May 1, 2023

Attendance

Minutes

I. Call to Order

Approval of Agenda and Minutes from April 24, 2023

Cheryl Jaeger Balm proposed to extend public comment and shift time for the rest of the agenda accordingly until good of the order. Mary Donahue moved to approve the agenda as amended and approve the minutes. Erik Woodbury seconded. No objection.  Agenda and minutes approved by unanimous consent.

Public Comment 

Erick Aragon, Asian Pacific American Staff Association (APASA) co-chair, alerted the Academic Senate to a Palo Alto Online article published on April 19, 2023.  Members of APASA were shocked, angry and disappointed by statements in the article misrepresenting APASA as racist. The article included an accompanying email obtained by Palo Alto Online through a public records request to De Anza. None of the APASA leaders or members were contacted to contribute to the article.  APASA feels the article violated journalistic ethics for fair and comprehensive account of events and parties mentioned.

Dawn Lee, APASA faculty member, continued with their remarks.  APASA has welcomed and worked with President Holmes since his hire in 2020. APASA, as a highly respected employee affinity group, has a rich 32-year history. She expressed pride in long-standing records of their contributions to the community and to its cultural identity.

Some recent APASA efforts include:

• Welcoming and onboarding support for the President.
• Creating a list of resources for President Holmes.
• Introducing the President to the various Asian American communities at De Anza.
• Ongoing relationship building with the President (i.e., President's participation at APASA Scholarship Awards, the APASA End of Year Celebration, and APASA meetings).
• Continuing collegial work with the President and college through shared governance committees and consultation (i.e., Academic Senate, College Council, and Budget Teams).
• Partnering with the President in his award to APASA of a $10,000 grant to support campus cultural programming efforts. 
• Collaborating with De Anza Latinx Association (DALA) and the Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFSA) on numerous programs and events. 

Mae Lee, APASA faculty member, continued.  She informed the Academic Senate that APASA has sent a response letter to the editor of Palo Alto Online. In the letter they asked Palo Alto Online to apologize for their breach of journalistic ethics. 

APASA letter to Palo Alto Online

APASA Retiree letter to Palo Alto Online expressing their complete disappointment and the frustration with what has happened.

Mae read the value statement of "Integrity" from De Anza's webpage entitled “Vision, Mission, and Values.”

Many members of APASA do not feel included, respected, or safe now.  They asked that the Academic Senate make a formal public affirmation of the college’s values of integrity, asking that unsubstantiated sweeping negative generalizations of APASA or any other employee affinity group not to be welcomed by the college. 

Cheryl Jaeger Balm will agendize this for discussion next week.

II. Needs and Confirmations 

College committee - needs

Vice President of Instruction (VPI) Search Committee - Need three (3) faculty members to serve. The work will start in June and go through fall quarter. Proposed faculty member allocation: 1 seat for part-time, 2 open faculty seats. 

Also, volunteers needed for at large members for tenure committees.

III. Continuing Business

Institutional Self-Evaluation Report (ISER) Standard 1V.A DRAFT (second read)

Mary Donahue moved to accept this draft and pass it to the college planning and accreditation team. Shagun Kaur seconded.  Motion passed unanimously.

Shagun thanked Cheryl Jaeger Balm and Deborah Armstrong for their hard work.

Ideas to help us make quorum in 2023-2024

The Academic Senate failed to make a quorum and did not meet for the last meeting of winter quarter. Open brainstorming on how to get more people serve, involved and participating. How can it be more friendly?

• Meet biweekly?
• Allow proxy attendance and voting?
• Make the meetings completely in person instead of HyFlex?
• Change the day, time and/or duration of meetings?

There is little incentive for people to come into the room, if they could zoom in. Some people log into zoom even when they come into the room in person. Get everyone in the room. Get rid of the HyFlex option. As long as someone is on campus, they should come to the room. 

Incentive for people to come. Pay for part-timers, PGA credit for full-timers. There was a long discussion about asking FA to negotiate for the college to pay for part-timers to serve on committees. PGA is not an incentive for part time faculty. This is a bigger campus issue of involvement. 

What will bring people to campus and to the room? What are the barriers for people to attend in person? How can we make it easier for people to attend within the confines of the Brown Act?

Variation of proxy: Pre-approve individuals. If one cannot go, another can. Have a rotating schedule.  Finalize who can/cannot be a proxy; have several approved reps. A proxy needs historical knowledge to make decisions. 

Find a way to ask those not here, those on zoom, why they can’t make it. What are their barriers or solutions? 

Many senates do not meet every week. Meet fewer times, longer meeting each time. Or shorter meeting times, 1 hour instead of 2 per week. More subcommittees working outside of the meeting.

Quorum is one more than half of the voting membership. Less than quorum, could meet and discuss things? 

We can’t change what we have now, but we need to prepare for the Fall. There was concern about not having continuation; if you cannot attend, find someone that can.

Cheryl Jaeger Balm said we will continue the conversation next week

 Erik Woodbury motioned to change the order of the agenda items to let Mallory Newell report next. Felisa Vilaubi seconded. No objection.

IV. New Business

Faculty Success Reports

Mallory Newell shared and explained the individual Success Rate Report faculty will receive via individual emails shortly. The report is based on data from the Winter quarter classes. The purpose for the report is to provide faculty a tool to close the equity gap. Each faculty member will get their own data for each section they taught in winter. There are some guiding questions in the email to help faculty review and discuss the data. 

There were questions and discussions about aggregating classes and side by side comparisons. Some people asked about training, guides, and instructions for this tool.  Also, comments, suggestions, and feedback on the student groups such as Black American and African American. The Asian category includes many different ethnic groups. Only the Pacific Islander and Filipinx categories are separate.

Dawn Lee and Mallory have been working with a cohort that has been looking at and working on strategies for using this data.

Cheryl Jaeger Balm suggested sending out a survey to see how people are using or not using this tool.

ASCCC Spring Plenary Report

Erik Woodbury gave a report on the ASCCC (Academic Senate for California Community Colleges) Plenary.   He also shared the resolutions adopted at the plenary.

Final adopted resolutions

Erik Woodbury moved to extend time in the meeting for 5 minutes. Mary Donahue seconded. No objections.

Curriculum committee update

Erik Woodbury said course revisions submitted by the Wednesday May 3, 2023, deadline should not be concerned if courses do not get approved right away.  There's a list of courses that need to be reviewed first. The Curriculum Advisory Team is reviewing and approving these revisions at a good pace. They will contact only those with issues. So no news is good news.

IV. Other Items

Adjournment

Ravjeet Singh motioned, Jayanti Roy seconded, to adjourn, no objection.