LosAngelesMissionCollegeDepartmentofLifeSciences

DepartmentMeetingMinutes

Friday,May5,2017@10:00pm(CMS104)

Present: Stephen Brown, Mike Reynolds, Par Mohammadian, Diane Livio, Wigdan Nicola-Awad, Angela Echeverri

OLDBUSINESS

1.Programreview(Steve): Faculty have a week to contribute to the program review (by May 12th), and then Steve will continue to revise it to submit by the deadline. Faculty will focus on their own discipline by courses that they teach.

2.Increaseinfundsfornextfiscalyearduetoadditional courseofferings(Steve): Steve requested an increase of $15,000 to cover the new courses, as they will no longer be funded independently. This will cover lab and office supplies. Allied Health grant will run through September. The courses will then go through the Life Sciences program and budget.

3.Printrequestlimits –followup(Steve): Completed – increased to $50 for the amount per request.

4.Hiringupdates(Steve): Steve is unable to address the full-time position hire yet until all involved individuals are notified. Two people interviewed for the biotech part-time position have backed out, so they are still looking to fill the position. If the position is unable to be filled, Steve will teach it. As an update from the recent Academic Senate meeting, adjunct hiring now requires that you must hire from the pool in the district for the discipline they’re in, so people interested in adjunct positions will need to apply to the discipline pool and follow the new process for hiring.

5.SpringSLOassessments(Steve): Steve reminds that the SLO assessments for the involved courses this semester are due by June 15th.

6.Food drinkinlabs,overall labsafety–feedbackfromdistrict specialist (Steve): David Martin, the LACCD Health & Safety Specialist, reviewed the Life Sciences labs and prep labs. Steve emailed the comments to the department. In general, our set-ups look good, including using the food & drink cabinets. Steve will remind all instructors of the policy, and the lab techs will make sure that the cabinets are clearly labelled and lined to absorb any spills.

7.Gardenupdate(Steveonbehalfof Nadine): Email from Nadine: “Garden is doing well. Flower bed for Bio 3 has potato plant (a frequently flowering Solanaceae/nightshade perennial), many aster family representatives, and arugula (Brassicaceae family). Some of the large pots have been painted and will soon be potted.” Par recommends that Steve follows-up with Jesse Sanchez about how we can collaborate across disciplines to best use the space.

NEWBUSINESS

8.Departmentstandards:retentionsuccessrates,pointdistributions,extracredit(Steve,all): Par recommends that for each Life Sciences discipline, we look at the data for retention & success rates for the past 4 semesters, then we can decide what the benchmarks should be from that considering where we have been for each discipline. Steve will compile the data for the past 2 years and look at trends over longer time periods; we can review it over the next meetings.

Regarding extra credit, Steve recommends that we establish a recommended departmental policy that IF a faculty is to consider offering extra credit not to exceed 5%. Diane notes that it’s also good to take into consideration how challenging the course is for incorporating extra credit. Par emphasizes that for upper division it seems appropriate to be stricter, and Diane agrees that there should be adjustments based on the course expectations of students such as major vs minors and certain pathways. The overall goal is to help the students improve and excel academically and be prepared for their future programs and careers.

Steve also notes that there is a wide disparity in the point distributions being offered between lecture and lab across sections of the same course. Par notes that experience with the course helps to know how to adjust the scale to best reflect the student performance. Steve is concerned about students not putting enough focus and concern on lab performance if it’s a low proportion of the course points. Par and Diane note that the set-up here tends to be that the lab and lecture are inherently tied together, so that the various assignments and assessments are interconnected to support learning. Steve is concerned about new faculty following distribution patterns that heavily skewed to just lecture, and so it may be better to consider the point distribution to more closely reflect the unit distribution between lecture and lab.

9.OfferingMicrobiology20onMWafternoonsinsteadofTThevenings?(Steve,Par,Angela): Steve notes that there have been requests from Physiology students to offer Micro on MW afternoons to better fit schedules, however there is concern about the timing of inoculating certain cultures (e.g. how to get around the problem that some would need to be set up Sunday). Par recommends looking into how other campuses handle offering the course on Mondays; Steve recommends testing out cultures set up on Fridays. Angela also recommends alternative course offerings such as in the past was Wed & Sat. It was agreed to try to accommodate this schedule request for Mon/Wed afternoon. Steve will present to Isabelle an increase to offer a single section W afternoon lab, single section T evening lab, and the double section TTh mornings, to test which is the best time.

10.Reviveguestspeakerseries(all): Steve asks that we consider this as something we do at least once a semester. Par notes that the STEM counselor Angela has started this having a nurse come to talk, so she would be worth collaborating with. Steve notes it would be good to have the researchers involved with the summer STEM research could come talk to generate more interest among students, and Par notes that the student interns could also present.

Angela notes her interest on working with District Academic Senate to expand on professional development offerings as a district level and within campuses, particularly as seminars and workshops. Par notes the success of the Faculty Learning Community workshops that were implemented this semester and much of that was due to the participation of many adjunct faculty across the departments, due to the stipend offered for them.

11.Reportonmost recentCouncilofInstructionandChairsDeansmeetings(Steve): From the chairs & deans meeting: according to Louise Barbato, grade distributions, retention, and success rates cannot be used in official faculty evaluations and portfolios. From the Council of Instruction: there is a group working on increasing the percentage of units that must be completed at LAMC for certificates and degrees for the residency requirement. Par notes that discussions of this have led to recommendations for the department chairs to decide with the program directors. Steve believes that the core courses for the certificate should all be taken at the school offering the certificate. Angela believes there should be an evaluation process that reviews cases by the department, or at least the department chair and program director. The District will provide recommendations for how to handle digital badges soon. Steve is working on revisions to Bio 40. There are groups of faculty working on putting together a faculty handbook and a chair handbook. Life Sciences will need to conduct a comprehensive program review next year. The deadline for submitting FLEX hours is June 17th. Par reports that faculty that attend the graduation ceremony are eligible for FLEX hours for it.

------

Nextmeeting: Thurs, Jun 1, 2-4pm, CMS 104

1