January 30, 2023

Attendance

Minutes

I. Call to Order

Approval of Agenda and Minutes from January 23, 2023

Alicia Mullens moved, Ravjeet Singh seconded to approve both minutes and agenda. No objection.  Agenda and minutes approved by unanimous consent

Public Comment

• Erik Woodbury on beahalf of the Curriculum Committee: Online Education Hybrid Request Forms for Spring quarter are due this Friday, February 3.
• Ravjeet Singh: Shout out to Nazy Galoyan for updating the registration website with Winter and Spring schedule.
• Tabia Lee: Check in on colleagues, classified professionals and students as we navigate through the traumatic experiences of excessive violences and police brutality in current times.
• Alicia Mullens gave an update on the name change process being proposed for approval and implementation by the True Name Committee. She is not comfortable with the proposed process. It is a convoluted process that involves two different pass-throughs with HR. There is a lot of bureaucracy, therefore, some name change requests could be held up indefinitely. The committee will be meeting on Friday. Dawn Lee described her personal experience with the name change process as long and difficult. She is still living with a name that has not been properly changed.
• Dawn Lee: Welcome to James Capurso, the new Online Faculty Coordinator .
• Shagun Kaur requested that the next Academic Senate newsletter and/or campus Quick News should highlight psych services available for students.  De Anza support groups listed on Events Calendar:   https://www.deanza.edu/events/ Mental health resources to assist students beyond De Anza's Psych Services: https://www.deanza.edu/psychologicalservices/resources.html

II. Needs and Confirmations

College committees - needs

• Noncredit rep (1) for the Curriculum Committee

III. Old Business

Resolution in support of the Creative Arts Division (second read)

The Resolution does not oppose the building of the Event Center or a Services for Students Building. The Academic Senate strongly opposes anything that makes Creative Arts homeless or unable to fully provide for their curriculum and instructional needs as well as other services for their students.  Alicia Mullens fully supported the resolution.  Creative Arts are a huge part of why life is beautiful, we need to support the arts.  Alicia Mullens moved to approve the resolution with acclamation. Mary Pape seconded.

There was discussion on the Event Center. The Board of Trustees has decided to move forward with the Event Center. It is happening because the Measure G campaigned on it and made a promise to the voters. However, Measure G also campaigned on Affordable Housing, and that is not happening.

DASG does need a new home. They are meeting in the basement of the Campus Center that is prone to flooding and other challenges. The resolution does not oppose to DASG having a new home, but the building in the proposed plan will displace Creative Arts. The Academic Senate is most concerned about how it will affect the effectiveness and the ability of the Creative Arts faculty and staff to do their job.

FA passed their own resolution on Measure G.  There will be a meeting between senior staff and the Creative Arts division on Friday. 

The motion on the floor is to pass the resolution with acclamation, meaning very excitedly and unanimously.  Ayes and claps. No objections. The resolution passed with acclamation

FHDA mission statement (second read)

There were discussions and suggested changes (in red on the linked document) to the proposed statement. Some changes were based on discussions and comments from the last week and this week’s meeting. The current mission statement with the word “California.”  The community extends beyond California; there are many international and out-of-state students, especially online. Mary Pape mentioned midwestern schools interested in recruiting California community college students to join their programs.

Dawn Lee and several others raised concerns over the statewide trend that is being proposed under AB928. The proposal will eliminate what's referred to as "lifelong learning", such as personal development and programs like Kinesiology, from general education (GE) requirements. The emphasis on getting students to transfer really leaves out other pieces of community college education, like the lifelong learners people who are just interested in doing self development. There are a high number of people who attend DeAnza whose goals are not to transfer. AB928 is still in the proposal stage, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) has passed a resolution urging CSUs and UCs to keep lifelong learning as one of the priorities for upper division GE requirements.  Cheryl Jaeger Balm pointed that the De Anza tagline is “Tops in Transfer... and more,” which also prioritizes students with a goal of transfer over others, who seem like an afterthought.

Mary Pape moved to vote to approve the suggested changes, Jayanti Roy seconded. No objections. Motion approved by unanimous consent.

Brown Act changes coming March 1

The Brown Act requires open, transparent, public meetings for all government bodies. This also applies to the FHDA Board of Trustees, and other school boards. At De Anza, the Academic Senate, Curriculum Committe, and DASG (De Anza Student Government) are beholden to the Brown Act. 

For the Academic Senate in particular, Brown Act requirements include that our agendas must be posted 72 hours before each meeting, the agenda must include the meeting location and be open to the public, and the meeting must allow public comments.  If a voting member attends via teleconference, they must include their meeting location in the agenda, post the agenda at their location, and allow the public to join the meeting at their location.

During the pandemic, Governor Gavin Newsom issued a state of emergency order that allowed such meetings to be held virtually without adhering to the Brown Act requirements. After that, the State passed AB361 that allows public bodies to continue to meet online during a state of emergency if they meet certain requirements.  The Academic Senate has been invoking AB361 every 30 days because meeting in person would pose imminent health or safety risks to some or all of its members.

The California state of emergency will end at the end February, after whihc time AB361 no longer applies. The Academic Senate must resume its meetings under the Brown Act.  Starting March 1, if a voting member plans to attend a meeting remotely, it is their responsibility to alert the Academic Senate President no later than 10 am on the Friday before the meeting to add their address on the agenda.  By law, voting members will not be able to attend remotely as a voting member and count toward quorum, if the address they are attending from is not posted 72 hours before the meeting, Friday 2:30 pm. Voting members attending remotely must post address to vote.

There was discussion on AB2449 that allows remote attendance three times, under certain stated emergency conditions, without posting their location. Further research will be needed to assess the practicality of invoking AB2449. Whenever anyone within the body has exhausted the three remote meetings allowed under AB2449, the entire body will revert back to the Brown Act.

Tabia Lee clarified that AB2449 allows for three consecutive meetings, or 20% of the total meetings of a legislative body in the calendar year. She also noted that, under the Brown Act, when the voting members post their location, it has to be accessible to the public, meaning that a member of the public must be able to come and sit with the member and make a public comment.

Mary Donahue noted that the address of the college is posted in the agenda. She asked if voting members may attend remotely anywhere on campus without disclosing their exact location. The disclosed campus meeting location would be MLC255. The officers believe this is so, but will look into it further.

Cheryl Jaeger Balm shared the result of the survey on how voting members will attend starting March 1. 10 will attend in person or within district all the time, 6 will attend in person or within district half of the time. That will an average of 13 per meeting. There are a few members that have not responded to the survey.  Currently, there are 31 executive senate members. A meeting will need 16 within district boundaries to make quorum.  Those attending remotely must be within district boundary to count toward quorum, those meeting from outside district do not count toward quorum. Cheryl Jaeger Balm encouraged voting members, especially those with two members from a division/area to work out their schedule to ensure the meetings reach quorum.

The Academic Senate will continue to meet in HyFlex to allow the public to attend remotely.

Mary Donahue noted that, by law, the Academic Senate cannot meet nor vote on anything if we don’t get quorum. Need to have a plan before March 1.

IV. New Business

Follett bookstore update

Update was given by Brett Hastings from Follett.  Textbook adoptions for Spring Quarter are due on February 13th.  He encouraged early adoption. They need lead time, like 30 to 45 days to put together an art kit and for special pricing from publishers.  Adopting early also will save students money. The extra lead time allows the bookstore to buy back textbooks from students, to set up rentals and to acquire the best pricing for used books. Students save the most money on rentals.  If you have questions about adoptions or need assistance, contact Naomi Fredgant (Course Material Manager):  2259txt@follett.com.

Felisa Vilaubi had a question about financial aid, student book voucher accounts, and the contact person to help students in these situations.  Brett Hastings said the account information is a physical import to a spreadsheet from the financial database. He tries to update it on a daily basis. It is empty when there is nothing in the account from financial aid. They will need to reach out to the financial office, Lisa Mandy or Sandra.

There was a long discussion on OER (Open Educational Resources).  Shagun Kaur said 80% of the books adopted by the Communications Students department are OER. Their challenge has been that when they indicate a course uses an OER textbook, students don't always see that nor is it clearly posted in a place where students can see that. Despite repeated attempts, they have been unable to replace that generic statement on the bookstore interface with an actual link to the OER textbook or get clarity on how much it would cost the student out of pocket for a print version of an OER book, if they chose to go that way. How can they make that information completely transparent, and be linked on the course schedule?  Brett Hastings said that is a limitation in their system. There are two choices: OER or no textbook required. If you choose OER, nothing else could be added. He realized the need to get information to the students. Brett will meet with Shagun to work out the verbiage and find a way to list specific links to OER materials on the Follett site. 

List of De Anza courses using OER:  https://www.deanza.edu/bookstore/oer.html.  This website is maintained by someone at De Anza, not by Follett.

Email Brett with questions: b.hastings@follett.com. 

Cheryl Jaeger Balm will work on instructions for instructors.

Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) liaison positions

• ASCCC Liaison webpage
• Slides from the liaisons breakout session at the ASCCC Fall 2022 plenary

The De Anza Academic Senate is looking for anyone with a special interest in any of the areas below to subscribe to the corresponding listserv and serve as liaison to keep De Anza's Academic Senate informed.  These listservs are available through ASCCC:  https://www.asccc.org/liaisons

The liaison position areas are: CTE (career and technical education), Guided Pathways, IDEAA (inclusion, diversity, equity, anti-racism and accessibility), Legislative, Noncredit, OER (open educational resources), Part-Time Faculty, and Rising Scholars.

IV. Other Items

Virtual Posters

Carmen Lizardi-Folley, Ceilia Hui, Jayanti Roy, and Lauren Gordon shared their posters.

Adjournment

Dawn Lee motioned, Ravjeet Singh seconded, to adjourn, no objection.