Academic Senate President’s Report

August 10-26, 2009

I would like to thank Jeff Basham for attending the Board meeting and Cabinet during July. The Senate is year-round and we continue to work on equivalency, curriculum and governance issues during the summer. Jeff only takes off when he needs surgery! Ask him about the new linked course he is planning on sustainable agriculture. His class will be growing vegetables at the old Farm and donating them to Food Link. Great ideas, Jeff!

With its remaining budget, the Senate purchased two laptops. One is for Gail Robinson who takes minutes for the Curriculum Committee. The other is for the Exec Board when they go to conferences. We also bought thumb drives for all the Senators, but have not loaded them with information yet.

-August 4th

The Exec Board met and discussed the Faculty Evaluation Procedure Dr. Scroggins has recommended to COSTA. We will give our feedback to COSTA when we have finished reviewing the document. Our next meeting is August 31 with Dr. Scroggins to clarify some questions. The Exec Board is an ad hoc committee for evaluation and will bring the document to Senate in the coming months. In the meantime, Committee A will work on the Student Evaluation form.

--August 5-7

I attended the CCLDI (Community College Leadership Development Initiatives) Conference in San Diego with Dr. Scroggins and Duncan Graham. It was one of the best conferences I have attended on leadership. Prior to the workshop, I asked 12 colleagues from COS and other institutions to fill out surveys regarding my leadership style. These were compiled and melded into a profile that was debriefed by the conference planners. I learned so much about myself and I am grateful for the insights, which I hope, will lead to bettering my teaching as well as my committee work. I also got to look at my colleagues’ profiles and it was fascinating! We also participated in a session called “Multicultural Dimensions of Leadership” which was lead by Nanci Luna Jimenez. It was so powerful, we have asked her to do a three-day workshop in the summer at COS. Barring further fiscal disasters, I sincerely hope we will be able to bring this workshop to you.

--August 10-11

I attended the 1st COS Teaching and Learning Institute at Asilomar. Chris Knox and FEC (with funding from ELI) put on a great two-day retreat centered on team-teaching. The retreat facilitators were Jeff Basham and Jane Thomas. We also had resource expertise in Kathie Lewis, Deborah Nolan and Mielena Seyed. Many of us came away with plans for linked courses or linked activities between courses. Thank you to everyone who made this possible! Looking forward to next summer already!

August 17

Cabinet: We discussed the Achieving the Dream Initiative with Frank and Mark and answered their questions regarding education policy for community colleges in California. They gave us their first impression of our students. After interviewing them, they said our students don’t use email as much as other students, but they appear to have the same level of accessibility as other students. They tend to text more. Students complained about the lack of parking and adequate signage to find their way around. To summarize very briefly the seven hours of meetings I attended regarding the ATD Initiative:

1. We will decide through focus groups and surveys what are the overarching questions we want to answer at COS.

2. We will gather meaningful data and analyze it to inform our decisions.

3. We will choose between 3-5 current institutional goals and focus on them for the next four years. Less is more. Personally, I hope we only choose 3!

Board Meeting:

Board member Greg Sherman reported on attending the CLASS Initiative with Dr. Scroggins and Stephanie Logan. Only 12 community colleges in California were chosen for the Hewlett Packard Foundation-sponsored initiative. Both Mr. Sherman and Stephanie will attend our next Senate meeting to give us an update.

For Senate I reported on the new adjunct service awards and turned the mike over to Chris Knox to discuss the Asilomar Teaching and Learning Retreat.

Kristen Hollabaugh listed the new inductees into the COS Hall of Fame. One of them is our own Newhell Bringhurst! Along the same lines, the Social Sciences Division recently recognized adjunct faculty in their division who had taught 20+ years. Way to go Social Sciences!

James Espinoza and Joel Geist, two new English faculty members, were introduced.

The Puente Program was honored and the second cohort instructors were introduced. Ana Limón, a former Puentista, gave a beautiful testimonial about this award-winning program.

Michele