THE SENATE STANDARD – ISSUE 45
ACC Full-Time Faculty Senate Website
ACC Coronavirus page
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
This week there is a lot of news! You can review the minutes of our final combined employee association meeting and take a peek at the big items from the most recent Board Meeting. There are important updates to the master syllabus for fall, and you can celebrate the life of our beloved Dr. Hazel Ward by contributing to a scholarship in her name.
Senate Meetings / Minutes / Agendas
Combined Employee Association Officers Meeting with the President and ACC Cabinet – On Friday, July 31, we had our final meeting of the year with the cabinet and leadership teams from the other three employee associations (CEA-Classified Employee Association, APTE-Association of Professional and Technical Employees, and AFA-Adjunct Faculty Association). You may now review the minutes for this meeting.
Newsworthy
Master Syllabus Website – The 2020 fall master syllabus has been updated. Click the link above to access the master syllabus website, where you can find Word and pdf versions of the master syllabus. On this webpage you can also find a revised version of college policies, which include a statement on recording classes, as well as a pandemic version of the college policies handout. Please be sure to update your fall syllabi with information from these templates.
Dr. Hazel Ward Memorial Scholarship – Please review the announcement below from Judy Sanders.
The ACC community was saddened at the death of our former Dean of Communications and colleague, Dr. Hazel Ward. Dr. Ward was a friend, colleague and mentor to many at ACC and her wisdom, insight and generous spirit touched many students, faculty and staff. She made many lives better during the years she was at ACC.
I have been working with Curtiss Stevens, Interim Executive Director of Austin Community College Foundation, to establish a memorial scholarship in Hazel’s name. It will be the Dr. Hazel Ward Memorial Scholarship for African American Students. It will be funded entirely by donations and will allow funds to be given to a worthy student to be used for tuition and books at ACC.
To assist African American students who are pursuing a degree from ACC or planning to transfer to a four-year university, there are many ways to donate to this scholarship.
For more information visit the ACC Foundation website at: https://www.austincc.edu/offices/acc-foundation
I think Hazel would be pleased to know her generosity will continue to assist students at ACC. I hope you will donate to the Dr. Hazel Ward Memorial Scholarship for African American Students.
August 3, 2020 Board Meeting – You can access the recording of this meeting (starting August 6) by finding the correct date on the Board Meetings page (linked above). I’ve highlighted a few key topics below.
President’s Remarks – President Rhodes shared that through the entire Fall 2020 semester, the ACC mantra will be “If it can be done online, it will be.”
Consent Items – This meeting served as the first announcement of the next ACC Board of Trustees General Election. It will take place on November 3, 2020. The Board also approved an extension of our “Green Pass” program for free public transportation on Capital Metro. Due to Covid, we renegotiated our contract to save money by paying on a “per ride” basis. The green passes will work the same for folks who have them.
FY2020 Financial Report on the Summer Semester – Neil Vickers shared that our tuition and fees revenue will be up for summer. Board members asked about fall enrollment, and Neil explained that we are down about 8% right now, but it is still impossible to do a comparison to last year because of our delayed registration this year. He did some research across the state and found that most of the urban Texas community colleges are seeing enrollment decreases of 5-10%, but pointed out that four-year students who are waiting to learn about plans for fall at their institutions may bump our enrollment up as we get closer to the beginning of the semester. He also explained that we will be making tech purchases to help with our transition to online, but that we will be able to use CARES funds to do so without adding money to the IT line item in the already approved budget.
Student Success Reports to the Board – Mary Kohls shared that our Phi Theta Kappa chapter won several recognitions this year, including a 5 star rating, being named a Texas top chapter, and being named an international top 100 chapter. Encourage your students to participate in this great group, which meets every Friday.
Governance – The Board approved a title change for ACC’s Chief Executive Officer. President Rhodes will now be CHANCELLOR Rhodes. This is in keeping with titles at other community colleges that are similar in size to ACC.
Current Action Items (These are reminders for things I’ve already sent out):
Teaching an on-campus class this summer session? Your feedback is requested! [due by end of summer session two] – Samantha Croft is the Senate representative on our “ACC Back to Campus” Committee. She asks that faculty who are currently teaching on ACC campuses provide feedback about how our current plans and processes for returning to campus are working. If you are teaching on campus right now, please send your feedback to [email protected] so she can bring them to the attention of the committee.
Best,
++missi patterson