THE SENATE STANDARD – ISSUE 2.18
ACC Full-Time Faculty Senate Website
ACC Coronavirus page
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
We’ve launched Spring ’21! I trust upon your return to duty your mailbox was full of notices and invitations from various ACC entities. With this edition of the Senate Standard, we’re sharing them all with you in a digested format. You’ll find a number of professional development opportunities you can knock off early in the semester. We will hold our first Full-Time Faculty Senate meeting of the semester this Friday, 1/22/21, from noon until 1:30PM. Below find the Google Calendar invitation. Find there the link to the WebEx session and the agenda. Within the senate, we’ve had several conversations about the defunct Upward Evaluation process. Want to get involved in crafting the next version? See the call for Full-Time Faculty volunteers under “Current Action Items” below.
Here’s a great spring 2021!
Wayne
Senate Meetings / Minutes / Agendas
1/22/21 Senate Meeting, noon – 1:30 pm –This Friday will be our first senate meeting of the year. You can add the event (and online joining details) to your own calendar by clicking on the 1/22/21 Senate Meeting link above.
Newsworthy
Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Week 2021: Social Justice and Collaborative Change the Time is Now, is ACC’s first-ever TRHT Week for the inaugural Center – Faculty have been invited to attend the following session with World-Renowned speaker, educator, and justice advocate Jane Elliot during TRHT Week:
Moving Beyond Implicit Bias in the Classroom to Foster a Welcoming Environment on January 20, 2:00-3:00pm.
TRHT Week features events January 18-22. See a full list here.
Campus Conversation on Equity Training – ACC’s Human Resources, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and Communications & Marketing offices have collaborated to create blended equity, cultural proficiency, diversity, inclusion, and 3Cs training. This conversation will explore what employees can expect of the college’s equity training and professional development opportunities. The conversation will take place on January 21st.
Student Affairs Hosts “Overview of Student Rights and Responsibilities – 2021”[January 22nd through May 7th]: ACC is committed to high academic standards and integrity, therefore, cultivating a respectful and safe learning environment free of disruptions is crucial. Faculty have primary responsibility for ensuring the learning environment is both appropriate and conducive to open discourse. Attend our upcoming workshops for an overview of these processes and guidelines. View the Faculty Guide and register for any one of the 9 sessions between January 22 and May 7th.
Sabbatical Leave [Monday, February 1st] – Sabbatical leave may be granted for the purpose of personal and/or professional improvement, which will, in turn, benefit the College, through activities such as formal and informal study, acquisition of new skills, or keeping abreast of new technologies, research, and community service.
Staffing table employees who have worked full-time for ACC for at least six (6) consecutive years are eligible to apply. Sabbatical applications are reviewed by a committee of faculty, professional-technical staff, classified staff, and administrators. The College Chancellor has final approval of sabbaticals for staffing table employees.
The deadline to apply for fiscal year (FY) 2022 is Monday, February 1st, 2021.
Learn more at https://tled.austincc.edu/faculty-support/fellowships-and-funding/sabbatical/
Video Conference Platform Summit Date Set [Friday, February 5th, 1-3P]: We have received confirmation from leadership and various stakeholders to host a virtual summit to discuss what video conferencing tools, i.e., Collaborate, Meet, WebEx, and Zoom, the college will support going forward. Representatives from TLED, IT, Student Services, the Adjunct Faculty Association and the Full-Time Faculty Senate will host the virtual summit meeting from 1-3P on Friday, February 5th. Preliminary plans call for presentations with QA from IT, TLED, Student Services, and the faculty groups to share their positions to address how many and which video conference platforms, as well as the degree to which they can be integrated into Blackboard, as we continue to teach virtually for the remainder of the pandemic, and perhaps beyond. Keep your eyes open for updates and details as they emerge.
Board of Trustees January Meeting Recap – Updates on Chancellor’s Priorities 1 and 6; and new Regional Advisory Committee members selected. You can read the full recap here.
Teaching & Leadership Excellence Awards – See the full list of 2021 winners here!
2020-25 Academic Master Plan – ACC’s 2020-25 AMP will guide the college’s collective academic vision, administrative supports, and strategic plans for the future. The plan contains “big ideas” and innovative suggestions on how we build upon current initiatives to achieve even greater success for our students over the next five years. Click here to read more.
Districtwide Campus Master Plan – The DCMP serves as the roadmap for growth of our campuses and facilities. Its purpose is to help identify where instructional programs and services should be located and identify the potential uses of vacant spaces and sites to ensure ACC serves its regions equitably. Click here to read more.
Enterprise Resource Planning – To modernize ACC for greater efficiency and functionality, the college is replacing Colleague, a 20-year-old legacy system, with a new payroll and financial management solution for higher education. The new system, Workday, will optimize operating efficiencies by improving the user experience, automating processes, and providing coherent, consistent, and relevant data to support the college’s short- and long-term goals. Click here to read more.
Quality Enhancement Plan – The QEP is a required part of ACC’s reaffirmation process to ensure that ACC remains accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools Commission on Colleges. It is a five-year plan designed to “improve/enhance student learning and/or student success” and must demonstrate that ACC is committed to maintaining the highest standards of “institutional quality and effectiveness.” Click here to read more.
New Action Items [please check due dates below!]
Building Religious Literacy Faculty Interest Group [Due Jan. 27th] – This faculty interest group (FIG) is part of the new religious literacy initiative that will focus on Islam in the Spring of 2021. Apply here by January 27th.
Current Action Items (These are reminders for things I’ve already sent out):
Upward Evaluation Focus Group Volunteers [Due Friday, January 22]: HR’s Staff Professional Development and Evaluation office is looking at the possibility of bringing back the upward evaluation of managers here at ACC. As part of the charge, we are looking to partner with the Associations to better understand some of the needs and pain points they see from their point of view. We need 3 FT faculty volunteers to be a part of a faculty focus group conversation (3 FT faculty/3 Adjunct) sometime between February 8-12. If interested, please complete the volunteer form.
Best,
Wayne