Thursday, November 2, 2017

Nov 2, 2017, Senate Meeting: lowering the heat on Guided Pathways


     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.

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