Meeting & Agendas

Mervin Jones: Dean of Student Affairs at Northridge Campus Angela Smith: Hays Campus Rap for Adjunct Faculty in the History Department Emily Olson: Assistant Dean for Faculty Academic Counselor; representing Full-time Faculty Senate (Faculty, Academic Counselor) Estrella Barrera: Health Sciences Associate Dean Kenyetta Hutson: NRG Success Coach Meritza Tamez (Ritz): North Region Executive Dean of Student Affairs; Process holder for Student Conduct (College) Lisa Marie Coppoletta (LMC): Adjunct Professor in Communication Studies; President of Adjunct Faculty Patricia “Patty” Zuniga: Coordinator of Student Conduct Tianna Allen: Student Chair and SGA Northridge Campus Senator

Mervin: Welcomed the committee members and apologized for hosting the meeting during the Riverbat Experience event. The Chair explained that the meeting scheduled for November 8th had been canceled due to a conflict with the College General Assembly. Mervin: Initiated team introduction and provided an overview of last year's accomplishments to new SRR committee members.

Northridge Campus Senator and Student Government Association, and study Public Policy, served two years in the Navy. She provided an overview of the Micro-Funding idea and their goal of hosting an event to get supporters from the community to contribute to ACC students. For example, If the student needs help, they could request Mico-funding support, and such support would not have an impact on financial aid funding. An additional student-led idea is for voting education and awareness events offered at various regions of Austin Community College. The goal of the event is to educate students about voting (local voting, presidential voting). For example, there are a couple of events Student Advocates are working on: the Mayoral Forum at the Eastview Campus, the Voters Education Event at the Northridge campus before early voting, the District Six Forum at the Cypress Campus, and also having the Board of Trustee Forum.

Patty: Student Standards of Conduct (SSC), still (in legal) is under review for changes hopefully to be finalized before October. Dr. Tamez: Most of the changes were accepted in last year’s Student Standards of Conduct updates. A major change is on extra dual process rights for students when they come to suspension. We are making sure to be consistent with every step of our process. For example, deans allow students to bring an advocate to every step of the student conduct process; however, such advocates can not speak to or conduct any business on behalf of the student. There are some specific compliance requirements that we are not doing as a college for hazing. Patty and I are working on building a website for hazing to help students. What could be considered Hazing and what could not… https://students.austincc.edu/student-rights-responsibilities/hazing/

Emily: The committee is ensuring that the Student Codes of Conduct and the Academic Integrity align with the language and processes. Everyone will have access to the document and have a chance to review and share any thoughts on the Academic Integrity policy.

LMC: Riverbat reflections-feedback toward the Academic Integrity policy. Podcast that dropped last night - Dr. Coleman discusses AI in higher education - the podcast is hilarious and you all will enjoy it, he may be a great resource for us. https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/passionate-about-pedagogy/episodes/Unraveling-AI-Exploring-the-Future-of-Higher-Education-with-Herb-Coleman-e2m6re5/a-abekmqk Mervin: Troy Jefferson has training for student Advocates. He is not here to give updates from the Student Advocate subcommittee (Still in process hopefully before October). Emily: Wants to learn more about Student Advocacy across the college. Emily: Should anyone (LMC) like to join the committee? You are welcome LMC to join the sub-committee for both sides Language and Alignment. Emily invited everybody to the committee, we will take comments and suggestions. We will want to make sure the language is similar to the Academic Integrity document. Emily dropped in chat a link for the most recent updates: Library Services will provide a lecture to courses on best practices for AI: https://researchguides.austincc.edu/c.php?g=1360616 When you send emailed suggestions, place SRR in the subject line Mervin: Can you Emily give this committee another overview of policy for new members in the next meeting? In the next meeting, we will discuss the Student Complaint process on October 11th. Patty: Reviewing the Student Complaint process change can help (we will discuss it next month). Estrella: We need to be proactive in reviewing the Student Complaint process. Patty, Dr. Tamez, and Mervin: Confirm to review the Student Complaint process during the next SRR meeting. Patty: Two types of complaints are Non-Academic and Non-grade related. One is related to classroom instruction and the other one is related to employee reaction and office services. LMC: Student's three levels of the complaint process. The goal is to ensure this process is fair for all. Patty: Yes the three levels of appeal are according to what complaints are and what the processes are. We are focusing on the two complaints, Non-Academic and Non-grade related not the EOC complaints. The EOCs will be reviewed by different committees (EOC Committee). Mervin: Charlene is part of this committee and can help with clarifying when complaints are reviewed by her office (EOC). Patty: Inform the committee Student Conduct Appeal Panel (SCAP) used to be called the Judicial Review Panel (JRP) when a finding is being reviewed by the committee. The committee consists of Faculty and Adjunct Faculty, SGA members, and Student Affairs members. The training will take place this Fall semester. Disputing grades is another thing to be mentioned. The review/appeal process can be confusing to students due to the language barrier. Let's help students understand the process in the website that looks like it needs to be looked over. https://students.austincc.edu/student-rights-responsibilities/grade-disputes/ Estrella: Yes clarity in who is the policy written for? Feels the process needs to be reviewed and revamped. I can help with any committee on this matter. Mervin: Thanks everyone, and adjourn the meeting.

Thank everyone, and adjourn the meeting.

Meeting Adjourned: 12:30 pm

Next Meeting Date: October 13th, 2024

Time: 11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Location: Zoom