May 19, 2025

I. Call to Order

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Welcome

Erik Woodbury reminded representatives to complete their report out to let everyone know what is happening in their areas and divisions as we entered week seven and the final part of the quarter.

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Approval of Agenda and Minutes from May 5, 2025.

Bob Singh moved, Mary Pape seconded to approve both minutes and agenda. No objection. Agenda and minutes approved by unanimous consent.

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Public Comment 

Alicia Mullens shared the exciting news that the College Council has voted to make the De Anza Pride Association (DAPA) an official affinity group. They will be selecting their representatives for the various shared governance committees.

The Academic Senate has voted to approve a voting seat for the DAPA in the executive committee

Shagun Kaur reminded faculty to fill out the ZTC form for low cost/no cost course materials for Summer and Fall. 

ASCCC OERI Regional Meeting was held at De Anza last Friday, 5/16.  The meeting was an amazing event which included a LibraText Adapt workshop. Much appreciation for everyone who participated. That was the largest in-person workshop in the last 15 years.

Ravjeet Singh noticed a discrepancy between the bookstore price and the actual price for her summer textbook. When she contacted the bookstore, they said that they have no control over the prices on their website.

Reach out to Martin Varela, the representative to the bookstore. Be sure to cc Sam Bliss and Shagun Kaur on the communications.

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II. Consent Calendar

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Consent Calendar: (Attachment)

Rising Scholars Counselor/Coordinator Hiring Committee

Adrienne Hypolite, Associate Dean, Learning Communities

Erick Aragon, Faculty, Outreach Counselor 

Felisa Vilaubi, Faculty, English Performance Success Counselor 

Claudia Guzman, Classified, Professional Development 

Eric Mendoza, Dean, Physical Education & Athletics 

Veronica Acevedo Avila, EO Rep *approved by HR

Alicia Mullens moved to accept the Consent Calendar. Mary Pape seconded.  No objection. Consent Calendar approved by unanimous consent.

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III. Needs and Confirmation

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District and College Needs (Attachment)

Tenure Review Committee At Large Faculty members

They really need At Large Faculty members for the tenure committees for the new hires. There will be 3 more Senate meetings for the remainder of the year. Their goal was to get the committees formed and approved before the last meeting. Faculty will get PGA credit for serving on the committee. Any at-large members who need training can get trained on opening day.Inform anyone interested to fill out the request to serve form on the Senate website.

DDEAC/HRAC: District Diversity & Equity Advisory and Human Resources Advisory Committee

Still need one faculty representative for the rest of the quarter. There will be 2 more meetings. The last one will be especially important. There will be discussion with the new Vice Chancellor of HR on processes for De Anza and the district. Of particular interest would be equivalency determination for faculty.

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Confirmations

None

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V. New & Continuing Business

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Quick Notes:

VP Updates

New Vice President of Instruction, Ram Subramanian. He was once part of the chemistry department and the tenure chair. Erik Woodbury pointed out that the President, Vice President, and Senate President are all chemists.

New Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services was announced at 12:45 this afternoon. Farhad Sabit.

The college has completed 2 VP searches. There will be one more for the Vice President of Student Services.

Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services Forums

Last week’s Senate meeting was cancelled to enable Senate members to attend the forum on Monday that conflicted with the regular Senate meeting time. Erik Woodbury was disappointed that very few Senate members attended the forum meeting. His expectation as president was that the members of this group would attend the function when a regular meeting is canceled in deference to that college function. Otherwise, he would not have canceled the regular meeting.

There was a clear mismatch between expectation and what happened.

Feedback from the group. It was a good idea. Some people misunderstood and believed it was optional to attend the forum. Therefore, when it happens again, there should be a clear discussion on expectation.

AI Roundtable

The AI Roundtable last Monday was well attended. There were presentations from attendees to the AI conference.The feedback was that people would like more AI discussion opportunities in the future.

Parking Pass Update

The board has not made a decision regarding the parking system so parking is still free. The general discussion implied that they will not go back to issuing parking stickers which are very expensive. They are exploring different options such as a virtual system that can scan and track registered license numbers. That would be more environmentally friendly than producing physical parking passes.

There were concerns for adequate staff parking slots particularly for part-timers who do a lot more shuffling between campuses and have much tighter schedules to make sure that they can run in, park and get to their classes. Currently, there is no way to just monitor the staff parking.

Graduation: Regalia Reminder!! 

June 11th deadline to reserve regalia and register for graduation. They were still waiting to hear from the bookstore on the order link.

There were discussions on how to encourage more faculty to attend graduation from college wide announcements to all-faculty email invites as well as support from department chairs. 

There was further discussion about the time and location for graduation. Someone suggested doing a survey with students and faculty. There is only one weekend between the spring and summer session. 

Department Chair Meeting

Department Chair Meeting this Friday 5/23.

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Campus Climate Survey

Campus Climate Survey - Employees

Campus Climate Survey - Students

Mallory Newell shared the drafts for campus climate surveys. It is a district-wide effort that includes Foothill, De Anza, and Central Services; all employees and all students will be participating in the survey. The survey tools were put together by the Research and Planning Group for the California Community Colleges. De Anza was a pilot for the development of the student survey two years ago. That participation resulted in a discount for the district.

The survey will go out on 5/27. The senior leadership team has reviewed and given their feedback on the draft. There was still time for Senate representatives to review, share with their constituents, and send feedback to Mallory.

The surveys are long and thorough. There are branching questions that vary in accordance with people’s experience at the college.

The survey will be released on 5/27 and will be open for 2 weeks.  They have not done a climate survey in over a decade, so this will be their first opportunity to fully engage with this content.

At the district level, they will be hiring some people to analyze the results. At De Anza they may have a small group to look at the results and then share it out more broadly with faculty to develop some initiatives around it. This information from students and employees will help inform our new president as he engages the process of strategic planning and visioning for the college.

There will be incentives for students to participate like a raffle for gift cards.

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FA Updates to PGA/PAA structure

Feedback/discussion from group or constituencies

It was good that  everything was broken into categories with specific examples

This will be a new paradigm to keep track of people’s services and committee work more easily. There should be equal opportunity and equal access for everyone to participate and get credit on committees. It should be equitable so that no one person will be sitting on a whole bunch of committees.

This also revitalized the 3-year evaluation cycle that apparently is already codified in the current contract. But beyond contract, a regular instructor evaluation is required by Title V. Also, faculty are required to revise their curriculum every few years. 

That should be a mechanism to facilitate dialogue for improvement, processes, and goals with your administrator on a regular basis.

There was concern over the evaluation evolving into a disciplinary process in the write-up. 

If that should happen, the FA has the structure to facilitate conversations and support faculty from the union perspective to get the most positive outcome. They have seen evaluations done poorly or improperly. They would like to see more robust protections and more accountability. 

Instead of disciplinary action there should be a professional development process that can help the person being evaluated to get back on track. Consult your conciliator with questions. 

For adjunct faculty, this should be a tool to help them evolve in their teaching. It's not to critique, or judge, or malign in any way, shape, or form. It's supposed to be an instructive and helpful guide.

Shagun Kaur pointed out the value and importance of the tenure review process as a built-in check-gate to ensure that somebody's treated fairly. That was also the reason why she and Sal Breiter started the mentoring system. However, people were not stepping up to serve in the tenure process with more faculty oversight.

There were some discussions and clarification on the new point system. To earn 12 points minimum in 3 years. Some people mentioned challenges for smaller departments. Full time faculty must earn some points every year with some points from columns A and B. That will be part of the 3-year review cycle with a yearly check-in with the dean.

The 3-year evaluation will be done by a dean, designee, or a dean administrator

There were some items that still need clarification and further discussion.

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Updates to PT faculty eligibility to serve on Senate, RAPP, and Hiring committees with Increased Pay

The Part-Time Working Group has been discussing with President Torres about options for additional support/stipend for PT representatives serving on shared governance committees. Earlier this year, the Senate voted to increase the stipend for the 3 part-time representatives from $300 to $750 a quarter. Now, in partnership with the president's office they proposed to increase that amount to $1,000 a quarter for the 2 elected at-large Senate representatives and the 1 designated RAPP part-time seat. The proposal also included a $1000 stipend for part-time representatives serving on administrative hiring committees for dean or higher level. There will be a total of 5 such stipends in any given quarter. With the 3 ongoing shared governance representatives, that allows part-time compensation for up to 2 hiring committees in a quarter.

They also proposed to limit any single part-timer to serve in no more than one of these roles per quarter. The goal was to increase the number of participating faculty and compensate them for their time. They wanted to ensure broad engagement and to make sure the process of soliciting volunteers is transparent and equitable. 

For example, a part-time Senate rep cannot also serve on RAPP, or on a hiring committee in the same quarter.

Someone suggested adding an exception if no one volunteered to serve.

There was a concern about not having enough volunteers and the need to increase part time faculty involvement. Reach out to recruit part timers in your division

A MOU Memorandum of Understanding was being drafted by the president and FA.  

They will bring this back in 2 weeks.

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Proposal for Senate Dues Increase (cont.)

This topic has been discussed over several meeting 

Motion

Ishmael Tarikh moved to increase the Academic Senate dues to a minimum of $15 per month beginning the Fall Quarter of 2025, and that the By-laws be amended to reflect said increase.

Alicia Mullens seconded

Discussion 

Some people liked a tiered system with part-time paying less. The tiered system is complicated and will require reauthorization from current due paying members to opt back in. They may lose members.

Dues have not been raised in 20 years; it was reasonable to increase it

Membership drive in the last two years has not increased the number of participants. They were offset by retirees. 

Senate spending and income has been flat. They will need to increase revenue to support the additional part-time stipends, faculty projects, and senate sponsored programs. Bob Singh volunteered to spearhead a marketing campaign to increase membership and Senate funds.

Vote

Yes, 24, Abstain 2. Motion passed.

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Academic Senate Funding Guidelines and Request Process  DRAFT Funding Request Guidelines for Academic Senate

Note that it will be important to communicate that the proposed increase in Senate dues will help provide more funding opportunities the support requests. The Senate is charging more and doing more for faculty and the college community.

Alicia Mullens moved to approve the Academic Senate Funding Guidelines and Request Process. Veronica Acevedo

Amendment 

Shagun Kaur proposed to be less rigid and be flexible on the timeline for the remainder of the year; Veronica Acevedo seconded.

Vote on Amendment

Yes 21 No 2

Vote on Amended Motion

Yes 26,  Abstain 1. Motion passed.

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Good of the Order

Shout-outs to everyone who worked on getting part-time instructors compensated for participation in Senate, RAPP and Hiring Committee 

Shout-outs to Ishmael Tarik, Political Science instructor, for leading project

Shout-out to La Voz student attending AS meeting

Shout-out in recognition of the classified professional week.

Mary Donahue, advisor to the De Anza Outdoor Club was a volunteer with the Park Service in Yosemite for 10+ years:

If you want to visit Yosemite National Park this summer, and do not have a hotel or campsite or . . . reservation, you may need to get a reservation to be able to enter or drive through the park. All the details are at:  https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/reservations.htm

And see some webpages Mary made for students on Yosemite trips:

https://marydonahue.org/parking-and-traffic-jams-in-yosemite-valley-tips-and-tricks

https://marydonahue.org/yosemite-valley-restaurants-coffee-bars-cafeterias-food-service-and-groceries

https://marydonahue.org/yosemite-valley-lodge-rooms-views-building-layouts-reservations-tips-with-maps

https://marydonahue.org/ahwahnee-hotel-map

https://marydonahue.org/yosemite-valley-tent-cabins-tips-and-tricks

https://marydonahue.org/yosemite-valley-free-shuttle-bus

https://marydonahue.org/swimming-in-yosemite-national-park

especially for photographers:

https://marydonahue.org/places-to-take-photos-of-half-dome-in-yosemite-national-park-with-maps

https://marydonahue.org/places-to-take-photos-of-bridalveil-fall-in-yosemite-national-park

https://marydonahue.org/places-to-take-photos-of-el-capitan-in-yosemite-national-park-includes-maps

https://marydonahue.org/places-to-take-photos-of-yosemite-falls-in-yosemite-national-park-with-maps

https://marydonahue.org/places-to-take-photos-of-staircase-falls-in-yosemite-national-park

Please review all report outs

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Adjournment

Shagun Kaur motioned, Jayanti Roy seconded, to adjourn, no objection.

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Attendance

In person

Erik Woodbury, Patty Guitron, So Kam Lee

Veronica Avila Acevedo, Viviana Alcazar, *Sam Bliss, James Capurso, Barbara Dahlke, Mark Hamer, Kevin Glapion, Lauren Gordon, Julie Hughes, Rusty Johnson, Shagun Kaur, Sherwin Mendoza, Lisa Mesh, Alicia Mullens, Mary Pape, *Victor Pham, Christian Rodriguez, Jayanti Roy, Jesus Ruelas, Lakshmikanta "LK" Sengupta, Sukhjit Bob Singh, Ishmael Tarikh

Online

Mary Donahue, Shagun Kaur,  Mark Landefeld, Ravjeet Singh, Lianna Wong

Absent

*Deborah Armstrong, Leah Smith

*Non-voting members