Welcome Back…

Colleagues:

Welcome to the spring 2010 semester; I hope you all had restful breaks. Thank you to Bill McGuire and Carol Fregly for the birthday celebration last Wednesday, especially for the delicious cake. It was enjoyed by many.

As I explained at the department meeting, we have some work ahead of us this semester. We have course outlines to revise, assessment taking place in English 92 and 93, more regular faculty evaluations to complete, and the annual Program Review to produce. These are time-consuming projects and to the faculty who are already in place and working on these projects, your efforts are appreciated. For those who are looking for ways to become involved, please contact me. As you know, anyone can come to the English Curriculum Committee and Intra-Departmental Committee meetings, and important work gets initiated in these meetings. If you have ideas/suggestions that you would like to get on the agenda for ECC, contact Jodi Naas, and for the IDC contact me.

I will be co-chairing the committee on standards and access for the CLIP Grant (Communities Learning in Partnership) with Math chair, Dennis Piontkowski, which could potentially infuse some much needed money into the college and our programs but, more importantly, may produce some real collaboration with SFUSD. With 70% of SFUSD high school students testing into Basic Skills English, and with many new high school students having issues with access to our classes, something needs to change. Hopefully this group will be able to initiate some active involvement and communication.

Welcome to our emergency hires. In English, welcome to Richard Simon, John Gravener, Michele Bigley, and Anne Cassia. In Speech, welcome to Shawn Whalen and Nathan Steele.

NOVEMBER NEWS

November News…

This has been a busy month for all of us, what with evaluations, midterms, finalizing the spring schedule, fighting to keep our secretary, Pam (a fight which, unfortunately, has been lost) and, for many, fighting the flu (swine and otherwise). The end of the semester break is coming none too soon. Thanksgiving came and went much too quickly…

The new secretary, Tanya Clarkson, started on November 30th. Let’s welcome her kindly; it’s not her fault that this situation has occurred.

The final word for summer is NO summer. This was confirmed by the Chancellor at the November 19th College Council. He also discussed the status of the budget, which is not looking good for fall 2010/11 and even into 2011/12. So, I assume that this translates into continued salary freezes for us all. However, in his words, “keeping jobs is more important right now than student access.” He did not confirm if we would still be cutting classes for fall 2010, but the shortfall is significant, and if money can’t be found or raised, there is a good possibility. Already the Vice-Chancellor is asking me to look at the reassigned time given to faculty as a place to cut, so be prepared. I have managed to hold onto these reassigned positions for spring, but things could change.

Despite the postponements, we are still short faculty to teach this spring. I was able to get permission to use the expired part-time faculty pool list to emergency hire, and, so far, I’ve found three new instructors, but I still need to cover three more classes. If anyone knows of someone that meets the requirements (MA English, experience (particularly with basic skills) and wants a class for spring, please let me know.

We had a very successful fund raiser, and our thanks go out to Bill McGuire for all of his hard work. He raised over $400 dollars for the department, and everybody walked away happy with their new treasures. The fall tea, thanks to Ellen Wall, was a wonderful opportunity for faculty to chat and enjoy a few minutes reprieve from the grind. And, our department Holiday Party, December 12th, will be held at Jackie Davis-Martin’s home. Thanks to Jackie for her gracious offer. Details have been sent out by email from Bill McGuire. The new and improved Hire Me 20 (+40) Cunning Cooks is available now, and proceeds will benefit the English Department scholarships and programs. Thanks to Amy Miles, Susan Zimmerman, and everyone else involved who helped produce it.

Our congratulations go out to Jennifer Brych-Sullivan for the birth of her son, Cooper, born on November 23rd. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 10 ounces. Mom and son are doing well.

Our sincere condolences to Dennis Hendrickson and family on the loss of his father. Also, the latest City Currents has the obituary for Moneera Doss, and the date of her memorial service.

As we move to the end of the semester, I want to thank all of you for your hard work and commitment to our students and our profession during very difficult times. And thank you for your help and understanding as I navigate the job of department chair.

Have a wonderful holiday and break. It is much needed and deserved. I may have to leave earlier than expected, as grandson #2 may make an early appearance. I have asked Paolo Sapienza and Craig Kleinman to assist if this should happen. I will be available by phone (415) 336-1909 or email should this occur.

The final ECC and IDC meeting will be held on December 9th. Also, if you have any suggestions for the spring department meeting, please let me know. We will be meeting on January 15th at 10:30, and we will most likely break for lunch and return for department business.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND SEE YOU IN THE NEW YEAR!

Jessica

Schedules

Faculty,

The first month in the “chair” has been an eye-opening experience. I would be lying if I said it hasn’t been stressful, but I would like thank those of you who make my job easy by doing yours, especially Pam and the students–Ray, Wes, Aaron and Sunny.  Your help is appreciated. Amy Miles, thanks for the meditation tape, Andrea Sanelli for moral support and laughter, Loren Bell for the beautiful Dahlias, Kleinman for all of YHLB support, and all the rest of you who continue to give me the “thumbs up. “ 

The first draft of the schedule is done for all full and part-time faculty.  There are a few faculty that have special circumstances to address before I can finish but, for the most part, everyone  should have received an email from me. If not, let me know. Keep in mind that this schedule is tentative; it may change. The good news is that despite the 12.6 cuts, all current part-timers have been kept at modal load this fall and will be kept at modal load for spring.

I used the scheduling program that was set up by Tom Boegel years ago, and it is pretty amazing. There are some kinks that have to be worked out, but so far so good. It allows some maneuvering that pen and paper don’t. Tom Boegel is my new superpower!

At the DCC meeting on Thursday, the Chancellor was invited to clarify some of the budget issues as well as the early campus closure rumor that was circulating. This is something that is not a “for sure” and he indicated that in cases where programs would be adversely affected, it would not happen at all. We will see. He also stated that we are in for at least 18 more months of economic pressure and difficulty. One of the proposed suggestions, and it is one that we should all prepare for, is to cut summer. Apparently it’s been done before and, though none of us may like it, it can help to save classes for next fall and spring. It also sends a pretty strong message to Sacramento.

Hope your semester is going well. My door is open.

Jessica

ECC Minutes

CCSF English Department

English Curriculum Committee

Wednesday, August 26, 2009, 1:30-2:30 PM, in Bat 553

 

Next Meeting:   Sept. 9, 2009 from 1:30-3, followed by the IDC meeting, 3-4

Agenda Items:  TBA

 

1.  Jodi Naas announced a change to the composition of the department’s Curriculum Committee, as per the department’s bylaws. Jenny Worley will replace Mitra Ganley, who had to resign as a voting member due to a scheduling conflict. Jenny Worley was next in line in the vote count when CC members were elected last year. Also, Naas reminded faculty to email Curriculum Committee agenda items to her (and cc: Secretary, Amy Miles) and to email IDC items to Jessica Brown.

 

1. Jessica Brown announced that this fall’s FTE may reflect only a 5.6% cut instead of the 7% initially proposed.  As a result, the Department  may need to cut up to 6% of its classes this spring.  Jessica will know more after her meeting with Dean Bruce Smith, immediately following the Curriculum meeting.  Jessica also mentioned that spring overloads will be unlikely, and summer school may be canceled.  Jessica will keep faculty appraised on her blog.

 

Jessica also announced that she has the first draft of the spring schedule, a roll-over from last spring.  She reminded faculty members to submit their preference forms. 

 

Lastly, Jessica commended English Department Secretary Pam Petersen; she has been instrumental in providing direction to the students and systemizing the Department files these first weeks of the semester.  One of the new systems includes recoding the copy machine in the conference room.  Jessica asked that faculty please use the ten-year-old copier with care and to adhere to the copy limits posted above the copier. 

 

The Committee shared other methods for dispersing handouts, which included:  taking advantage of the Moodle shells attached to classes (the Technology Learning Center can help faculty get started with this new program), emailing students soft copies of materials,  creating file sharing spaces, assembling course readers,  and assigning readings from the library periodical databases. Craig offered Moodle and file sharing workshops on Mondays from 4-7 in Cyberia while Jodi Naas offered to help instructors assemble readers.  

 

1. Jessica Brown updated the Committee on the revisions to the catalog course offerings.  She confirmed that the Curriculum Committee voted on deleting classes from the English 49 series (for a list of deleted classes, please see the 2007-2008 Curriculum Committee Minutes).

 

Jessica also stressed that we have many course outlines on record that still need to be rewritten and/or redesigned.  For example, Jessica suggested a redesign of English 41—Writing in Connection with Reading of Important Books of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries—and a possible removal of the composition differential.

 

Lastly, Jessica reported that English 52, Shakespeare, and  English 53, The Development of the Drama in English: Medieval to Early Modem, were added into Group 3, Specialized Writing and Literature, of the English Major curriculum.

 

1. Craig Kleinman reported that San Francisco State no longer accepts English 59, Advanced Literary Analysis, as its Junior Seminar class, English 480.  SF State has grandfathered in last spring’s English 59 students ; however, Deanna Abma is fighting for State to accept English 59 when it is offered this spring. Paolo Sapienza and Craig stressed that CCSF developed the useful course because SF State asked us to.  The Committee suggested furthering discussions with SF State’s English Department and attempting to articulate the class to UC.  Currently, the course transfers to UC as an elective.

 

Craig also presented Reading Plus statistics from the summer.  In classes with lab requirements, the students completed more guided reading lessons in the Reading Plus program.  As a result, reading level and reading rate improved significantly.  Craig highly recommends that instructors take advantage of the Reading Plus at all class levels.  Interested instructors can see the new Reading Plus manual in the English Department Conference Room and/or contact Craig for more details.

 

1. Craig reminded faculty that the Southeast Campus Lab is open to all students taking English classes; it is open M 11-2, Tues. 4-6, W 12-3, Thurs. 11-2.

 

Attendance:  Loren Bell, Lizzie Brock, Jessica Brown, Karen Cox, Darren Keast, Craig Kleinman, Jackie Davis Martin, Amy Miles, Jodi Naas, Andrea Sanelli, Paolo Sapienza, Jim Sauvé, Kelly Vogel (bold indicates a voting member).

Impacted Classes

Colleagues,

As expected, many classes at all levels have students clamoring to get in. There’s only one answer, one that nobody is happy to hear, and that’s budget cuts. On a positive note, the blackboard in the English Department office is listing all current open classes. Surprisingly, there are a number of openings. Check them yourselves or send students to check them. Please continue to get your preference forms in to Pam, and thank you for doing so in a timely fashion. I have yet to hear if we are still at the 4.6% cut for spring, but I will keep you posted. I do know that the summer is cut at 80%.

It’s a crazy first week in the “chair,” but I appreciate all the smiles and good wishes…

Cheers,

Jessica

Welcome…

August 14, 2009

CHANGE                       CURRICULUM             COMMUNICATION

Welcome to the fall 2009 semester. Despite the gloom and doom of economic woes, I hope we can get off to a positive and productive beginning. My first goal as Department Chair was to clean things up a bit and reorganize. So, the conference room is painted and rearranged, the carpets in the main department areas cleaned, the secretary’s area painted and reorganized, and new wall files with all pertinent information for faculty are hung. All in all, a fresh and hopefully inviting space has been created. Some of you may even have seen me hanging out on the 5^th floor ledge washing my office windows–something I found out hasn’t been done in twenty or more years. And, no, I don’t normally do windows. But do come by and see the view.

More importantly, however, is the presence of our new department secretary, Pam Petersen, who came to us through internal transfer. She stepped into the new job with good humor and impressive skills, despite the chaos of the “extreme makeover” that was taking place. We are fortunate to have her and she is already proving to be a great asset to the department. Please be nice to her. We need her.

As far as goals for the semester and first year, surviving the budget cuts is crucial, and I have been following the developments and sending them along in order to keep you apprised. The latest information out of the Chancellor’s office is that we need to cut classes for the year (2009/2010) 12.6%. Since we already cut 8% in the fall, that means (although I am told it could change tomorrow) that we only need to cut 4.6% for spring. There is yet no word on summer.

Unfortunately, student services have also taken a big hit, so making the best use of our lab facilities, faculty, and tutors, in order to give students what they need to succeed is going to be challenging. However, our lab and tech coordinator, Craig Kleinman, has been working diligently and creatively most of the summer to address these issues as has Alissa Messer, co-coordinator of the Writing Lab.

With curriculum issues, the major development is the new English 1A graduation requirement. We must continue to design our curriculum in a cohesive way to prepare our students. Outlines need to be revised, and better synthesis from level to level needs constant attention and communication. We all know that many of our students’ reading skills are not what they should be for college level work. Several developments toward addressing this are currently being implemented. Jim Sauvé has been working on using a new reading diagnostic (ADRP), and Craig Kleinman is putting together data on the Reading Plus Software results and working with Zoya in the Reading Lab to revamp and initiate new materials. More information and discussion on these issues will take place at the Department Meeting, August 14^th.

Lastly, I am hoping that my new web page and blog will serve to get lines of communication going on all department-related matters. Your packets have information on how to access these, and the department calendar, which has been updated to include important dates for this semester’s meetings. We have made some changes to the Intradepartmental Council (IDC) in an effort to make these meetings productive and with the hope that many more faculty will attend. Some changes will need to be made to the by-laws addressing these and other changes that we now know, after the first year, need to be made. We are going to hold this meeting after the English Curriculum Committee (ECC) meets once a month. The dates are on the calendar on my blog, or on the department website calendar. Finally, my door will almost always be open for questions, concerns, and ideas.

Welcome and have a great semester.

Jessica