Academic Senate
2007-2008 |
 |
MPC Academic Senate Goals for 2007-08
Guiding Principles or Values for the MPC Academic Senate
The Academic Senate uses the pursuit of academic excellence
and critical thinking across the curriculum as an ultimate goal for all it does.
The Academic Senate is the recognized voice of the faculty on
Academic and Professional matters as set forth in Title 5 and the Ed Code,
generally known as the 10+1.
The Academic Senate strives to ensure a strong faculty voice
in shared governance processes
MPC Academic Senate Goals
2007-2008
Foster academic excellence and critical thinking across the
curriculum.
·
Initiate and support a series of faculty discussions called “Let’s talk
about teaching”
O
Topics for these discussions area many, but might include:
§
SLOs
§
Assessment
§
Instructional Strategies
§
Sabbatical Presentations
§
What the Best College
Teachers Do
§
“Challenging” students
§
Basic Skills strategies
Spearhead a faculty lead effort to articulate the meaning
and value of SLOs at MPC
·
Collaborate with CAC to determine the best way to do this.
·
Request release time for an SLO coordinator.
·
Use “Let’s Talk About Teaching” discussions to learn how our colleagues
determine what their students should be able to do at the end of a class.
·
Establish that faculty members “own” their SLOs
·
Assure faculty play a strong role on the accreditation team
·
Invite SLO experts to give guest lectures on SLO
strategies
Spearhead a faculty
lead effort to establish Basic Skills best practices on the MPC campus
·
Send our Basic Skill representative to statewide
workshops and conferences
·
Use “Let’s Talk About Teaching” discussions as a
means to determine how to address Basic Skills issues on the MPC campus
·
Provide opportunity for an increase in dialog
between the traditional instructional faculty and the supportive services
·
Invite Basic Skills experts to give guest
lectures on Basic Skills practices
Host invigorating and engaging flex days each semester
·
Plan throughout the semester
·
Upgrade the Flex Day Committee to an Academic Senate standing committee
similar in stature to the COC or the Equivalency committee
·
Set up a “template” to make it easy for future Flex Day Committees to
plan for flex days
Review and revise board policy that pertains to academic and
professional matters
o
Faculty hiring
o
Academic Freedom
o
Administrator Hiring
o
Faculty Position Prioritization
o
Equivalency Procedures
o
Program Initiation
Assure that faculty members are fairly and equitably
represented on shared governance committees
·
Re-establish the committee handbook that lists all committee membership
and bylaws or goals.
·
Establish and use a faculty-committee data base that lists all faculty
committee obligations
Ensure academic excellence and integrity at the Ed Center
·
Increase more cross-pollination between our Ed Center committee and the
campus wide Ed Center planning committee (Executive Committee recommendation)
·
Investigate how the planning committee communicates with all the other
shared governance groups on campus
Create and sustain effective faculty leadership
·
Send Academic Senate representatives to ASCCC conferences and leadership
workshops
Inspire and encourage cross-disciplinary curriculum and
program development
· Communicate
with MPC faculty the cross-disciplinary concepts and program ideas presented at
the USIP Seminar on “Global Peace and Security in Community Colleges and the
Communities They Serve,” summer 2007.
·
Develop a Program Initiation Board Policy for MPC
·
Encourage cross-disciplinary classes such as
“Auto Repair Business Fundamentals” or “Business Fundamentals for Artists”
o
The measure of success should be to carve a path
through the unknown and to document the pitfalls and success factors so the
second generation attempts are that much more successful