THE SENATE STANDARD – ISSUE 2.28
ACC Full-Time Faculty Senate Website
ACC Coronavirus page
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
Another Standard chock full of opportunities to learn and to earn. Professional development opportunities! Volunteer opportunities! Surveys to take! Apply to become an onboarding facilitator and get paid!
Have you voted yet? Not yet? Vote today for the candidate you want to represent your campus and your dean area in the ’21-’22 Full-Time Faculty Senate at the link below.
Note two important deadlines to get free registration to two great virtual conferences, NISOD and Achieving the Dream’s Equity in Teaching and Learning Institute.
By the way, to keep the Standard a “digest,” we attempt to shorten submissions and retire those events that have expired. Looking for something you read about last time but can’t find now? Remember, all the Standards are archived on the Faculty Senate website. See above for the link.
Have a great week.
Wayne
Senate Meetings / Minutes / Agendas
3/12/21 Senate Meeting – The minutes have been approved. You can view them here.
The next Full-Time Faculty Senate meeting is Friday, May 14th from noon to 1:30PM. Send agenda suggestions to [email protected]
Vote!
’21-’22 Senator and President-Elect Ballot
The election period at 5PM on Friday, April 23rd.
You will be able to vote for President-Elect, a candidate from your campus, a candidate from your instructional dean area, and up to 8 at-large candidates. The ballot built in SurveyMonkey will branch you to the candidates you are eligible to vote for by asking you to identify your campus and your instructional dean.
Please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LFWMXWF to cast your votes!
Newsworthy
The Teaching & Learning Excellence Division (TLED) just released its latest executive report. Every other month TLED shares what they’re working on “behind the scenes.” Want to be in the know? Subscribe to receive these updates via email.
Pandemic & Disaster Relief Webinar [April 16th at 2 p.m.]: Join ACC’s Social Support Resource Development (SSRD) and Office of Compliance for a new webinar series to explore College and Community Resources. Each month, participants will hear directly from speakers who facilitate essential support resources for individuals and families across the ACC District and surrounding communities. The series will be livestreamed. Earn professional development credits and get more details at CCRS: College & Community Resource Series
April Student Affairs Forum [April 16th]: The next Student Affairs Forum will be held Friday, April 16th, from 1:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. virtually. Please register for the forum ahead of time through the professional development event registration page. Please email [email protected] with anything needing to be shared on the Advising listserv. Please take the time to complete the March forum evaluation.
Employee Check-In Survey Coming Soon [+/- April 19th]
How engaged and satisfied are you with your employment at ACC? We want your feedback! An employee climate “check-in” survey is coming up soon. Please keep an eye out for an email invitation. You should receive it around April 19th. Typically, the college administers the full employee climate survey every two years. The results of the Spring 2020 survey helped inform the Chancellor’s Priority #6 which calls for building “a supportive culture of collaboration, connection, and caring (3 Cs) in a manner that improves internal communications and transparency and increases employee and student satisfaction with college operations.”
Let’s Talk about Trans Awareness [April 19th, Noon-1PM] is a virtual safe space to discuss Trans topics in a way that is constructive, honest, and all-inclusive. Our student panel will lead the discussion to speak on personal experiences, while audience members will be able to listen, ask questions, and share their own experiences. This is a place to learn and support one another as we bring awareness to Trans issues in our community. Co-hosted by Student Life, LGBT eQuity, and Out Youth.
NISOD’s International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence (Virtual) , April 28th-30th, 2021 [Registration Deadline April 20, 2021] Teaching & Learning Excellence Division (TLED) has obtained institutional access for Austin Community College, which means it is FREE to attend for all ACC faculty and staff! Visit the conference webpage for more details and registration information.
Open Forum on Faculty Evaluation [Friday, April 23 from 1:00 – 3:00 pm.] This open forum is an opportunity for faculty to hear updates from the Shared Governance Faculty Development and Evaluation Committee, and the TLED Faculty Development and Evaluation Office. You will be able to ask questions, share feedback, and provide insight on the current evolution of faculty evaluation for all faculty groups. You will also learn about the next steps in making the faculty evaluation process more equitable, more meaningful, and more relevant to faculty, department chairs, and students. Register for the event on ACC’s Workshop and Event Registration page.
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.
Faculty and Staff Mental Health Resources (Stress Awareness Month): Did you know that April is Stress Awareness Month? It is important now as much as ever to keep your wellness in the forefront, and the ACC HR- Employee Wellness Program has a TON of new workshops coming up that will be addressing Stress, Anxiety, Burnout and other concepts around improving our Mental Health. We have 8 NEW, LIVE webinars in April alone dedicated to helping employees manage stress and anxiety! Check out this flyer for a glance at what we’ve got coming up this month. Full details and descriptions can be viewed HERE. We hope you will take advantage of these opportunities to invest in your mental well-being. If you have any questions, reach out to Mauri Winters at [email protected].
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.
You’re Invited to Submit Congratulations Videos for ACC Commencement! [April 23rd]: ACCTV is creating a pre-show for the Virtual Commencement Ceremony ACC is hosting for our Spring 2021 Graduates. A call for “congratulations” videos is open now through Friday, April 23rd. Video messages were one of the big highlights of the last graduation pre-show, so we are reaching out to all instructional departments to continue this new “tradition” of creating video messages to congratulate our graduates. You can record your own video or work with me to record it! We’re especially hoping to see videos from various departments/disciplines. Visit the TLED blog for all the details!
ACC Student Rights & Responsibilities Conference [Friday, April 30, 2021]: I wanted to reach out and share with you the upcoming conference Student Affairs is hosting focused on student rights and responsibilities. The goal is to provide the ACC community the opportunity to deepen the understanding of topics related to student rights and responsibilities (SR&R) and broaden network connections among ACC staff, faculty, and students. Register HERE!
New Action Items:
Paid Opp: Faculty Onboarding Facilitator: [deadline – April 26] –Serve as a faculty facilitator for TLED’s Faculty Talent Onboarding Program! The program includes orientation and monthly onboarding sessions in Fall 2021 and Spring 2022. The onboarding sessions will occur twice a month, on Friday mornings and on Tuesday evenings in the Fall, and Wednesday evenings in the Spring. This role includes facilitating day-of sessions and participation in planning meetings. Learn more about this program on TLED’s website. Apply now to facilitate TLED’s Faculty Talent Onboarding Program!
ePortfolio Survey ePortfolios are a unique tool that increases integration of the course concepts you teach into their lives and other discipline coursework, thereby making their educational experience richer and long-lasting. Furthermore, ePortfolios allow students to showcase their work to potential employers in a way that conveys their skills and intellectual competencies. That being said, we would like to know the types of projects and activities taught in your classes that could be uploaded or described in an ePortfolio. Please visit https://forms.gle/TFJ9oXTcFuCZ8SD29 to answer three survey items.
Current Action Items (These are reminders for things I’ve already sent out):
Invitation for Input – Roundtable Discussions on “3 Cs” Tools & Resources [ASAP]: We hope you’ve heard about the College’s 3 Cs initiative, one of Chancellor Rhodes’ top priorities. It aims to improve ACC’s climate by asking all employees to focus on COLLABORATION, CONNECTION, and CARING in their work with students, colleagues, and supervisors. A cross-functional subcommittee working on this priority is developing 3 Cs tools & resources for ACC employees. Your input would be very valuable in this effort. Our goal is to get feedback from you about how to make ACC an even better place to work and learn. You are cordially invited to participate in a one-hour roundtable discussion with other members of the ACC family. We are excited to work with you and hope you’ll join us in this leadership effort. This opportunity will be limited to the first 50 employees who respond, so grab your spot now. If you have any questions, please email Missi Patterson ([email protected]). Thanks so much for considering this!
ATD Equity in Teaching & Learning Institute [Event May 6th and 7th; ACC registration deadline – NEW: April 15th] – 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! 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.
Participate 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.
- 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.
- 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!
2021-2022 Faculty Learning Communities [Deadline April 30th] – ACC International Programs in collaboration with the University of Texas-Austin Hemispheres Consortium hosts two global education Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) on global education and global gender and women’s studies each year through a unique partnership. These programs engage a small interdisciplinary group of ACC faculty members in high-quality programming and collaborative discussions on globalizing community college courses. Find more information below on each FLC.
Best,
Wayne