senate capers: November 2015

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Nov. 19 Senate Meeting: the fall of the House of Beno

The agenda can be found here.

A student, representing student government, asked for faculty volunteers to participate in a “group event” at the upcoming Talent Show. It’s probably something really stupid. Interested?
The new Foundation Director (Elissa Oransky?) spoke. She seems nice. She reported that they’ve adopted a new program or system for scholarship data, replacing the hideous old STARS system. (This elicited some cheers.) Evidently, the new system is popular among community colleges. So there’s that.

They’re looking for VOLUNTEERS for THE APPLICATION REVIEW COMMITTEE (I think). The committee must be at least 50% faculty, you’ll recall.

Senate Prez Kathy S provided an update on FACULTY HIRES. A list of new IVC hires was approved by the board. Here’s where our prospective hires appeared on the list:

3. English/basic skills instructor

13. Humanities

14. Philosophy

15. English/basic skills

I think one School high on the list deferred a position (reading?). We don’t yet know how many of these positions will actually go forward.

At IVC, one must live with uncertainty.

Oransky

Kathy reported recent events re our accrediting body, the much despised ACCJC, headed by the secretive Barbara Beno. A few weeks ago, at the Senate Plenary, our local senate’s contingent presented a resolution (before the state senate) challenging the ACCJC to defend its reliance on the discredited philosophy behind SLOs. As occurred at the Spring Plenary, the gathering rejected the resolution, this time on even more absurd grounds: (1) sponsors did not cite any study (we were dinged for doing exactly that last spring); (2) gosh “we’re tired of talking about SLOs.”

I have always believed that the state senate is worthless.

Meanwhile, there’s been an effort to round up letters in support of the recommendations (including cutting loose the ACCJC as CCs’ accrediting body) from a task force put together by the Board of Governors or the State Chancellor’s Office. You’ll recall that the Our Fords—i.e., Prez Roquemore and Prez Burnett—refused to support such a letter on the grounds that the Task Force failed to consult with CEOs (this appears to be flat false).

Our senate, you’ll recall, wrote a letter in support of the Task Force recommendations. We were pretty enthusiastic about them. Makes you proud.

In any case, on Monday, the Board of Governors of the state Community College system voted unanimously to cut ACCJC loose as the accrediting body for California community colleges!

I asked: will WASC [Western Association of Schools and Colleges] (the umbrella body) now construct a replacement agency or will an independent agency be created?

–Don’t know. The task force’s recommendations urged that California’s CCs just join WASC and be accredited by that body (which accredits 4-year institutions).

I asked about the length of the transition from ACCJC to whatever replaces it. “Could be 10 years,” said Kathy. But we really don’t know. It's anybody's guess.

The Ear is back!

VP Bob Urell (he of the impressive salary) reported that we are working hard on the college’s budget. Unfortunately, our enrollment is now flat. That’s not good, since, 2% growth was projected/expected. Upshot: we’re in danger of losing as much as a million bucks should we fall short of our target.
Consequently, there’s some scrambling to reverse the situation. It’s the IVC way.

For instance, we’ll be beefing up “outreach” at the feeder high schools (we’ve been relying on the solitary Ann Akers; she’ll get assistance).

Unfortunately, IVC lacks the party reputation of OCC, and that hurts us. Our great transfer rate is not so shiny a bauble, it seems.

Maybe more bouncy houses?

International enrollments are suddenly down (not just flat). How come? Don’t know. We’re exploring the causes, said Bob. As you know, we recently hired a full-time director or something, and so this really blows.

NOTE WELL: the VPI has announced a change in philosophy. When a course hits the 85% enrollment mark in (early?) enrollment, the VPI will urge us to add another section immediately.

Where will we put these added courses? We’re contemplating adding PORTABLES out at the (largely unused) basketball courts—at a cost of about $60-70K. Sounds expensive, but not when you consider the potential cost to us if we don’t meet our target (of 2% growth).

Faculty are urged to participate in outreach to attract more students. If there’s anything you can do or if you just want to help, then contact Ann or Mikiko at Outreach and Community Relations.

Another idea being contemplated: WEEKEND COLLEGE. More about that momentarily.

Sunny, cat

Among the more interesting policies or regulations that came up for discussion was the one governing INDEPENDENT STUDY. Traci Fahimi (aka, “her deanship”) presented proposed changes made to the policy.

Traci was also called upon to present/explain the WEEKEND COLLEGE (WC) idea. There are a few half-baked Weekend College programs around the state, but very few that seek to offer all courses needed to satisfy IGETC (etc.) requirements. (That’s us.) Evidently, there’s a big (successful?) program in Austin (Texas, I assume), and we might want to take a gander at that.

A WC would involve courses offered late Friday afternoon through Sunday. A typical schedule would be, Sat and Sun, 9-12, then 1-4, and then at night. If we do this thing (attempting to attract that demographic that can’t attend during the week but that seeks an AA degree or transfer or a certificate), we’ll have to commit for years (as per Early College). It can’t be a one-time thing that we immediately drop like a bad habit.

Support, on the weekend, could include such things as child care, health facilities, etc.

Traci F seemed excited about the prospect. So was Bob, though he urged us to go slowly and carefully. Success in such a program, he said, depends on “support,” and there’s no guarantee that this thing will be supported sufficiently to work. Some have noted that, as it is, the college fails to support the NIGHT PROGRAM, which is half of what we do.

There would be definite pluses to pursuing such a program. For instance, our increased room usage would put us in a better position to ask for new buildings. We can be a leader in something important—we can be the only game in town, etc. The start-up costs should be relatively low, and, if it works at all, it will help with our flat enrollment difficulty, where we stand to lose as much as $1 million.

Flow chart

A motion to approve exploration of this idea was made. Traci wanted something stronger—she already wants to schedule for Fall 2016—but that’s what we went with.

WE WERE URGED TO DISCUSS THIS PROPOSAL WITH MEMBERS OF OUR SCHOOL.

We didn’t have time to discuss Calendar options, so we put that off until next meeting. (See D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, and D6.) PLEASE EXAMINE THESE OPTIONS.

We put off discussion of the Early College program.

A nice looking gal stood up and discussed all things technological. There’s some group and she’s hoping for faculty volunteers to join the dang thing. Any interest?

There’s been work on the Planning and Decision-Making Manual. As things stand, there’s an official flow chart showing SPAC (a group that includes significant faculty representation) making recommendations straight to the COLLEGE PREZ, and the PEC, the President’s Executive Committee (VPs and no faculty), is indicated as a consulting body. That looks pretty good, I guess. Evidently, someone (i.e., Glenn) is urging adoption of a chart in which SPAC recommends to PEC, and then PEC recommends to the COLLEGE PREZ, which pretty much leaves faculty out of the loop.

“That sucks,” said Kathy, essentially.

We’re supposed to bring this back to our school. THAT’S YOU. Got an opinion? Let us know.

Kathy (or somebody) also said something about how, from now on, any communication with the Publication Office must cc the dean. Or something. People were groaning about that but they were also packing up and half way out the door. So maybe I didn’t get that quite right.

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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.]