November 13, 2023

I. Call to Order

---

Welcome

---

Approval of Agenda and Minutes from November 6, 2023

Mary Donahue moved, LK Sengupta seconded to approve both minutes and agenda. No objection.

Agenda and minutes approved by unanimous consent.

---

Public Comment

Kim Palmore emphasized that she was commenting on the procedure, not commenting on the hiring committee nor the remaining candidate for the API position. She expressed concerns about the procedure at this point and how it may get into the gray area of establishing a past practice of putting just one candidate forward.

Chris Dileonardo shared feedback from a faculty member in his division. She teaches online and notices certain functionality missing on Canvas. She was concerned about choices being made by the Online Education team without consultation with the Academic Senate.

Erik Woodbury shared that some people have inquired about the VPI candidate open forum. They have canceled the forum for the withdrawn candidate. He encouraged everyone to attend the forum for the remaining candidate.

---

II. Consent Calendar

---

Approval of Consent Calendar

Mesa Counselor Hiring Committee, FT, Non-Tenure (File)

• Khoa Nguyen, Counselor, Transfer
• Jesus Ruelas, Counselor, Outreach/Men of Color
• Noemi Teppang Counselor, International Student Programs
• Yvete Campbell,  PSME
• Amy Leonard, EO Rep

Alex Swanner moved, Jayanti Roy seconded to approve. No objections. Committee approved.

---

III. Needs and Confirmation

---

District and College Needs (Attachment)

Same needs from the previous meetings with the addition of the ask for specific experiences with the bookstore.

• Bookstore Experiences-Many bookstore issues came out in Public Comments two weeks ago. There was an update and ask in last week’s agenda for specific experiences, stories, and examples to present to the administration and the bookstore. Details on the problems and challenges will enable the Senate to address those issues. Send them to Senate officers by Thursday, November 17.
• Hiring Committee Associate Vice President of Instruction
• Campus Center Advisory Committee- (1)
• J1 Training and Implementation Committee
• RAPP Executive Secretary (1)

---

Confirmations

None

---

IV. New & Continuing Business

---

ASCCC Fall Plenary Resolutions

Senate members reviewed the resolution packet prior to the meeting. They brought forth some resolutions for discussion, comments, and made recommendations to Erik Woodbury, De Anza Senate delegate to the ASCCC. 

13.02 Revival of the California Virtual Campus-Online Education Initiative (CVC-OEI) Proctoring Network for Online Classes

The De Anza Senate previously had a heated discussion that raised specific concerns regarding proctoring software. 

If this option is revived, there is particular concern about how the 3rd Resolve may affect online enrollment if a class has in-person testing requirements.

“That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges urge the California Virtual Campus-Online Education Initiative (CVC-OEI) to reconsider its stance on not listing courses with in-person testing requirements”

There was also concern over the second Resolve where it

“encourage all community colleges in California to participate in the revived California Virtual Campus-Online Education Initiative (CVC-OEI) proctoring network”

While this may not meet the FHDA district needs, the tendency was to support it and provide resources for other colleges.

Yes for 14.01Attendance and Grading 

“provide recommendations and share effective practices on allowed uses of attendance in grading processes and reports out to the field at the Spring 2024 Plenary”

15.02 Support the AB 1111: Common Course Numbering Task Force Recommended Implementation Plan as of October 2, 2023

There was discussion on AB1111 and its impact and how it will be phased in over the next few years. The Curriculum Committee will be addressing this on the campus and departmental levels. The committee is evaluating the magnitude of the project and how best to streamline the process and comply with the law. There was some debate over how many courses need to be aligned. They plan to start work this year and complete the implementation by 2027.

20.02 F23 Provide Student Access to Free Open Educational Course Resources

“Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges urge local academic senates to work with their administrations to develop a procedure to publish URLs to free open educational resources in the course schedule” 

Shagun Kaur pointed out that this resolution has direct impacts on one of the issues raised about the bookstore on open educational resources . 

Mark Landefeld suggested that the Senate should reach out and establish a dialogue with Assemblyman Marc Berman, the author of AB1111, also AB 928

---

Senator Communication with Divisions

How do senators communicate with their divisions?

No listserv exists for individual divisions. Each division administrative assistant compiles and updates their email list. Senators should get the email lists from their division assistant or have the assistant sent the messages for them.

---

Measure G Update

Erik Woodbury shared the Board Presentation on the De Anza Measure G Mega Project. He went over the current budget for projects #504 and #202, the cost estimate assumption, the task force recommendation, and the estimated timeline.

Erik pointed out in the timeline the potential delays for starting the new Arts Building and Student Services until fall 2031. The delays are due to the constraint by the proposed County Medical Services Building on campus.

Erik was discouraged over the additional costs due to the delays. The project is estimated to be $1,718,000,000 over budget. The escalation of 20% through 2030s was included due to assumption that medical center construction will come first.

Questions and Discussion.

Was there any discussion about not doing the medical center?

Also its impact on Measure G projects, the flea market, and the solar panels over the parking lot.

There was a lot of discussion at the Board. Some of it was contentious.

The District has submitted a non-binding letter of interest to the county. They have identified the northwest corner as the best site. This plan will need to go through planning and approval. 

Why prioritize the medical center over the De Anza building project?

What was presented and quoted at the Board, “they are further along in their planning process… they're gonna be ready to go faster.”

Can the Medical Center wait? Are they under any funding constraint? What is their timing?

The Measure G bond is not going to get any bigger. The longer we wait, it effectively gets smaller

Measure G Task Force

The Measure G Task Force expressed confusion, disappointment and anger over the current budget and allocation.

The Task Force worked hard over the summer on their recommendation (slide 3). Now, they were told that the money allocated for the Event Center is up for grabs by both campuses and district needs.

The Task Force decided against the Event Center because it did not serve the pedagogical needs of the students. Creative Arts has plans to use the performance space as a high flex area for multiple purposes, not just as classroom spaces, but also community gallery spaces. They were assured that the money saved would go toward other De Anza projects and facility needs. 

The Board discussion and the Chancellor’s focus appeared to be on infrastructure needs and concerns. Tina Lockwood was at the last Board meeting and offered a tour of the Creative Arts facilities and its immediate needs.

Board Minutes

There were questions, concerns, and discussion regarding the Board minutes. No board meeting minutes have been posted since January 2023. There are links to the videos. People will have to go through the recordings to figure out what was said and when.

In all the board announcements, they mentioned where to find the agenda and minutes. But the minutes are not there. 

Someone suggested a request to the Board to have their minutes posted more promptly. There was a question and discussion on whether the Board has been in violation of the Brown Act for not posting their minutes since January 2023.

There were additional comments on what may be recorded from open and close sessions of meetings, particularly regarding personnel matters.

Someone speculated about this may be an intentional omission that is a carryover from the previous chancellor.

Measure G, the Next Steps

The Board presentation was informational. The Board directed people to share the information with their constituencies to figure out the next steps.

The current discussion will be over the allocation of the $145 million in the proposed budget. One argument states that: this was a district project but when the performing arts center ceased to be an option, those funds all reverted to the district to be redistributed.

The Task Force was really incredibly disheartened because they are back to where they were 4 months ago. They worked in good faith over the summer to come up with the solution. She encouraged people to get the word out, get engaged, and show up for the Measure G meetings. 

There has been a lot of back and forth over whether this was a district or De Anza project for over a year. Someone recalled in a board meeting last year that Chancellor Judy Miner clearly declared that this was a De Anza project.

Mark Landefeld gave a reminder on the Measure G commitment to affordable student and faculty housing for $200 million passed by the voters. He wanted to maintain visibility on the housing project due to some implied footprint issues. The site identified for the medical center at the corner of Stelling and Stevens Creek could also be a prime site for housing. As mentioned earlier, postponing will increase the costs.

---

Training and Support for RSI/Online Teaching

Erik Woodbury summarized the suggestions and discussions from the last meeting into a shared document Developing a model . 

He shared and went over the document titled, Online Teaching Support and Training:Regular and Substantive Interaction, Accessibility, Online Pedagogy, and More. 

People were encouraged to view the document and contribute inputs.

Mary Donahue shared the following from FA 

In regards to AP 4105 and the RSI (Regular Substantive Interaction) documentation, whatever comes forward from the Senate, “FA will need to negotiate: 

• compensation (either $ or PGA units) for required training 
• frequency on this requirement (one and done or every 3 years or something else?) 
• timeline to complete the training 
• consequence if training is not complete 
• any exceptions to the training requirement 

While the two campuses don't have to agree 100% on the training, the requirements should be similar and the result of the list above will need to be district wide.

There were some discussions on the consequences for not taking or not completing the training. Since that will be in the FA negotiation, the Senate will not need to finalize the verbiage.

In the Foothill Senate there has been expressed concerns over the length of the initial training and the ongoing cohort based support.

The goals and objective of the De Anza model is not just RSI compliance, but support effective online teaching and provide accessibility to a variety of students.

Detections for RSI and accessibility compliance.

Students complaining about no interaction or materials not accessible. Course evaluations. Accreditation visits that include evaluations and observations of a variety of different college environments.

RSI could impact transfers. Transfer institutions may look at the syllabi to determine the level of RSI. Minimal interaction is an instructor initiating interaction or communication, not just responding to an email.

DASG is doing a student survey on preferences on class modalities . The survey also asked students what they look for in online teaching and support. The result will be useful for this work. 

There was a suggestion for training and orientation for online students.

To teach online, faculty need to know the tools, the pedagogy for online teaching, and the best practices.

Many people shared their experiences and challenges with online teaching and how they learned and adjusted. “Be open minded. Learn with the students.”

Questions to consider for the next meeting.

What should the training module look like?

How long should it be? How often?

What ongoing development and support?

What to include? What type of content? 

What type of mode? 

People are welcome to comment on the document or work with Erik outside of meeting times on it.

---

Updating the Campus Model Syllabus  and Role of the COR (Course of Record)

There was interest at the beginning of the year in updating the Model Syllabus and connecting it to the Course Outline of Record.

The Model Course Syllabus is a tool from the Academic Senate on what is considered best practices.

The link to the Model Course Syllabus is located on the left column of the Academic Senate Home Page. It goes to a Canvas shell.

The content lists the basic sections for the course syllabus in the recommended order of appearance on a syllabus. Users may click on each item to learn about ideas for content in each section.

Although some of the sections are outdated, it still provides a good reference for anyone, especially new or adjunct faculty, to put together their syllabus.

Erik Woodbury thanked Mary Donahue listed below as a contributor to some of the contents.

There was some discussion on standard verbiage for Code of Conduct, Disruptive Behavior, Plagiarism, Academic Integrity. Michele Lebleu Burns should be consulted on editing and updating these sections.

What is the purpose and the value of a behavior policy? 

A behavior policy is something the faculty could fall back on if something goes awry. It should be very explicit. Be positive and don’t take negative viewpoints. A good policy will benefit the classroom.

A course syllabus is the contract between the faculty and their students. Academic freedom applies to the syllabus. The Model Syllabus is a suggested guide, not a list of requirements. There may be required elements at the department level, such as safety rules for lab classes.

This is an opportunity to look at the syllabus language with an equity lens, create spaces for dialogue, set guidelines for faculty and students.

There is a richness of voices amongst the Senate members. Apply that richness to update and improve this tool. Each person should identify one or two items that could use some editing or improvement.

Erik will create a shared document for people to input suggestions.

---

Good of the Order

Mary Donahue: Winter Safety Precaution.

“We are coming up on winter storms. As I teach in the earthquake preparedness portion of the HTLH 57A Red Cross first aid certification class: Always make it a habit to drive with at least a half tank of gas. When the power is off after an earthquake and often during howling winter rain/windstorms, gas stations can’t pump gas. 

And students tell me that some of them had not even realized that and some had simply run out of gas when they ignored the gas gauge.

See:  fastest, easiest, cheapest earthquake preparedness projects https://marydonahue.org/fastest-easiest-cheapest-earthquake-preparedness-projects

James Tallent: Auto tech collected and delivered 6000 food donations to the Food pantry

Patty Guitron reminded everyone to attend the VPI candidate open forum tomorrow at 2:30 pm

Mary Donahue: Fall leaves for floral bouquets; pressed them for Thanksgiving decorations or care packages.

---

Adjournment

Shagun Kaur motioned, Ravjeet Singh seconded, to adjourn, no objection.

---

Attendance

In person

Erik Woodbury, Patty Guitron, So Kam Lee

Christopher DiLeonardo, Mary Donahue, Kevin Glapion, Lauren Gordon, Elsa Jimenez-Samayoa, Shagun Kaur, Sherwin Mendoza, Anna Nguyen, *Thomas Ray,  Christian Rodriguez, Jayanti Roy, Lakshmikanta "LK" Sengupta, Rachel Silveria, Ravjeet Singh, James Tallent, Alex Swanner, Jyothsna Viswanadha, Felisa Vilaubi, Glynn Wallis

Online

Mirsaeid Abolghasemi, *Deborah Armstrong, Dawnis Guevara, Mark Landefeld, *Lydia Wong

Absent

Sheldon Fields, Mary Pape, Liliana Rivera