ACADEMIC AFFAIRS STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE CPC
MINUTES
FOR THE MEETING OF
August 18, 2004
2:30 P.M.
President’s Conference Room
Attending:
Administration – Nancy Carson, Bobby McNeel, Bob Richards, Luis Rosas (co-chair), Ann Tomlinson
Faculty –Carmen Carrillo, Joy Fisher, Wendy Hollis, Bruce Lemon, Susan McMurray, Bradley Young
Classified –Traci Liley
Absent: Administration - Charlie Bossler, Faculty – Nabeel Barakat (co-chair), Lauren McKenzie, Evelyn Portis, Stanley Sandell, Jim Stanbery, Mark Wood, Classified –Hovsep Kotelyan, Classified Manager - Carla Mussa-Muldoon, Students - Phillip Horsley, Kalani Mailo, Anthony Rodriguez, Arsenio Navarro-Rodriguez
Luis Rosas chaired the meeting.
I. COURSE OUTLINE UPDATE
Dr. Tomlinson hoped to get some course outlines updated this summer. At this time the goal is about 1/3 complete. On Opening Day, 8/27/04, time will be set aside to develop learning outcomes for each area. There may not be sufficient time to address as many as had been hoped.
The CPC retreat of last May discussed new issues and learning outcomes, which Dr. Tomlinson summarized in notes for distribution to committee. She suggests that a day long retreat where the entire day is reserved for work on course outlines may be most helpful. Ms. McMurray stated that our campus student learning outcomes must be determined first, in order to be certain that all work completed is on target. Different areas may require more than one set of outcomes. Nursing and departments with general education transfers may be quite different. The philosophy of our general education is an excellent statement of what we expect our students to have upon graduation. Mrs. Carson pointed out that the philosophy statement was missing from the current catalog, but would most certainly be included in the next publication. It was Mr. Rosas opinion that the statement related to graduation requirements contains the same language, and it is in the catalog on page 45.
Under the new accreditation guides, there is to be a college-wide dialog regarding what values, characteristics or traits are expected of graduates of the college. This dialog is to be conducted by the faculty with administration facilitating only. Dr. Richards suggests that the Curriculum Committee would be the best place to begin. Student learning outcomes should be the final product.
For the NLN report, Nursing had to define, implement, use and measure critical thinking, communication and therapeutic intervention. Committee wants to know how to measure critical thinking. It was pointed out that this is the object of the college-wide dialog referred to previously. There does not need to be a single way of measuring critical thinking across the disciplines.
On September 17 members from the Seaside schools will meet 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., for a practical, hands-on accreditation workshop. Here faculty will gain valuable information about student learning outcomes and learner-centered teaching; develop learning outcomes for specific courses and course sequences; explore the use of assessment rubrics and embedded assessment, as well as the opportunity to discuss a variety of assessment strategies with peers from other college campuses. Dr. May Allen, former Director of CSU’s Institute for Teaching and Learning will lead the workshop, which is funded by the LACCD.
The clerical support necessary to input course outlines will be provided when the outlines begin to appear. A student worker had been made available in the past but there was insufficient work coming in to justify continuing the expense of the assignment.
II. PROGRAM REVIEW UPDATE
III. PRIORITIES FOR AA CLUSTER
A two-page checklist was provided by Dr. Tomlinson, which is a mini-version of program review. The completed forms were provided as documentation in support of the report to the Grant Allocation Committee. The Science & F&CS, Communications and Business divisions are almost complete. A review of the forms would be extremely beneficial to Division Council and this committee. This could be accomplished as a retreat or a special meeting.
IV. PROP A/AA PRIORITIES FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
A review of the Prop A (CPC agreed to on 7/16/02) and the Prop AA (CPC agreed to on 6/10/03) priority ranking was conducted by committee. Some discussion has surfaced regarding the need for furnishings for remodeled buildings and the apparent lack of budget. It is possible to utilize Block Grant money. One question to consider is whether the College should buy furniture now, or set aside the funds for later purchases. This committee will have to decide if the greatest need is for desks, chairs, or lamps. There is still some consideration being given to the idea of buying in bulk on a district-wide basis. The concern is that what may be considered good for one campus may not be sufficient or workable for another.
The CORE Group will have a copy of every contract that comes through related to Prop A/AA, as well as the specific items charged off against each contract. Any member of the CORE Group should be able to provide answers to the most frequently asked questions.
Having a video taped record of the newly equipped areas on campus, funded by grants, would be beneficial in providing a record of the equipment, along with the manner of set up. Mr. Rosas believes this could be accomplished fairly easily with the cooperation of the tv studio crew.