College Academic Senate

of the

Sequoias

General Session Agenda

Wednesday November 28th Rm 1 4:10-5:30 p.m.

1.1  Call to order by Steve Natoli @ 4: 12 p.m.

1.2  Approval of minutes from November 14th, 2007

M/S/A

1.2.5  Sharmon Wood – Guest Speaker (Director of Grant development)

Spoke to grants/ grant proposals. Grant documents forwarded via email earlier in the week. She spoke to her ability to assist in grant writing. As well, she is completing a PP presentation as a tutorial for grant writing. She is hopeful to assist in improving communication and collaboration in the areas of curriculum/grant writing/ and academic necessitates that meet the procedures and policies that will best serve the institution. She spoke to change - now the approval of the entire President’s cabinet is necessary when approving grants (includes Senate President). *Please review the handouts and forward any questions or feedback to Sharmon. Part of Sharmon’s charge will include intensive review of grants so as to coordinate along with any other possible departments/divisions/ programs. *Documents forwarded will be considered as first reading and will be placed upon the next agenda as a second reading and for approval. *M/S/A (first reading)

1.2.6  Jacqueline Kamberg – instructional presentation. Handout provided. 5 minute engaging ideas to use in the classroom. Jacqueline gave a brief overview of her handout. Positive attitude, be early, natural light, address students directly, organize and implement the element of surprise for the students. As well, she spoke to being humorous, offering a ‘question of the day’ and sharing information with the student.

1.3.  a. Faculty/staff comments concerning those items not on the agenda

R. Peterson – spoke to repeatable courses and students receiving an ‘F’ in the course (example of student taking a level course). Due to complications that have arisen, Joni Jordan has authored a resolution and Richard is speaking to the support of the resolution. While most support the resolution, there has been some concern about inputting the information into the Banner system from the administrative perspective. Richard contends that the input of data should not be an issue; rather we should be in support of what best serves the student. S. Houk reiterated to Richard that a student can now repeat a course even with a C in the course.

b. Faculty/staff comments concerning those items on the agenda

None

1.4  President’s report – (Steve Natoli) –Cabinet report via email

Forwarded via email. Steve briefly spoke to a concern/question that came up regarding forwarding the Cabinet Report to colleagues. Steve asserted that he supports our sharing of the Cabinet Report, as it may generate feedback and create an element of proactive behavior.

1.5 Committees:

a. Curriculum Committee report – Joni Jordan

Handout provided (also sent via email). Joni spoke to some of the current changes. Curriculum approval – M/S Discussion – question regarding the curriculum memo coming from Dr. Johnson. Carol inquired as to whether or not Joni approved of the process. Joni will look into this. * Curriculum - Approved.

Joni also spoke to the resolution (handout). First reading. She would like this to be voted on at the December 12th meeting. Steve Houk inquired about whether or not we want the Board “addressed” regarding this resolution. Joni believes that this issue does affect the students and we seem to be at a standstill with administrative support, so we need the Board to acknowledge the need (thus the necessity for the resolution). Chris inquired as to whether or not Title V supported Joni’s case, to which Joni responded that it is a local governance issue and does need to be addressed. Lisa Brandis reported that this issue has been ongoing in counseling for a while and while there are other ways that the issue can be resolved, she does lend her support to the resolution. Joni reported that Dr. Scroggins has been privy to the issue. Overall, this issue appears to be a Banner/entry issue. *First reading – M/S/A

Next, Joni spoke to clarification on the units/hours issue. Joni is unsure as to what direction it is currently moving, as there are roughly 4-5 ways in which the configuration is being looked at/calculated. There is a committee looking into this area.

A general education committee is being formed. The committee is to look into GE patterns and programs. Joni inquired as to whether or not the committee should be a subcommittee of Senate, as she believes that it needs to be larger than just the preview of the curriculum committee. Steve would like Ron Johnson to report to the Senate regarding his vision/need for this committee. As the issue is not pressing, we will postpone this issue to the January meeting. John Winterton reported that he believes the FYE and basic skills component will fall into this committee.

Lastly, Joni spoke to the review of curriculum due to the inputting of CurricuNet. They are looking into who may/will be looking at the curriculum and ways to finding persons to review the curriculum. Valerie E. inquired about how the ‘prerequisite’ issue (and support/signature from another department) is happening. Currently, there is no CurricuNet solution, but Joni reported that the Deans, etc… are reviewing these before submission to the curriculum committee. Joni will return the issue to the curriculum committee for discussion.

Training on CurricuNet on 12/6 from 2-4 pm. Also, curriculum committee will meet on the 3rd Wed. of each month.

b.  Facilities Committee report – Steve reported that there are a number of faculty who will be serving on the committee.

c.  Equivalency Policy – Steve Houk. Nothing to report.

d.  Governance/Professional Matters (Committee A) – Linda Amaral. Linda presented her resolution from committee A. Vote for approval – keep the shortened version and adapt and add further parts of the AAUP ethics statement. Handout provided at the last Senate meeting. Linda read the resolution again. M/S/*Approved.

e. Bylaws/Election Process (Committee B) – Jesse Wilcoxson. A possible information kiosk for students to post books for sale. James McDonnel will be meeting with Eric Middlestead regarding this issue. Jesse also reported that he briefly spoke to Larry Dutto about the possibility of the book rental program. He will meet with Larry for further investigation into this issue. Lastly, Jesse reported about online book rental programs that are currently up and running. He will investigate this avenue as well.

f.  Distance Learning/Committees/Professional Ethics (Committee C) – Janice Brown. No report

g.  COSTA Liaison Committee – Steve Natoli. Release time for committee chair/s currently being discussed.

h.  FEC – Chris Knox. Chris reported that the goals are to organize workshops for sabbatical proposal writing. The committee is organizing a group of mentors to work with writers/proposal submitters. She is working with Kathie Lewis and Robert Urtecho on creating initiatives (five areas) that support successful proposals. She is hoping that Nancy Schneider and Robert Urtecho will conduct a one hour training workshop on these initiatives. The mentors will also attend and be able to work with the writers/proposal submitters (mentors will receive a stipend for their time and training). There will be roughly 10-11 sabbaticals for the Fall semester. She is hoping that the guidance will allow faculty to direct their proposals into a scope of necessity and success. Note - Steve Houk would like it noted in the minutes that Chris Knox ‘has the coolest shoes’.

i. Student Learning Outcome – Carol Enns. Reported that the accreditation committee

is coming on 11/29. Carol will be meeting with the committee. Carol has been working

on entering the Social Science assessment/summary (four column) reports. She encourages all senators to review the reports.

j. Adjunct Faculty report – Brandon Sanderson. No report.

k. DECOS – Deborah Nolan.. Committee met. Is working on the course management system and the DE guidelines. She is attempting to work with the DE instructors who will be instructing in the Fall. She is also distributing a brochure on DE the schedule/process which is a guideline for DE students.

l. ASB – Student Rep. – Naloor See. Nalor reported on the COS float at the Visalia Christmas parade. The credit union donated 500.00 for the float. Atomic Pink concert at COS on 11/29. Free pizza from 11:30-1 p.m.

1.6  Unfinished Business

None

1.7  New Business

a. new committee assignment; office hours posting

Steve reported that Dr. Scroggins is interested to know if the Senate has a desire to design a form or schedule for consistency purposes. It was recommended to use the old form.

However, the Banner OH form can be printed out. It was suggested to use instead. Question arose regarding name plaques for faculty. Steve reported that a building directory is also being investigated. John Winteron inquired about a possible form for each room and what class is being held and time of the particular classes. Sherry Stava spoke to the lack of lighting in the Muir building at night. She inquired with the Police but they do not want to light the area because it may attract transients. Steve informed Sherry that she needs to approach the Facility and Safety committee.

Meeting adjourned at: 5:50 P.M.

Members present: Brown, Jordan, Amaral, Haycock, Kamberg, Houk, Beltran, Hester-Reyes, Picciuto, Rueger, Stava, Winterton, Sargent, Wilcoxson, McDonnel, Brandis, Knox, Enns, Nolan, Basham, Erhlich, Thomas