THE SENATE STANDARD – ISSUE 2.29
ACC Full-Time Faculty Senate Website
ACC Coronavirus page
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
We must be approaching the end of the semester, as deadlines, surveys, and professional development opportunities coming in at a furious pace these days.
Have you voted for your ’21-’22 senators and President-Elect, yet? No? Well, you still have a few more days. The deadline is 5PM this Friday, April 23. Find the details and voting link below!
Have you gotten your first vaccine, yet? No? ACC is hosting a vaccine clinic at HLC 2000 on Friday, April 23. Limited supply, and first come, first serve, via reservation. See below for important information how you can get your first vaccine!
Have a great week. Vote, get vaccinated, complete some surveys. Rinse. Repeat.
Wayne
Senate Meetings / Minutes / Agendas
- 4/9/21 Senate Meeting – The minutes are currently in review. They will be posted once approved.
- The next Full-Time Faculty Senate meeting is Friday, May 14th from noon to 1:30PM.
Vote!
’21-’22 Senator and President Elect Ballot
The election period ends 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
Employee COVID Vaccine Clinic at HLC 2000 [Friday, April 23]: ACC is offering a COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic open to all employees on Friday, April 23, 2021, at ACC Highland Campus, Building 2000. This offering is for ACC employees who are in need of their first vaccination dose. If you receive the vaccine at the ACC clinic on April 23, you will need to come back on May 14 for your second dose.
If you are interested in receiving a vaccination at this clinic, please email [email protected] from your ACC email address. Include your name, preferred phone number, and ACC EID in your email.
The first 500 emails received will secure appointments for Friday, April 23 for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. You will receive an email stating your appointment time.
If your email is received after the first 500, we will put your name on a waiting list for our next distribution of vaccines. We anticipate offering other vaccination opportunities in the coming weeks. However, you can also access community vaccine resources via Austin Public Health, here.
Academic and Student Affairs Council Requests Review and Comment – The Academic and Student Affairs Council (ASAC) met on April 2, 2021 and approved one item for review and comment by College employees. This item is posted the ASAC website. Comments may be entered into the related comment form (link to comment form found directly below Items Under Review drop-down menu).
Items currently under review:
- Proposed Modifications to AR 1.01.001 Degree & Certificate Designations.
- A second BAS (Bachelor of Applied Science in Software Development) was added to the list of degrees.
Join the Texas Community College Teachers Association – When you join Texas Community College Teachers Association’s community, you are a part of the largest two-year college professional network in Texas. Six-thousand of your friends and colleagues earned us this honor. TCCTA has been connecting faculty, administrators, and staff to a community, resources, institutions, and great ideas since 1948. We encourage you to make our community and resources your own. Join TCCTA today to be a part of your community and have full access to the resources you want.
- Check out the discounts and benefits (including our professional educators liability insurance).
- You can also Join a Master Teacher Meet Up – to share information and experiences. These allow peers to connect around teaching challenges that educators face in our rapidly changing world.
- Contact our (home) offices in Austin (512-328-2044) to speak to our team about professional development, legal help or legislative questions, and more!
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.
Employee Check-In Survey Coming Soon [+/- April 19]
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.”
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 23]: 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!
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.
ACC Library Services Hosting Citation Workshops via Zoom [April 26 and 27, 12P-2P]: Library Services will hold a Zoom Citation Workshop from 12-2. Students can get personal citation help with an expert librarian. Information is available at researchguides.austincc.edu/zoom, and Zoom a Librarian by appointment or drop-in is available through Blackboard on the Library Services tab.
Philosophy, Religion, and Humanities Hosting a Forum [April 28, 7P]: Join PRH professor J. Wade Allen, Sociology professor Samuel Echevarria-Cruz, and Government professor Anaka Rivera to discuss “Racial Justice, Civil Rights, and Political Liberalism: Problems and Solutions.” The event will be powered by Zoom at bit.ly/PRHforum0428. For more info, contact Eli Arzate at [email protected]
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!
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].
New Action Items:
VP of Instruction Mike Midgley Reminder: Please Complete Engagement Surveys [Student Survey deadline, April 29; Faculty Survey deadline, May 2] – ACC is participating this month in an online version of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and also the Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (CCFSSE). An invitation for the CCSSE survey was sent by the Office of Institutional Research and Accountability (OIRA) to 30,900 students earlier this month.
The Center for Community College Engagement sent an invitation to ACC faculty to complete the CCFSSE, the faculty counterpart to the CCSSE. We would very much appreciate your help in reminding your students to participate in the CCSSE survey. The CCSSE survey is due April 29th; the CCFSSE survey is due May 2nd.
Teach a Great Questions Seminar [deadline – May 7] – The goal of the faculty seminar is to prepare qualified faculty to teach the HUMA 1301: The Great Questions Seminar student success course as well as to help faculty develop and deepen the practice and skills required to lead engaging, discussion-based courses focused on transformative texts. Completing this training also qualifies one for enrollment in the Level II Great Questions Fellowship. Like the course itself, sessions are discussion-based, collaborative, and enriching. Faculty participants will be paid $600 for their full participation in the faculty training seminars.
- Sessions will run six consecutive Tuesdays from 1-3pm on Zoom, June 1 – July 6
- Expect to spend between 1.5 – 2 hours preparing for each session.
- We will accept letters of interest until May 7 for the Summer sessions. Faculty selected for Summer 2021 seminars will be notified by May 14.
Please visit the website to learn more about Great Questions at ACC.
Current Action Items (These are reminders for things I’ve already sent out):
Participate in the QEP topic selection process [deadline – April 23 ß LAST REMINDER] – 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!
Paid Opp: Faculty Onboarding Facilitator: [deadline – April 26 ß LAST REMINDER] –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 [Due Monday, April 26th]: 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.
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