Monthly Archives: August 2016

A few points of interest from the Senate meeting today:

A mobile app for Palomar is in development, with an anticipated release sometime in September. It was unclear on what functions would be included, but it might involve allowing students to manage their enrollment, among other things.

Overall enrollment is only slightly down this term (1%, I think, was the figure quoted), and it is hoped that it may even end up with no decline as classes fill in the first weeks.

There will be workshops on applying for money for student equity projects on September 7 and 8. Olga Diaz can provide more information.

The Senate will be looking for two part-time faculty senators in the near future. Interested individuals should contact Patrick O’Brien.

There was substantial discussion of problems associated with cancellation of “low-enrollment” classes. Many senators shared stories of classes which were cancelled despite having 14+ students. Other shared that they had often seen such classes fill to 20+, even to capacity, in the last days before classes began, which may make cancelling them before that time poorly advised. It was also pointed out that classes are cancelled with the assumption that the affected students will subsequently enroll in other sections or classes–this assumption may not be valid, especially when the cancelled class is (for example) a required capstone class for which there is no alternative. In addition, if low-enrollment classes are cancelled, students may have few options for classes to move to.

There was discussion of many factors which can lead to classes having low enrollment; it was pointed out that our enrollment system’s interface is not especially user-friendly, and may be confusing to students with limited experience with computers (or, for that matter, ones with plenty of experience), and this may delay some enrollment.

Some students do not receive the financial aid for which they have applied within ten days of enrolling, and are thus dropped for nonpayment (which might then result in class being cancelled). This particular problem may be remedied by the upcoming payment plan system.

Several suggestions were made as to how to deal with these problems. Many senators would like greater transparency in how cancellation decisions are made; it seems to be inconsistent between divisions. It was also suggested that it might be possible to adopt a longer-term planning approach, in which a low-enrollment section would not automatically be cancelled. Instead, it would be noted, and used for planning future terms. If a normally full section is sparsely occupied in a given term, it may be that that was simply a random chance and the section should be offered in the future; alternatively, a section which fails to fill for several terms in a row could be rescheduled or altered. If these changes were only applied after a few terms of observation for a section, it would avoid pulling classes out from under students’ feet, wile serving the need for long-term instructional and scheduling planning.

The Senate will be conening a workgroup to consider these issues and come up with a list of suggestions from the Senate to be presented to the administration, in the hopes that the faculty can play a role in solving this problem (which is, after all, an instructional issue).

As always, please feel free to bring anything you’d like to see in the Senate to me, or to any other representative.

-Richard Albistegui-DuBois

Hello all, and welcome back.

At the faculty senate meeting on Monday, August 22, there was concern expressed over late class cancellations. Some faculty have had classes cancelled even when they had 12 or more students enrolled, which does seem odd when the campus is struggling with low enrollment.

The cancellations are justified under the concept of efficiency; the idea is that when a low enrollment class is cancelled, those students enroll in other courses, increasing the number of students taught for each faculty member, and making the campus more efficient. Some Senators questioned this logic, noting that:

1. Once a class has more than about 10 students, it generates enough revenue to pay the adjunct faculty member teaching it; the campus then does not lose money by offering the class, and
2. No evidence has been presented that students in cancelled classes actually do enroll in other courses; thus, we don’t know whether those students remain with Palomar, go to other colleges, or simply don’t enroll at all.

The administration has been requested to provide any data they have on whether students in cancelled classes stay with the college.

Another Senator noted that she had a class which was low-enrollment but which was not cancelled, and just before the semester began the class suddenly filled to overflowing. Based on this, a request has also been made that classes not be cancelled until at least the first week of the term.

Academic Technology is offering (in addition to their variety of specific training courses) self-designed training, in which ATRC staff can provide training in applications or techniques of interest to individual faculty.

A 3-d printer is also available, and David Gray can be contacted regarding its use.

The accreditation follow0up report, involving responses to the two recommendations to ACCJC needed to meet accreditation standards, is nearly complete. A site visit is expected in October or November, and information will be forthcoming on what faculty can do to be ready. In response to the recommendation to improve participation in shared governance, the college has created the Comet Information Exchange as a place where summaries of the activities of campus councils and committees can be viewed easily. The Exchange also contains a form whereby, by entering your name, constituency group, and the council you wish to contact, requests and feedback can be automatically forwarded to the appropriate representative. The CIE can be found here: http://www2.palomar.edu/pages/cie

Two online tutoring systems (for supporting distance education and offsite courses) have been developed and are rapidly being expanded; they will soon be offered to all online and offsite classes. One system uses Palomar-hired and trained tutors housed in the math and writing centers, and is available during those center hours. After hours, subject-specific tutoring is offered via NetTutor, an outside vendor.

New PRP forms are in development as part of a revision of the program review process. These are currently in discussion in IPC, and more information should be provided soon. The purpose behind the revision is to reduce the amount of less-than-useful analysis requested in the process, while encouraging departments to look at student data (including demographics) with an eye towards meaningful evaluation of program effectiveness.

As always, please feel free to contact me with anything you’d like brought to the Senate. Or if you’d like to become the faculty tri-chair for accreditation. *grin*

-Richard Albistegui-DuBois (radubois@palomar.edu)