Notes - January 29th, 2007

The De Anza Academic Senate
Approved Notes for the meeting of
January 29th , 2007

Senators and Officers present: Bambhania, Capitolo, Chenoweth, Coleman, Dolen, Gallegos, Goodwin, Hearn, Jensen-Sullivan, Joplin, Kessler, Kramer, Lathers, Lizardi-Folley, Lee-Klawender, Maynard, Miller, Osborne, Otake, Schaffer, Setziol, Winters, and Zill
Senators and Officers absent: Cole, Cordero, Glapion, Hertler, and Raffaelli,
DASB: Yvonne Luo
Classified Senate: Olivia Patlan
Administrative Liaison:
Guests: Brian Murphy, Judy Miner, Paul Calgher, Cinzia Muzzi, Jeanine Hawk, Rich Schroeder, Susan Bruch, Lisa Markus, Hassan Bourgoub, Cindy Castillo, and David Gray
[NOTE: Item numbers are reflective of agenda numbers in the order they
are actually taken up at the meeting.]
The meeting was called to order at 2:32 a quorum being present.
I. Approval of Agenda and Notes: The agenda was approved as distributed.  The notes of January 22nd were approved with minor corrections and language added regarding the return to the Chemistry Department for reconsideration of  a list of faculty proposed for a Search committee.
II.  Needs and Confirmations:
Sal Breiter, and Mae Lee were  confirmed for service on the Library Advisory Subcommittee, Dolen having been previously confirmed.
Scott Hefner and Wayne Chenoweth were confirmed for service on the Catalyst Features Committee.
Mayra Cruz  was confirmed for service on the Director, Child Development Center Search and Selection Committee.
Janet Takahashi and Benita Rashall  were confirmed for service on the Educational Diagnostic Center Executive Head Search and Selection Committee.
Cinzia Muzzi was eliminated from consideration for service on the Chemistry Faculty Search and Selection Committee owing to her non tenured status.  The rest of the proposed committee was returned to the department for reconsideration because of its size and make up.
Barbara Fink, Mo Geraghty, Reg Hamer, Barbara Illowsky, and Jefferson Shirley were confirmed for service on the Mathematics Faculty Search and Selection Committee.
Mayra Cruz, Juanita Cordero, Christina Lopez-Morgan, Buchanan, and Terry Ellis were confirmed for service on the Child Development and Education Faculty Search and Selection Committee.
Mike Bull, Cynthia Kaufman, Roger Mack, Sal Breiter, and Dave Stringer were confirmed for service on the Economics Faculty Search and Selection Committee.
Scott Heffner, Purba Fernandez, Greg Druehl, Nicky Gonzalez Yuen, and Elizabeth Mjelde were confirmed for service on the Political Science Faculty Search and Selection Committee.
A proposed committee for Psychology was returned to the department for reconsideration because a majority of the faculty proposed were from a department other than the department of the position and in the hope of a more diverse committee.
III.  Bookstore Refund Policy:  The bookstore and the college administration is proposing to change the policy to something greatly resembling the Foothill College policy because of significant losses (said to be $75,000 per quarter) from the return of textbooks on the final return day of each term.  Current policy allows students to return books without penalties (some additional conditions apply) until the end of the second week of classes.  What is proposed is to change that to the third day with exceptions noted on the proposed revision.  It was immediately discovered that no one knew whether the reference was to the third day of each individual class section or the third day of the quarter.  President Murphy (who announced the dollar loss involved) emphasized the need to address the issue, meaning that some kind of change in policy was called for but acknowledged that changes like a thoughtful inclusion of a provision for waitlisted students were appropriate.  The possibility of a leasing program and a reminder that the Senate could encourage faculty to put texts on reserve in the library.  Soliciting comment from Foothill faculty and students was said to be a logical next step.
IV.   Academic Senate Budget:  The item was held over although a document was distributed.  Senators were asked to bring it with them to the February 5th meeting.
V.  At Large Part Time Faculty Representative: Hearn announced that, given the withdrawal of Beth Bresnan, an opening exists.  She will put out an electronic mail invitation to the standing list of recipients and a separate one to division assistants asking for their assistance in contacting all eligible part time faculty. Part time faculty currently representing divisions on the Executive Committee were reminded that they were eligible as well.
VI. Tenure Review Committees:  The issue before the group was whether or not to change to a committee structure with an at large member starting in the first phase and continuing through the second phase instead of just being in the second phase.  Originally and quite successfully, the at large member was in all phases.  Over time it became more and more difficult to get faculty to commit to a four year stint as an at large member.  Although some possible flexibility in assigned duties (such as not doing an in class evaluation in phase one) was mentioned, the overriding question was whether or not enough volunteers could be found if there was any expansion in duties.  Senators were asked to initiate an investigation in their divisions.
VII. Course Materials Policy: Documents were distributed.  Hearn began by pointing out that a new draft coming from District administration contains changes moving the document in the direction of the De Anza Senate position.  Hearn asked for and received suggestions for specific language changes in this latest draft policy which was then approved as modified.  She will report on the responses she receives during meetings this week at the February 5th meeting.
VIII.   Good of the Order: Anu Khanna announced an extension of the deadline for proposing new or changed certificates to February 7th and distributed a memo to that effect.  She also mentioned the form for certificates has gone from four pages to a page and a half [applause] and that help was available through February 6th.
-    Cindy Castillo distributed an announcement and encouraged faculty to join the annual scholarship application reading festival held by her office.
-    Anu Khanna has just recently been awarded a Ph.D.
-    A flyer announcing an appearance by activist and writer Tim Wise was distributed.
-    Setziol distributed a short introduction of a proposal for the Senate to review bond measure activities.
-    The status of Instructional Testing will be reported at the February 5th Senate meeting.
-    Hearn officially welcomed new Senators Anna Miller and Moto Otake.
-    Over 100 people attended the Teaching and Learning Conference co hosted by the Senate and the Office of Instruction.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30

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