I. Call to Order

Professor Britton called the meeting to order at 8:01

II. Roll Call –

Present: C. Britton, S. French-Unser, R. Osborne, S. Regier, J. Wiens, D. Williams

Absent: P. Boudreaux, D. Hensley, J. Keele, Y. Kim, M. Roman L. Syrdahl, R. Glahn
No quorum.

III. Approval of Agenda

M: J Wiens

S: S Regier

IV. Acceptance of Minutes of Sept 7, 2007.

Via consensus

V. Reports

1. Senate President (Britton)

Attended chancellor’s cabinet. Chancellor would like to hire a Vice Chancellor of Economic and Workforce Development. The Senate discussed how unfortunate it is for the chancellor to be seeking another district high-salary position during this time of economic hardship. The district has cut hundreds of thousands of dollars to PC over the last 5 years and has not provided money to replace retiring faculty.

The waitlist function on Banner will probably be changed so that students on the waitlist will automatically be added when previously registered students drop.

There are presently 1800 students that are attending KCCD schools that have taken courses at two or more colleges. There was discussion of standardization of curriculum across the district so that a course taken at any of the three colleges would be accepted and interchangeable. Reservations among Senators related to professorial wishes and expectations for specific courses and whether this would mean that courses have the same numbers. Does this take away from the individuality or independence of Porterville College? Common courses offered according to normally accepted state expectations and curriculum standards should be transferrable without district intervention.

2. CCA (Regier)

CCA is changing the by-laws to include adjunct faculty.

3. Curriculum

The committee continues to work on the updating process. Leadership is looking at other school websites for ideas to make course updating easier.

Professor French-Unser (SLO coordinator) brought forward a matrix that the college would follow for student learning outcomes in classes and programs. Professor Britton will email the matrix to all Senators to see if there is any objection to the forms.

4. PC Foundation

No report

5. Division Reports

Social Science: Professor Osborne representing CHAP requested funds ($2700) for the Grateful Crane Ensemble. They previously performed at the college and were enthusiastically received. The date of the performance would be April 4, 2008. Senators approved the expenditure from the John Reid funds.

Science: Professor Wiens stated that he would not be writing up a Senate resolution (as stated in the last meeting minutes) that addressed the lack response to requests for security and lighting over the past academic year. Lack of security lighting and safety is not an academic issue under the purview of Academic Senate, even though it negatively affects all faculty, adjuncts, and students. There has been no communication how long it would take “deferred maintenance requests” to be fixed. So far it has been six months.

VI. Old Business

1. 2008-2009 calendar

Senators will continue to discuss the calendar among their divisions. It was reaffirmed by CCA that, according to the contract, the three colleges do not need to have the same academic calendar (starting and stopping times).

2. New Senate Representatives

Science/Math, Health Careers, Language Arts, Social Science, Fine Arts, and Adjunct divisions are scheduled for elections for the 2007 – 2009 academic years. Joel Wiens will be replaced by Terry Crewse. Sara French-Unser has replaced Catherine Hodges for Language Arts.

VII. New Business

1. Hiring Priority List, Learning Disabilities Specialist/Counselor (Britton)

Professor Britton will check into this newly advertized position. It is not on the priority ranking list for faculty which was developed and ranked by the department chairs and campus learning council.

2. Replacement of Senate Secretary

No Action

3. Faculty Evaluation Timeline (C. Piersol)
CCA is considering negotiating a change in the evaluation timeline for Mode A year 3. Currently the Mode A year 3 evaluation occurs during the spring semester. Problems have arisen when recommendations for improvement have occurred at the end of the spring semester leaving little time for the professor to make those improvements before the Mode A year 4 evaluation in Fall. CCA recommends the Mode A year 3 evaluation be moved from the spring semester of year 3 to the fall semester of year 3. The Senate agreed with CCA’s recommendation.

4. Role of CETC Ambassador (Sarah Phinney)

Sara is the CETC Program (California Education Technology Collaborative) ambassador to Porterville College. Her job is to assist all professors in the using of the technology software and services available to us in the teaching of our classes and professional development.

Sara provided a handout and introduced the Senators to statewide programs.

Examples:
The @one program provides one hour “webinars” offered at lunch. They also archive so you can access them later. Faculty state-wide were getting flex day credit for this. It would a good idea to use these for flex day credit for Porterville faculty also.

CCCConfer – can be used for webinars and virtual office hours. This would be a great idea for more professors to use. This service provides a whiteboard function that the students can draw on as they ask their professor questions.

CCCSat – free movies and presentations on science, religion, novels. Rosemary can record the presentations for professors to use later.

VIII. Adjournment: 9:14 AM
M: J. Wiens

Respectfully submitted

J. Wiens