District Academic SenateExecutive Meeting

June 24, 2010, 1:30-3:30 p.m.

District Office

Minutes

Attendance: David Beaulieu (President), Kathleen Bimber (Vice President), Angela Echeverri (Secretary, Mission), Adrienne Foster (West), Lourdes Brent (Trade), Ken Sherwood (City), Allison Moore (Southwest), Don Gauthier (Valley)

Guests: Kenadi Le (LACCD), Kindra Kinyon (Trade by phone)

  1. Call to Order and Approval of Agenda: Meeting was called to order by President Beaulieu at 2:15 p.m. Agenda was approved (Sherwood/Gauthier M/S/P).
  1. Approval of Minutes of May 27, 2010 Meeting: DAS Executive minutes for 5/27/10 were approved with several corrections (Gauthier/Brent M/S/P).
  1. Public Speakers: None
  1. Dolores Huerta Labor Institute Update (Beaulieu/Le): Beaulieu reported thatDHLI Director John Delloro recently passed away very unexpectedly at the age of 38. Kenadi Le, the program coordinator of DHLI, is now the acting director until things get settled. Le reported that they are considering new strategies and ways to go forward given the current environment. She added that the DHLI needs to increase its support on each campus and to get more faculty involved. Services provided to faculty by DHLI range from assistance with technology to how to publish a paper. The DHLI Advisory group met for the first time two weeks ago. Beaulieu inquired who the advisory group members are on each campus. Le replied that the members of Advisory Committee so far are: Wendall Eckhardt (City), Sherrill Hendricks (City), Daniel Ortega (SW), Lilamani De Silva (Mission), Michael Colling (East), Maria Dolores Carlo (East), Bruce Anders (West), Don Gauthier (Valley), Zack...?, Pat Allen (Valley), and Bill Loiterman (Harbor). Beaulieu stated that the appointment is the Senate President’s, but that the AFT presidents want to vet the person to make sure they are sympathetic to union issues.

On the other hand, the DHLI Steering Committee is a smaller group and consists of Carl Friedlander, John McDowell, David Beaulieu, Gary Colombo, Kent Wong (UCLA), Lou Siegel (labor activist and adjunct at Trade who sought the seed money from the unions) and Kathleen Yasuda (Associate Director of the Labor Center at Trade). Le stated that it is important to emphasize the academic focus of DHLI and to work to grow the program. Beaulieu emphasized that the role of DHLI is not to do labor organizing; it is supposed to be an academic program. Le reported that they are planning a district wide conference. They want to pair faculty with external resources, such as authors, to support instruction. Beaulieu added that John Delloro had wonderful contacts and brought in many distinguished speakers. Le stated that she would like to build on that and asked the Senate Presidents to let her know what each campus needs. She added that she would like to develop a scholarship and requested ideas from faculty. Beaulieu added that Kenadi Le has a law degree from UC Davis. Her brother recently graduated from LAVC. She stated she is looking forward to meeting with everyone at the campuses. Echeverri suggested she visit all the campus senates in the fall. She added that the future direction of the DHLI could also be discussed as a DAS Summit breakout topic.

  1. DCC Report:
  • Discipline List Proposal Process: Bimber distributed a handout titled Discipline List Proposal Process and asked that Senate presidents please forward the information to faculty. The deadline for new proposals is September 30, 2010. She reported that the dance group wants to add dance specialties to the list as a non-MA discipline. This is for folk dancing at Valley; it must go through the Academic Senate. There is also a proposal planned for architecture.
  • Cooperative Education District Work Plan: Bimber distributed a draft of the LACCD Cooperative Work Experience Education Plan. A revised plan has to get to the state by September 1, 2010. The previous plan dates from October, 1998. A few months ago we (???) learned that there was a window of opportunity to develop a new, more flexible plan. We asked for assistance and obtained all the Coop-Ed Director names, but nothing happened. Meanwhile the CTE deans and Julie Benavides wrote the draft Cooperative Work Experience Education Plan. Under the old plan, if a student wants to take a Cooperative Education class they had to have a minimum of seven units. Several faculty have expressed concern. Bimber stated that this should be a faculty driven project. It needs to get through DCC in July and to the LACCD Cabinet and Board by August. It is due at the state byAugust 31, 2010. The draft has been sent out to all Coop Ed chairs. Bimber asked DAS members to please encourage faculty to send their questions, concerns and comments to her. She added that they may have to have an emergency DCC meeting. The problem is that if we do not submit a new plan now, we cannot change it until they next open it up again for revision (last time was 1998).
  • John Clerx Retirement: Bimber reported that there was a very nice farewell reception last Thursday to celebrate Vice Chancellor Clerx’s 30 years of service to the district. The DCC gave him a gift certificate, award, and a roasting. Beaulieu expressed disappointment that more senior administrators did not attend the celebration.
  1. Shared Governance Problems (Mission/Trade):

Trade: Beaulieu reported that the selection process for a Vice President of Academic Affairs at Trade had some egregious flaws. There was a panel with 13 members out of which only two were faculty appointments. Additionally, the President appointed a faculty member on his own, which is not allowed. Faculty representation is supposed to be roughly 40%. Brent added that there was another classified person on the committee not representing anyone. The committee members were pressured by the chair to forward a name in a permanent capacity even though they only wished to forward a name in an acting or interim capacity. Then the President apparently interviewed two other people that were not recommended by the committee. The issue went to consultation on Monday and it was brought to Interim Chancellor Tyree Wieder’s attention. Wieder assured Beaulieu not to worry because Senate President Brent and the college president had recently met and worked things out. Beaulieu later found out that this was not the case. Lourdes Brent and David Beaulieu wrote a letter and sent it out Monday evening. The college president has given a verbal offer to the person; the key question is whether the job has been offered in writing. They have ignored the consultation and gone ahead with the hire. Brent and Beaulieu will meet with the college president this afternoon and will ask for the committee to be reconstituted. He has the prerogative to appoint someone in an acting position. There was unanimous agreement to go to the Board next Wednesday if they do not relent and to raise the issue as we did two years ago when Rolando Cuevas was hired at East. Beaulieu will contact Joanne Waddell to work jointly on this. Vice President Burke-Kelly is leaving Trade and Beaulieu stated he is very concerned about accreditation. Cheery said this situation underscores the need for a district-wide administrative hiring policy.

Kindra Kinyon called in over the phone and expressed her concerns about the punitive use of the program viability process at Trade. Marcy Drummond invoked the right to put several programs on viability in 2009-10, including ESL, CAOT, CIST, Business, Electronics, LVN and others. The viability process did not begin until this year. About half of them are finished and they all went through with flying colors, but the college president has not signed off on any of them. In the meantime, these programs have not been able to get resources, hire, or apply for grants. Ms. Drummond is now claiming that the viability process is not valid because there is not a signed copy anywhere. Board policy says that any administrator, department chair, or senate president has the authority to trigger a viability review process.

  • Mission: Echeverri gave an update on the status of the Dean of Student Services position at Mission.
  • West: President Mark Rocha is leaving to become the President at PasadenaCityCollege. Foster stated she did not know who would take over the presidency; it is not clear if an interim can run for the permanent position. Beaulieu replied that the district doesn’t usually allow interims to apply for the permanent president positions.
  1. Hiring Issues (Administrative/Faculty): Beaulieu reported that there has been no response yet on the proposed changes to the Administrative Hiring Policy. Since Vice Chancellor Deborah Hirsch is leaving, Deputy Chancellor Adriana Barrera will have to deal with it. Apparently the faculty hiring policy has undergone a technical revision without Senate input and a question has emerged about the number of candidates forwarded. Foster reported that since she became Senate President at West, a dean will be taking over her faculty position as Director of Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSPS). It is not clear what will happen when she returns to the classroom. This is also a union issue because she will be penalized for taking the Senate position.
  1. Transfer Legislation Update: A bill (SB 1440) is out of committee and has been passed and is at the budget committee. Beaulieu said there may have been a change on the 18 unit major/area of emphasis requirement issue, but he doesn’t have the latest update. There was a transfer committee meeting after the last DAS meeting and they were unanimous about their opposition to the 18 units.
  1. Bond/Energy Update: Gauthier reported that Dr. Robert Schistel from UCLA has turned in a proposal to do a study on the safety of the use of titanium dioxide. The LACCD Bond Steering Committee unanimously approved having a study done to assess the safety concerns. Titanium dioxide has already been applied on 1 million square feet of buildings in the LACCD. It is a whitener used in paints, toothpaste, sunscreen, etc. There are concerns surrounding its environmental and health effects when it falls into the soil.

Beaulieu reported that the DWP PV installation fiasco is still not settled. The DWP has not signed the energy agreement so Harbor and Pierce can’t proceed and now we’re told that DWP doesn’t have to sign. Beaulieu said the Board needs to know this. Sherwood said City has another problem because they cannot incorporate 10% electricity generation and it is physically impossible for them to do so. DWP is a municipal utility (it’s at six of the campuses); whereas Edison (at SW, West and East) is a private utility, and they have to buy back some of the energy generated by the campuses. There was a discussion on the Capstone total report versus summary. Sherwood found out that SW is not participating in the whole building commissioning process. Beaulieu stated he is beginning to have some concerns about the responsiveness of Lloyd Silberstein, the new Director of Build LACCD.

  1. Budget Report: Beaulieu reported that Presidents Mark Rocha and Ernie Moreno argued sharply at the last FPRC meeting. Moore expressed her concerns about Jeanette Gordon. Beaulieu acknowledged Moore’s complaints, but added that Gordon is honest, concerned about the LACCD budget, and has been very helpful with the bond program. The FPRC had a good initial discussion on the allocation formula. Carl Friedlander will become the co-chair of the DBC and Southwest President Jack Daniels will probably step in for Mark Rocha. Sherwood asked if the budget of the LACCD office would be discussed. Beaulieu replied that Larry Serot is coming in as a consultant. Moore stated what Serot was said at the FPRC meeting was different from what is in the report and that he backed off from criticizing Southwest. Friedlander and Beaulieu will share the budget responsibilities as well as the 0.2 reassigned time. Beaulieu will work with Vinh Nguyen and Jeanette Gordon. Smith stated we can not allocate all of the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) to salary increases without taking out step increases; each COLA costs at least $1 million.
  1. District Administrative Changes: Dawn Bastin in charge of Business Services is stepping down. Vice Chancellor of Human Resources Deborah Hirsch is leaving July 6th. Diane McBride is leaving October 1. Three names have been forwarded for the Interim Vice-Chancellor replacing John Clerx and Gary Colombo. Chancellor La Vista is interviewing candidates over the phone and an announcement is expected soon. The announcement for Marvin Martinez’s position opens next week and will close late in August. In the meantime, Chito Cayajon will hold the fort down. The LACCD is also announcing for an associate vice-chancellor position for research who will report to the new Interim Vice Chancellor to replace George Prather (who is classified).

MOVE TO EXTEND (Gauthier/Foster)

  1. DAS Workload: Beaulieu summarized several upcoming changes. He is going to go on vacation one week in July and two weeks in August. We may need someone at the Resource Table during his absence. Bernadette Staine’s office assistant position may be reduced to half-time. There is a possibility that she could work somewhere else in the building for the other half. With the savings we can create a 0.2 reassigned position and bring in someone to help on special projects such as DCC and DBC minutes, bringing discipline committees together, etc. Eloise Crippens still gets 0.4 reassigned time to do equivalency applications. Bimber does all the work with the disciplines and Human Resources. The number of requests for pre-employment equivalencies is increasing. The problem is that they have to have a denial before they can submit an equivalency request.
  1. Summit Preparation: Two dates were proposed for the upcoming summit: September 24 and October 1, both are Fridays. The location will be at ValleyCollege’s Monarch Hall. After a brief discussion, October 1 was chosen as the summit date.
  1. DAS Meeting Dates: DAS Exec will not meet in July.

The following dates were proposed for DAS Executive meetings:

  • Thursday, August 19 at 10 am (tentative)
  • September 23, 2010 at 1:30 pm
  • October 28, 2010 at 1:30 pm
  • November: None
  • December: Not sure.

The following dates were proposed for General DAS meetings:

  • September 9th (Southwest)
  • May: Date TBA (Valley)
  1. Adjourn: Meeting was adjourned at 4:27 p.m.

Minutes submitted respectfully by DAS Secretary Angela Echeverri