Call to Order at 11:08 Am

COSUMNES RIVER COLLEGE ACADEMIC SENATE

AUG 31, 2007

APPROVED MINUTES RETREAT

Senators Present: Tamyra Carmona, Norv Wellsfry, Sue Palm, Gregory Beyrer, Dana Wassmer, Lily Kun, Kale Braden, Darlene Mathias, Rubina Gulati, Ralph Hendrix, Michelle Barkley, Balbina Chaderjian, Gary Martin, Maha Myren, Rick Schubert, Georgine Hodgkinson, Travis Parker, Margaret Woodcock, Marlo McClurg-Mackinnon, Camille Moreno, Colette Harris, Marjorie Duffy.

Guests Present: Leslie Gale, Ruth Oxman, Chuck Van Patten, Ryan Connolly, Marybeth Buechner, Hoyt Fong, Teresa Aldredge, Allah-mi Allen, Emily Barkley.

Call to order at 11:08 am

Introduction of New Senators

Announcements: The Northern California Placement Assessment conference will meet at CRC this October. We need to be careful in our discussions about making a clear distinction between Placement Assessment and course, program and college Outcomes assessment in our labels.

Additions to and approval of the Agenda Classified Staff Hours Emeritus Professor Status Representative role of Academic Senate President Standing Committee Meeting Times

Minutes of 11 May 2007 approved with changes. Strike word “probably” from IT committee report Under Health and Facilities – delete SS from the VPASS reference Add Georgine Hodgkinson as present

Discussion Items 1. Faculty Handbook: The college will attempt to improve and post the Staff handbook on the web during the course of this year. Much of the handbook is either out of date or revised but not in the handbook. Draft should be completed this semester. This change was also mentioned in the faculty forum as a way to inform the adjunct faculty. This concern about helping adjunct faculty is mentioned in some unit plans on campus. Handout “Faculty and Staff Resource Guide” provided. The value of having a one-stop warehouse of information on the web could allow the owners of the information to change the pages as the information is updated in the committees. Having blanket write-access rights is perhaps a bit aggressive, and a handbook should have appropriate rules for posting. ACTION: Volunteers to help are Kale Braden, Balbina Chaderjian, Ruth Oxman, Lily Kun and Michelle Barkley. If committee chairs are responsible to update this resource, rules could be made to control the access easily. Another web link (not currently listed on the handout) should perhaps include CASSL, Academic Integrity.

2. Basic Skills Initiative: A planned $33-million for basic skills in California community college was deleted from this year’s state budget. Some money for basic skills (approximately $90,000) is left over in the CRC Education Initiative budget from last year. Most of the ideas in Basic Sills center around English and Math. ACTION: Jamie Nye, Leslie Gale, and perhaps Catherine Hooper, Camille Moreno, and Maha Myren and Ralph Hendrix from student services will work together on how the goals of the Basic Skills need might be met. Marybeth Buechner from CASSL offered to be a support person on the research side. The timeline of when the money must be spent was discussed. An accountability measure will be needed.

3. Best practices for creating new departments: No established process for creating new departments exists at CRC. There is flexibility in Ed. Code and District Policy and regulations on how department creation is done. Board regulations call for consultation between the academic senate president and the college president in order to form a new department. One guideline seems to center around needing at least one full time faculty member as seen in a written policy at Folsom Lake College. As part of a policy making process, perhaps the council of department chairs could lead this work at CRC. This has also been discussed at the District Curriculum Coordinating Committee, as seen by the creation of the Program Placement Sub-committee. Historically, one way to make progress in curriculum is by using an interdisciplinary approach that has full time faculty to get the program started. Another broader issue for faculty is about maintaining focus and direction to a new and developing program. Environmental Technology was created by using interdisciplinary faculty. Accounting faculty split off from business by electing a department chair and announcing themselves. In general, new departments can become a problem in articulation across the district. Hoyt Fong presented information about wanting to establish a Human Services department at CRC (despite the lack of a full time faculty member). This will be agendized for the next meeting.

4. Athlete Progress Report: The Los Rios District and Commission on Athletics require athletes’ grades be collected two times a semester to maintain eligibility. At CRC, grades are collected three times a semester. This allows general progress information and earlier intervention, tutoring, etc. The intention is move this grade collecting process on line after a faculty survey in Spring, 2007 showed faculty support for this ability. A pilot of this collection will be done during Fall, 2007, while the hard-copy process of students collecting grades from faculty to sign-off on progress during the semester. Concern that the PeopleSoft system will be used for this pilot collection was expressed. CRC’s culture does not include using the midterm reporting part of PeopleSoft. It was noted at CSU, Sacramento that faculty receive an envelope identifying student athletes in their classes and requesting grades.

5. Blackboard: The district is having issues with the Blackboard system. There is fear of moving to another system because of the time to shift to the new system and the support for that new system. Blackboard and WebCT are merging as systems. A broader discussion will be needed to evaluate what’s next for on-line instruction and course management and presentation.

6. Outcomes Assessment Task Force: The task is to determine what types of outcomes assessment and best practices will meet the up-coming needs for our re- accreditation, without over working ourselves and still meeting the goals of teaching and learning.

7. Future Senate Items a. Times when Standing Committees meet b. Consequences of Compressed Calendar c. CASSL representation/reporting/accountability to Academic Senate d. Union Presentation about upcoming contract changes e. Faculty defacto supervision of classified staff f. Academic Integrity Committee’s Academic Honor Code g. College Hour

8. Community College Initiative: A promotional video was shown by CRC LRCFT President Chuck Van Patten. A campus-wide forum will be held on Sept. 26.at 3 p.m. Donations would be appreciated.

9. Faculty Forum: Issues from the forum have been presented to Francisco. He has requested a work group where faculty and administration can work toward solutions. Contact Jamey Nye if you want to assist on this workgroup.

10. Accreditation: Accreditation Faculty co-chair Norv Wellsfry presented a handout with the draft 2009 Accreditation Process Self Study Planning Timeline. Four primary standards replaced the previous 10 standards. A theme committee will also be needed. Interim Vice-President of Instruction Chris Hawken will be the Accreditation Liaison Officer. Many volunteers will be needed.

Chat with President Francisco Rodriguez

1. Update: Enrollment for CRC is 13,730 this Fall. Productivity is also up. A target is 525. 527 was the count as of 8/31/07. This could ultimately mean more faculty. Of course, there is also unfunded growth. District-wide we’re up to 86,000 (more than 10% growth). Going from 18 to 16 weeks can translate into 2.5% growth automatically, but the rest is all just new bodies. The best retention tool is the faculty. However, the persistence from semester to semester is still flat at 63%. Some loss is obvious (transfer, jobs, degrees) but others disappear when they could be coming up. 42% persistence is the national average. On average it takes our students seven semesters at nine-units a semester to graduate. Given that 50% of our student population is at or below the poverty line, but still yielded 502 graduates with a avg. GPA above 3.0 means our faculty really deliver graduates who are honor students. 2. Master Plan: President Rodriguez presented 10 bullet points at convocation that were issues to be addressed. Does he have a master plan? He said most of the issues will be handled in the shared governance committees, but more help is needed. Either policy of new resources may be the result. Linking our resources to our planning will be necessary. Building consensus and moving toward accreditation in the areas like assessment portability, green technology will be the goal. 3. Growth and Publicity: Faculty suspected The LRCCD ad campaign this year was well received compared to the previous year’s bling campaign, perhaps in contributing to growth.. Great learning, shorter term. 4. Banners and logos: Welcome banners are liked. Francisco pointed at another set, Our Strength is Our Diversity. The last one is a CRC seal. The logo “C” and the other CRC seal do have rules for when they are supposed to be used. 5. Role of the President. Chancellor Brice Harris mentioned how the roles of college president have changed during his convocation presentation. President Rodriguez pointed out he has a lot of confidence in the team he has to run the college. The work with the Chamber of Commerce, with the Elk Grove Unified School District with Sac State and UCD all take time. He teaches a class at Sac State every semester. When we’re out there, we’re building community, but also building support for the college and our students. 6. ECE / Family Consumer Science: Is there a home for a FCS program in the new building as it works with other interdisciplinary programs. 7. Light Rail: Target is 2010. A joint meeting with the Board of Trustees and the Regional Transportation is set for October. But a Memo of Understanding is being prepared to solidify this progress of Light Rail toward CRC. This has federal attention as well. It will include a parking structure (some may not receive this well), but it makes more sense to go up than to go out. This is coming. It will have an 18-month construction cycle. The station will stop right before our entrance. Students are using the UTP (universal transit pass). 8. Student Services: Library building expansion? It’s still too early to know definite plans, but one goal is to make the Library a one-stop students’ services area. Financial aid will go to the third floor and DSPS will come to the first floor. Improvements will come both esthetically and educationally. The Forum is an untapped resource. 9. Student Union: Not in a master plan and mentioned at accreditation. How can student life be improved? Problem is the state doesn’t fund a student union. It would require either a student referendum, state bond, or private funding. However, the college center (cafeteria) is slated for an expansion. Currently, expansion is scheduled for 2014. The fountain quad area will be our next public gathering place.

Agenda items 1. Classified Staff Hours 2. Emeritus Professor Status 3. Representative role of Academic Senate President 4. Standing Committee Meeting Times 5. Human Services Department Request 6. Senate connection to new administrators

Meeting Adjourned at 2:50 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Gary Martin Academic Senate Secretary