February 13, 2024

Meeting Notes 

The classified senate met on zoom on February 13, 2024 with president, Adriana Garcia calling the meeting to order at 2:09 PM. 

The current agenda with the February 6 meeting notes plus the minutes for the January 30 meeting were approved by unanimous vote. 

Debee reported academic senate is still working on defining details of what regular and substantive interaction in online classes entails so De Anza can stay current with regulations. 

Adriana reminded members to fill out the leadership report for this week. 

Adriana reported on the equity action council's advancing several equity-minded positions to RAPP. 

Adriana reported that money is available for professional development day and Tracy is assisting. 

College Council is requesting Vice Presidents be added back to the voting membership of their committee and classified senate took a poll to see how people feel about it. Most people in the informal poll voted in favor. 

Adriana presented the draft of the name change resolution she has been working on. She gave a full presentation explaining the justification behind this resolution. This is the second read of this document which proposes a task force form to explore the possibility of changing the name of De Anza college to respect the indigenous peoples who occupied the land where De Anza is situated. There was a great deal of discussion about problems a name change would face, and Adriana reminded the membership that this resolution was merely to explore possibilities. 

The senate did decide to approve a task force "to explore all avenues of name change". Adriana will draft a FAQ and Debee will edit it. 

Adriana reported Juan volunteered to work on the classified senate handbook which will supplement the bylaws so that incoming senators will know what's expected. Vins will work on a committee to create employee recognition awards. Both need people to assist. 

She also reported that campus advisory committee still needs classified representation and Debee volunteered to represent classified on the police chief's district-wide advisory committee. 

Alex reported that sixteen positions are up for election and this will keep his elections committee busy. They will be meeting to develop a timeline. 

Maritza reported on professional development; planning for the March 1 retreat is underway with people signing up to conduct workshops. A registration/RSVP form will go out next week to get an accurate head count for attendance. This also helps, she explain to make decisions about which rooms to use for the workshops. There is still no participation from Central Services and she encourages if senators know anyone there to invite them to assist with planning this event. 

Asiya from DASG reported they are working on a budget for this year.  

Tina reported that RAPP is prioritizing positions it was asked to review -- see previous minutes for an explanation of this. Groups of positions with their suggested priority will be presented to college council.  The top tier includes: enrolment services, ground supervisor, physics lab tech and student leadership development. Note: she listed another position whose name I was not able to catch.) She also reported they are actively working on creating the second priority group which includes environmental science autotech and sociology faculty, plus office of equity personnel. The following week she said music, ethnic studies, visual arts and chemistry faculty positions will be discussed. RAPP seeks feedback from classified senate about music, visual arts, comparative ethnic studies and chemistry positions and how they should be prioritized. The senate voted for comparative ethnic studies after some discussion. She added that a total of eleven positions were under discussion and the committee is still working to prioritize them. She noted that the custodial supervisor, as opposed to grounds supervisor only got a few votes. 

There was some discussion about the limited number of times per year some classes require to graduate are held and the frustration students feel when classes are canceled for low enrollment. Classified senate agreed they would like to see decisions about whether to close classes  should be made later in the quarter. 

The meeting adjourned at 3:09 PM. 

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Links Mentioned in the chat 

• Current agenda: https://www.deanza.edu/gov/classifiedsenate/meetings/2024-02-13.html 
• Notes for January 30 meeting:
• Poll (office form) to gather opinion about whether to give vice presidents voting priveleges on college council:
• uclawsf.edu/new-name/ 
• sjsu.edu/kinesiology/about-us/history.php 
• deanza.edu/mascot/ 
• deanza.edu/students/messages/all/22-1215.html 
• Document accompanying Adriana's presentation on proposed name-change resolution : 
• Further Name-change references provided by Adriana:uclawsf.edu/new-name/ 
• sjsu.edu/kinesiology/about-us/history.php 
• deanza.edu/mascot/ 
• deanza.edu/students/messages/all/22-1215.html 
• Request for Representation form (to be sent to committee chairs requesting classified senat representation)