MiraCosta College
Academic Affairs Committee
Meeting Minutes
September 4, 2009
9:00 a.m., OCN-1202
Members Present:, Julie Cord (Chair), Rob Archer, Brandi Blahnik, Pam Deegan, Jeanine Donley, Rica French, Christina Hata, Susan Herrmann, Lynda Lee, Melissa Lloyd-Jones, Ric Matthews, Jane Mushinsky Vicky Noddings, Jennifer Paris, Andrea Petri, Edward Pohlert, Denise Stepheson, Steve Torok
Members Absent: Dixie Maroney, Nancy Schaefer
Others Present: Steve Vail, Alketa Wojcik
Call to Order
Persons Wishing to Address the Committee
Julie Cord, Academic Affairs Chair, thanked everyone for their willingness to serve on the committee and asked that each person give a brief introduction of themselves.
This is the first Academic Affairs (AA) Committee meeting under the new, reorganized, governance structure. One of today’s tasks will be to go through the committee’s purpose and process.
I. Overview of Governance Structure
A. Steering Council Role – Cord explained that the role of the Steering Council is to route issues to appropriate committees, not to decide on issues. They could be viewed as the “who’s on first” committee that determines where to forward an issue. Once an issue is sent to a committee it becomes that committee’s issue. For Academic Affairs, once an issue has been addressed in committee, a recommendation would be forwarded to Senate Council.
Another of today’s task is to put together subcommittees or task forces that will become experts in assigned areas. The function of the two different groups are:
1) task force – will usually come out of the Steering Council, be made up people from different areas, and be highly specialized to address one issue—often a time sensitive issue. Once an issue has been resolved the task force will disband.
2) subcommittee – is an ongoing group that is a part of, and gives recommendations to, the main committee.
II. REPORTS
A. RFP Task Force – Pam Deegan reported that within the last couple of months an RFP (Request for Proposal) went out for a consultant for the Educational Master Plan (EMP). The EMP will be the college guide for the present and for what we will be once we are built out. The consultants will do the demographic work by looking at state, county and student information, as well as what the disciplines will look like in the future. They will then translate ideas into programs with information on how much assignable space is needed for lecture, lab, offices, etc. That information, in turn, would drive the Facilities Master Plan and give us a good plan that would need to be revisited every five years. There currently is a task force reviewing proposals, considering the interview process and looking for a consultant team. The task force anticipates being finished by the end of October, at which time they will go away. The Superintendent/President and Cabinet will then make a final decision.
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B. Program Review Nexus Task Force – Christina Hata and Deegan are representing AA on this task force that is trying to make sure that PERCY is ready to go in the next couple of weeks so that program reviews can be done completely on it. The task force as been asked to come up with a model to assist consultant Peter Morrison in developing the program for PERCY. While a purpose is to be self-reflective and to
Be able to access data on demographics of a funding stream for something new, they are also trying to keep it meaningful, doable and simple. This year, as PERCY is launched, everything is being done by hand, next year it will all be online. The Office of Instruction will work with the Research Office to fill in the quantitative information; faculty will fill in the qualitative information.
C. Flex – Flex Coordinator Hata explained that there are ongoing things with the flex program so, in consultation with Cord, flex will be a subcommittee of AA. The Flex subcommittee will consist of: Hata (Coordinator), Denise Stephenson (Lodestar Lead), Jeanine Donnley and Rica French (Teaching Academy Leads), and Ric Matthews (administrator). The composition of the committee is mandated by the state so a student and a part-time faculty member will be invited to sit on the committee.
Hata reported that: 1) the August flex week went well, in part thanks to Louise McD.; 2) POT (Program for Online Teaching) Monday was the second successful all day offerings of online teaching workshops; 3) they are looking to revitalize the Teaching Academy and to offer more pedagogical workshops; 4) flex year goes from July 1 to June 30; and 5) the absolute deadline for full-time faculty to submit Reports of Completions is the second Friday in September--next Friday (9/11).
An issue arose this year regarding full-time faculty’s yearly flex requirement, which Hata is waiting for a response on from the Chancellor’s Office. With few exceptions it has been 50 hours, this year it is 45 hours. It was pointed out that the state allows up to 14 days for professional development; MiraCosta agreed to use ten of those days. Because faculty have 175 obligated instructional days, reducing it by the ten days leaves 165 teaching days. Consequently, the ten professional days are also contractual days to meet the 175 obligated days.
Ongoing Duties of flex includes the Flex Calendar, soliciting presenters for workshops, and making flex week more inclusive by offering things throughout the semester, at different times, to get more people involved. Duties also include providing more information about ones’ flex obligation, reminding faculty of their accountability responsibility, and looking closer at flex offerings.
III. Work Group and Sub-Committee Formation
A. Flex (Team, Duties, Dates)
Covered under II.C.
B. Staff Development (Team, Duties, Dates)
Sheri Wright, Director of Human Resources, has been involved with staff development and has asked the Steering Council not to let Staff Development fall through the cracks. The Staff Development Committee has typically been composed of one classified, one faculty and one administrator, in addition to Wright. Yhey met once a semester, have a budget system and fund the graduation.
Subcommittee: Christina (faculty), Ric (dean), Brandi (classified
Contact: Wright about the duties
Explore: placement of Staff Development within Human Resources
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C. Textbook Affordability (Team, Duties, Dates)
Steve Isachsen, who was heavily involved with the faculty textbook affordability committee, and also worked with the District Textbook Affordability Committee, is putting together a list of issues regarding textbook affordability for the Steering Council. Although Isachsen will not be on the AA committee he is willing to be a resource for whoever is on the subcommittee.
Task Force: Matthews (Chair), Rob Archer, Hata, Melissa Lloyd-Jones
Task – contact Isachsen, Linda Fogerson, or Jim Austin
D. Faculty Hiring Procedure
A suggestion was made that this committee, or a subset of AA, look at hiring and ensuring everyone is alright with the process for program review.
It was agreed that the subcommittee would address both hiring procedures and hiring.
Hiring Procedures Subcommittee and Hiring Committee team:
Jennifer Paris (Chair), Deegan, Lynda Lee, Vicky Noddings, Jane Mushinsky, Andrea Petri, Steve Torok.
Tasks: 1) prior to the October 15th deadline look at hiring procedures, criteria for hiring, and how criteria is weighted; 2) after October 15th become the Hiring Committee; look into untenured faculty serving on the Hiring Committee; and
4) consider equivalency. Any recommendations will be made to the full AA committee.
IV. Portal (inclusive of all three items on agenda)
Cord showed an overhead of the AA portal where the committee’s mission can be found and the agenda and other AA related materials can be accessed. It is also the place to direct people who ask what the Academic Affairs Committee does. She asked committee members to set up their profile pages on the portal and encouraged personal pictures to be added. If help is needed to set up the pages contact Brad Hinson or Chad Woolley--the portal is new and things are still being figured out.
V. Other Business
Cord expressed some concern about receiving timely information from the Steering Council, especially relative to specific direction to the committee.
There is a suggestion to change the CLC (Community Learning Center) academic calendar from 18 weeks to 16 weeks. The Steering Council will assign the calendar to a committee; and the one suggested is the AA Committee. Cord suggested we be ready to go if it is assigned to this committee.
Academic Calendar Issues Subcommittee: Cord, Deegan, French, Lee, Stephenson
Resource: Trudy Fore
Suggested action: take issues to department meetings, ask for input and determine if anything has fallen through the cracks.
This item will be put on the next AA agenda for a 10-15 minute general discussion.
VI Adjournment - the meeting adjourned at 11:00 a.m.