THE SENATE STANDARD – ISSUE 2.25
ACC Full-Time Faculty Senate Website
ACC Coronavirus page
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
Hope you all had a great Spring Break to catch your breath, unwind, and de-stress a bit. A packed Standard this week, so I want to draw your attention to some important and timely issues and opportunities.
2022 Senator Elections: The second and final round of nominations is open until March 26th. See the Current Action Items below for more details. Also, check your email inbox for the detailed information and instructions you should have received on March 12th.
Under New Action Items below, find information and deadlines for a great professional development opportunity and a request for your input on the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). The Equity in Teaching Institute is scheduled for May 6th and 7th, online. Provost Charles Cook has agreed to pay with ACC funds the registration fees for up to ten (10) full-time faculty members to attend this virtual conference. See below to learn how you can get involved.
Web Conferencing Summit Update: The Full-Time Faculty Senate representatives discussed next steps and decided not to endorse TLED/IT’s recommendations, pending completion of the process we laid out when proposing the Summit. At this point, we’ve held the Summit, shared the URL for the Summit recording, called a meeting to update the web conferencing features table, and held a discussion among the senators to get a “sense” of the senate. Remaining tasks include getting answers to the questions we could not get to during the QA so the Senate can deliberate with as much information as possible. Stay tuned.
Have a great week!
Wayne
Senate Meetings / Minutes / Agendas
3/12/21 Senate Meeting – The minutes are currently in review. They will be shared once approved.
The next Full-Time Faculty Senate meeting is Friday, April 9th from noon to 1:30PM. Please send agenda items to me at [email protected]
Newsworthy
Course Modality Survey Results – Here are the results of the course modality preference survey for current students, applicants, and faculty. You’ll find highlights on slide 2 and the side-by-side comparison for the three target populations on slide 5. Course-specific findings start on slide 15.
Explore Law Program Opportunities for Students: We are currently recruiting ACC students for the summer Explore Law program that is a joint effort of the University of Texas, Huston-Tillotson, and ACC. ACC students participated in this program in 2019 and 2020, and they uniformly praise the opportunity. For an overview, please look at this website. We are fortunate this year to have Dr. Eileen Bumphus assisting us with the recruitment of interested students. Dr. Bumphus has offered to have information sessions or to work with students one-on-one as they consider and apply for this opportunity. Students are paid a stipend for the four-week intensive program, and they can also do some follow-up engagement work in the Fall and Spring semester after the summer program (e.g., mentoring from law students, possible internships, etc.).
The beauty of this program is partly the multi-institutional focus, but also the “non-traditional” recruitment. We don’t just want students majoring in Government or Criminal Justice to consider applying – we would love to see students applying from a variety of majors to see what it might be like to go to law school. Please encourage students to consider this opportunity, and ask them to contact Dr. Bumphus if they have questions.
The ACC Communications and Marketing Team has developed a “Safety & Emergency Communications” webpage for additional ACC details during the ongoing fallout from the winter weather event. The page is now live and includes student, employee, and resource information.
Faculty and Staff Mental Health Resources: Stress, anxiety, social isolation, and financial pressures are all on the rise due to COVID-19 and the current pandemic we are facing. This may have an impact on your mental and physical health. ACC HR & the Employee Wellness Program has put together some webinars and additional resources to help you during this challenging time. Find lists of rich mental health resources on the Employee Wellness homepage. For questions, please reach out to ACC Employee Wellness Coordinator, Mauri Winters at [email protected].
2021 Eco Conference [March 29-30, 2021] – This year’s Texas Regional Alliance for Campus Sustainability (TRACS) conference will be VIRTUAL (surprise!) and free to all students and employees. This year, we are featuring UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Earth Week [April 19-23] – It is that time of year again! This year we are celebrating the 51st Anniversary of “Earth Day,” VIRTUALLY! We have put together a list of potential SAFE activities to get ideas flowing. Click Here to Host your own event.
New Action Items [please check due dates below!]
Call for participation in the QEP topic selection process [deadline – April 23] – ACC is in the process of selecting a topic for our QEP (Quality Enhancement Plan). This is a five year project that will be an important part of our SACSCOC (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges) reaffirmation. It will ensure that we maintain our accreditation, and affirms ACC’s commitment to enhance overall institutional quality and effectiveness by focusing on an issue the College considers important to improving student learning outcomes and/or student success.
Right now, there are TWO WAYS you can get involved with this project. Choose one or both of the options below.
1) Complete this brief survey. The survey will take you no more than FIVE minutes to complete, and will help us get a sense of what type of project would benefit our students and college community.
2) Submit a QEP Topic Idea. Submitting a topic idea requires a bit more time and will give you the opportunity to submit a suggestion that will be reviewed by our topic selection committee. If you have a specific idea that you want to be considered as our QEP topic, this is the option for you!
You can learn more about the QEP, why it matters, and the work of the Topic Selection Committee at the ACC QEP webpage. The deadline to offer suggestions is Friday, April 23, 2021, but the work of the QEP will be ongoing. Feel free to check in on our work by visiting the webpage often.
Center Equity in Teaching and Learning [deadline – April 23] – Colleges and universities have a growing need to center equity-minded approaches in teaching in learning to facilitate the academic success of all students. To support institutions in this imperative work, ATD is offering an immersive, two-day virtual learning event (May 6th and 7th). Provost Charles Cook has authorized ACC to pay the registration fees for ten (10) full-time faculty members!
The ATD Equity in Teaching & Learning Institute is designed for two-year and four-year institutions and will engage participants in:
- Learning from national experts on inclusive and culturally responsive pedagogy, and other evidence-based practices that build equity
- Planning for equity-minded professional learning to support educators across campus
- Facilitated conversations and peer learning focused on centering equity in teaching and learning
- Applying newly learned strategies to their own institutional and individual practices
If you would like to participate, please complete the Full-Time Faculty Volunteer form on the Full-Time Faculty Senate homepage. Wayne Butler will compile the list of those interested in participating and share it with Provost Cook so his admin team can process a group registration.
Current Action Items (These are reminders for things I’ve already sent out):
2021-2022 Full-Time Faculty Senate Nominations [Due March 26th by 5PM]: The nomination process for our next president-elect for the 21-22 senate is in process now. All Full-Time Faculty should have received the nomination email by now, but just in case you haven’t seen it yet, you will find the following links helpful:
- Current President-Elect and incoming President Dr. Samantha Croft has created a video offering details about her goals for the 21-22 Senate and why you should consider running. We highly recommend you take a look.
- Nominations for Faculty Senate Seat
- Nominations for President-Elect Seat
- For questions about the nomination process or forms, contact Nominations Committee Chair Professor Jennifer Brimberry at [email protected]
Best,
Wayne