Notes - May 5th, 2008
The De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
May 5th, 2008
Senators and Officers present: Argyriou, Bambhania, Chenoweth, Coleman, Cordero, Gallegos, Glapion, Goodwin, Hanna, Hughes, Kessler, Kramer, LaManque, Lathers, Lee-Klawender, Maynard, Miller, Mitchell, Ng-Lee, Schaffer, Setziol, Shively, Walton, and Winters
Senators and Officers absent: Dolen, Guevara, and White
DASB: Classified Senate:
Administrative Liaison:
Guests: Matt Larvey
Curriculum Co Chair: SLO Coordinator:
[NOTE: Item numbers are reflective of agenda numbers in the order they
are actually taken up at the meeting.]
The meeting was called to order at 2:33 a quorum being present.
I. Approval of Agenda and Notes: The agenda was approved as distributed with the addition of an item IXa , "Contingent Academic Labor Conference" and the renaming of item VI as "Final Exam Schedule".
II. Needs and Confirmations: The entire focus of the item was the lack of candidates standing for Senate offices to this point. A candidate for Vice President is still needed as are candidates for the positions of Part Time at large representatives. As a result, the time for applying for positions was extended one week and the election was postponed.
III. Elections: The extended discussion referenced above obviated the need for this item.
IV. Board Policies - Academic Freedom: The group discussed the current Board Policy (distributed prior to and during the meeting) to determine whether or not it should be revised. Several people, finding the document sorely lacking, questioned whether or not it was the actual Board Policy. The group was reassured by Chenoweth and Kramer that the document was authentic. It was MSCU( LaManque/Lathers) to produce a significantly revised draft. Chenoweth asked for volunteers to serve on an ad hoc drafting committee. Argyriou, Lathers, Schaffer, and Setziol volunteered. [Setziol later mused that the ease in populating this ad hoc committee was in direct inverse proportion to the difficulty finding people to run for Senate office owing, perhaps to a scintilla of guilt running through the group.]
V. Basic Skills Initiative (BSI): Two documents were distributed, "Self Assessment Tool: Executive Summary" (also previously distributed) and "Long Term Goals...".
Beginning with a clarification of remarks made at an earlier meeting which were construed to suggest that there was very little faculty input in the development of process or materials. At this time it was stated that there was broad faculty input in the early stages and in the document producing stages. The discussion shifted to funding and the fact that the funding is now not expected to be what was anticipated in the short term. A question was raised as to whether or not the funding could help fund the shakily funded Writing and Reading Center.
VI. Final Exam Schedule: Setziol mentioned that twice in the last half dozen years (the last time three years ago), the presence of conflicts in the final exam schedule has been brought to the Senate's attention. He went on to say that increasing numbers of distance learning and block scheduled classes means a clear trend of increasing numbers of conflicts. He proposed action on a previously proposed idea to extend the normal class schedule an additional week. This would eliminate all current conflicts and solve problems for part time faculty and students which arise when a final exam day and time are different than the normal class schedule. Almost all comments made were in support of the idea with the notable exception of a new problem whereby one hour length classes would be prevented from taking two hour exams in cases where those exams were designed to require consecutive hours. There was also suggestion to investigate the possibility of adding the last Monday of the quarter as a final exam day. Chenoweth asked Senators to get feedback on the proposed change. The officers will get information about conflicts from Jane Swanson. The item will return in the very near future.
VII. Textbook Rental Guidelines: Chenoweth reintroduced this pilot project, reminding the group that the goal of the item was to decide on criteria for textbook priority. The list generated April 28th was the focus of discussion. There were four criteria proposed at that time, 1) Textbooks used every quarter for a minimum of two years or nearly every quarter for a minimum of three years, 2) Relatively more expensive texts, 3) Textbooks used in General Education courses, and 4) Textbooks overall representing a broad scope of disciplines. After a brief discussion and without objection, these four were adopted. While approving these four, people offered several other things which should be taken into consideration. One was the question "Does a text come with a workbook?" (interacts with expense in that, while the required text may be expensive, it might consist of two parts one of which is not reusable). Another was the suggestion that a good measure of which texts qualifying under criteria 1-3 above would be to find out how many/what percentage of a given text are returned per quarter or per year. Lastly, Glapion soberly reminded the group that, with the very limited funds available for the pilot, there may end up being only one textbook purchased.
VIII. District Updates (budget, technology): Chenoweth presented four District overall 2008-2009 budget projections. They ranged from one projecting 1% growth and no deficit factor to one projecting no growth and a deficit factor. He and Kramer also reminded the group of President Murphy's proposed strategy (something requiring District approval) of going for more than the 1% growth currently proposed in the hopes (based on multiple past experiences) that more growth money would become available from the total state fund for growth.
On the technology front, Chenoweth said that good news is coming in the form of a greatly improved spam filter for District electronic mail, that the District network is being redesigned, and that the reason for the delay in getting a campus wide wireless network was a concern for security which has resulted in only two areas of campus (library and campus center) being approved.
IXa. Contingent Academic Labor Conference: Goodwin asked for support for a conference of the Coalition for Contingent Academic Labor, an international conference for which the group supported Goodwin's attendance eight years ago. Goodwin will return with a specific dollar amount in the near future.
IXb. Good of the Order and announcements: - The Excellence in Equity conference held at De Anza got very good reviews from attendees, including State Chancellor's Office staff.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:32