Recurrent

What is happening with your campus and Accreditation?

The following article is concerned with responses to questions put forth by faculty to the chairs of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Within the two sets of responses exist two distinct philosophies for dealing with faculty concerns. First, a little background information is in order.

This is probably not news to anyone, but very often curricular decisions are not driven by faculty and are not based on what's best for our students. More and more often it seems that other entities believe that they know better than faculty do when it comes to our curriculum. And more and more often it seems that other entities believe that our curriculum processes should be designed to meet their needs-as opposed to serving to maintain the integrity of our curriculum.

Tis the season to be jolly, to get along with family and friends, and to spend with abandon. Ho, ho, ho.

My holiday offering to you is a somewhat random collection of observations wrapped in a glittering cover of interpersonal communication and adorned with festive dollar signs. If you discern a more fundamental pattern be sure to let me know. Send an email to headreindeer at northpole.fable.

As a local leader and possibly a delegate to an Academic Senate Plenary session, you may find yourself in the role of writing a resolution for consideration by the body. You may also be considering the use of the resolution process with your local senate. Here are some guidelines to help you craft a quality resolution.

On January 5 and 6, 2007, the Academic Senate will host its first-ever FACULTY-sponsored and FACULTY-driven accreditation workshop-in short, accreditation for/by/of faculty.not just a workshop sponsored by the Accrediting Commission itself. At this Institute, we will explore a range of topics that include the proper role of peer review, how the Accrediting Commission measures up, the role of participatory governance as related to assessment and the successful self study, and methods for navigating the minutia of outcomes at all institutional levels.

This year you have attended your first plenary session and participated in the discussion and debate of resolutions on Saturday. There are several resolutions that you are interested in and you begin to wonder what happens next. This article will briefly describe what happens to resolutions after they are adopted and how you can track their status.

I was going to begin with a dull title-"Revisiting Plenary", but then I realized I had so much more that I wanted to say - that there was a need to interpret the events of Plenary.

Accreditation is a stressful and challenging time for any institution. However, it also offers the chance to collectively assess the strengths and weaknesses of your college's programs and services. One wrinkle of any college's accreditation is distance education (DE). Because DE is a relatively new area, many of the policies and procedures are still being ironed out. This is why DE is a particularly worrisome element for those writing the self-study report at any college.

In Fall 2001, a resolution called for the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges to develop a paper outlining practices and recommendations to assist local senates with addressing issues raised by admitting minor students to colleges. Not long after that in 2003, a task force of the Consultation Council was created to investigate the same issues. Finally in Fall 2005, the Educational Policies Committee was assigned to write a paper on the subject, and Minors on Campus: Underage Students at Community Colleges, was adopted at the Fall 2006 Plenary Session.