Present: John Backes* Susan Hoyne* David Cunningham*

Dean Team Meeting

June 1, 2012

8:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Present: John Backes* Susan Hoyne* David Cunningham*

Norma Goldstein* Gillian Lewis* Tonya Drake*

Bob Francis* Joe Duggan*

(*) Members Present

MINUTES

The following minutes were approved: April 3, 10, 17, 24, May 2, 9, 2012.

ACCREDITATION – JUNE 6 VISIT

Norma described a “cheat sheet” that will be available prior to the Fall accreditation visit that lists our Core Themes and Objectives. Posters will be printed as well. Deans discussed potential changes that should occur in the Mission Fulfillment chart that Norma provided. She explained that this is something that tells us we might want to take a look in the future at our mission statement. The points Bob brought up are relevant, but she would not have the Graphic Designer change our Mission Statement. We have an opportunity next year to revisit all Core Themes and the mission. It is an opportunity for discussion.

Norma reported the college’s 2012 Annual Report was submitted to the NWCCU. The actual first real draft of the entire accreditation document is now complete. It was put together “piecemeal” just to get it done. Nothing will be harder than what we did this year because we had to do 7 years in one year. When we do this again next year, it will be important to have Core Theme teams who will be responsible for going through each and every standard over a period of years so we can talk about mission fulfillment of a particular core theme and can trace it all the way through.

John asked Deans to read the draft and look for errors in fact and make sure there is parallel construction. Read it for fluency. Norma said the document will be cut down about 50 pages.

Tonya said the evaluators will look at the standards and say, “Did you meet the standards?” Every core theme will have an individual evaluator looking at the planning, assessment, and what did the college do to improve.

Norma explained what we did for each core theme in Standard 5 is slim. John and Tonya assisted, but no one else. Other people should have participated. Standard 5 will be evaluated by the Chair of the accreditation committee, which means the President will be held accountable.

RETENTION OF INFORMATION IN BB

Bob received an inquiry from a Dean about a difficult student and tracing messages back and forth in Bb online where the instructor and student have been trading messages. Bb gets “swept” so it is not there as a permanent record. Bob explained that everything is archived and it is burned at two different locations. The issue though will come someday the only way you can read that is by using Bb. Once we lose Bb will we lose the ability to go back and look at it? No. Bb is aware if institutions move away from the company they will have the opportunity to open up any classroom online for a fee.

Deans recommended instructors move difficult discussions to Outlook, although students could choose to say inside Bb.

The Bb contract goes until FQ 2013. We will begin our own internal evaluation on whether or not we want to go to Canvas. If we do decide to go to it, it will be WQ 2014.

Deans discussed as we move toward more and have more part-time faculty, we have to be much more intentional how we bring them along and provide training. We should have best practices of any kind for classroom management. A Bb class could be developed as part of our professional development opportunity. John said there must be training materials already developed by other colleges.

TO DO: Norma will put a call out on the ATC listserv to locate best practices and/or online courses on Classroom Management and other issues around teaching and learning.

Norma said there is an entire section on Classroom Management with the Skills Standards. David reported that WEC puts together a face-to-face boot camp course at GRCC.

John summarized that Deans are willing and able to take on the responsibility of some kind of professional development around Classroom Management, mental health issues for students, researching an online class, etc. John hears consensus among the Deans there should be some kind of face-to-face on-campus opportunities for faculty as well as staff to better understand what is acceptable inside a classroom and what is not and how to handle the situation. This summer Deans will find an online class and develop a F2F class that will run side by side with advising.

Bob said it would be worthless to have this as a stand-alone ProD activity. It has to be imbedded inside our division meetings. That is where Professional Development has to reside. Deans will have to commit time during meetings and make it a priority. Tonya added she can do a brief student conduct presentation.

TO DO: Deans will research, obtain and/or develop an online and F2F professional development opportunity this summer around Classroom Management and present it at division meetings

It is further recommended that phraseology on the Student Code of Conduct be put into syllabi.

JUNE TASKS

John noted the June Instructional calendar has several items he wanted to make sure Deans do. Deans need to get the list of people who will go through FEPs. Please work with HR. With Arlene retiring, John will leave it to Bob and Norma to figure out the faculty office assignments. Please remind faculty their ProD reports are due at the end of the quarter which is defined as the last day of exams (or June 15). If there are any increments in salaries, they will not get one if their report isn’t on file.

OTHER

►John provided Deans an assignment relative to the “Two Gaps Discussion” scheduled for Monday’s OLT meeting. The purpose of this assignment is to help OpCom practice using the principles of the Golden Key. Norma said to get through accreditation in a meaningful way; we have to look at this in the concept of the Core Themes.

It was suggested that it would be more meaningful if we used OpCom time on Monday to prepare for the Mock Accreditation Visit. We would have more time to prepare for the Gaps Discussion at the next OLT meeting.

►Dave has been gracious and has extended his retirement until December. This will keep us stable through accreditation and give the new VPASA an opportunity to hire the new Dean.

►Norma and Susan attended a conference on Common Core (a/k/a Road Map) which may mean some changes for us. Common Core is a catch phrase for a national set of curriculum for high schools. Washington State is one of many who have adopted this. The idea is to bring our curriculum and common core curriculum in K-12 into some alignment. It is an attempt by education to align themselves in a better transition from K-12 to college. It is a state led initiative (not legislative). Norma said there are documents on the OSPI website that will be relevant in discussions about the developmental sequence. One of our goals should be to have a better relationship with our own high schools. This is an opportunity that we develop a partnership with the high schools. If we can do that we will be in step in the right direction for this institution.

►John suggested Deans meet with the new VPASA this summer regarding our instructional imperatives and update it. Hook data to that information and think about (broadly speaking) restructuring. It needs to be inside the core themes and indicators, but also within the Strategic Plan. It would be John’s goal to keep working at drawing Student Services and Instruction tighter together to instructional faculty and staff have a deeper knowledge of Student Services and how it works.

Meeting Adjourned 10:25 pm

Minutes Recorded by Kerry` Fondren

3