Academic Senate for Dummies
By Jose Perieda
Do you know Chaffey College has an academic senate? What is an academic senate? What is a senate? If you have any of these questions, do not worry you are not alone, I too had these questions. My only reference for a senate was the galactic senate from Star Wars. I had a feeling, though, that the senate from Chaffey College was not floating around in cosmic desks in an intergalactic arena.
An academic senate is an organization of faculty members that make recommendations on academic and professional matters. They discuss all sorts of topics that range from grading policies all the way to institutional planning and budget development.
The senate is held through the Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana and Chino campus through a zoom meeting, hugely different from Star Wars. The meetings are held every Tuesday from 12:30 pm to 1:50 pm. Any student can attend these meetings, thanks to the Brown Act. The Ralph M. Brown Act is a California law that allows the public to attend local legislative meetings.
I had the pleasure of attending two of these meetings on the Fontana campus. I attended these meetings due to the rare occasion that the Academic Senate was having a vote of no-confidence on the Executive Team.
What is an Executive Team? An Executive team is responsible for the entire leadership of Chaffey College. The members consist of President Dr. Henry Shannon, Lisa Bailey, Michael McClellan, Alisha Rosas and Troy Amnet.
A vote of no-confidence is a vote that a governing body is no longer deemed fit to hold that position. The Academic Senate is developing the vote because the Executive Team is not taking responsibility for their lack of organization, unfair hiring criteria and poor budget planning, or so they claim.
Due to their alleged poor budget planning, The Executive Team have been the source of downfall for many Chaffey programs such as Dual Enrollment, Rising Scholars, Mental Health, Chaffey Champions, Interns and even Athletics. A prime example is the career services department which still exists without a dean, or a budget; the concern was recently addressed in the President's Cabinet Meeting.
All of the aforementioned programs have suffered leadership malleability and have been subject to staff reduction as a result of budget cuts, similarly to the career services department. The Senate also wants to include nepotism and cronyism on their list of reasons as to why they believe the governing body is not deemed fit to hold their positions. The concepts of nepotism and cronyism describe favoring family members or friends in the workplace.
The Senate is having difficulties in including both terms because they are being threatened by a law firm. Yes, the Executive Team has hired a law firm.
The Executive Team has not been in communication with the Academic Senate during the development of their vote directly. Their only form of communication was through their law firms. Among this communication, The Executive Team’s lawyers also sent a letter the week prior to the senate meeting specifically naming four individuals from the Senate, excluding the rest of the members. The letter named President Nicole DeRose, Elizabeth Encarnacion, Robin Witt and Angela Burk-Herrick.
Several educators are scared to talk about their feelings about the leadership because they are non-tenured, and some members have claimed to have been threatened by HR.
There has been little communication between leadership and faculty. One example is when a professor told their students about the in-person mental health services provided in the Chino campus. The professor was not aware that the mental health services were stripped from the Chino campus until another instructor informed him.
The Chino and Fontana campuses had their mental health services replaced by a telephone line, called Telemedicine. The Rancho Cucamonga campus is the only Chaffey campus that provides in-person mental health help at this time
In 2021, Chaffey College received a $25 million gift from Mackenzie Scott. The Executive Team created the Chaffey College Trust that places the money sit in a bank account to create interest over time. The Academic Senate believes those funds could be put to a better use such as helping current programs, student services and educational planning. The $25 million has nothing to do with the current construction happening in the Rancho campus, however.
As of this writing, the Academic Senate has not gone through with the vote of no-confidence. The Senate wants to ensure that their documents are strong enough to represent their views and have no push-back from the law firm. The law firm letter implied that the Senate works on their vote of no-confidence proposal in private. The Senate has to legally work on their proposal in the Senate meeting time only and in the public.
I hope for more students to join these meetings to gain a further understanding and appreciation for their college faculty and their representation that has every student's best interest in mind. There is a student representative from the student government that is a member of the Academic Senate to help ensure the priority of student education.