Reinvigorate the Academic Senate through the full participation of all academic departments, substantial discussion of the role of the Senate and how it covers its areas of purview, periodic retreats for Senate members to inform and interact with one another, and improvement of communication to and from its committees and faculty representatives.
Form a Senate oversight committee to oversee parliamentary practice, increase efficiency at meetings, increase transparency, and encourage Senate leadership.
Suggest ways to integrate instruction and academic and student support services, weighing the college-wide strategies being used to facilitate the student success of its different student populations such as disabled, noncredit, basic skills, transfer, and online.
Recommend strategies to strengthen distance education at Gavilan and provide the student and faculty support services needed, and emphasize the need to identify the programs and/or disciplines in which distance education growth is desired to enable longer-term planning.
Make recommendations on the use of grants, from application and implementation to institutionalization of grant-funded activities, focusing, in particular, on how grants integrate into college operations, strategic planning, budget allocation, and instructional strategy.
Make recommendations on the configuration and integration of academic departments with the goal of rendering academic units that effectively represent their faculty and programs and contribute to shared governance.
Make recommendations on how noncredit instruction can be most effectively utilized to address student and programmatic needs while closely integrated with academic departments and college-wide guidelines.
