Creating a Process to Rapidly Respond to Urgent Issues Julie Bruno, Sierra College, Facilitator Kale Braden, Cosumnes River College Debbie Klein, Gavilan College

Our Purpose Discuss what the ASCCC is doing to assists local senates in responding to urgent issues; Assess the effectiveness of current methods; and Propose alternate methods or processes that will improve the response time to urgent issues at both the local and state level.

Fall 2011 Resolution 01.02: Timely Process for Responding to Urgent Issues Whereas, Attacks on public higher education from numerous external organizations and agencies are increasing, and in some cases internal groups push agendas to achieve goals inconsistent with the goals of faculty; Whereas, Responses to attacks on and challenges to California community colleges must be strategic and timely, as well as provide guidance for local academic senates so that they can inform faculty and develop local action, such as writing letters to the editor, visiting or writing legislators, dividing work among colleges, and attending hearings;

Fall 2011 Resolution 01.02: Timely Process for Responding to Urgent Issues Whereas, As an example, the draft recommendations of the California Community Colleges Task Force on Student Success (established in response to Senate Bill 1143, Liu, 2010) necessitates an immediate response from the Academic Senate to effectively communicate the concerns of California community college faculty with the recommendations; and Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges functions as a democratic organization driven by resolutions and grass roots initiatives, which sometimes causes a delay in the ability to engage the numbers of faculty who want to join the cause;

Fall 2011 Resolution 01.02: Timely Process for Responding to Urgent Issues Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges establish a process that will provide strategic directions and plans for coordinating efforts by local academic senates to respond rapidly to aspects of state or federal initiatives that challenge our primacy in educational matters.

What We Do Now… ASCCC Reaches out to Local Senates in a variety of ways in the: E-world Senate Presidents’ Listserv Area Listservs Other Listservs (Curriculum, SLO) ASCCC Website Twitter Webinars Rostrums Academic Senate Papers President’s Update

What We Do Now… And the Physical World Conferences Institutes Local Senate Visits Regional Trainings 10+1 Training Accreditation Resource Team Budget Workshops Technical Visits SSTF Workshops Requested Visits

SCENARIOS

What’s working well with the processes that are currently in place?

What could the ASCCC do better?

How could we put into practice the suggestions for improvement?

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

THANK YOU!