the Curriculum Chair Assistant?” [See comment in the previous post about the controversial nature of the action to add this assistant job.] 

STANDING REPORTS: 

• SLO Task Force: Cheryl Delson [Let’s not forget: SLOs are bullshit: empirically unsupported, even discredited. Nevertheless, the Accreds have fully bought into the "outcomes" methodology and they have the power to demand full SLOitude.] 
• Accreditation Report: Kathy Schmeidler
• Foundation Accounts/PRO-IVC: Kathy Schmeidler
• Early College: Brett McKim [The IVC Ac. Senate has not been happy about our college President’s advocacy of this program.]
• Bookstore: [This is where student government gets its funds. Not a healthy situation.]
• Cafeteria: [it kinda sucks]
• Calendar Committee Report: Kathy Schmeidler / Bob Urell
• Environmental Leadership (ELC): Jeff Kaufmann
• Distance Education Task Force: Cathleen Greiner [You’ll recall that some of our own faculty have recently expressed skepticism about the viability of DE, given the prevalence, in that teaching format, of cheating and the difficulty in addressing it.]
• Technology Task Force: Roopa Mathur [Some have taken a dim view of the district’s approach to technological improvements. Should be more “ground up,” reflecting needs of faculty, etc.] 
• Safety and Security [There’ve been longstanding worries about safety and security on campus, especially during our night sessions. Related: the lack of administrative presence during night sessions.]
• LGBTQ Liaison Report: Brooke Choo [I think that VPSS Linda F has authority here, which is worrisome. But Brooke is just the right person to keep tabs on LGBTQ issues and efforts.]

     P.S.: A friend reminds me that there was much discussion, in Senate, about the District IT language in early drafts of the district Technology “Master Plan.” Some opined that it is unnecessary and unhelpful (distracting? counterproductive?) for the district to embrace the goal of becoming a “national leader” in technology.
     Today, the final draft has become available (see link following). This draft removes the “national leader” language.
     Final Draft of the SOCCCD Technology Master Plan

• August 12, 2015: last week's Academic Senate “General Assembly” meeting

Senator Haeri (of a School
that dares not speak its name)

Senator Roy Bauer

     I could not attend the Academic Senate “General Assembly” meeting last week. Fortunately, our colleague and friend Melanie Haeri provided a report for the members of her School. (You remember those guys!) She sent it my way.
     Here’s an abridged version of her report:

PUBLIC COMMENTS
     Steve Felder attended Chancellor’s opening session, where he learned that Saddleback college hired 16 to our 6. Meanwhile, at IVC, we hired about twice as many classified and administrators than faculty. …
     Diana H kindly mentioned that this is Melanie’s 7th year walking 60 miles in 3 days in November for breast cancer. Diana encouraged donations. (See.)  

GENERAL DISCUSSION
     IVC President Glenn Roquemore visited. He welcomed faculty to the new semester and insisted that “we want to hire as many faculty as possible.”
     Diane Oaks was on hand to urge faculty to contact her if they desire marketing for their courses.
     New faculty were introduced, as was Elissa Oransky, the new Foundation Director. (You'll recall that IVC has had a series of poor Foundation Directors.)
     VP of Student Services, Linda F, introduced her new crew.
     We were informed that Traci Fahimi is the new “interim dean” of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Yemmy Taylor has taken over the “First Friday” hikes.
     Roopa M made announcements re Online Ed. We are welcome to meetings, she said.
     Something called the "SAMMO committee" is working on responses to state changes in assessment and matriculation. See our own Brenda B.
     The Committee Grid was passed around. (No doubt it was scintillating.)
     The Faculty Association (faculty union) provided an update re contract negotiations. Evidently, negotiations are in good shape, but more work is necessary. A proposed contract will go to the board at our August meeting of the BOT (board of trustees).  

CURRICULUM UPDATE
     Curriculum maven (chair) Diana H announced that new courses must be submitted by September 1 (if we are to teach them during Fall of 2016). We can also submit courses in the Spring—an innovation to help move the process along.
     Diana offered 24/7 help and gave out her personal cell phone number. Chairs, please read courses before hitting “launch.” We’re moving to an e-catalog so deadlines are very important.
     Further: three deadlines are involved for revised courses. Chairs, let Diana know which date is preferred.
     Diana asked that we please identify one main author for the curriculum so that she knows who to correspond with. IMPORTANT: take your SLO’s from TRACDAT and put them on a word doc and attach to the COR (course outline of record. Diana and Co. are trying to make this an automatic process; it isn’t right now.
     The Accreditor (ACCJC) requires that all courses have SLOs in Curricunet by commencement 2016. There’s a form for DE [distance ed] courses that must be attached.
     3 LHE is available for a co-curriculum person to work with Diana.  

ALT MEDIA AND 508 COMPLIANCE – New full time person now will do all the alt media. Her office is located in the Success Center.  

VICE PRESIDENT BOB URELL – Bob listed his committees where he represented us. Lots of budget committees.  

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS - BRETT M. – Discussed online professional development site. DALS [distinguished academic lectures] and IVC2IVC are coming back this year! (These are our lecture series.)  

KATHY S., PRESIDENT – Identified and discussed committees where she represents us.  

CRAIG J - FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE AND CALENDAR – Negotiations will soon begin with Saddleback on the next calendar—probably not much to change. The new finals schedule seems to be going smoothly. According to the new/old scheme, faculty meet with students only once during finals week. Give Craig and his office any feedback on this. [END] 

     Senator Roy here: A little background: many, including (and especially?) VPI Craig Justice, have grown very impatient with the seemingly never-ending curriculum bottleneck. (You’ll recall that, a few years ago, the current Senate Prez was removed from her role as Curric Chair apparently because, in the judgment of the Senate Rep Council [led by then-Prez Lisa DA], she was allowing or causing a bottleneck.)
      That there is now money for a co-chair of curriculum (to help Diana) is, well, controversial. There is a long history of complaint from officers (curriculum chairs, et al.) about an overwhelming workload, despite the course releases (reassigned time). The complicating factor is that, often, these officers are doing significant overload. It's not a healthy situation.

     Thanks much, Mel!