September 1, 2016: not "open and inclusive and consultative"

Meeting of the Representative Council 

September 01, 2016

            KS (Academic Senate Prez Kathy Schmeidler) introduced guests. 

            Good grief! It looked like every administrator and manager at the college was in attendance! What gives?

           The answer: they were there as part of an effort to respond to item 15, “Production Policy Proposal.” The proposal is Steve Rochford’s “FU” (or push-back) to Diane Oakes and Co.—they of the storied incompetence/high-handedness/arrogance. You know the story.

            According to Steve’s proposal, its “purpose … is to de-centralize processes and define boundaries of authority for decision-making [re production/publication].” Because various published items “represent our classes, programs and students directly,” their content, he wrote, “are the responsibility of the disciplinary faculty and reside under the provisions of Academic Freedom.”

            Now, in fact, Steve had not had time to run his proposal by the members of his School, and, somehow, the agenda misdescribed it as originating with the School of “The Arts” and not just Steve. So Steve spoke with the cabinet just before the meeting started, asking that the item be pulled/postponed until he could speak with his colleagues. Quietly, they agreed to do so.

            Meanwhile, Diane and Co. were there, ready, I suppose, to defend the status quo, production-wise. Unfortunately (or amusingly), the decision to postpone the item until the next meeting was not announced until well into the meeting, when we got to the item. As a consequence, Diane and her Oakesters sat there in B209 for nothing. 

            I bet they were steamed.

            Our new “interim” VPI, Christopher McDonald, was present and introduced himself. We’re in the “midst of an accreditation self-study,” he said, so folks “won’t see a lot of me in the next 4-6 weeks.” He said something about how he will work closely with Kathy, blah blah blah.

            You know about McDonald. He was with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness down at Saddleback College, and he seemed to be well liked by faculty down there. But, I’m told (not sure how reliable this is), a few months ago, Saddleback Prez Tod Burnett assembled his administrators and managers and demanded that they sign a loyalty oath. (IVC veterans will recall that Raghu Mathur once made a similar move back in 1997. He assembled all School Chairs and then, pounding his finger on the table, he proclaimed, “Disloyalty will not be tolerated!”)

            At Burnett’s special meeting, two underlings refused to salute. McDonald was one of them. Burnett was furious. McDonald was banished to IVC (this summer).

            Just about then, our own Craig Justice, long-time IVC VPI, surprised everyone by suddenly deciding to retire asap. For reasons unknown to me, administration then decided to appoint McDonald as the interim VPI. HR then interceded, explaining that the appointment was seriously unkosher. They’d have to go through a formal search process. So they hastily threw a process together and, interestingly, it produced the appointment of—you guessed it, McDonald.  

            (After today’s meeting, referring to these curious events, I said to Kathy, “This doesn’t look good.” Her response: “It looks terrible.”)

            A few minutes into today’s meeting, I asked Kathy about these odd events—in particular, McDonald’s initial “appointment,” followed by the hasty search process, followed by, again, McDonald’s appointment. I asked: Was there something irregular or problematic about it all? Kathy then carefully explained what happened: administration was careful to dot every I and cross every T, but the process was certainly problematic. In her view, it should have been “open and inclusive and consultative,” but it was anything but that. In the end, she said, a “mystery group” interviewed the candidates for the interim VPI position, and that yielded the appointment of McDonald.

            Kathy reported that several actions taken by administration during the summer failed to allow discussion and consultation by governance groups (Academic Senate, et al.). Administration’s excuse? Faculty are not around for the summer. In fact, however, Kathy was indeed around for the summer, with the exception of two weeks.

            Not for the first time, we were noting a grand failure of transparency and process by this administration. 

            Someone asked: are we going to do something about this? Kathy briefly explained the difficulty of doing more than we’ve already done over the years. We briefly discussed how the Senate might “up the ante” in our efforts to address Administration’s opaque and unilateral ways. Nothing definite was identified.

            During public comments, I explained that a colleague had alerted me to a situation: students in the Writing Center and other centers on campus routinely print their work, but they must pay for the privilege. As things stand, they can do so only with a credit or debit card. The colleague noted that some of our students do not own such cards, and so this won’t do.

            Budget guy Davit K (one of the many administrators/managers present) explained that soon (six weeks?) a “cash machine” will be installed in the Library, and that should take care of the problem. There was a fair amount of discussion about this, but the upshot is that students without cards will be able to pay for printing anywhere on campus. 

            We should keep an eye on this.

            VP for Student Services, Linda Fontanilla, addressed the group. She said something about how we were “supporting the accreditation process fully.” Managers are “here today,” she said, to “get to know the Senators.”

            Yeah.

            The often solipsistic Ilknur Erbas White of Math carped about “parking fees.” Since she’s been at the college, she said, the fees have increased “exponentially.” Why so expensive? Where does the money go? WTF!? 

            Senators talked about that for a while. The fees go to pay for the police department and parking services. The fee amount is a product of negotiations, and the Senate is not involved. Ilknur carped anew about bringing guests and the cost of parking for them. She was advised to go to the parking office to get a pass.

            Music’s Steve Rochford commented on the May “Ear” event at the PAC. It is great to have that publication back, he said. Both it and this event were “classy,” he added.

            He then noted, nastily, that someone—yours truly—had covered the event by taking photographs, a dig at the Oakesters, who, of course, failed to cover the event in any way. I sensed their steaming and writhing behind us. Ghastly.

            Cheryl stated that the library has “back copies” of the Ear, though some are tattered and even disintegrating.

            The President of the district’s chapter of CSEA (California School Employees Association), Scott Greene, addressed the group, talking up the importance of conflict resolution. It is important, he said, to nip conflicts in the bud before they escalate and go out of control. “Micro-agression,” he said, “can affect all of us!”

            Kathy seemed pleased to hear from Scott and his organization. 

            Eventually, we got to actual agenda items, including item 7, board policy revisions. Kathy reminded us of recent efforts to improve the policy concerning the hiring of full-time faculty. Next, we need to address problems with the existing policy for the hiring of administrators and managers. Unfortunately, a revision draft (?) is languishing at the office of VC (of HR, etc.) David Bugay’s office. An effort will be made to motivate Bugay to do something with it but nobody’s holding their breath.

            There’s a move afoot to revise 4011.6—regulations for hiring the Chancellor. The district examined it long ago—as a result of successful litigation by the Academic Senate against the board back in c. 2000—but nobody’s done anything with it since, and our circumstances are now much improved (tyrant-wise). It’s time for a change. 

            A workgroup, including Schmeidler and Interim Chance Fitzsimons is being formed for that purpose.

            Briefly: here’s how the rest of the meeting went.

            Item 16: “Saddleback College Academic Senate and IVC Academic Senate have been collaborating during academic year 2015-2016 to explore adopting CANVAS as their Learning Management System….”\

            The resolution simply asserts that its up to each Senate how they approach the LMS. It’s just a statement of respect.

            It passed. (The issue of whether we will be switching to Canvas? The switch is a done deal, said Roopa M. She assured us, however, that the transition to Canvas isn’t difficult.)

  

            Item 12: IVC has been awarded a federal grant to become an Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI). The faculty principal investigator (PI) is Edwin Tiongson. Faculty input and participation is needed.

            Edwin spoke: blah blah blah…. It all sounded good.

   

            Item 17: Full-time Faculty Hiring Priority List Development Process (FTFPLDP) 

            KS: please everybody look at this, think about it. Do we want to take action quickly? Do we accept the idea of adding a Tier 4?

            In brief: proposal ads a tier 4. Done by enumeration, a kind of algorithm. Some schools (Math, Hum) have a superabundance of part-timers, thus logistically find it difficult to find enough of them. Tier 1 and 2 involve proportions. It’s all proportional. Tier 4 has component that is not proportional. Math and Writing – we obviously need a large number of classes. 

            Someone, absurdly, motioned to adopt the edits. In the end, the group decided that Schools need more time to consider this change, and so we postponed the vote.

Attachment C

https://inside.ivc.edu/committees/asenate/Meetings/2016-17/09-01-16/FTHLDP_Tier%204-%20added-081416_lh_ch_kts.pdf

  

            Item 18: Final Exam Schedule 

            Surprisingly, Miriam Castroconde and her Math colleagues advocated to return to the non-traditional approach that we abandoned not long ago. Things have changed, she now says, and there is no way to set up a traditional finals week that isn’t overburdened with conflicts.

            Some urged some delay on the vote to allow for more discussion in the schools. That’s what we did.

            I should say that Miriam’s arguments seemed to prevail. It does look like we’ll be returning to a finals schedule in which finals week is simply another week of class with the same class times.

  

            Item 19: Mega-Outreach

            You’ll recall that, a couple of years ago, Linda Fontanilla spearheaded a mega-outreach that entailed bringing plates of cookies to businesses. Well, we’re not doing that anymore. We were asked to support the new and improved meta-outreach effort, sans cookies. 

            At some point, Diana Hurlbut carped about something. All I heard was, it “makes my Hurlbut tight.”

            Dunno.

            Item 21: please read the mission statement. Here it is, I guess:

Irvine Valley College offers clear and guided pathways to transfer, certificates, associate degrees, employment and further education to a diverse and dynamic local and global community. We support student access, success, and equity. IVC fosters economic and workforce development through strategic partnerships with business, government, and educational networks.  

            Item 24: Chancellor Hiring Process 

            The district is hiring a consulting firm. We briefly discussed who would be on the search committee. One faculty member from each Senate. A Faculty Association rep. Didn’t sound too awful.

            Item 26: College Open Forum Content 

            “College leadership would like to develop an open forum that the college community finds useful. Suggestions for content and timing/venue are requested.”

            Several senators expressed their low regard of these events.

            Send any ideas about improving them to asenate@ivc.edu.

April 7 meeting: "geekdom"

     I had trouble maintaining consciousness during this meeting. It was hard to take notes. When the meeting was over, I fled the building, the college, the city. (Thank you, Melanie, for your notes.)     In truth, I'm having trouble maintaining consciousness even now, so faintly does the moment inspire. —RB

School Reports

     I raised the “awareness week” issue. I said something like:

The events of this program seem to reflect a peculiar and perhaps obnoxious understanding of the sexual assault issue, for they seem to focus entirely on what women need to do—as if the attitudes and practices of men are irrelevant and that men have no role in the discussion—and it seems to feature a speaker of dubious quality. Janine Scarlet, we learn, is a proponent of “Superhero Therapy,” which is associated with geek culture. To get a sense of her approach and nature, one might view one of her YouTube videos in which she helps people (of geekdom, I think) “cope with celebrity deaths.” I suggested that, as a body, we should urge organizers, in future, to consult with available faculty experts. I located this issue in the larger phenomenon of “anti-intellectualism” at the college. I was referring to the college President and his judgments/values.

     The subsequent discussion was, I think, not hostile to my/our point (Brittany weighed in, blasting Title IX), though most senators stared blankly as though they had been hit upside the head with a brick.

          Kathy supported our view and will attempt to communicate our sense that, in future, the relevant faculty experts—e.g., those in our School—should be consulted in determining events, etc. Not clear what other senators were thinking, if anything.

     Somehow, Kathy mentioned an episode at the recent board meeting. A certain trustee (Wright) “questioned the validity of the equivalency of the new math hire. Kathy and others at the meeting emphasized to the board discipline experts should be trusted with these decisions.” I noted that Wright has a pattern of spasms of micromanagement. (Note: I’m here quoting Melanie’s notes.)

     Melanie, of Reading, announced National Library week.

     “The LGBTQ student club has been meeting each week. It is very successful. The club had over 270 students stop by their table during Preview Day. Tony Lin and Brooke will be working to put together Safe Space Training.” (Melanie.)

Shadow Quill is an alter ego of Dr. Janina Scarlet, a registered psychological assistant at the Center for Stress and Anxiety Management in San Diego. She is also a scientist and an adjunct professor at Alliant International University, San Diego.

     Kathy’s report: she updated us regarding security on campus. Security monitors (for after hours only) will be installed at key spots on campus, including the child development center. Such installations will be extended sometime in future.

     Evidently, a mechanism whereby instructors can lock classrooms from the inside has been identified, and it is “ADA compliant” to boot. (You shoulda been there when Diana got some guy’s belt and wrapped it around the door closer of one of B209’s doors. This, she declared, will thwart any “active shooter.”

     But no. Somebody on the other side of the door pushed through without difficulty. The belt looked ridiculous.

     Some doors have breakable glass that fails to prevent ingress. Such glass will be replaced with super-duper glass.

     At one point, Kathy said something about administration’s pattern of lack of consultation; they offer mere “lip service,” she said. This seems to be a theme with her right now.

     Good.

     Somebody updated us on the ongoing Blackboard/Canvas debate. In past, discussion has been pretty one-sided against Blackboard and in favor of Canvas, but other voices are being heard now, it seems. Not sure where this is heading, since the committee in question has already weighed in in favor of Canvas.

     “Kathy discussed Canvas - says the union has slowed down the process a bit  - wants to make sure there is enough money for training of faculty. If you would like to be part of the trial pool, let Roopa M know.” –Melanie

     VP Bob U reported on activities of the “calendar committee.” It sounded as though the two colleges are playing nice and rapidly arriving at a particular calendar for Spring (Fall is already set in stone, I guess).

      There’s been a change re Cesar Chavez day (I do believe that the district recently discovered that it has long violated state law about celebrating this holiday. Oops.) There’s some issue about when to have a holiday for Presidents’ Day. There’s a big change afoot re Spring Break (in order to better accommodate 8-week classes).

     “Spring break will be March 17-25 to even out the 8 week courses.  Commencement will be the last day of finals.” –Melanie

     Bob was amused by this odd spasm of harmony on the committee. We had a “Kumbaya moment,” he said.

     “Basic Skills - IVC awarded the 3 year grant for Transformational Basic Skills.  Angel Hernandez will be the coordinator. Brooke will be the new Basic Skills Coordinator  in Summer’s place. The kickoff meeting for the grant is Wednesday April 27th.” (Melanie)

     Re the cafeteria committee: Diana, who is not on the committee, carped about dirty tables and chairs.

     Nothing new on Early College.

     Diana, our “courses” maven, noted requirements on CTE faculty. Help is available.

     Cheryl announced the availability of training sessions for doing SLOs and the like. “The new TrackDat is better,” she said. I heard a groan. 

     “Data transferred from old version to new version without any problems.” (Melanie)

     Diana, again as Curriculum Chair, reported on the situation regarding our college’s native “general ed” pattern. It hasn’t been reviewed in “six years,” and that won’t do. In particular, the courses can’t go above 60 units—and our pattern entails exceeding that number. Evidently, existing patterns devote 45 units to GE, leaving too little for the degree specialty. “We have a bloated GE,” she said. “We need to reduce units.”

     She discussed various approaches to this; some of these have sparked controversy. For instance, it seems wrong, and contrary to how we see ourselves, to remove “American Institutions” from the list. We’ve heard such remarks from faculty, she said, and so it’s clear that there’s need of further discussion on the committee.

     “I’m asking you,” said Diana, to help out with this. You should be hearing from your School Rep. Each School needs to consider this issue and come back with feedback. The committee will return to the senate with recommendations.

     Re the Curriculum report, Melanie’s notes seems more helpful:

     “Diana H. - Native GE - ( for our AA).  Our GE pattern was up for review. State demands local degrees, which includes the native GE pattern. We can’t have more than 60 units. Our native GE has 45 units, which doesn't leave many units for some majors - only 15. We need to reduce our native GE. She came back with six options of removal. She heard that some were upset with some of the areas being suggested for removal. So the curriculum committee will discuss it again about which to remove. She is asking for more recommendations. She will bring back the new recommendations for the next meeting. We need to discuss this at our school level with our curriculum rep … so she [Diana] knows what recommendations we would like her to take to the next curriculum meeting.”

      DIANA: next issue: which courses will remain in each section? Territoriality raises its ugly head, she said.

      PROGRAM REVIEW: any changes to chart? Please write to Craig H and Kathy to bring it back here.

     Board policies: Blah blah blah

      We unanimously approved Dan D for search committee for Director of Purchasing, Contracts, and Materials Management—or some such thing.

      SENATE ELECTIONS: Kris Loeffler has been nominated, accepted nomination for curric chair. She was approved.

     Academic Affairs chair: Brett nominated, accepted.

     Nominees for past president: Lewis Long

     Basic Skill Coordinator –volunteer: Brooke Choo

     Basic skills grant coordinator: Angel Hernandez

      Selecting department chairs. Do any of your departments have mechanisms or procedures (etc.) about chair selection? If you have anything in writing, we want it! Looking for best practices.

 Spring plenary:

     Music: a few subjects, associate degree for transfer, serve students badly who wish to stay in that area. Chemistry. ADT not good for chem majors. Similar problem obtains in music. Resolution: enjoin the state to make another exception for music and other subjects. Support? Yes.

      BP-4011 Employment Procedures for Administrators and Managers

     Near and dear to (Kathy’s) heart. Want to support (the revision). (Current policy is woeful; as I recall, it is heavy on administrative participation, light on faculty participation. It’s just a rotten policy.)

      BP-4011 Employment Procedures for Administrators and Managers

     BP and AR 4090 Evaluation of Administrators/Classified Management Personnel

     All approved.

      Re the upcoming senate elections: it is important that everyone vote. We want approbation, not apathy.

     Melanie writes: “Please vote for Kathy and Bob if you are in favor of them returning as President and VP of the senate in the upcoming senate elections even though they are running unopposed. This shows unity and affirmation not apathy so they have strength in their voice to advocate for us.

 —Senator Roy

See Irvine Valley College’s bouncy house invitationals

March 17, 2016, Meeting of the Academic Senate Rep Council: SNOOZULAR

     My notes for this meeting were pretty dang sketchy, and so, in a couple of spots, I borrowed heavily from Mel’s notes. I'm talkin' cut 'n' paste. Thanks Mel. —RB

SLOs

     Cheryl D gave an “SLO” report. TrackDat will be turned off for a day, but that’s gotta be a good thing, I figure.

Introducing new full-time counselor

     The new full-time counselor, Angel H, was introduced. He discussed the Multiple Measures Grant – CCCGrant . This is a 3 year, $1.5 million grant to enhance our efforts to use multiple measures in acceleration and pathways. 

Basic skills coordinator

     Replacement for Summer Serpas. Brooke Choo is nominated and nominations remain open.

Online education taskforce: Canvas vs. Blackboard

     Roopa M spoke about the Online Education Task forces’ work on the CANVAS vs. BLACKBOARD decision. As you know, both Blackboard and Canvas reps visited and gave presentations. Blackboard couldn't give dates of release of the next version of Blackboard (Ultra) and Canvas was pretty clear about its release dates. The new and improved Blackboard moves the program closer to what Canvas has had, if that tells you anything. Students who were surveyed found Canvas much more user friendly than Blackboard, said R. The OED (a committee, I guess) recommends the switch to CANVAS. If we make the switch, the transition will take 15 months—Fall 2017 through Spring 2018. The state will provide training and our school will provide training as well. If you are interested in getting a jump on this, there is a free, at your own pace, online course. Email Roopa and she will send you the link.

     CANVAS is free for the first three years. Half of the California community colleges have switched to it. Rich Z says that he took the course and called their helpline and received excellent help. IUSD schools have been using Canvas for 4 years or so. There has been money set aside for training and we have been assured of a lot of training opportunities and help. Looks like adequate training (of faculty) is a wide concern and it may occur that the savings in switching to Canvas will be devoted to training. There is a state academic senate resolution to that effect, but that has no force. I heard nothing during discussion indicating an administration commitment to funding adequate faculty training, so who knows.

     Brittany asked about the discussed system whereby all courses will articulate with all other courses within the system, etc. This concerns OEI. We are not part of the OEI course exchange.

     Bob U mentioned difficulties he had transferring files from Blackboard to Canvas. We need real assistance. “It’s like moving a house. Now we need to put the boxes in the right rooms.” (Roopa)

Joe San Juan was sitting among us, uncomfortable with constant references to how he and his crew will assist us.

District techno services

     [My notes are sketchy] …. Resource requests …. Finalized priority list now available.

     Roopa reported: money will be quite restricted this year (less than in previous years). We forwarded seven items: (estimated costs)

     Classroom techno and audio visual refresh (year 2 of 2), $3,757,135

     Wireless upgrade: 3.75 million.

     District-wide network security firewall refresh – $820,000

     Faculty/Staff email infrastructure – $355,000

     Etc.

     Workday implementation - $1.8 million.

     Adds up to $12.8 million

Public comments

     Brittany advocated participation in the upcoming Cultural Competence Summit. Three speakers. Looks like it will be good.

     Bob U (on budget, I think): recommended looking at email, Perkins process (from Corey). We looked at basic aid list. Budget process; five-year budget plan. PERS STRS increases. Board increased payment. We’ll save about half a million, owing to this timely expenditure. But severely reduces amount of basic aid funding. Impact on construction, etc.

Resource requests are being rated. Strategic planning will rate next. In April, process will be finished (hopefully). Will start funding by the end of May, if all goes well.

Brett of Academic Affairs: Nothin’ or even less (to report).

Diana of Curriculum Committee: not present; hence, pretty quiet

Tracy attempts to inspire faculty

     Went to agenda item re curriculum; Tracy asked to speak.

     Trying to make the curriculum process(es) “run more smoothly.”

     Really, “curriculum is the basis of everything we do.” (Do you feel uplifted yet?)

     We’re trying to register students earlier—we’re trying to grow.

     We’ve moved our deadlines up; and so the curric schedule is being moved up. Trying to have things done by April. We need to raise awareness of importance of these processes, changes.

     It’s stressful, this curriculum process. But it doesn’t need to be.

     Can’t fix the state bottleneck. That is what it is and we can’t do anything about it.

     Fixing the timeline is very critical.

     Encouraging people to get things in on time, improve quality. That’s the push here.

     We can reduce stress, improve morale, said Tracy, I think.

     Longer term fixes: replacing Curricunet. There are better ways. Curricunet is old and moldy.

Integrating our database with all other programs (scheduling catalog, etc.) – all done manually. Ridiculous. Everything has to be inputted by different people via keyboard. We need to fix this.

It all sounded pretty Flintstonian.

     The required rate (of work) and the actual rate are widely divergent. (That’s what my notes say; I forget what it means.)

     Problems with tech review. Very slow.

     Proposed new timeline:

     Never mind 1 year cycle. Moving to 2 year cycle. Turning in in December for the subsequent Fall. Giving the committee plenty of time. (We’re talking about transfer curriculum, not less problematic curriculum.) September drop dead date.

     Faculty often getting inconsistent answers about curriculum: very problematic. Bob recognized how “demoralizing” that is.

Board polices and administrative regs

     BP4310 – most important . Dept chair policy.

     BP4720 – not looking for approval. Be aware of it, is all. Vague, not well-written.

     We’ll keep it on the list—let’s not approve it when the time comes.

Distance Ed policy

     Blah blah blah. Blah blibbity blah.

Item 11 : aanapisi grant

     Celina L provided an update.

     We do have a Facebook page up. “Elevate AAPI” forum coming up June 3. Student focus group meeting coming up.

     Brittany: AACC pathways project. Will have more to see in future. Will be going to next conference.

Senate elections

     Rich Z spoke. Long learning curve to do this election stuff. Want to bring someone in to replace me when I retire (coming soon).

     Nominations remain open.

The Bylaws issue

     Brett: the recommendation to change bylaws has been sent back to schools. Have you been discussing this with your faculty? The issue: 1 year pre-president, 2 years as president, and no obligation after. Let me and/or Jeff know how you feel about this (said Brett, I think).

National library week

     April 10-14. Please Join Tony Lin and the committee for a week of events celebrating National Library Week here on campus. Announce it to your faculty and your students. Here is a link you can share for the website that has all activities listed:  http://ivc.libguides.com/nlw2016

Selecting department chairs

     We’re looking into assembling “best practices” for selecting department chair. Do faculty have anything out there to recommend? Some schools are having trouble with selecting chairs.

March 3 (2016) meeting of the Academic Senate Rep Council: more roaches

Public comments:
     Ken Lira, Assistant Dean, Financial Aid and Student Support Services, addressed the group about the new scholarship process. Evidently, reviewers are now reviewing applications (you know who you are). “So far so good,” said Ken. Do we need more reviewers/readers? In some cases, we do. E.g., Kurt’s “Humanities” group might need help. Anyone interested? Let us know.
     I do believe that it was the estimable (har har) Liz Cipres who alerted us to the upcoming “cultural competence” event (April 15). She passed out a shiny flier.
     What’s “cultural competence”? I asked. Several answers were offered. Wikipedia provides the following: CC is

• A set of congruent behaviors, attitudes and policies that come together as a system, agency or among professionals and enable that system, agency or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. • Cultural competence requires that organizations have a defined set of values and principles, and demonstrate behaviors, attitudes, policies, and structures that enable them to work effectively cross-culturally. • Cultural competence is a developmental process that evolves over an extended period. Both individuals and organizations are at various levels of awareness, knowledge and skills along the cultural competence continuum.

W goes on to say

Cultural incompetence in the business community can damage an individual’s self-esteem and career, but the unobservable psychological impact on the victims can go largely unnoticed until the threat of a class action suit brings them to light.

     Whatever. Seems to me that this should be called “cross-cultural competence,” not “cultural competence.” Or maybe: “cross-cultural competence, legal CYA, and you.”
     At these times, I think of roaches and their capacity to invade a zone gradually, eventually taking it over, ruinously, irrevocably.
     I brought up this factoid: Saddleback College hopes to spend huge bucks on a new stadium, the (phony) price tag of which (last year) was estimated to be just $18 million. (Nothing has yet been decided. The stadium is on SC’s construction wish list.) At the last board meeting, the expected cost was revised to $36 million—likely also a phony figure. I noted that this initiative exemplifies SC’s arrogance and tendency to regard IVC as somehow secondary—a longstanding problem. Same goes for most of our trustees: they invariably refer to “our college,” meaning, of course, Saddleback College. Many chimed in to agree, etc. Let us be vigilant re this potential absurd expenditure.

OTHER STUFF:
     Craig Justice yammered awhile about the Calendar and efforts to reconcile Saddleback and IVC’s calendar ideas. “There’s almost 100% agreement,” said Craig.
     Summer made a brief “Basic Skills” report. She updated us on grant proposals, etc. She noted that she would be stepping down in her role as BS coordinator. Further, there’s an opening for “grant coordinator.” Summer reminded us that one need not be a BSI instructor to fill these roles. Plus the salary will “make you wealthy beyond imagining.”
     There was some blathering about Early College and the Foundation.
     Diane H, our curriculum maven, announced that “we’re moving to Trak-Dat 5. Track-Dat 4, it seems, is dying or will be killed off soon.
     Senate VP Bob U alerted us to the phenomenon of “cheating watches”—watches designed to hold and display data. Students are wearing ‘em and so, watch out. Everyone adopted a kind of grimace. A rictus even.
     Dean Traci F, dean of the anti-Social Sciences, reported on the “final exam workgroup.” You’ll recall that our switch back to the old “special finals week” format became a bit of a fiasco last Fall because some courses do not fit into the regular time blocks. There will be a meeting about this on March 8, 4:00 p.m., at the CAFÉ.
     There was a technical glitch in our scheduling software (re Summer schedule) that left some sections short of hours/minutes. Craig’s on it. Summer session looks good.
     Davit K gave a typically Davitian “budget update.” To me, it all sounded like “blah, blah, blah.” Um, something happened, or will happen, in May. “We’re not running out of money this year,” say my notes. According to Davit, resource requests are duly being moved to committees to be rated.
     This business seems opaque to me, but what do I know. How are resource decisions made? Um, lots of stuff happens, evidently.
     Somebody said something about setting up a “solutions suggestion box” (re the budget). It will be a clearly marked receptacle that funnels any suggestions into a furnace in the “A100 basement.”
     Brittany and I noted the constant buzz from the lighting system in the room, which made hearing anything anybody was saying difficult or even impossible. Further, the air was thick and hot and wet, inspiring thoughts of suicide.
     Roopa M reported on the proposal to drop Blackboard in favor of the cheaper—and better?—Canvas. On Monday, March 7, the distance ed committee will be making a recommendation. The committee seems to be leaning toward Canvas and away from Blackboard. Representatives of each came to campus with updatery. I guess the Blackboard people screwed the pooch. New changes to B seem to be a move to make it more like C.
     Re the ongoing Board Policy review process: please take a look at the proposed changes to 4720, which concern abusive conduct in the workplace. Senate Prez Kathy S doesn’t like it a bit. You can send any comments to asenate@ivc.edu.
     Proposed BP 4720
     Re Senate bylaws: the feeling among senators is to hold off on any changes until more input is received from the Schools. THAT MEANS YOU.
     We need a volunteer to serve on the “IVC classified employee of the year” group. Interested? That was about it.
—Roy