Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC)

By Dan Crump, CCL Liaison to the ASCCC

ASCCC held their Fall Plenary Session in a hybrid format, both online and in-person in Long Beach in early November. The theme was "Leading Change: Teaching, Learning, and Governance in a Hybrid World" and provided impactful breakout sessions, discussion of statewide issues and the opportunity for networking with faculty colleagues throughout the state. A listing of the Session program, breakout materials, and resources is available on the ASCCC website.

In addition, the delegates adopt resolutions that guide the work of the ASCCC. The resolutions cover a wide range of topics relating to "academic and professional matters" (the ASCCC 10+1). While all the resolutions are worthy of mention and of interest to librarians, I wish to note two areas that are of specific note for the library community–open educational resources (OER) and tutoring and learning centers. The ASCCC adopted the paper “The Role of Faculty in Tutoring and Learning Centers.” Many thanks to the writing team for this paper: Ted Blake (Mt San Jacinto College), Vandana Gavaskar (Santa Barbara City College), Ray M. Sanchez (Madera Community College) and Tascha Whetzel (Mendocino College), in collaboration with the ASCCC Transfer, Articulation, and Student Success Committee. There were also a series of resolutions about OER and ZTC (zero textbook cost) courses and degrees spearheaded by Michelle Pilati, Coordinator of the ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI) and the rest of the OERI team. Granted, OER is not an exclusive librarian issue, but is of great interest to us as we are involved in OER/ZTC initiatives and activities at our colleges. The text of the all the resolutions can be found on the ASCCC website.

I have the honor and privilege of being the CCL Liaison to the ASCCC and therefore attend their meetings to present the library faculty perspective. I can attest that they are a hard-working and fantastic group of faculty leaders. The ASCCC is very supportive of the role that librarians perform in the instructional processes at all of our colleges (see the 2019 ASCCC paper,"The Role of Library Faculty in the California Community College"), and I also wish to acknowledge the strong and continued support of the ASCCC for the Library Services Platform (LSP). They have been great in every step of the way!