The District Academic Senate is the voice of the faculty on academic and professional matters at the district level. In your Board Rules, you have agreed to rely primarily on the advice of the academic senate in the following six areas: Curriculum, including establishing prerequisites and placing courses within disciplines; Degree and certificate requirements; Grading policies; Policies for faculty professional development activities; Processes for program review; and Faculty roles and involvement in accreditation processes, including self-study and annual reports; and you have agreed to reach mutual agreement with the academic senate on the following five areas: Educational program development; District and college governance structures as related to faculty roles; Processes for institutional planning and budget development; Standards or policies regarding student preparation and success; and Other academic and professional matters as are mutually agreed on by the Board of Trustees and the District Academic Senate.

As incoming president of the DAS, I make a pledge to you that I will do everything in my power to move the agenda forward on implementing new policies and changing existing policy on these areas of academic and professional matters. However, we in DAS leadership do have some concerns that I wish to make public today. It is not our intention to raise these concerns as a means of embarrassing anyone, or to lay blame at anyone’s door. Our aim is to find a collegial way to address these concerns in the future.

1) The shining example of shared governance at the district level is the District Budget Committee. We compliment the Chancellor in working well with this committee and for taking its recommendations seriously. As I assume the role of co-chair of this committee with co-chair Rocky Young, I will continue to work with the Chancellor and district administration in making this important shared governance committee work, especially in the critical weeks and months ahead.

2) Section 18104 C of your Board Rules concerns consultation. It reads: “In order to facilitate the consultation process, there shall be regularly scheduled meetings, including but not limited to:

1. The District Academic Senate President and the Chancellor.
2. Between District Academic Senate Executive Committee and Chancellor’s Cabinet; and
3. Other meetings that the District Academic Senate and/or the Chancellor find will effectuate the consultation process.

I look forward to the Chancellor and I setting up a regular schedule of meetings, the purpose of which would be to attempt to resolve any problems of an academic or professional nature in an informal manner. In my role as local academic senate president, consultation has worked quite well between Valley’s academic senate and the college president. However, as Valley’s academic president, I am a member of DAS Executive Committee, and have been for the last six years, and I recall no meeting between the DAS Executive and the Chancellor’s Cabinet. Zero times in six years doesn’t fit anyone’s definition of “regularly scheduled meetings.” Therefore, I respectfully request that one of the items on the agenda of the Chancellor’s and my first consultation would be to set up such a schedule.

3) As I said at the beginning, I pledge to work with district administration on proposed policy changes in an expeditious manner. However, shared governance requires that such joint work should be at the beginning of the process. Recently, DAS was presented with a proposed E-reg change to E-55, the student grievance procedure. We were presented with a document that had already been worked on to a “final” document without any input from us. The DAS graciously decided to work with administration on our concerns with E-55, but in future such a process will be rejected by us. Development of policy changes involving academic and professional matters, as enshrined in Title 5 and your Board Rules, should involve senate representation from the beginning. Task forces to write such changes should be composed of both administration and senate representatives. That is the true manifestation of the word, “shared.” Anything less would be viewed by us as an attempt to circumvent shared governance.

4) We have heard from at least one campus in the district that there is a proposal to restrict faculty access to the Internet and/or outside email. Last week, the DAS took a strong position against any such restriction. Effective teaching these days involves full Web access and (often from off campus) email interaction between instructors and students. We have heard that there is to be a discussion in cabinet about this issue. This is clearly an academic and professional matter, and this would, therefore, be a good item of discussion at a scheduled meeting between the cabinet and the DAS Exec. So, I respectfully request that any such discussion in cabinet be postponed until DAS representatives are present.

5) Title 5 and your own Board Rules mandate that processes for planning and budget development be agreed upon by the local academic senate and the college administration on the campuses, and by district administration and DAS at the district level. We therefore object to district administration negotiating guaranteed seats on shared governance bodies without ANY senate (local or district) involvement in the formation of such collective bargaining provisions. We ask that the Board not approve any collective bargaining agreements with such provisions unless the Board is satisfied that the senates have been included in the discussion of such provisions. Title 5 and your Board Rules mandate that.

These are a few of our more immediate concerns. I am confident that we can work them out, and I will give you regular reports on our progress at future Board meetings. The concerns that I have expressed here are not meant to put obstacles in the path of the orderly running of the district. They are meant to indicate that we are not only willing but we are eager to be involved in the decision making with regard to academic and professional matters. We are the acknowledged experts on these matters. I last sat at the resource table in 1996 (just seven years ago), and the Board members then were entirely different. So, none of you have more than seven years on the Board. On average, faculty members in this district have been here longer than any other constituency, administration, classified, or students. We are at the point of contact of what this district is all about in our classrooms, libraries, and counseling offices. We therefore have a better appreciation of which policies work, and which might create problems. So, why wouldn’t you consult with us? It might take a little longer initially, but it could save inordinate amounts of time later, if you try to implement a policy that you failed to run by us and which contains problems that we may have been able to predict. On academic and professional matters, law, regulation, and your own Board Rules mandate that the senate be involved. Commonsense should tell us all that our involvement is crucial. I simply ask you not to ignore or to bypass us. I promise to keep you updated on progress in this regard.

Thank you.

Leon Marzillier
DAS President-elect

May 14, 2003