The Academic Senate Constitution identifies the Senate�s purpose and mission: to promote the development and maintenance of high standards of teaching and education; to share in the determination of the goals of the college and in the fulfillment of these goals; to promote the welfare of the entire faculty and to represent the entire faculty in its academic and professional relations with the district; to facilitate communication among the entire faculty, classified personnel, student body, college administration, and the governing board of the district; to make recommendations to the college administration and governing board concerning the academic and professional matters enumerated in the Title 5 of the Educational Code; to concern itself with any legislation relative to the welfare of the college; and to do all that is necessary and proper to achieve a realization of the purposes of the Faculty Association it represents.
The Academic Senate is the voice of the faculty when it comes to matters of academic and professional relations. Membership is comprised of 18 faculty representing all faculty, both full-time as well as Associate, and all areas of instruction, including Counseling and Student Development. The Senate�s membership also includes representation from Student Life and the Classified Senate. Meetings are held on the first and third Wednesday of the month, and special assemblies and forums are held throughout each semester. The Senate supports and encourages campus participation in activities of college-wide significance such as Student Equity and Achievement Programs, Educational Master Plan and Strategic Direction, Mission/Values/Code of Ethics, the ongoing Accreditation process, Student Learning Outcomes, CTE Taskforce, statewide grant initiatives, and other efforts. California law and Ed Code are constantly changing. Butte College's Senate and Curriculum leadership try to remain abreast of developments by regularly attending plenary sessions, regional workshops, and annual institutes provided by the statewide Academic Senate. The Butte Academic Senate currently operates in accordance with the bylaws, and needless to say in many capacities with various roles and responsibilities in relation to all aspects of the college. Members of the Senate Executive Committee regularly attend the statewide meetings mentioned above, and all share responsibility for disseminating information gained at these meetings as well as from the local Senate�s activities to the Faculty at large, classified staff, students, and Administration. The Academic Senate Leadership Team also includes the Curriculum Chair, the SLO Coordinator, and the Professional Development Coordinator, all of whom work hard in support of faculty and the Strategic Direction of the college. Curriculum Committee The Academic Senate has oversight for all curriculum and educational programs on campus (a role clearly established through law, Ed Code, and AB 1725). The vast majority of this oversight is handled by the Curriculum Committee and Curriculum Tech Review Team, which operates as an autonomous subcommittee of the Academic Senate under the leadership and guidance of the Chair. As stated above, California law and Ed Code are constantly changing, especially in regard to curriculum standards and in addition, changes to educational programs (expansion, AA/S-T development, Curriculum Review process, Guided Pathways efforts, AB 705 implementation, etc.) is never ending. The Curriculum Chair�s diligent work with the Curriculum Tech Review Team and program faculty, along with attendance at statewide Senate sessions, is essential.
Increase in reassign time for Executive Committee.
The amount was left blank intentionally as we do not know what the actuall amount was that was funded. Brandy Thomas joined the Executive Committee, but as a Student Development Faculty does not receive reassign time in the same manner as Instructional Faculty. She was alloted hours, but we are not clear on what that equates to in terms of a dollar amount.
The benefit has been extraordinary. There is always a gap between what happens on the Instructional side of the house and the Student Services side, so having Brandy on the Executive Committee has allowed us to much more thoroughly explore and address issues that we deal with. It is a natural extension, as well, of the push the Academic Senate has had over the past several years to provide a much more balanced and representative voice on all of our committees. In addition, Shaun-Adrian Chofla has been able to have an additional 10% reassign time which is more reflective of the amount of work that is required (weekly Executive Committee meetings, meetings with the Vice President of Instruction, meetings with the President, various planning meetings, travel to plenaries).
Academic Senate is the voice of faculty in academic and professional matters necessary for the college to meet the Vision for Success Goals. Ongoing efforts and faculty voice in relation to Curriculum, Participatory Governance, Guided Pathways, Curriculum, Student Equity, SSSP, Student Success, Planning & Budget, Enrollment Management, Educational Master Planning, College Council, as well as standing committees of the Academic Senate such as Equivalency, Distance Learning, Academic Technology, and Academic Senate taskforces demonstrate the vast breadth of support to the college in meeting these goals.
1. Implementing AB 705
Through the work of the Curriculum Committee, the Academic Senate is integrally involved in facilitating curricular modifications to improve students' chances of completing transfer level math and English within their first year. The Academic Senate also has presence on committees integral to these efforts, such as SEAPAC.
2. Implementing Guided Pathways
a. Strategic Scheduling
The Academic Senate has been and continues to be heavily involved in discussions around and promotion of the Guided Pathways model, particularly in terms of strategic scheduling. This past Spring the Academic Senate Leadership Team facilitated discussion around Communities of Interest, and the work of the PRR Committee, in particular the work of Robert White, has been particularly useful in focusing the college on these efforts.
4. Meeting enrollment targets
While not directly involved in scheduling decisions, the Academic Senate, through its participation on committees such as Enrollment Management, Distance Education, College Council, and Planning and Budget, is deeply involved in broader discussions involving what our targets should be and what approaches we may wish to pursue. Through the Curriculum Committee, of course, the Academic Senate plays a front-line role in ensuring that new courses and even course modifications serve to increase enrollment, or at least not decrease it.
5. Meeting student achievement goals
As with enrollment targets, the Academic Senate is not directly involved in efforts at achieving student achievement goals. But the work of such committees Distance Education, Student Learning Outcomes Committee, Guided Pathways Steering Committee, PRR Committee, SEAPAC, the Curriculum Committee, and many others is deeply focused on such efforts, and the Academic Senate has a voice, sometimes a significant one, in all of these.
6. Fostering a Culture of Inclusiveness
Through its revised committee appointment processes, the Academic Senate ensures that appointments to campus committees are made in such a way that diverse voices and perspectives are represented. The Senate has also worked closely with President Yaqub in the ongoing development of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion position the college will be pursuing.
7. Improving Processes
a. Data and Reporting
Through its participation is committees such as Planning and Budget, Enrollment Management, SEAPAC, and PRR, the Academic Senate is involved in many if not most discussions about what data gets looked at, how it is interpretted, and how and to whom it is reported.
b. Internal Communications
The Academic Senate, through the Senate President, Curriculum Chair, and the SLO Coordinator, is the primary voice to the faculty regarding academic and professional matters. We also play a role in supporting other communications, such as a recent email by the bookstore to all faculty regarding shipping options for students.
The Academic Senate does not engage in a Program Review.
- Deploy a robust database tool for tracking the activities and membership of campus-wide committees; make information on committees easily accessible to all faculty and staff.
- Establish a mentoring program for new faculty.
- Provide identification badges for faculty and staff.
Strategy 1 - Campus Committees Database
Database tool for tracking the activities and membership of campus-wide committees, and that will facilitate making information on committees easily accessible to all faculty and staff.
In Fall 2018, the Office of Planning, Research, and Organizational Development spearheaded work on a Campus Committees Database. While promising progress was made initially by using Colleague for this purpose, complications encountered in early Spring 2019 have put the work in jeopardy. An alterntive tool may be required for the database.
California Ed Code requires the local Board of Trustees to establish procedures to ensure participatory governance, and clarifies that participating effectively in district and college governance is shared involvement in the decision-making process. Ed Code further calls on the Board to shall establish standards and procedures to ensure faculty, staff and students the right to participate effectively in district and college governance.
The effectiveness of the college's participatory governance processes is notably limited by the inability of constituency groups to reliably track committee activities and membership. Negative effects include: miscommunications and mistrust; delays in making and implementing decisions; under-utilized knowledge and untapped diversity in thinking; and disconnection by too many members of the larger campus community.
Strategy 2 - Faculty and Staff Badges
Identification badges for faculty and staff.
The Academic Senate first requested faculty and staff identification badges nearly ten years ago. The primary reason was, and still remains, campus safety and the ability for faculty and staff to identify themselves to authorities and students during a crisis situation. Since that time, the need has twice emerged out of Great Teachers discussions. The Associated Students has also brought this issue forward to the Academic Senate, expressing support for identifications but also expressing concern and frustration over utilizing their equipment and time to provide badges. In Spring 2018, the Associated Students Board renewed its support with a unanimous vote. The Academic Senate has approached the Classified Senate, and they too have expressed support for faculty and staff identification badges.
Strategy 3 - Increase Senate Exec Reassign Time
Increase total Academic Senate Executive Committee reassign time, currently 120%, by an additional 10%.
The distribution of Academic Senate Executive Committee reassign time is: 60% President; 40% Vice President; 10% Treasurer; 10% secretary. We are requesting an increase of 10% specifically to support the efforts of our Treasurer and Secretary. The current allocation of 10% to these two positions is problematic. If split between Fall and Spring, each benefits little, if any, from a mere 5% reassigned time (which equates to 1/2 of one class for a typical 3-unit lecture class). Using the full 10% in either Fall or Spring facilitates participation in Senate-related work and activities in one semester, but not the other. An increase of 10%, bringing the total Executive Committee reassign time to 130%, would allow both the Treasurer and the Secretary to rely on 10% reassign time for both Fall and Spring.
Over the past few years, with an increasing number of campus committees, increasing demand for Executive Committee participation in campus planning, and enormous state and federal changes that require leadership from the Senate, the Senate Exec has been stretched very thin. Delegation of assignments seems reasonable, but with a mere 5% per semester of reassign time allotted to the Treasurer and Secretary, there are serious limits to expectations that can be placed on these two Exec members. Further, the lack of meaningful reassign time for both Fall and Spring has made it difficult to recruit new members to the Exec team.
Strategy 4 - Increase Senate Travel Funds
Augment the Academic Senate budget by $3000 to cover the increased cost of travel.
Members of the Academic Senate Executive Committee, as well as other faculty leaders such as the Curriculum Chair, SLO Coordinator, and Guided Pathways Coordinator, attend various institutes, plenary sessions, and regional workshops throughout the year. These include the Curriculum Institute in July, ASCCC Fall and Spring Area meetings and Plenary sessions, a Leadership Institute in June, and various workshops on such topics as Diversity in Hiring, Disaggregation of Student Learning Outcomes, and Guided Pathways. Participation in statewide events is critical for learning about new initiatives and for bringing that information back to Butte College in support of our local efforts. It is also an important means for providing input from local Senates to state-level entities involved in policy development and implemenation.
The cost to attend these activities has increased noticeably in the past year. As an example, registration for the ASCCC 2019 Spring Plenary is $80 more per person. And, while we typically try to be good stewards of our resources by sharing hotel rooms, this year only rooms with a single bed are availabe at the ASCCC group rate.
These requests do not require an augmentation to the Academic Senate budget, but do require resources (personnel and financial) of other campus units that have expressed support for our Goals and Strategies:
We are currently receiving some additional funding with the addition of Brandy Thomas to the Execuitive Committee. This was not necessarily a planned increase however, and only happened because Student Services is allowing her to use some of her hours for Senate. Whether the fubnding for this is ultimately coming from Instruction we do not know, but we know it has not come from the Senate Exec reassign time as of yet, and we appreciate that.
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | Academic Senate, Instruction | Personnel | 11-000-400-1-603000 | 51200 | $0.00 | $100,000.00 |
| Increase Senate Exec Reassign Time | The distribution of Academic Senate Executive Committee reassign time is: 60% President; 40% Vice President; 10% Treasurer; 10% secretary. We are requesting an increase of 10% specifically to support the efforts of our Treasurer and Secretary. The current allocation of 10% to these two positions is problematic. If split between Fall and Spring, each benefits little, if any, from a mere 5% reassigned time (which equates to 1/2 of one class for a typical 3-unit lecture class). Using the full 10% in either Fall or Spring facilitates participation in Senate-related work and activities in one semester, but not the other. An increase of 10%, bringing the total Executive Committee reassign time to 130%, would allow both the Treasurer and the Secretary to rely on 10% reassign time for both Fall and Spring. Over the past few years, with an increasing number of campus committees, increasing demand for Executive Committee participation in campus planning, and enormous state and federal changes that require leadership from the Senate, the Senate Exec has been stretched very thin. Delegation of assignments seems reasonable, but with a mere 5% per semester of reassign time allotted to the Treasurer and Secretary, there are serious limits to expectations that can be placed on these two Exec members. Further, the lack of meaningful reassign time for both Fall and Spring has made it difficult to recruit new members to the Exec team. |
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| 2 | Academic Senate, Instruction | Operating Expenses | 11-000-400-1-603000 | 55200 | $0.00 | $3,000.00 |
| Increase Senate Travel Funds | Members of the Academic Senate Executive Committee, as well as other faculty leaders such as the Curriculum Chair, SLO Coordinator, and Guided Pathways Coordinator, attend various institutes, plenary sessions, and regional workshops throughout the year. These include the Curriculum Institute in July, ASCCC Fall and Spring Area meetings and Plenary sessions, a Leadership Institute in June, and various workshops on such topics as Diversity in Hiring, Disaggregation of Student Learning Outcomes, and Guided Pathways. Participation in statewide events is critical for learning about statewide initiatives and for bringing that information back to Butte College in support of our local efforts. It is also an important means for providing input from local Senates to state-level entities involved in policy development and implemenation. The cost to attend these activities has increased noticeably in the past year. As an example, registration for the ASCCC 2019 Spring Plenary is $80 more per person. While we typically try to stretch our dollar by sharing hotel rooms, this year only rooms with a single bed are availabe at the ASCCC group rate. |
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