The Academic Senate Constitution identifies the Senate’s purpose and mission: to promote the development and maintenance of high standards of teaching and education; to share in the determination of the goals of the college and in the fulfillment of these goals; to promote the welfare of the entire faculty and to represent the entire faculty in its academic and professional relations with the district; to facilitate communication among the entire faculty, classified personnel, student body, college administration, and the governing board of the district; to make recommendations to the college administration and governing board concerning the academic and professional matters enumerated in the Title 5 of the Educational Code; to concern itself with any legislation relative to the welfare of the college; and to do all that is necessary and proper to achieve a realization of the purposes of the Faculty Association it represents.
The Academic Senate is the voice of the faculty when it comes to matters of academic and professional relations. Membership is comprised of 18 faculty representing all faculty, both full-time as well as Associate, and all areas of instruction, including Counseling and Student Development. The Senate’s membership also includes representation from Student Life and the Classified Senate. Meetings are held on the first and third Wednesday of the month, and special assemblies and forums are held throughout each semester. The Senate supports and encourages campus participation in activities of college-wide significance such as Student Success, Student Equity, SSSP, Mission/Values/Code of Ethics, the ongoing Accreditation process, Student Learning Outcomes, CTE Taskforce, statewide grant initiatives, and other efforts. California law and Ed Code are constantly changing. Butte College's Senate and Curriculum leadership try to remain abreast developments by regularly attending plenary sessions, regional workshops, and annual institutes provided by the statewide Academic Senate. The Butte Academic Senate currently operates in accordance with the bylaws, and needless to say in many capacities with various roles and responsibilities in relation to all aspects of the college. Members of the Senate Executive Committee regularly attend the statewide meetings mentioned above, and all share responsibility for disseminating information gained at these meetings as well as from the local Senate’s activities to the Faculty at large, classified staff, students, and Administration. The Academic Senate Leadership Team also includes the Curriculum Chair, the SLO Coordinator, and the Professional Development Coordinator, all of whom work hard in support of faculty and the Strategic Direction of the college. Curriculum Committee The Academic Senate has oversight for all curriculum and educational programs on campus (a role clearly established through law, Ed Code, and AB 1725). The vast majority of this oversight is handled by the Curriculum Committee and Curriculum Tech Review Team, which operates as an autonomous subcommittee of the Academic Senate under the leadership and guidance of the Chair. As stated above, California law and Ed Code are constantly changing, especially in regard to curriculum standards and in addition, changes to educational programs (expansion, AA/S-T development, Curriculum Review process, Guided Pathways efforts, etc.) is never ending. The Curriculum Chair’s diligent work with the Curriculum Tech Review Team and program faculty, along with attendance at statewide Senate sessions, is essential.
Academic Senate is the voice of faculty in academic and professional matters, as related to the campus strategic initiatives. Ongoing efforts and faculty voice in relation to Curriculum, Participatory Governance, Guided Pathways, Curriculum, Student Equity, SSSP, Student Success/Basic Skills, Planning & Budget, Enrollment Management, Educational Master Planning, College Council, as well as standing committees of the Academic Senate such as LTPA, Equivalency, Distance Learning, Academic Technology, and Academic Senate taskforces demonstrate the vast breadth of support to the college in meeting student achievement standards.
The Academic Senate has representation through the participatory governance structure to be a continuous voice in most aspects of the college's Strategic Direction and Priorities. A few specific examples include:
1. Enhancing a Culture of Completion and Academic Achievement
Supported by Senate involvement in Guided Pathways planning, including designating faculty leadership, sponsoring Guided Pathways workshops, and advising on pathways-related initiatives through the recently established Program Research and Recommendation Committee; facilitating faculty voice in the development of the college's Dual Enrollment program.
2. Collaboration and Decision-Making
Supported by Senate representation on most campus-wide committees; forums and assemblies that provide information and collect input; regular meetings that provide opportunities for Senators and visitors to engage in dialogue on college processes and initiatives; systems for disseminating information to the larger faculty body and soliciting feedback.
3. Using Data-Informed Processes for Continuous Improvement
Supported by maintenence and refinement of Curriculum Review and Program Review Procedures; oversight of Student Learning Outcomes assessment processes; active participation in planning committees such as Enrollment Management and Planning and Budget; the recent establishment of the Program Research and Recommendation Committee.
4. Maximizing Resources to Support Student Learning
Supported by local Senate Resolution 10.1 SP 17 "Improving Student Success through Compliance with the 75/25 Ratio"
The Academic Senate develops an annual unit plan that serves as its Program Review.
The Academic Senate has identified several goals for the upcoming year. Among these are:
- Deploy a robust database tool for tracking the activities and membership of campus-wide committees; make information on committees easily accessible to all faculty and staff.
- Establish a mentoring program for new faculty.
- Provide identification badges for faculty and staff.
- Develop one, three and five-year plans for full-time faculty hiring designed to make local progress toward the 75% goal and integrate full-time faculty hiring goals into the overall college planning process (Resolution 10.1 SP 17).
Strategy 1 - Campus Committees Database
Database tool for tracking the activities and membership of campus-wide committees, and that will facilitate making information on committees easily accessible to all faculty and staff.
California Ed Code requires the local Board of Trustees to establish procedures to ensure participatory governance, and clarifies that participating effectively in district and college governance is shared involvement in the decision-making process. Ed Code further calls on the Board to shall establish standards and procedures to ensure faculty, staff and students the right to participate effectively in district and college governance.
The effectiveness of the college's participatory governance processes is notably limited by the inability of constituency groups to reliably track committee activities and membership. Negative effects include: miscommunications and mistrust; delays in making and implementing decisions; under-utilized knowledge and untapped diversity in thinking; and disconnection by too many members of the larger campus community.
Strategy 2 - Faculty and Staff Badges
Identification badges for faculty and staff.
The Academic Senate first requested faculty and staff identification badges nearly ten years ago. The primary reason was, and still remains, campus safety and the ability for faculty and staff to identify themselves to authorities and students during a crisis situation. Since that time, the need has twice emerged out of Great Teachers discussions. The Associated Students has also brought this issue forward to the Academic Senate, expressing support for identifications but also expressing concern and frustration over utilizing their equipment and time to provide badges. Last semester, the Academic Senate approached the Classified Senate, and they too have expressed support for faculty and staff identification badges. And just this semester, the Associated Students Board renewed its support with a unanimous vote.
Strategy 3 - Increase Administrative Assistant Position
Academic Senate requires a 100% Administrative Assistant. Currently, the Academic Senate shares an administrative support position with Professional Development which has separate and varied needs/demands as well as overlapping and conflicting timelines of high demand workload issues and challenges.
The Administrative Assistant support position has unique supportive demands in comparison to other Administrative positions (Brown Act, parliamentary procedures, additional LTPA and Equivalency Committee administrative support, other) without recognized time needed to maintain compliance with unrealistic demands to adhere to the numerous tasks to be completed throughout the year. This position faces ongoing dramatic changes (two new faculty leaders, student assistant changes, personality dynamics- to say the least), and no set schedule or definitive way to separate the shared responsibilities between the Academic Senate and Professional Development.
Strategy 4 - Increase Senate Exec Reassign Time
Increase total Academic Senate Executive Committee reassign time, currently 120%, by an additional 10%.
The distribution of Academic Senate Executive Committee reassign time is: 60% President; 40% Vice President; 10% Treasurer; 10% secretary. We are requesting an increase of 10% specifically to support the efforts of our Treasurer and Secretary. The current allocation of 10% to these two positions is problematic. If split between Fall and Spring, each benefits little, if any, from a mere 5% reassigned time (which equates to 1/2 of one class for a typical 3-unit lecture class). Using the full 10% in either Fall or Spring facilitates participation in Senate-related work and activities in one semester, but not the other. An increase of 10%, bringing the total Executive Committee reassign time to 130%, would allow both the Treasurer and the Secretary to rely on 10% reassign time for both Fall and Spring.
Over the past few years, with an increasing number of campus committees, increasing demand for Executive Committee participation in campus planning, and enormous state and federal changes that require leadership from the Senate, the Senate Exec has been stretched very thin. Delegation of assignments seems reasonable, but with a mere 5% per semester of reassign time allotted to the Treasurer and Secretary, there are serious limits to expectations that can be placed on these two Exec members. Further, the lack of meaningful reassign time for both Fall and Spring has made it difficult to recruit new members to the Exec team.
These requests do not require an augmentation to the Academic Senate budget, but do require resources (personnel and financial) of other campus units that have expressed support for our Goals and Strategies:
No additional resources.
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | Academic Senate, Instruction | Personnel | 11-000-400-1-603000 | 51200 | $0.00 | $100,000.00 |
| Increase Senate Exec Reassign Time | The distribution of Academic Senate Executive Committee reassign time is: 60% President; 40% Vice President; 10% Treasurer; 10% secretary. We are requesting an increase of 10% specifically to support the efforts of our Treasurer and Secretary. The current allocation of 10% to these two positions is problematic. If split between Fall and Spring, each benefits little, if any, from a mere 5% reassigned time (which equates to 1/2 of one class for a typical 3-unit lecture class). Using the full 10% in either Fall or Spring facilitates participation in Senate-related work and activities in one semester, but not the other. An increase of 10%, bringing the total Executive Committee reassign time to 130%, would allow both the Treasurer and the Secretary to rely on 10% reassign time for both Fall and Spring. Over the past few years, with an increasing number of campus committees, increasing demand for Executive Committee participation in campus planning, and enormous state and federal changes that require leadership from the Senate, the Senate Exec has been stretched very thin. Delegation of assignments seems reasonable, but with a mere 5% per semester of reassign time allotted to the Treasurer and Secretary, there are serious limits to expectations that can be placed on these two Exec members. Further, the lack of meaningful reassign time for both Fall and Spring has made it difficult to recruit new members to the Exec team. |
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| 2 | Academic Senate, Instruction | Personnel | 110004001603000 | 52120 | $0.00 | $50,000.00 |
| Academic Senate requires a 100% Administrative Assistant. | The Administrative Assistant support position has unique supportive demands in comparison to other Administrative positions (Brown Act, parliamentary procedures, other) without recognized time needed to maintain compliance with unrealistic demands to adhere to the numerous tasks to be completed throughout the year. This position faces ongoing dramatic changes (two new faculty leaders, student assistant changes, personality dynamics- to say the least), and no set schedule or definitive way to separate the shared responsibilities between the Academic Senate and Professional Development. |
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