The abundance of committees within the Academic Senate, including a “Breakfast Committee” and a “Committee on Committees,” has caused frustration for some members due to the limited amount of time set aside for each committee to meet.
Currently there are eight standing committees, nine operational committees, nine Ad Hoc Committees, and nine College Coordinating Council (CCC) standing committees, in addition to committees within each academic division, all of which must find time to meet within the College Hour (Tuesday and Thursday from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.). As a result, quite a few of these committees have conflicting meeting times.
“The executive committee has suggested to CAPM to expand the College Hour to Monday through Thursday from 12 to 1 p.m.,” Academic Senate Secretary Patricia Rose said. “Unfortunately, not much progress has been made.”
The number of committees has caused confusion during senate meetings—most recently regarding the relationship between the shared governance commencement committee versus the Academic Senate commencement committee—and some senators have expressed discomfort with the process in which some committees were formed. In addition to committees devoted to college business, there is even a “Breakfast Committee” formed to determine what senate members should eat.
There are committees that rarely or never meet, have retired members, and are unaware of their mission statements, said Academic Senate President Eduardo Cairo.
As a result, a “committee on committees” was formed. Sarah Barker is the chair of the Committee on Committees, and will be joined by Rhea Presiado and Shelly Gaskin.
Their first order of business will be to “clean up the website,” said Barker. They will be updating the site with the current committees, along with the dates and times of meetings, and finally posting the agendas and minutes for said meetings, according to Barker.
In their first two meetings, they have begun evaluating each committee based on what the senate bylaws require. Barker will present a full report at the next Academic Senate meeting on March 23.
“There is a lot of work to be done,” added Cairo.
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Really? You honestly believe that the Breakfast Committee is formed to tell senate members what to eat? Clueless.