THE SENATE STANDARD – ISSUE 2.6
ACC Full-Time Faculty Senate Website
ACC Coronavirus page
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
We have a long newsletter for you this week. The agenda for our next meeting is ready, as are the minutes from our last meeting. I report on the Combined Association meeting with the Chancellor and the most recent Board of Trustees meeting. In the Newsworthy section, find information about PD requirements and several interesting PD opportunities. Look at the Action Items sections for a half-dozen opportunities to represent your Full-Time Faculty Senate and our constituents on various committees and by participating in polls to provide crucial feedback on issues important to ACC and you.
Senate Meetings / Minutes / Agendas
10/9/20 Senate Meeting noon –1:30 pm – Our next meeting will be this Friday at noon. You can view the agenda here. Details for how to join this meeting online can be found on the Senate Calendar. You can also add the event to your own calendar by clicking the date and time link above.
9/11/20 Senate Meeting – The minutes are now available. You can view them here.
Newsworthy
Combined Association Meeting with Chancellor’s Cabinet (October 2, 2020). The presidents and leadership teams of the Full-Time Faculty Senate, Adjunct Faculty Association, ATPE, and the Classified Employees Association met with Chancellor Rhodes and members of his cabinet. Highlights include:
- Spring 21 will look much like Fall 20 as far as scheduling and on-campus activities go. Chancellor Rhodes explained we would start reopening “cautiously,” based on the recommendations of the “Return to Work Committee,” which includes FTFS President-Elect Dr. Samantha Croft. The “If it can be online, it will be online” philosophy remains in effect as we monitor COVID. Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs back on campus as needed, and key staff continue to work on campuses. During mid-October, Dr. Shasta Buchanan will be working with Rio Grande and Highland ACCelerators to re-open.
- Upward evaluation is in development within the new ERP system (Ellucian Colleague replacement), with F21 as the expected launch date. Much depends on the ERP installation, configuration, and training processes.
- HR in ERP Training: Dr. Gerry Tucker asked us to share with all faculty and staff that HR members are spending up to half their time getting up to speed on the new system. She asks all to be patient as HR is working as hard and as fast as possible to pioneer the use of the new ERP.
- Climate Survey: The Full-Time Faculty Senate noted some of the areas of improvement on the Climate Survey, such as communications issues among leadership and front line faculty and staff, and asked the Chancellor what we could do to help with the areas of improvement. The Chancellor noted we could all help communicate the college’s goals, particularly his six for this year, with our constituencies. (See Senate Standard 2.3 for his AY21 priorities) We agreed, but noted other college enterprises like TLED and Marketing have full teams in place to communicate with college constituencies while the Associations share one admin and part-time Association volunteers manage newsletters and listservs. We could better help leadership communicate if they could help us with more support for communications coming out of all associations. We are to arrange a meeting soon to discuss how the associations can improve communications capacity.
Board of Trustees Meeting (October 5, 2020)
I thanked the Chancellor and Board of Trustees for the 2% raise as a gesture of good faith and appreciation during the pandemic despite budgetary challenges and emphasized the FTFS’s desire to partner with ACC leadership to explore solutions to myriad challenges, both new and those amplified by the pandemic. I underscored the need for leadership to help us help them communicate better via more communications capacity for all the associations. Chancellor Rhodes reported ACC was awarded a grant to explore micro-credentialing and badging. He shared more details about the collaboration with the Army Futures Command to launch an AFC Software Factory. Unlike many community colleges across the country single and double-digit declines, ACC is at about 99% of last year’s headcount at this time. He invites all to the next Campus Conversation on October 12. Dr. Khayree Williams, Director of the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Center and Larry Davis, Chief Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer offered an update on the Equity Council. See the call for full-time faculty members in the New Action Items below. Workforce AVP Dr. Gretchen Riehl introduced the new Fast Track Careers program, 12 high demand ACC programs, discounted 50%.
Adobe MAX: The Creativity Conference – In 2019 ACC became the first community college to become an Adobe Creative Campus. On October 20-22 Adobe is hosting its annual creativity conference where they announce what’s new in Creative Cloud and share inspiration with their creative community. We are encouraging as many faculty, staff, and students in our community as possible to take part in this upcoming FREE Adobe MAX conference opportunity. Register online at max.adobe.com.
Updated PD Guidelines – Please be sure to review this guideline on Faculty Professional Development hours that was updated last year and effective this FY:
Join the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) and E3 Alliance for a FREE introductory webinar on Leading for Equity, October 16, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. You’ll explore equity perspectives, address the ways unconscious bias is embedded in our educational systems, and take away ideas for action. Get the details at https://e3alliance.org/2020/09/24/leading-for-equity-october-16/ and register at bit.ly/nape1016.
The Communication Studies faculty invites all faculty and staff to this year’s brown bag session: “Climate Change: It’s Not Just About the Weather!” The Comms Week 2020 Brown Bag Workshop is designed to provide an understanding of the climate that is created while communicating in groups and teams and develop skills for improving and managing our ever-changing workplace climate. Register for any one of three sessions on offered on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. A great opportunity to meet up with your co-workers and earn professional development credit at the same time! Click here to register to learn more about and register for any of the sessions.
New Action Items [please check due dates below!]
ACC Equity Council recruiting TWO full-time faculty members. [No deadline stated, assume ASAP] Austin Community College District’s Equity Council collaborates with the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as well as the Campus Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) to fulfill the district’s mission of building capacity to achieve equity in student enrollment, persistence, and completion as well as equity in the hiring and staffing of ACC employees. The Equity Council will work collaboratively with the ACC Employee Associations and serve as an advisory group to the Chancellor and the Chancellor’s Cabinet. Visit https://www.austincc.edu/facstaff/acc-equity-council for the details and the online application form.
Faculty and Staff Webpage [Due October 9th at 5pm]— The Office of Communications & Marketing seeks your support as they redesign the Faculty & Staff page as an information hub to better provide you with the information and news you want and need. They have created a brief survey to understand how you currently use the webpage, how you wish to use the webpage, and the challenges you experience. Please take the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/facstaffweb
Riverbats Bravo Award Committee [need TWO full-time faculty reps— due October 9th @ 5pm] — If interested, please complete the Senate Volunteer Form by October 9th. Since we use this form for all our volunteer opportunities, be sure to designate which opportunity interests you.
Institutional Transformation Assessment Survey [need THREE full-time faculty members — due October 9th @ 5pm] — ACC is participating in a survey instrument called the Institutional Transformation Assessment. The themes of the survey are Guided Pathways, Success Supports, and Operational Capacity. This survey should take about 15-30 minutes. If you are interested representing the full-time faculty in this survey, please submit your name to the Senate Volunteer Form.
Submit your CSAA Nominations [October 16, 2020] The deadline to nominate your graduating students for the Chancellor’s Student Achievement Award (CSAA, formerly known as the PSAA) is just two weeks away! As a reminder, the CSAA is the most prestigious student award given by ACC. The recipient must demonstrate academic excellence, service to the college and community, and commitment to ACC values and vision. Does this sound like one of your students? Submit a nomination to acknowledge their hard work and dedication during their time at ACC.
Current Action Items (These are reminders for things I’ve already sent out):
Student Affairs Fall Registration Review Survey [due October 7 @ 5pm ß LAST REMINDER] – Please send your thoughts and experiences on fall 2020 enrollment by completing this survey.
Best,
Wayne