Monthly Archives: October 2016

One of the main topics discussed this week was the draft of a new PRP form, which is still in development. This is meant to reflect a significant revision of the PRP process, in which the program review process is being partially separated from the resource allocation process.

The new forms are meant to encourage authentic self-reflection in disciplines as they review their programs, and will include space for feedback from IPC and the VP of instruction of college president. The new process is intended to have 1/3 of disciplines fill out the comprehensive PRP form every year, and then spend two years on updates. The form does ask for data disaggregated along demographic lines to facilitate reflection on whether different populations are being served by the offered programs, but not class-by-class disaggregation.

In addition, feedback from IPC/VPI/President is certainly not meant to be punitive, only to suggest areas to consider or to reinforce concerns the discipline expresses in the form.

Kendyl Magnusson presented a draft revision of a new Petition for Withdrawal form, and discussed the proposed process for preserving student confidentiality with regard to medical or other private information. In the proposed system, students submitting confidential documentation supporting their petition would have the option to indicate whether some or all of the documents should not be released to the faculty member. If they elected that any should not be released, those documents would be reviewed by personnel in Records, and a summary provided to the faculty member, indicating the sort of information provided without specifics which might violate privacy. Faculty would retain the power of approving or denying the petition.

The Senate is planning on drafting a statement recognizing Nancy Chadwick’s many years of service as a member of the Governing Board, as she is retiring with the election.

The Tutoring Committee provided an update on the online tutoring system; the Palomar-provided online tutoring and NetTutor system are both being used by students, and all online and offsite classes have access to the online tutoring systems.

SPC reported that the payment plan option for students will go online on October 31, which will hopefully make it easier for students to register for classes and remain registered in the days approaching the beginning of term.

-Richard Albistegui-DuBois

This week, we had Lesley Williams (TERB Coordinator extraordinaire) discuss a few matters with the Senate. TERB is needing to come up with evaluation forms for our Articulation Officer, who is a faculty member housed in counseling but with no student contact time. In addition, she explained her plans on how to evaluate DRC counselors who are specialists in learning disability assessment.

The problem of electronic enforcement of prerequisites was also discussed. At the moment, only a few classes have the option to have prerequisites enforced at time of enrollment in PeopleSoft. In most courses, transcript checking and enforcement is left up to instructors, and it is believed that many do not do so (possibly simply because they are not aware that the prerequisites are not enforced at enrollment). This is out of legal compliance; if prerequisites have been established, enforcement is mandatory, and a pattern of nonenforcement can trigger course articulation reevaluation by UCs and CSUs (among other problems).

Apparently, enabling this automatic checking may be as simple as clicking a checkbox in PeopleSoft’s configuration. There have been requests to enable this function, but the administration has been reluctant to do so. The Senate expressed its support for immediately enforcing prerequisites for all classes.

New legislation (AB 1690) will cause significant changes in how part-time faculty are hired. The legislation mandates that seniority (both in terms of number of semesters and number of classes taught) must be considered in offering classes to part-time faculty, and that classes must be offered so as to total 60-67% of a full time load to each faculty member. While this has the desirable effect of helping part-time faculty minimize the number of institutions they must work at to make a livable income, and making it possible for adjunct faculty to apply for health benefits, it will also make it very hard for departments to encourage the development of new part-time faculty (since classes will be rapidly taken up by more senior instructors).

Since evaluations can also be considered in deciding who should be offered classes, it was emphasized that the part-time evaluation process will probably need to be somewhat stricter.

Finally, we will be having a follow-up visit from ACCJC on Monday, October 24. A newsletter explaining the visit, what to expect, and how faculty can help will be coming out soon. The visit should be strongly focused on how Palomar has responded to the two recommendations provided–to improve tutoring for distance ed courses and student services at Camp Pendleton, and to improve participation in shared governance.

Let me know if you would like anything brought to the Senate!

-Richard Albistegui-DuBois