November 18, 2024

I. Call to Order

Welcome

Erik Woodbury reminded representatives to fill out their report out.

Approval of Agenda and Minutes from November 4th, 2024

Veronica Acevedo moved, Jayanti Roy seconded to approve both minutes and agenda. No objection. Agenda and minutes approved by unanimous consent.

Public Comment 

Veronica Acevedo raised concerns for the vulnerability of certain student populations. She asked how the Academic Senate can support the most vulnerable communities, in particular the trans queer and the undocumented communities. She was especially concerned about the funding situation for the Pride Center and HEFAS that service those students.

Cynthia Kaufman requested that the Senate to agendize this topic for future meetings.

Cynthia Kaufman: the district gets $1 million funding for undocumented students but almost none of it comes directly to our undocumented students. The funding formula is $1,200 per undocumented student. De Anza  probably has a thousand undocumented students on this campus. She described this as a time of crisis not just for undocumented students, but our undocumented faculty and staff as well.

Mary Donahue shared an article from the student newspaper La Voz on a project to remodel the Stevens Creek Corridor. This is a major transportation project that includes wider sidewalks, protected bike lanes, possibly a bus only lane, etc. The Stevens Creek Boulevard Corridor Steering Committee that oversees this project has spent the last two years evaluating the future of Stevens Creek roadways. Mary suggested that the college should contact that steering committee regarding the construction  schedule on Stevens Creek between the 280/85 and the Stelling intersection to avoid major work during the first five weeks of the quarter. Construction work will cause major disruption for college traffic. Mary suggested that the work on the section of Stevens Creek Blvd between the freeway and the Stelling intersection could best be done during our winter break or in August between summer and fall quarter.

The La Voz opinion piece is at:

https://lavozdeanza.com/opinions/2024/11/07/stevens-creek-boulevard-isnt-good-enough-heres-how-we-can-fix-it/

Link to the Stevens Creek Corridor Steering Committee

https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/mayor-and-city-council/district-1/planning-and-development/stevens-creek-corridor-steering-commitee

Jayanti Roy shared a traumatic incident experienced by a staff member.  Their car was vandalized with hate messages. The campus police were informed and they suspected that it was a random act. The staff member feels very unsafe and targeted. There are no cameras in the parking lots.

Ravjeet Singh had a question about designation for honors classes. They have not received notifications from the honors coordinator to put the sections in banner.

Erik Woodbury: Currently there is no honors coordinator to do that work. The honors coordinator position is open and is included in the College Needs listed below. Some faculty designated and posted their honors sections through their departments.

Megan Brophy asked if Wi-Fi hotspots may be available for faculty to borrow. Some faculty teaching online have Wi-Fi issues. Currently, there are hotspots available for students to check out.  

Faculty needing hotspots should contact the district or James Adams in the library.

Shagun Kaur would like the Senate agendize how adjunct faculty can access campus printers using their own devices.

II. Consent Calendar

Consent Calendar: (Attachment)

COOL Committee 

BCAT Seat, Mohammed Akhoirshida, CIS

Shagun Kaur moved, Ravjeet Singh seconded to approve the consent calendar. No objection. Motion approved.

III. Needs and Confirmation

District and College Needs (Attachment)

RFP Committee for Dining Services

This is a chance for faculty input on vendors for the dining services. The taskforce will review the vendor bids and choose the one.

General Education Review Committee

The charge, membership, and timeline for the GE committee have been discussed and approved in previous meetings. Now, there is the need to fill this committee and start work. There have been very few volunteers, only 2 so far. The work cannot be done by 2 people. If there are not more volunteers, this work will not get done this year. The priority was to get a representative from each area for a diverse representation.

Director, Community and Government Relations/PIO

This is a new district management position. Need one faculty representative to serve on the hiring committee.

Honors Program Coordinator Details

Interested full-time faculty should apply by forwarding a current resume and a brief interest letter to Michelle Hernandez, Dean of Equity and Engagement Division (hernandezmichelle@deanza.edu), ASAP.

COOL Committee

There are many openings that still need volunteers. Mary Pape pointed out that DSPS was not included in the membership. Online accessibility would be important for the disabled. Someone volunteered but there was no seat for them. There was a suggestion about a motion or amendment to add another seat. Since COOL has had its last meeting for the quarter, the Senate can handle this item in the next meeting. The current discussion can be considered the first read.  

Tenure Review At-Large Representatives

There are currently no at-large representatives available in case anyone steps down. This would be important to avoid disruption to the committees.

Report on CCN Common Course Numbering work groups

Erik Woodbury expressed his deep appreciation to those who volunteered for CCN work. 

For phase 2, De Anza submitted 24 nominations with 2 selected (history and astronomy.) 84 colleges submitted nominations. Each college may put in two nominations for each area. The state level coordinating committee selected 12 faculty to serve on each work group. Phase two has 20 courses. 

They put a lot of weight on the faculty surveys. When the work groups are finished, there are post surveys with the proposed templates. Erik has emailed the survey to all of the department chairs and affiliated deans. All faculty in the 4 areas were encouraged to give feedback on the templates. Faculty may submit the survey individually or as a group. The group response should include the total number of faculty involved in the survey

There are 112 semester colleges and 3 quarter colleges, De Anza, Foothill, and Lake Tahoe. Erik brought up some of the CCN issues with quarter vs semester school systems, especially with sequence courses, like languages and STEM. A three quarter sequence cannot use the same common course numbers as a two semester sequence.

Phase 3 will have 50 courses. They will need more people to get involved in the next series of courses. 

Shagun Kaur: It is easy to lose track of email. She suggested an info page or update page on the Curriculum or Senate website.

Erik Woodbury reminded faculty to fill out those surveys and to volunteer for all the needs.

Confirmations

None

IV. New & Continuing Business

Quick Notes:

Comments on Candidates for President. 

Submit comments by 5 pm today. Erik expressed appreciation for those attended in person and online. Those with time conflict may view the interview recordings. 

Soliciting Items for the Senate Newsletter. 

Let the officers know by the end of the week with your interest to contribute an article to the senate newsletter. It could be topics discussed in the Senate or something from your area. The goal is to get the newsletter out by Thanksgiving.

Department Chair Meeting this Friday, 11/22

Department chairs should have received the invitation and agenda for the meeting.

Regional Competition for International Computer Programming Contest Report

De Anza hosted the IPCP regional competition, an all day event on November 16. There were 58 teams in 2 divisions. Division I will move onward to the nationals. Division II are freshmen or sophomores at  four-year schools. De Anza was the only community college in the competition.

Chancellor Lee Lambert opened the competition with his welcome remarks. The competition had about 200 participants with students, coaches, and judges. Each team worked together to solve problems. They were not easy. Balloons went up each time a team solved a problem.Very festive.

Students got to network with people in the computer science community that goes from the regional to the nationals. Their participation can go on their resume for college and job applications.

Thoughts on developing a college and/or district "AI use" policy/guidelines, second read

In the last meeting there was general agreement to coordinate with Foothill on this work.

The conversation continued with the identification of the De Anza lead. Erik Woodbury suggested that COOL as a committee should take the lead and report back to the Senate. There were no other suggestions or objections.

Next, the Senate discussed the topics for the committee to start and focus on. They reviewed the topics suggested by Shagun Kaur in the previous meeting with additional proposals from Cynthia Kaufman.

There were conversations on the differences between AI and generative AI and how people can access these information or results, on a college or district website. It may result in a published college or district procedure or policy. Some people would like an interim best practice guideline.

Cynthia Kaufman moved that De Anza coordinate with Foothill on this work, and have COOL take the lead with the topics listed below. Veronica Acevedo seconded. No objection. Motion approved.

Topics to explore with regards to AI:

1. Model Syllabus Language defining student use of AI
2. Relationship between AI resources and academic integrity standards
3. Availability and accessibility standards for AI tools for students and employees
   1. funding, training, support, etc
   2. generative AI vs. other AI tools (google translate/grammerly)
4. Intersectionality of AI, equity, privacy, and copyright
5. Communication and sharing modes for information regarding AI
   1. newsletter/workshop/canvas shell
   2. Communication to both employees and administrators.
   3. Staff development opportunities
6. Target date for implementing clear standards and policies.
7. Updates to APs and BPs as needed.

Introduction to LibkeyNomad & Libby

James Adams, Librarian and OER Coordinator, gave an Presentation on LibkeyNomad & Libby.

The library has two new services. One is a software and another is a platform. The software is LibKey Nomad. Libby is the new platform that augments their existing ebook offerings. 

LibkeyNomad is a browser extension that works for all browsers. Users can search the offerings in the De Anza databases with links to open source resources across the web. The presentation has slides and video that explains and demonstrates how LibkeyNomad works.

Libby is the platform that one uses to search and check out electronic materials, like ebooks and audiobooks. ​​It's flexible. It's easy to access. It syncs progress and content across all devices, like computer, phone, and kindle. James demonstrated how to search, borrow and put a hold on library materials. People may link their other library accounts to Libby to extend borrowing capacity.

Library acquisition and lending models.

The library acquired licenses for titles that allowed different lending models.  One concurrent/one user OC/OU that allowed for one checkout at a time. The other is metered access MA that sets a specific number of checkouts that could occur at the same time. Faculty could use the MA lending model for class reading assignments.

Faculty were encouraged to work with the library, their division, and department to identify funding to acquire material for their classes. Someone suggested the library and division lottery funds

Report Out from ASCCC Fall Plenary

https://www.asccc.org/resolutions-process

Go to “2024 Fall Plenary Resolutions - Adopted Resolutions 111824” to view the resolution packet with the approved resolutions

Adopted resolutions, page 4;

101.01 F24 Nutrition Science Integration in General Education Curriculum as a Cal-GETC Subject Area 5B Course 

Several adopted resolutions are related to common course numbering CCN.

101.05 F24 Delay Public-Facing Implementation of Common Course Numbering Until Transfer Agreements Are Established 

For the plenary ballots, each college gets one vote and the district gets one vote. If Foothill and De Anza are in agreement, the district votes the same. If Foothill and De Anza disagree in their votes, the district may vote in accordance with their conviction.

Some resolutions were pulled into the consent calendar. Several were approved with acclimation. The delegates do not vote for those.

There were much support and discussion for the passage of this resolution.

113.01 F24 Legislative Advocacy to Restore Student Choice on English and Math Courses

Failed resolution, page 32

There were 3 resolutions that failed.

101.01 F24 Adopt Using Outcomes for the Course Outline of Record in Title 5 

The Senate expressed some concerns for this resolution.

101.04 F24 Automatic California General Education Transfer Curriculum (Cal-GETC) Approval of California Community Colleges (CCC) Ethnic Studies Courses

There were debates and concerns for this resolution at the plenary. The nature of the resolution was too complicated.

105.04 F24 Support the Establishment of Guidance for Course Syllabi

In our Senate discussion, people believed that De Anza did not need ASCCC guidance for course syllabi.

Good of the Order

Mary Donahue lifted up a report out item under Part-Time Faculty.

Listed  under the yellow highlighted heading “Potential upcoming legislation could mean more $$$$ for many of us upon retirement” is an Faculty Association of California Community Colleges ACTION ALERT

Link to Action Alert form: https://www.faccc.org/hr82

Please review all report outs

Adjournment

Cynthia Kaufman motioned, Mary Pape seconded, to adjourn, no objection.

Attendance

In person

Erik Woodbury, So Kam Lee, Mary Pape

Veronica Avila Acevedo, James Adams, Viviana Alcazar, *Sam Bliss, Megan Brophy, Umar Douglas, Mark Hamer, Kevin Glapion, Lauren Gordon, Cynthia Kaufman, Shagun Kaur, Sherwin Mendoza, Lisa Mesh, *Aura Ozturk, Christian Rodriguez, Jayanti Roy, Lakshmikanta "LK" Sengupta, Leah Smith, James Tallent, Lianna Wong, Christina Wright

Online

Mary Donahue, Mark Landefeld, Ravjeet Singh

Absent

*Deborah Armstrong, Dawnis Guevara, Sukhjit Bob Singh

*Non-voting members