Academic Assembly Update

Ongoing Tri-Campus Governance Coordination

Since the beginning of 2017-2018 academic year, Dr. Paul Beaudin, Vice President for Academic Affairs, organized regular meetings with the three campus governance chairs. These meetings proved to be invaluable for college-wide coordination of faculty governance. This year Dr. Chris Adams, Vice President for Student Affairs, is participating in these meetings. The chairs have the opportunity to set the agenda and run the meetings on rotating basis. Many subjects were discussed during those meetings, including:

• Achieving the Dream initiative;
• SUNY Seamless Transfer Policy that includes SUNY Transfer Paths;
• Guided Pathways Project
• Plans for implementing SUNY Distinguished Faculty Ranks nomination process;
• College-wide governance;
• Commencement ceremony issues raised by the Student Government Association;
• College-wide syllabus template project.

Tri-Campus Governance Proposal

The three campus governance chairs have set up a Blackboard Community, where all college governance constituents will be able to express feedback on the Governance Coordinating Body proposal using a self-moderated discussion board. The announcement on how to access the Community will be sent out in the next couple of days once the setup of that platform is finalized.

Strategic Planning Process

Kaliah Greene, Executive Director of Office of Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, will conduct a Strategic Planning Focus Group right after the Assembly meeting. Faculty is one of the key constituents of the College community, and our participation is crucial for informing strategic planning process. Please stay if you can to contribute to this effort.

Director Greene also offered the possibility of conducting focus groups at departmental meetings. Please invite her to your department if you would like to use this opportunity.

The Committee met on September 25, 2018. It welcomed new members and considered issues related to Committee membership and vacancies at the College-wide level. Possible items for the Committee's review during this academic year are:

• Faculty-Authored Textbook Policy
• Academic Integrity
• Academic Probation Policy
• Systematic, scheduled review process for the College Catalog (p. 63-69 in Handbook)
• Withdrawal Policy
• Open Education Resources Policies
• ADA Compliance
• Awarding credit for AP courses
• Physical Education requirement

On Wednesday, November 28 at 6:00 p.m. in the LRC Lecture Hall Cris Cruz (who is a student member of the Committee) will be giving a presentation The Real Journey of a Dreamer He will tell his story about the many obstacles he faced which include kidnapping and exploitation as he crossed through 5 borders to get to the U.S.A.

Hope to see you there and please encourage your students to attend!

The Grant campus scholarship committee will be giving 3 scholarship workshops this semester:

• October 22, 2018; 7 PM - 8:10 PM (HSEC A313)
• November 13, 2018; 1 PM - 2 PM (Caumsett 10)
• December 18, 2018; 11 AM - 12 PM (Captree 113)

Please pass this information onto students and let them know that the deadline to apply for Spring 2019 scholarships is Friday, December 28, 2018.

Students can find more information regarding scholarships by going to SCCC home page > Quick Links > Scholarships > AcademicWorks. To view the scholarships that are available, they need to log on to the AcademicWorks web site with their usual SCCC login and password. If students have further questions, they can contact Adrienne Chu or Terri Donnell.

• The committee met on Friday, November 2.
• Student peer mentors can receive a textbook discount. This is currently in place at the Grant campus and is in the process of being put into place at the other two campuses as well.
• Follett representative indicated that scantrons will still continue to be sold until they are asked to stop selling them.
• Each campus discussed any issues/feedback regarding textbook orders. Follett indicated that this semester, they were too conservative in the reordering of textbooks and shared that there were changes in processing/warehouse organization system of certain publishing companies. These issues were related to several of the faculty concerns.
• Follett gave a December 12 due date to submit textbook orders for Spring 2019 semester.
• Bookstore will be having a 3-day sale from December 13 to December 15.

The October meeting was cancelled. The November meeting took place on Thursday, November 8. The following topics were discussed:

• Every year, the Committee organizes the Developmental Studies Workshop where faculty from SCCC and other colleges make presentations about innovating work related to developmental courses. The Counseling Center and Information Technology have also contributed interesting and enlightening presentations. This year, the Workshop will take place on March 9, 2019. We are looking forward to hearing from you. There are still free slots if you want to present at the workshop. Please submit your ideas and presentation proposals.
• The new Placement Advisement Guidelines to be used starting in the Spring of 2019 were presented.
• A document called Core Principles for Transforming Remediation within a Comprehensive Student Success Strategy: A joint statement was distributed among the members of the Committee in a hardcopy. Apparently the document is used inside SUNY to inform our goals with respect to developmental education. The document was drafted in 2015 by Achieving the Dream, the American Association of Community Colleges, the Charles A. Dana Center, Complete College America, the Education Commission of the States, and Jobs for the Future.
• How remediation is being addressed across the country was discussed at the meeting. There is consensus among the members of the Committee that departments should engage in rethinking developmental courses in order to increase retention.
• Questions were raised about what's happening with AtD and Guided Pathways. The Committee will make efforts to contact the corresponding administrators in order to get a better picture on the development of these initiatives.

The committee met on October 4 and considered the following items.

• Curriculum:
  • A course proposal for COL 125 (Service Learning through College Seminar) was submitted and is uploaded for review at the Grant Campus Curriculum Committee web site. The Grant Campus Curriculum Committee is planning to consider this proposal at its October 30th meeting. If approved, the Assembly will vote on it on November 13.
  • A letter of intent will be submitted for COL 111 for adult learners to change the current 1.5 credits to a 1 credit course.
  • COL 100 Theme-based College Seminar: the goal is to offer this course with the same designation, but allow the theme to change each year.
  • The Happiness Project - Ginny Horan is teaching this course during the Fall 2018 semester. One suggestion that she has is to make it a 2 credit course. She also thinks that the once a week meeting time isn't beneficial for the students. We discussed perhaps changing the course to meet twice a week for 10 weeks or twice a week for five weeks plus advising time.
• Professional Development: We are hosting our Professional Development event on January 24th at the Grant campus. A few breakout sessions we agreed on was OER, G.I.F.T.S., and Degree Works. We will reach out to faculty to see if there are any additional breakout session topics they would like to attend.
• Degree Works: This program is not yet visible to students, so they will see the SAIN. It was suggested to instruct COL 105 students to print their curriculum notes before going to their workshop in the counseling center. The students can use the curriculum notes for now to direct them in choosing classes for the next semesters.
• Campus Updates: The Grant campus will use the same survey from last year that assesses what campus services students are aware of. This survey will be shared with Student Services.
• Other updates: Faye Lourenso shared an OER from Minnesota that could be an option for faculty and students to use for college seminar courses.

The committee has not met since the last Assembly meeting.

The deadline to apply for college-wide Spring 2019 scholarships is Friday, December 28, 2018. Please encourage students to apply. Scholarship information can be obtained from the SCCC home page > Quick Links > Scholarships > AcademicWorks web site.

The FCCC approved the following items at their Plenary on October 13, 2018. Please see the Plenary Report for details. The Council is asking the campus governance bodies to endorse:

• Resolution ASA1.2018-2019 Supporting Child Care Center Funding, and
• Resolution G1.2018-2019 Supporting New Funding Model for the Community Colleges (see explanation).

The following two items do not need campus endorsement:

• Resolution ASA2.2018-2019 Supporting Gender Inclusivity within SUNY, and
• Statement Opposing Performance-Based Funding.

In 2017, the NY State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) awarded a 5 year College Environmental Prevention Grant to the Michael J. Grant Campus Chemical Dependency Counseling (CDC) Program. The focus of the grant is the prevention and reduction of underage alcohol use, as well as tobacco and other drug consumption. Its goal is to reduce access and availability of substances on campus and in the surrounding community. The grant will increase efforts in the area of changing attitudes and norms that support underage drinking and drug use, including prescription drug misuse and abuse.

The efforts funded by the grant already resulted in building the Brentwood Community & SCCC Coalition. The coalition's mission is to create a healthy and safe community environment by reducing access and use of alcohol and other drugs through collaboration, education and policy change.

One of the other Prevention Grant initiatives is to conduct a yearly Alcohol, Tobacco & Other Drug Student Survey. The survey will evaluate students' concerns, attitudes and knowledge about drinking and drug use, their experience with individuals who have been drinking, and their own experiences with alcohol and other drugs. This year's survey will be conducted during the first three weeks of November. All Grant Campus students will receive an email with the subject line: Substance Use Survey – Participate for a chance to win an Amazon Gift Card! inviting them to participate in the survey. Please share the attached flyer with your students and encourage them to look for the invite email and complete the survey.

If you or your students have any questions about the grant or survey, please contact Kathleen Flynn-Bisson, CDC Prevention Program Coordinator, at <flynnk@sunysuffolk.edu>.

LGBT & Ally Social will take place on Wednesday, October 24 during common hour (11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.) in Faculty Dining Lounge (off the side of Captree Commons cafeteria)

Please join us in connecting the Grant Campus LGBTQ community and our wonderful allies!

Free food and entertainment will be provided.

Sponsored by CAB, CARES Club, SGA, ΦΘΚ, Mental Health Services, QuASU and Peer Mentors

The SCCC Women's Club invites you to Stand Up, Speak Up, No More Violence which will take place between 6 and 8 p.m. on Thursday, October 25 in Captree 114. This event is part of the club's Domestic Violence Awareness Month program and will feature presentations from VIBS, Empowerment Collaborative of Long Island and SCCC Public Safety. Light snacks and refreshments will be served.

Please see the flyer for additional details.

The upcoming Take Back the Night Panel will take place on November 8 at 6:00 p.m. in HSEC - MD 105. The purpose of this event is to increase awareness of the college community about Take Back the Night mission and to give the opportunity to get involved in the Second Annual Take Back the Night event scheduled for April 12, 2019.

If you have any questions, please contact Danielle DiMauro-Brooks.

This semester, the class is focusing on educating and raising awareness about the signs of intimate partner abuse and how victims cope with this abuse in collaboration with VIBS (Victims Information Bureau of Suffolk). As part of that campaign, it will host the following events:

• Felt Quilt Project The class is asking people to write positive messages and messages of empowerment for survivors of domestic violence on pieces of felt. Each piece of felt will be sewn together as a quilt and displayed at their December 6 "December VIBS" event.
  • Wednesday, November 7, 2018 between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. in Captree Cafeteria
  • Thursday, November 8, 2018 between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. in HSEC Lobby
• Take Back the Night Panel Come on down to learn about Take Back the Night and how you can become involved. Take Back the Night is a really fantastic event and brought in over 200 people this year. We have some fantastic presenters, free food and awesome giveaways at this panel. November 8, 2018 between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. in HSEC, MD-105
• VIBS Fundraiser, please see the flyer for details and follow this link to RSVP. Thursday, November 29, 2018 between 11:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. in Miller's Ale House in Deer Park
• December VIBS Dinner: A Domestic Violence & Chemical Dependency Awareness featuring guest speakers, food and entertainment. Please see the flyer for details. Thursday, December 6, 2018 between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.

Sister Mary Ann's Helping Hands Fund Fundraiser is taking place on Wednesday, November 21, 2018 between 11:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. in Miller's Ale House in Deer Park. Please see the flyer for details and follow this link to RSVP.