THE SENATE STANDARD – ISSUE 16
ACC Full-Time Faculty Senate Website
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
I want to thank all of you who submitted wishes or words of wisdom for me to share with our graduating students. I got so many that I was unfortunately, unable to include them all, but I am excited to bring at least some of your voices to the ceremony. I hope you’ll enjoy hearing from our colleagues at this year’s commencement. As I’ve come to expect, ACC Faculty continue to communicate in ways that honor your deep respect for our students.
This will be our last Senate Standard for 2019. I’ll be back in touch when we return in January. I hope your semester wraps up beautifully, and that you all have a wonderful semester break.
Senate Meetings / Minutes / Agendas
12/13/19 Senate Meeting – noon to 2pm HBC 301 – The agenda for this week’s Senate meeting is now available here and on our website.
1/24/20 Senate Meeting – noon to 2pm – HBC 301 – This is the FIRST CALL for agenda items for our January meeting. Please send any issues you’d like added to [email protected] – before January 15.
Newsworthy
ACC Graduation! – Friday, December 13, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. at the Frank Erwin Center on the University of Texas at Austin campus. All Full-Time Faculty are asked to attend. If you’ve never participated before, I highly recommend it. It is a lovely, emotion-filled evening, full of what faculty love best – supporting our students! I hope to see you there.
ASAC Meeting – 12/6/19 – agenda
• Changes to the College Accessibility Committee Membership were approved – The position for a Human Resources representative will be converted to a position for an Adjunct Faculty Association representative. The three positions for full time faculty from specific departments will be converted to two positions for full time faculty (one now selected by AVP Workforce and one by AVP Transfer), and one position for a Full-Time Faculty Senate representative.
• Dual Credit changes – the memo from Dr. Cook will be sent out for comment by the entire college. (See details on this memo below, and be sure to comment when the call comes out if you are so inclined.)
• Proposed Changes to the Curriculum & Programs Committee functions were approved.
• The membership / functions of ASAC will be sent to the Shared Governance Review Council for approval.
• The AR 4.04.021 for ESOL assessment / placement / remediation was approved and will be sent out for comment.
ASC Meeting – 12/4/19 – agenda
• All items related to posting ARs were approved to be posted for comments. They included items on Employment of Personnel, Employee Orientation, Personnel Actions, and Background Checks for Employment.
New Action Items [please check due dates below!]
Survey on Student Advising [due December 16] – Share with your students! Faculty member Blanca Alvarado is working with a group of current ACC students on a Community and Research Project. The students have created a survey and need ACC students to participate. The results of this survey will be shared with faculty and administrators in the new year. If you are so inclined, please share the survey link with your students, and invite them to participate in this 10 minute survey before the deadline above.
Current Action Items (These are reminders for things I’ve already sent out):
LAST CHANCE – Dual Credit changes [due December 12, and 13] – Please take a moment to view the memo entitled “Dual Credit and Student Success”. If you would like your views on this proposal to be shared with either ASAC or the FT Faculty Senate, please use one or all of the options below:
• Email one (or all) of your campus senators (senators are listed on the Senate webpage) – before Dec 12
• Email the faculty senate officers – [email protected] – before Dec 12
• Join us at the FT Faculty Senate meeting and share your perspectives in person (December 13 from noon to 2pm, HBC 301)
Volunteers for the 2020 Institute on High-Impact Practices and Student Success – ACC is putting together a team that will travel to this conference on improving teaching. If you are interested, please submit your name on our travel volunteer form to be considered. Only one nominee can be sent from the Full-Time Faculty Senate.
Faculty Emergency Fund – Please Donate! – The Faculty Emergency Fund is in need of our support. Our Senate Committee, led by Kisha Moragne asks for your help so we can assist our colleagues in need. Take a moment to learn about how you can be a part of this important effort.
LAST CHANCE – New Academic Master Plan Process [December 12, 2019] – You may remember that in the past, ACC developed its Academic Master Plan by having each department submit its own goals and budget requests. That resulted in a nearly 400 page document that was really difficult to review. This year, our Provost, Charles Cook, would like to move toward a more concise and readable version of the Academic Master Plan. One that uses requests from the AoS level, rather than individual departments. He is also interested in focusing on some college-wide goals. A sample master plan that he likes was created by Montgomery Community College. Take a peek, and then weigh in on this new idea. You can submit your comments to [email protected]
LAST CHANCE – Pay as you go details – Help spread the word to students [through January 6, 2020] – A new registration process is in effect for students. Known as “Pay as you go,” this process outlines new deadlines for paying tuition. To ensure that students keep the classes they register for, they all need to know about these deadlines. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with this information. Then, consider announcing it in class, or sending an email to your students with a link to this information.
Best,
++missi patterson