March 16, 2016 AS Council Minutes
Taft College Academic Senate Council Minutes
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Cafeteria Conference Room
Members Present: President Geoffrey Dyer, Vice President Vicki Jacobi, Eric Berube, Kamala Carlson, Bill Devine, Juana Escobedo, Tori Furman, Greg Golling, Dan Hall, Mike Jiles, Tony Thompson, Don Thornsberry, Melissa Thornsberry, and Victoria Waugh.
The meeting was called to order at 12:10 PM.
Public Commentary
- No public commentary was offered.
Workflow of Academic Senate and the Academic Senate Council.
- Geoffrey Dyer reviewed the workflow between the Academic Senate-of-the-whole and the Academic Senate Council. Action items that come to the senate-of-the-whole must first come to the Academic Senate Council for approval.
- Quorum for these council meetings is set at seven members needing to be present. We approve all items by a majority, but resolutions will require eight (two-thirds of the council) votes to pass.
Administrative Procedure for SLOs (Jacobi)
- The AS Council reviewed the draft Administrative Procedure for Student Leaning Outcomes and made editing and procedural suggestions.
- Geoffrey made a motion to have the Academic Council representatives, in consultation with their area representatives, send specific editing suggestions to Vicki Jacobi; and, that we see a revised version of this document on the April 20th meeting of the AS council. Mike Jiles seconded the motion and the motion carried.
IEPI Innovation & Effectiveness Plan (Berube)
- The council reviewed the IEPI Innovation and Effectiveness plan. This is the document that Interim President Brock McMurray will be submitting and requesting $150,000 in one-time funds to chiefly address SLO needs.
- The Governance Council has already approved this plan. IEPI was established to assist colleges in being proactive in meeting accreditation standards before the site visits. In our case, we are developing the IEPI plan to primarily address the substantive recommendations (#4 & #6) regarding SLOs.
- The plan was developed based on the feedback from the following sources: two IEPI visits, our retreat with Bob Pacheco, two academic senate conferences which specifically dealt with accreditation issues, and feedback from various individuals.
- The plan is simple and is specific enough to be actionable, but still allows room for flexibility.
- Recommendations 4 & 6 from the ACCJC site report are each addressed as far as what we are going to be doing, who the responsible parties are, and why we are doing what we are doing.
- We don’t want to make radical changes to existing processes. We want to add things specifically to satisfy the recommendations by March 2017.
- Eric Berube asked for feedback from the group and will make revisions based on feedback and then bring it to the senate-of-the-whole.
- Tori Furman suggested that the action item involving the two SLO days (page 4, action step 2c) be clarified to clear up confusion about whether these SLO days are in addition to our regularly scheduled in-service days or to be established as part of our regularly scheduled in-service days.
- Don Thornsberry suggested that program leads be added to the list of responsible parties for many of the action steps.
- Bill Devine moved to approve the plan with the revisions that were discussed and forward the plan to the senate-of-the-whole. Greg Goling seconded the motion. The motion carried.
Canvas Adoption (Hall)
- Geoffrey informed the council that this resolution is time-sensitive given that all resolutions need to go to the senate-of-the-whole for a 1st and a 2nd reading/approval.
- Greg asked if mention of Canvas being the sole course management system in the 3rd “Whereas” is that something that Canvas requires or if it is our position. This requirement is from the OEI and stems from not wishing to use taxpayer money to fund duplicated resources.
- Geoffrey believes there is tremendous benefit to participating in the course exchange. For example, low-enrolled courses that run the risk of getting cut could be supplemented with students from the exchange joining the courses.
- Also, in terms of enrollment management, if we participate in the exchange, particular courses that we are not offering but are needed by our students to complete their programs could be taken through the exchange.
- The first and second “Resolved” show that, if adopted, Canvas would be phased in through fall of 2017.
- Tori asked about whether our TC students would get priority in registering for courses that we offer on the exchange.
- Dan clarified that we do not have to adopt Canvas in order for our students to take courses from the exchange. However, if TC is to offer our courses on the exchange for students throughout the state, then we will have had to adopt Canvas.
- Bill stated that Canvas does not suit his style of teaching. Bill would like to have the ability to write comments on the assignments that students submit. Dan pointed out that Canvas does allow instructors to write comments on students’ submissions as well as to make annotations on the submissions, and to even leave an audio comment on the submissions.
- Tony asked about financial implications of adopting Canvas. Currently we pay $35,000 to $40,000 per year for Etudes. The OEI will pay for the implementation and use of Canvas for at least the next 3 years. There is no guaranty that OEI will continue to pay for any common CMS after the 3 years. However, OEI does have the advantage of negotiating
- Mike Jiles motioned to approve the Canvas resolution. Greg seconded the motion. The motioned passed with Bill Devine and Tony Thompson voting “No”, and Kamala Carlson and Tori Furman abstained.
Meeting adjourned at 1:00. Agenda items that were not discussed at this meeting include:
- Open Educational Resources
- Title 5 53203(f): Committee Appointments
- Academic Senate Faculty Recognition Awards
Respectfully submitted by Dan Hall.