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Cancelled Winter 2012-2013

by pccfa

Title 5 Calendar Provision

Title 5 calendar provisions.pdf

Data and rationale to reinstate Winter

Updates from the Calendar Committee:

How did we get here? Where did Winter go?

  • August 29, 2012 – Vice President Bob Bell assures the Board of Trustees and public that Summer session classes would transfer for UCs and CSUs. The Board summarily cancels Winter Intersession that night. How the Board Cut Winter – excerpts from Aug. 29, 2013 
  • September – October 2012 – The Administration takes out at least 4 full-page ads in the PCC Courier asking the public to think of the three-term calendar “AS 16-6 INSTEAD of 6-16” and further claimed that new calendar was to “improve student success.”
  • November, 2012 – the Academic Senate surveyed faculty on whether they approved of the process by which the Board of Trustees removed winter from the original 2012-2013 calendar that had been vetted by the Senate’s own Calendar Committee April 12, 2012 and had itself already been approved by the Board on May 2, 2012.   76% of polled faculty disapproved (259 of 341) of the process that the PCC Administration took to impose its new calendar.
  • January 24, 2013 – At the Associated Students Town Hall meeting, administration officials assured students that they were placing calls to UCs and CSUs. Further, they claimed that Summer Session 1 classes could be rebranded as “Spring 2” to count for transfer.
  • January 27, 2013 – PCC Transfer Center sends an email to UC applicants stating: “Please DO NOT ASSUME you can take courses in the summer 2013 and have those courses ‘make up’ for courses you didn’t complete in fall 2012 or spring 2013.  Please contact the UC campus directly about their policies permitting summer course completion.”
  • February 8, 2013 –Humboldt State University (HSU) sends an email out to PCC students indicating that Humbolt understands that Summer Session 1 classes will end in June, however it “will NOT be accepting summer session 1 course work for requirements to be admissible.” For more details and references: Questions continue to loom over Summer Session 2013 transfer.
  • March 3, 2013 – Calendar Committee Holds Special Meeting Despite Abrupt Cancellation Earlier in the Week
  • April 8, 2013 –  The registration system crashes because priority enrollment couldn’t be accommodated. The PCC server experiences 4000 hits per second; students are angry, staff feel threatened. Read Courier article here.
  • April 11, 2013 – Calendar Committee votes on a 2013-2014 calendar with Winter and votes to recommend it to the Board of Trustees
  • April 15, 2013- Academic Senate approves 2013-2014 calendar with Winter.
  • April 25, 2013 – Calendar Committee agrees co-chair VP Bob Bell indicated that the calendar was sitting on his desk awaiting the signatures of himself, Bob Miller, and Mark Rocha to be placed as a consent item on the May 1st Board of Trustees agenda.
  • May 1, 2013 – 2013-2014 Calendar is NOT on the agenda of the Board of Trustees
  • May , 2013 – “Spring 2″semester starts –  Veterans and financial aid students are not able to get their financial aid. Faculty don’t know how much they are getting paid – summer rates or spring rates
  • June  5, 2013- , Ryan Ahari, a former student trustee of Rancho Santiago Community College and now member of the Student Senate for California Community Colleges (SSCCC) delivered a resolution in solidarity with our own Associated Students asking the PCC Trustees to reverse their decision on the “Student Calendar.” Read the Resolution  and see video of Mr. Ahari’s speech (Minute 14:00).
  • June 13, 2013: College Council – Dr. Rocha presented THREE calendars: A calendar with Winter Intersession, developed and approved by  the Calendar Committee and approved the Academic Senate,  three-term calendar with a Spring semester beginning in early January, developed by unknown parties and a three- term calendar with a Spring semester beginning in the second week of January developed by unknown parties. When asked about what process is being followed, he referred to this policy: http://www.pasadena.edu/ipro/policies/pcc_2000.pdf
  • June 21, 2013: PCC Counseling sends email to students in Extended Spring that it will be recorded on their transcript as Summer. Indeed, it won’t count for transfer this year. Read extensive Courier article here.

What has been the FA’s position?

The imposition of the “tentative student calendar” constitutes a violation and blatant disregard of shared governance, and all the hard work [the Calendar Committee] put in over the past year to develop our current calendar which includes a Winter Intersession.

The FA’s position is that the calendar is tentative because it has not been negotiated. From a legal perspective, it has to be signed off on to be an approved calendar. It has not been approved by the FA, so if it goes forward, it will be an imposed calendar, a breach of our contract and an unfair labor practice.

(excerpts from Public Comment Questions and Address to the Calendar Committee on 9-27-12)

But why did Winter get cancelled to begin with?

Despite the extensive advertising of Qs and As from the District, perhaps you still have questions about how canceling winter and adding it to summer was going to save the District money or how the “Carnegie Hour” of shortening in-class time while having “slightly longer” semesters was going to benefit students. Read on! .PCCFA Calendar Handout (September 13, 2012) (as of 9/27/2012)

PERB Violation:

How does the FA and District negotiate the effects of the trimester calendar and elimination of winter? Step 1: Data, please.   PCCFA Request for Documents from District (September 6, 2012)

Effects on Adjunct Faculty:

Special Message to Part-Time Faculty on Trimester