J. ASCCC Faculty Liaisons for Guided Pathways, Non-Credit, CTE and Legislative
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges is looking for faculty liaisons for the following areas:
·Guided Pathways
·Noncredit
·CTE
·Legislative
Shall the Representative Council close nominations and appoint?
L. Student Disciplinary Action Concerns
Concerns have arisen about student disciplinary action process at the college.
I do believe this item arose owing to irregularities in Dean Cipres’ handling of a student problem. Let us know what you’d like us to say. Better yet, be at the meeting this afternoon.
M. Privacy Policy and Recordings
Privacy policy in the syllabus and recordings in the classroom
Allow me jump to the most important item, which came up during Senate Prez June McLaughlin’s “executive report”:
Executive Report:
Thomas Fallo
•In
her “executive report,” Senate Prez June M noted the appointment of one Thomas
Fallo as the new interim chancellor. (Long-time interim Chance Debra
Fitzsimons will be leaving in December; her family obligations compelled her to
leave early.)
•Evidently,
there is a process called “Canvas conversion,” i.e., the conversion of old
Blackboard courses to the Canvas format. The union is concerned that faculty
are compensated for this work, but some sort of vote on the matter was recently
set; but it was postponed. “Drat,” they said.
June
•June
will be attending (and has already attended) the (State) Senate Plenary over
the weekend. She recently attended some Guided Pathways* discussions there.
Based on conversations with officials at the State Chancellor’s Office, the
word is that “It is wide open about what we should or shouldn’t be doing” to
satisfy the existing Guided Pathways push. For one thing, we don’t need to settle
on particular meta-majors any time soon. As long as we have a plan of some kind
by March, we’re doing fine. (Earlier in the meeting, I reminded the group that
faculty in our School are unhappy with the rush to decide on “Guided Pathways”
meta-majors and the apparent failure by the college to consult with faculty
Pathways-wise.)
Evidently, we’ll need to fill out some
sort of form, but this form “is very loose.” Our merely “exploring ideas” for
meta-majors is enough, it seems.
“Faculty own Guided Pathways,” said June.
It’s not administration’s baby. “Nobody should be talking about meta-majors
right now,” she said. [END]
The Scholarship Process:
We briefly
discussed the “scholarship process,” which, we were told, will be “going live”
on Nov. 6. We were asked to announce this factoid in our classes.
Ilknur, with her
usual light touch, asked for an overview of the process. The Foundation
Director and others seemed unable to provide a simple explanation. The process
depends, it seems, on the particular scholarship. It’s apples and oranges and
pineapples, too, process-wise.
Michelle M explained
that the Counseling crowd are putting together scholarship workshops and the
like. My notes mention “mindless meditation workshops,” but I suspect they are
actually “mindfulness” meditation workshops. That makes more sense, I suppose.
(The Counselors are pretty New Agey, it seems.)
The Senate decided that we should discuss the
Scholarships Process in future. It will be agendized, said June.
That old Cipres problem:
Elizabeth Cipres
Our own Henry C
reminded the group of a recent incident concerning a problematic student; the
problem was brought to Dean Cipres and the latter’s reaction was “weird.” The
instructor seemed to feel that his/her concerns were dismissed out of hand, and
the student was readmitted contrary to policy.
The Senate is on
the case, said Prez June M.
Academic Affairs:
Someone read a
report from Academic Affairs’ Dan D, who was absent owing to illness. According
to the report, the committee has received VPI Chris McDonald’s proposal for the
new “IDEA” school. (Grumble, grumble.) The committee will be taking up that
topic at its next meeting. Also, the committee is working on January’s Flex
Week schedule.
Hot damn.
The IVC Budget:
VP Jeff K briefly
discussed Davit’s recent presentation of the budget. I asked for an overview.
There’s the usual talk of dire problems and an uncertain future: upcoming
“cliffs” created by the cessation of various kinds of funding. Moaning. Anxiety.
Panic.
What to do? Jeff
didn’t seem to hold administration’s approach to the budget in high esteem. I
think he implied that the denizens of A100 tend to regard temporary funding as
permanent and then go apeshit when the funding finally gives out. “Get a clue,”
Jeff seemed to say, but didn’t.
Adult Education:
We turned to item
M, the Adult Education block grant “Consortium,” something co-led by our own
Dean Cathleen G. We’re talking about $20 million per year spent in OC on Adult
ESL, CTE, Basic Skills, etc. Adult Education has been growing very quickly in
recent years. Our own AESL program has gone from zero to twenty sections in
just two years.
Field trips:
Item I: Board
Policies, etc. for (I think) Field Trips.
Field trip forms
have been very problematical (aka “shitty,” clueless, inconsistent, etc.). A
committee worked on improving the forms for months. We now have the proper
numbers and documents we need for all field trips, said Stefanie A, who served
on the committee. Everyone (in the district) now has the same forms. Blah,
blah, blah.
A fellow spoke
who seemed strongly opposed to the changes in these policies and forms. “If you
want to prevent field trips, you’ll pass this policy,” he said. But when some
issues were clarified, he did a 180.
Ilknur had
something to say, too. It was pretty peevish. That’s all I got.
The State Senate's Eric Thompson,
philosopher
Guided Pathways again:
Item K: Guided
Pathways
We’re looking for
faculty leaders re Guided Pathways, noncredit, CTE, Legislative, etc. Any volunteers?
Open nominations.
Anyone
interested? We already have some nominations. Send nominees to asenate@ivc.org.
Henry said that
our own Rebecca K is willing to be nominated for Guided Pathways. Good.
Laser week:
Laser Week 2017
is coming up. People yammered about that for a while. I could barely stand it.
That was about it.
—Senator Roy *From a proposed state senate resolution: "Whereas, Faculty voices have been raised in critique, concern, and opposition to the ways guided
pathways models have taken shape, both before the publication of The Vision for Success3 and
afterwards in response to the Vision for Success, ...." —Did the resolution pass? Don't know yet.
