Faculty Senate

More information on Faculty Senate Links to an external site.

Faculty Senate homepage

 

Overview & Purpose

Each instructional division on campus has two representatives as well as two from the Academic Counseling Career & Educational Support Services or ACCESS (formerly CESS) division (one from Counseling and one from Educational Support Services), one from the Watsonville Center, and one from the Library.  These representatives are elected through their Division.  There are also six At-Large Senate representatives.  At-Large rep seats are filled through an all faculty nomination and election process overseen by the Secretary of the Senate.  Senate reps serve for two year terms. Current senate representatives and their terms can be found on the Faculty Senate Membership Roster Links to an external site..

The purposes of the Faculty Senate are:

  1. To serve as the official representative of the faculty on academic and professional matters.
  2. To represent the views of the faculty to the administration and Governing Board.
  3. To participate in the formation of district policies on academic and professional matters.
  4. To promote the effectiveness of teaching at Cabrillo College.
  5.  To promote the general welfare of faculty, staff and students through fund raising, scholarships and social events.

More information can be found in the Senate Bylaws Links to an external site. and Constitution Links to an external site..

To join the Faculty Senate as a dues paying member, please complete the Membership Application Links to an external site..

✳️ Adjunct Faculty who serve as Senate Reps are eligible for an Ancillary Activities Stipend through Cabrillo College Federation of Teachers (CCFT), the faculty union.  Please contact CCFT Executive Director, Daniel Dodge to request the appropriate paperwork that must be filed at the end of each semester.  


Responsibilities

Understand the 10 + 1 (AB 1725)

"It is the general purpose of this act to improve academic quality, and to that end the Legislature specifically intends to authorize more responsibility for faculty members in duties that are incidental to their primary professional duties." (AB 1725, Section 4 (n). )

When AB 1725 was signed into law in 1988, it gave local senates a great deal of new responsibility.  At Cabrillo this responsibility is, as the representative of the faculty, to make recommendations to the Cabrillo College Administration and Governing Board with respect to academic and professional matters.  "Academic and professional matters" are defined as the following "policy development and implementation matters" Title 5, Art 2, sections 53200, (c)

  THE 10 + 1

    1. Curriculum, including establishing prerequisites and placing courses within disciplines
    2. Degree and certificate requirements
    3. Grading policies
    4. Educational program development
    5. Standards and policies regarding student preparation and success
    6. District governance structures, as related to faculty roles
    7. Faculty roles and involvement in accreditation processes, including self study and annual reports
    8. Policies for faculty professional development
    9. Processes for program review
    10. Processes for institutional planning and budget development, and
    11. Other academic and professional matters as mutually agreed upon between the governing board and the academic senate

 

Engage

Senate representatives should engage with students and colleagues on issues of importance.  As a senator, you should expect to spend some time reading the agenda (and supporting documents) posted in BoardDocs prior to the scheduled Tuesday meeting.  Your job is to review these documents before the meeting so you can prepare pointed questions or concerns related to the information being presented.  All presentations are uploaded to the Faculty Senate Webpage and BoardDocs for you to review and share with your colleagues.  Remind your colleagues that they are encouraged to attend any of our meetings, and can serve on sub-committees as a non-senator.  However, YOU are the main information source for updating folks on what you learned at Senate.

Communicate

This simply means sharing what's happening at Senate with your colleagues (individually, departmentally, within your division).  Prioritize your message through the lens of Student Success and Equity.  

SHARING THE MESSAGE

Just as in your classroom, consider sharing your message in multiple ways and in multiple forms (through a departmental/division Canvas shell, email blast, virtual flyer, posted flyer in Division office, etc.)

A well constructed message should be distilled down to key "need to know" items and listed in order of importance with an invitation to explore info items further with links (to BoardDocs, presentations, websites, etc.)  It is also good practice to include first and last names of individuals mentioned, acronym definitions or decoder at end of message, active links (rather than long URLs), and an invite to the next Senate meeting.  A sample message is below:

Hello colleagues,

Here is a quick recap of some of the important info items from the last Senate meeting:

      • Enrollment Management -  The Vice President of Instruction (VPI) shared a presentation about the newly formed Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Task Force and led a discussion about key efforts and ideas for increasing enrollment.  See full presentation in BoardDocs Links to an external site..
      • Office of Equity - Professional Development Opportunity -  The Office of Equity is now accepting faculty to its semester long Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Certificate program.  Contact (Name) for more information and to register for the Fall semester cohort.
      • Guided Pathways update -   The Guided Pathways (GP) team shared a presentation on current implementation projects and goals for the upcoming semester.  See their presentation in BoardDocs.

Please refer to BoardDocs for full meeting minutes and details and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  Our next meeting will be (Date, time, location).  We'd love for you to join us.

Best regards, 

Your Faculty Senate Rep, (your name)

(Full Time) Faculty Hiring Prioritization Process

Each fall, departments consider whether they need a full-time hire. Those requests are sent to the Vice Presidents, and the department reviews metrics and crafts a narrative to explain the need for the position.  After having read all of the material, senators work together in teams to develop and provide specific questions for consideration by departments to highlight their needs, challenges, and contributions to fulfilling the College Mission and Vision.  Department chairs then attend a special Senate meeting devoted solely to their presentations and have the opportunity to answer questions and highlight aspects of their programs/departments. After the meeting, the senators stay to rank the positions. The deans do a separate ranking. Those are sent to the relevant Vice Presidents, VPI (Vice President of Instruction) and VPSS (Vice President of Student Services). Recommendations are brought to Cabinet, and final recommendations are then brought to the CPC (College Planning Council) and Governing Board.

 

Celebrate Graduation!  

Remind your colleagues that this day MATTERS.  Show up to Graduation and after-party Retirement Celebration.


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