THE SENATE STANDARD – ISSUE 25
ACC Full-Time Faculty Senate Website
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
It’s the last week before spring break, so of course I have a lot to share! Please read below for COVID-19 news, our agenda for our next meeting, and YOUR CHANCE TO BE A MORE ACTIVE PART OF THE SENATE! Nominations are now open for the 2020-21 Full-Time Faculty Senate, including the position of President-Elect.
Please accept my apologies that the nominations are coming to you later than they should according to our bylaws. I’ve been struggling with some health issues that have put me a bit behind, and I’m afraid I failed to notice the deadlines. Be assured that our nominations committee has worked hard to ensure that we can catch up and have the elections as we should. I appreciate your patience with me, and will work to do better moving forward.
Senate Meetings / Minutes / Agendas
3/13/20 Senate Meeting – noon to 2pm ONLINE – Just click on the link to join at the correct time – (Please note that the meeting was scheduled to be in HBC 301, but we are going to try out a webex meeting to see how it goes.) – The agenda for this meeting is now available.
New Action Items [please check due dates below!]
Nominations for the 2020-21 Full-Time Faculty Senate [due March 27] It is time to look forward to next year, and to build our Senate. In order to ensure that faculty are well represented in college-wide decision making, we need motivated and engaged faculty to serve as senators. We will also need a collaborative and organized person to serve as our President-Elect. Please take a moment to nominate yourself or someone else to serve in these important roles. Note that you may only nominate a person from your own campus as senator, but you may nominate any full-time faculty member for President-Elect.
Nominate a faculty member for:
• the position of Senator
• the position of President-Elect
Donate to the Red Wassenich Scholarship Fund – Melissa Airoldi, faculty from Library Tech Services, asked me to share the following with you all:
You may have heard that Red Wassenich passed away recently. Red Wassenich was a librarian for many years and many of you knew him. If you would like to donate to the Red Wassenich scholarship for students, below are the instructions.
Gifts can be made by mail or online at www.austincc.edu/foundation . Click on the Give Now button and fill out the form. Under the “How would you like us to use your donation?” click on ACC Foundation Memorial Scholarship. Under Gift Type, click on In Memory of and type in name – Red Wassenich.
There will be an “official scholarship” at some point and then that will appear in a drop down menu but until that it is established, the memorial fund is the way to donate.
Newsworthy
COVID-19 Updates – The college is working hard to keep us all updated on the emerging situation with this virus. This week, I’m providing several things that you may find helpful. I’m grateful to our administration for keeping us in the loop with all these extra resources.
• Up-to-date information about ACC’s response to COVID-19 is at the ACC Coronavirus page.
• The U.S. Department of Education’s memo that allows for moving face to face courses online.
• Rice has a website that shares how to move things online – https://oit.rice.edu/remote-teaching-resources
• The Chronicle of Higher Education has some advice about teaching online – https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/advice-online-teaching
• The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established a webpage specifically to provide guidance to institutions of higher education – https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/guidance-ihe-response.html
• The American College Health Association (ACHA) published guidance aimed at helping student health services and other campus stakeholders prepare for and respond to a potential coronavirus infection. – https://www.acha.org/documents/resources/guidelines/ACHA_Preparing_for_COVID-19_March-3-2020.pdf
• The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has the latest information about COVID-19 in Texas on its website – https://dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus/
• Beginning Monday, March 9, DSHS will host daily calls at 4:00 pm CST for counties, school districts, and higher education to update stakeholders on COVID-19 and to answer questions. Use the following to join the call: Conference call number: 888-207-0293 / Passcode: 152545
ACC Board Meeting – 3/9/20
Dr. Rhodes and the Board recognized an ACC Faculty member who is retiring. Please join me in celebrating our wonderful colleague, John Cise, who was honored for his decades of work for ACC. John started in 1973 just as ACC was formed, and began our physics / math departments.
Dr. Rhodes also announced that The Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) approved ACC to award our second Bachelor’s degree. It will be a Bachelor of Applied Science in Software Development.
There was some discussion of an issue that may cause some budgetary changes for ACC. Neil Vickers shared that there will likely be changes to the way that Travis County is able to calculate property values, such that this year there will be fewer than the normal tax increases. While this may be a temporary relief for property owners, it will decrease the amount of tax revenue that ACC can use for its operations. Neil assured everyone that his budget plan from the previous year was extra conservative, so we should still be ok, but there won’t be as much wiggle room as we’ve had in recent years.
Current Action Items (These are reminders for things I’ve already sent out):
PSAA Nominations [due March 25] – The Presidential Student Achievement Award (PSAA) is the most prestigious student award given by ACC. The recipient must demonstrate academic excellence, service to the college and community, and commitment to ACC values and vision. Does this sound like one of your students? Submit a nomination to acknowledge their hard work and dedication.
In addition to speaking at graduation, the recipient receives a $500 award and a plaque. To qualify for the award, candidates must be graduating in Spring 2020, have a 3.5+ cumulative GPA, meet satisfactory levels of financial and academic responsibility, and be in good standing within the Student Standards of Conduct (Student Life will confirm eligibility upon submission).
Help us recognize the outstanding students at ACC by submitting a nomination this week! Nominations can come from anyone on campus, including faculty, staff and students. Use this link to begin: PSAA Nomination Form
Please contact [email protected] with any questions.
The Academic Master Planning (AMP) process will continue on March 27 with the second round of Area of Study meetings. Learn more about it on the timeline portion of the AMP website. Reach out to your department chair or dean if you want to be a part of your Area of Study team!
Changes to Testing Center Policies [deadline to submit requests for exceptions is March 27, 2020] – The website to walk you through all the new policies for faculty using the testing centers is now available. Please take a peek.
SAS Survey [due March 27, 2020] – Our Student Accessibility Services colleagues are interested in learning how to better serve both students and faculty. Please complete the Faculty Survey on SAS Testing to share your views.
SCHOLARSHIPS!!! [due April 1, 2020] As mentioned in the last Standard, the ACC Foundation has ONE APPLICATION for all 700 scholarships they offer our students. Applications are open now, so please let your students know about them. There is help to complete the applications available at every ACCelerator. Students can view THIS PAGE to get the application, and help to apply.
Best,
++missi patterson