In a strange coincidence, the board of trustees had a presentation on the collegial consultation process hours after the academic senate accepted a resolution of no confidence in that process.
Academic Senate for California Community Colleges President Michelle Pilati and Community College League of California CEO Scott Lay gave an hour-long presentation titled “Participating Effectively in District and College Governance” during a special board meeting on April 3.
However, at noon that day the Academic Senate had voted, without nays and with five abstentions, to request the board for the ASCCC and CCLC’s jointly provided issue resolution service.
“We feel it’s a very fair request, and we see it as a positive move that could solve our problems with collegial consultation, instead of just drawing attention to it,” Academic Senate President Dr. Christina Gold said.
The ASCCC and CCLC, as statewide representatives of faculty and administrators, jointly offer four such services, the other two being “Advisory Assistance” and “Special Workshops and Presentations”.
According to a draft of the senate’s resolution, in 2008 the senate requested this issue resolution service and was denied by the board. Instead, the board insisted that only the “information presentation” service was necessary, the same service held at the April 3 board meeting.
“The board asked that we start at the beginning, with the presentation, and then move on to the issue resolution,” said History Professor Dr. Emily Rader.
A few of the 120 or so members of the audience, such as board trustee Dr. Ray Gen, were optimistic about the presentation’s effectiveness.
“I think it laid out the issues so that we all have common ground when we advance into other areas of disagreement or communications” Gen said.
Less optimistic about the presentation, audience members such as ECC Classified Representative Luukia Smith still hoped the presentation managed to accomplish something worthwhile.
“I think there are many people on campus who think collegial consultation means ‘listen to what I want to say, and then do what I say’,” Smith said.
“I think having an accurate understanding of the definition is really important”, Smith added.
However, many attendees were less than enthusiastic about the presentation’s outcome, such as senate member and Art History instructor Ali Ahmadpour.
“I don’t think the board listened. I didn’t hear anything from the board that sounded like these people were here for a reason, that there is a problem here,” Ahmadpour said.