Meeting & Agendas


Committee
Foreign Languages Task Force
Date
09/03/2021
Status
Approved
Begin Time
01:00 pm
End Time
04:00 pm
Location

Virtual
Online/Remote Url


Members in attendance: Michael Hydak, Scott Gibby, Diane Echevarria, Fahim Idais, Eric Cintron, Jan Emberson, John McMinn-Reyna, Roberto Ybarra, Catherine Angell, Rahelina Razanadrafara, Mary Greff, Oscar Garcia-Landois, Vanessa Lazo, Todd Phillips, Bernadeta Kaminska, Julie Kleinhans-Urrutia, Mariela Prato-Williams, Myung-Joo Oh, James Burleson, Alina Waguespack, Matthew Conner
Members not in attendance: Guadalupe Lopez-Cox, Ramiro Juarez, Lam Lau, Yuko Kato, Bradley Barr, Yuri Munoz, Garrett Oleen, Alejandra Polcik, N/A, Marcel Pons Ventura, Aylin Amore, Hector Gonzalez, Timothy Altanero, Talia Loaiza, Stuart Smith, Elsa Taylor, Rosa Davila, Delia Montesinos, Veronique Mazet, Ewa Siwak, Carola Lofton, Jenny RIOJAS, Claire Parrish, Rose Joynt, Vanessa Fanelli, George Solano, Jesus Amaya, William Weihe, Patrick Lawrence

Agenda:

1)
Description
Fall 2021 Departmental Meeting/ Approval Minutes From Spring 2021
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
Approve Spring 2021 report. Vanessa Lazo presented the minutes from the February, 2021 meeting for approval. Action taken: The minutes were approved.
2)
Description
Distance Learning/ Early College High School/ Dual Credit
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
Distance Learning Nothing new to report. Early College High School/ Dual Credit ECHS has cancelled the one remaining Native Speaker section. All Dual Credit & ECHS sections are being held at the respective campuses with varying health and safety mandates. ACC continues to partner with our local ISD's to ensure that we are all keeping the wellbeing of our community in mind as the Covid-19 pandemic with its variants continues. The Arabic program at Austin Peace Academy (APA) is on hold until the Spring of 2022
3)
Description
Eligibility/ Faculty Problem/Foreign Language Honor Society
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
Eligibility List Nothing new to report. Faculty Problems Nothing to report to the faculty at large. Foreign Language Honor Society The Honor Society added 3 full members and 8 associate members.
4)
Description
Faculty Committee 2020-2021
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT COMMITTEES 2020-2021 COMMITTEE FACULTY MEMBERS FUNCTIONS Adjunct Evaluation Committee Co-chairs: Talía Loaiza & Mariela Prato- Williams Members: All Full-Time Faculty (AF Evaluation) Maintain: Evaluation folders/files Oversee: Evaluation process summary forms Adjunct Faculty Interview Committee Chair: Tim Altanero Members: Vanessa Lazo Julie Kleinhans John McMinn-Reyna Theresa Oh Oversee/carry out: Adjunct Faculty hiring based on programming needs Review applications Contact applicants Conduct interviews Fill out paperwork Assessment Committee Chair: Julie Kleinhans Members: Joe Boone Scott Gibby Rosa Dávila Talía Loaiza Jan Emberson Theresa Oh Oversee / Develop/Update : SACS testing Challenge exams Departmental testing guidelines and policies Curriculum Committee Co-Chairs: John McMinn-Reyna & Jan Emberson Members: Tim Altanero Todd Phillips Joe Boone Alina Waguespack Rosa Dávila Fahim Idais Julie Kleinhans Lynn Lam Lau Talía Loaiza Theresa Oh (Curricular matters) Develop/update/maintain: Goals and Objectives Department Syllabi Curriculum Guidelines Oversee other curricular items: Handbooks Catalog Course schedule Notes Prerequisite Policies Departmental Governance Committee (DGC) Chair: Tim Altanero Members: one ADJ and one FT selected at random Oversee: Arbitrate/discuss/decide issues upon request of the DC and/or faculty Runs the DC Election process Other governance matters COMMITTEE FACULTY MEMBERS FUNCTIONS Distance Learning & Technology Committee Chair: Scott Gibby Members: Garrett Oleen Delia Montesinos Tim Altanero Cecilia Pastini Joe Boone Todd Phillips Jan Emberson Mariela Prato-Williams Gloria Velasquez Alina Waguaspack Yuko Kato Vanessa Lazo Talía Loaiza Develop/update/maintain Web based course Hybrid courses Technology Applications Early College High School Committee Chair: Vanessa Lazo Members: Tim Altanero Y .Ramiro Muñoz Rosa Dávila Susan Pardue Jeff Evatt Cecilia Pastini Talía Loaiza Todd Phillips Fahim Idais Alina Waguespack Oversee: Early College High School and Dual Credit matters Development and administration of placement exam Assignment of mentors to ECHS instructors if needed Eligibility List: MSTA/HPH Committee Chair: Cathy Angell Members: All Full-Time Faculty (MSTA, HPH) Oversee: HPH designation MSTA designation Develop/update/maintain: Department mail list HR eligibility Faculty Problems Committee Chair: Vanessa Lazo Members: All Full-Time Faculty (Student complaints, problem evaluations, dismissals) Oversee: Process for dealing with student complaints, poor evaluations, poor class observations, and dismissals. Faculty Complaints: Evaluations Referrals to Faculty Problems Committee (for poor observation) Honor Society Committee Chair: Julie Kleinhans Members: Tim Altanero Joe Boone Cathy Angell Mariela Prato-Williams Oversee: Selection process Acceptance Faculty Mentoring Committee Chair: Todd Phillips Members: All Full-Time Faculty Oversee: Mentor process for: New Faculty Evaluation Cycle DIL Mentoring Classroom observation Referrals to Faculty Problems Committee (for poor classroom observation Develop/update/maintain: Approve Mentor guidelines/training Class observation process Class observation forms Outreach Committee Co-Chairs: Rosa Dávila & Jan Emberson Members: Tim Altanero Talía Loaiza James Burleson Véronique Mazet Kasina Entzi Theresa Oh Mary Greff Todd Phillips Fahim Idais Mariela Prato-Williams Vanessa Lazo Oversee: dissemination of information about our programs and department promotion of our programs and department representation of our programs and department at events internal and external to ACC Professional Development Program Committee Chair: Cathy Angell Members: Tim Altanero Rosa Dávila Scott Gibby Vanessa Lazo Todd Phillips Oversee: scheduling of workshops publish FOLA workshops in the ACC workshops page Record workshop hours as needed Scheduling Committee Chair: Vanessa Lazo Members: Tim Altanero Julie Kleinhans Becky Jaimes John McMinn-Reyna Bernadeta Kaminska Develop/update/maintain: Course Schedule Balance between F2F and DIL Sequence of courses Spanish For Spanish Speakers Committee Co-Chairs: Rosa Dávila Members: Juan Isart Alina Waguespack Elsa Taylor Tim Altanero Oversee: Book selection for these courses Mentoring help for instructors teaching these courses Develop /update / maintain syllabi for courses Special Events Committee Co-chairs: Mariela Prato-Williams & Theresa Oh Members: Tim Altanero Juan Isart Gladys Anderson Julie Kleinhans Jim Burleson Talia Loaiza Rosa Dávila Véronique Mazet Meaghan Dinan Cecilia Pastini Develop/present: Cultural Events Study Abroad Committee Chair: Jan Emberson Members: Jan Emberson Theresa Oh Rosa Dávila Mariela Prato-W Fahim Idais Emi Schuster Talía Loaiza Coordinate with the office of Study Abroad Conduct interviews with applicants Promote FOLA’s study abroad programs COMMITTEE FACULTY MEMBERS FUNCTIONS Textbook Inventory Committee Chair: Becky Jaimes Members: Fahim Idais Todd Philips Lynn Lam Lau Theresa Oh John McMinn-Reyna Jim Burleson Tim Altanero Mary Greff Michael Conner Rosa Dávila Ewa Siwak Jan Emberson Delia Montesinos Develop/update/maintain: Textbook list/info Desk copy list/info DC office distributes & stores copies and updates publisher reps list
5)
Description
New Faculty Committee/ Outreach
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
New Faculty Committee We have one new Spanish instructor as of the summer, Sean McPherson. Welcome, Sean! Outreach Nothing new to report. New Faculty Committee We have one new Spanish instructor as of the summer, Sean McPherson. Welcome, Sean!
6)
Description
Professional Development Professional Development Professional Development
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
The College is moving to the Workday Learning System this year, and part of the transition will affect the Professional Development system, and the way each of us interact with it. On August 10th, the message """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""Preparing to move to Workday Learning,"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" was sent to all ACC employees from the Office of Professional Development and Evaluation. That message is copied and included here, because there are many important parts. Here are a few important notes. Please refer to the whole message below for additional and specific details. All mandatory training for new and current employees is suspended starting Monday, August 9 until November 1, 2021. The Professional Development Workshops calendar for registration will remain open until October 1, 2021. Training activities already uploaded and scheduled can be tracked but please know that completions will have to be updated in the new Workday system after November 1, 2021. PD Database Content. There will be no data integration between the Professional Development Database and Workday at any time. Presenters and/or Facilitators please download any historical reports of workshop completions before October 1, 2021. You are strongly encouraged to copy workshop content, such as course titles and descriptions that you would like to upload in Workday. All Employees should copy their current FY “completed” menu information to Google Sheets for individual records before October 1, 2021. ********** It will be important for each of us to copy our individual records, as we will no longer have access to our Professional Development records in the current system after October 1st. Cathy Angell will inform the department when she receives more information about this process.
7)
Description
Other Scheduled Training/ PD Database Content/ Workday
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
Tue, Aug 10, 10:44 AM As you know, the College will be implementing the Workday ERP in October. Therefore, it will be necessary to make some adjustments to training dates with the use of the Professional Development Database and Workshops calendar. The purpose of this communication is to give you advance notice of the changes and blackout dates. These changes are due to implementation and the need to shut down some current processes. We appreciate your patience and support as we implement the new Workday ERP system. Mandatory Compliance Training All mandatory training for new and current employees is suspended starting Monday, August 9 until November 1, 2021. Please ignore any notifications sent by the Professional Development Workshops system asking you to complete any expired training training. Mandatory trainings are: Groundswell (Discrimination & Harassment), Meridians (Title IX & Sexual Misconduct Training) and Tapestry (ADA Awareness) and Cybersecurity. More information about Mandatory Compliance Training at ACC. You will be able to fill these requirements after November 1, 2021. Other Scheduled Training The Professional Development Workshops calendar for registration will remain open until October 1, 2021. Training activities already uploaded and scheduled can be tracked but please know that completions will have to be updated in the new Workday system after November 1, 2021. This responsibility to record attendance will fall under the Learning Partner or Learning Instructor security group that some employees will be assigned to in the Workday system. We strongly encourage workshop presenters and/or facilitators to temporarily adopt Google forms to invite, register, track registration and completions of ongoing training and workshop activities. PD Database Content There will be no data integration between the Professional Development Database and Workday at any time Presenters and/or Facilitators please download any historical reports of workshop completions before October 1, 2021. You are strongly encouraged to copy workshop content, such as course titles and descriptions that you would like to upload in Workday. All Employees should copy their current FY “completed” menu and copy the information to Google Sheets for individual record before October 1, 2021. Summary of Critical Dates August 9 - November 1, 2021: Mandatory training suspended. Resumes November 2, 2021 in Workday. August 1 - October 1, 2021: PD Workshops will remain open. All employees should copy their historical reports and data; they will not be available after this date or in Workday. October 1 - October 16: Blackout dates for PD database November 1, 2021: Beginning in Workday Workday training will be provided to all employees. For questions, please contact Haydeana Gaviria
8)
Description
Scheduling
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
Scheduling Due to a dip of 9.6% in enrollment for the fall 2021 semester, several classes were cancelled. Since there is a backlog of thousands of students in Admissions, upper administration requested the addition of 14 week sections. Solution: Low enrollment sections were cancelled and brought back in the 14 and 12 week sessions. Spring 2022 scheduling is in progress. Upper administration did initially request more campus sections, but the DC does not yet feel that we need to offer more than the current sequence that would logically follow from the fall 2021. Our department will continue to offer the four options: DLS, HYD/HYC, LEC, and ONL. DLS - Distance Learning Synchronous HYD/HYC - Hybrid Distance and Hybrid Classroom LEC - Lecture classes that typically meet twice a week ONL - Online sections without any required virtual meetings The removal of the majority of the waiting lists as urged by upper administration has presented a challenge in monitoring enrollment in some sections. Solution: If there is only one or simply a few sections of one level, then the DC requested the activation of the waiting lists to be able to substantiate a request to add sections. The DC attempted to offer 15-17 sections on campus based on a request to the department for volunteers to return to campus for the fall of 2021. These were traditional (not Dual Credit or ECHS) sections. Most sections were offered in a campus hybrid format with a one day a week meeting. Mostly Spanish sections were under enrolled. Solution: Faculty were very flexible and understanding in converting these sections back to DLS or ONL options. The first year of Korean I and II has been a success. We now have two Korean I sections and are offering our first Korean III section this fall. Korean I currently has five students on the waiting list.
9)
Description
Spanish For Spanish Speakers/ Special Events/ Study Abroad
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
Spanish for Spanish Speakers Nothing new to report. Special Events We held a small outdoor farewell gathering for Kasina in July. Thank you all for your support in person and via email. We hope to celebrate those who have retired in the past year and a half. Study Abroad No programs happened during the Summer of 2021 due to the pandemic. The language programs planned for the Summer of 2022 are: Arabic II in Jordan Japanese II in Japan Spanish IV in Argentina Spanish III in Oaxaca, México Thank you professors for continuing to promote these programs within your classes.
10)
Description
Textbook Inventory
Presenter
Becky Jaimes
Minutes
Textbook Inventory French Véronique Mazet is working with the French faculty on OER (Open Educational Resources) materials for FREN 2312. The French faculty hope to switch to them in the spring or next fall. German Michael Conner has agreed to be a member of the Textbook Inventory committee, replacing Kasina to represent German along with Tim. Michael will work with his colleagues to confirm textbook adoptions for our German courses. Italian 1) FDA was cancelled for this fall. 2) A new text, Sentieri (VHL) was adopted. Textbook orders 1. Spring FDA orders are due by September 17th. The only language participating in FDA for spring 2022 is French (1411/1412/2311). All other traditional spring textbook orders are due before October 1, 2021. 2. The Textbook Inventory Committee is currently collecting adoption confirmations for all 10 languages. 3. The textbook orders for summer 2022 are due before March 1st and textbook orders for fall 2022 are due before April 1st.
11)
Description
Committee Reports
Presenter
John McMinn
Minutes
John McMinn-Reyna presented committee reports for approval. Action taken: It was approved to add the committee reports at the end of these minutes.
12)
Description
Committee Assessment
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
Vanessa Lazo explained the role of each committee and presented the current membership of each one. It was pointed out that Kasina Entzi needed to be taken off committees since she is no longer at ACC. Vanessa congratulated Julie Kleinhans and the Assessment Committee for the rating of Excellent that the department received for its assessment process, which will be given as an example during the upcoming SACS review of ACC. Action taken: Vanessa asked faculty to let her know if they wish to change their membership on committees.
13)
Description
Announcement
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
Vanessa Lazo announced that Raha had recorded the professional development hours for faculty from last year. The college is changing the system that tracks professional development, and faculty will no longer be able to access this information. It is recommended that faculty take a screen shot of their information on the ACC Workshop Registration site for their records. Vanessa Lazo announced that instructors teaching classes at four campuses have been asked to complete a supplemental, required training for SAS. Jan Emberson announced that the college has put the study abroad programs for Summer 2022 on hold.
14)
Description
One College Policy Site
Presenter
Todd Phillips
Minutes
Todd Phillips suggested creating one site with all of the college policies, instead of listing all of the policies on each syllabus. The suggestion has gone to the Faculty Senate for consideration. It was pointed out that the college already has a web page with all updated college policies listed at https://www.austincc.edu/offices/academic-outcomes-assessment/master-syllabi/college-policies, which is included in all QM approved online courses. Action taken: The Department is awaiting a decision from the College about how to include college policies on syllabuses.
15)
Description
Prerequisites
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
Vanessa Lazo shared that Rosa Davila had requested to review the prerequisites for courses. Faculty pointed out that students with a three-hour first or second semester course often are frustrated, and lose money because they have to drop after registering for a course requiring a four-hour prerequisite course. John McMinn-Reyna suggested that faculty send out an email to all students indicated on rosters as not having the prerequisite a few days before the beginning of the semester to confirm whether they have the prerequisite, and to remind students without prerequisites to change levels or to drop the course. Action taken: The discussion of prerequisites was postponed since Rosa Davila was not at the meeting. John McMinn-Reyna offered to send out a sample email that faculty could send to students shown as not having prerequisites on prerequisite rosters.
16)
Description
Pronoun Choice
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
Vanessa Lazo suggested asking students to share their preferred pronouns at the beginning of the semester. She also proposed having a workshop to talk about the use of non-binary pronouns in different languages, and she asked if a group of instructors would like to work with her to organize a workshop. Action taken: Several instructors volunteered to work with Vanessa to prepare a workshop.
17)
Description
Adjunct Evaluation/ Adjunct Interview
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
Adjunct Faculty Evaluation Nothing new to report. Adjunct Faculty Interview The hiring committee interviewed several applicants, but did not recommend anyone for hire.
18)
Description
Assessment/ Curriculum
Presenter
Vanessa Lazo
Minutes
Assessment In the Fall 2021 semester, we will be assessing Critical Thinking and Written Communication (writing) in 1411 classes for our SACS assessments. More details will be given throughout the semester. Curriculum Master syllabi for all 44 foreign language courses were updated twice in August according to updates on the ACC Master Syllabus. New Spanish 1411, 1412, 2311, and 2312 syllabi also included the change to the 6th edition of the Vistas materials to be used in all SPAN 1411, 1412, 2311, and 2312 courses starting this fall. There were training sessions offered to faculty by Vista Higher Learning to help with the transition to the 6th edition prior to the beginning of the semester. As the Vistas 5th edition purchase included a 36 month access, Vista Higher Learning offered a free upgrade to all students who have a valid 5th edition access. The process for this was for the students to enroll in their professor’s course using their exiting VHL username and password by the first Friday of the semester. Vista Higher Learning would then upgrade all eligible students from that roster. John McMinn-Reyna is working on documents to have Italian and Korean 2311 and 2312 put on the Core Curriculum. The deadline for Core Curriculum changes this year is in November.

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