Committee Meetings and Minutes

Administrative Login

Foreign Languages Task Force

Meeting Minutes

Current Status of Minutes: Final
Date	September 18, 2018
Time	1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location	TBA

Members Present
No member attendance has been recorded.
Guests Present
No guest attendance has been recorded.

Item # 0:	Approval of the minutes
Presenter	Vanessa Lazo
Discussion	Vanessa Lazo presented the minutes from the March 23, 2018 meeting. Action taken: The minutes were approved with no changes.

Item # 0:	Announcements
Presenter	John McMinn-Reyna
Discussion	. John McMinn-Reyna reported that First Day Access had been used in FREN 1411 for that first time this fall, and that it had gone smoothly. With First Day Access, students have already paid for access to the online textbook with their fees, and they access the book through Blackboard. It takes five minutes to set up the link in Blackboard. Becky Jaimes pointed out that book decisions may need to be made earlier in the future. b. Vanessa Lazo asked if any faculty needed to be added or removed from the various committees. Kasina Entzi was added to the Textbook Committee and Cecilia Pastini was added to the Distance Learning Committee. c. Vanessa Lazo welcomed Fahim Idais and Kasina Entzi as new half-time faculty for Arabic and German. d. Vanessa Lazo informed faculty that there was no new update on the RGC renovation. e. Vaness Lazo reminded Adjunct Faculty to watch for eStaffing deadlines and to remember to decline assigned sections that they do not want. She also pointed out that Spanish instructors who do not want ECHS (Early College High School) classes must check which sections are ECHS in the course schedule before making submitting preferences, since they are not indicated in eStaffing. They should also state in the comments section that they do not want those classes. There have been requests for new ECHS classes from Crockett, Eastside, and Lanier High Schools. f. Vanessa congratulated the Department on its rating of exemplary for this Discipline Assessment Cycle and she thanked Julie-Kleinhans Urrutia for all her work that helped the Department attain it. g. Talia Loaiza reported that ACC is trying to develop a new evaluation process. She also announced that information about portfolios had been sent out by email and that a workshop on submitting portfolios electronically was planned for later in the semester. She reminded faculty that they only need to submit one Faculty Input Form for the whole year, and that it and portfolios are due by the end of January, after instructors have had the opportunity to see the student evaluations from the fall semester. h. Talía Loaiza and Jan Emberson led the 2018 study abroad Spanish III / Conversation Course in Costa Rica, in which 15 students participated. Next summer there will be a Spanish III / Conversation Course in Costa Rica during the first summer session, and a Spanish IV / Conversation Course in Argentina during the second summer session. Both will be led by Jan Emberson. Bernadeta Kaminska will lead a German I study abroad group to Austria. i. Vanessa Lazo thanked Faculty who had signed up to represent the Department at ACC Fest on November 3, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm. Last year over 60 prospective students were informed about the courses we offer. j. Véronique Mazet will lead students in the traditional French Chorale de Noël on December 2 at NRG. III. Title IX Compliance Charlene Buckley from the Office of Compliance informed the Department on regulations related to Title IX. The Office of Compliance now deals with faculty complaints along with student complaints. Faculty are required to report incidents of harassment or discrimination that they become aware of. Once reported, the victim will be in charge of what is done by the Office of Compliance. ACC bases decisions on the “Preponderance of Evidence Standard”. IV. Reporting of Prerequisites between Summer Sessions John McMinn-Reyna suggested using Google Docs as a way of sharing names of students completing prerequisites for Spanish courses between the first and second summer sessions. Access would be restricted to faculty teaching Spanish during the summer. Action taken: It was decided to stay with the system of distributing signed notes to students at the end of the first summer session. V. Departmental Policy on Dropping Students Scott Gibby suggested changing the departmental policy so that faculty do not drop students who never attended. The discussion was postponed until Scott finds out what the college policy is for faculty dropping students. VI. FOLA Department Name Change There was a discussion on changing the name of the department to avoid labeling all languages other than English as “foreign”. Action taken: Faculty decided to keep the current name. VII. Committee Reports The following committee reports were approved to be included in the minutes.

Item # 0:	Adjunct Faculty Evaluation
Presenter	Vanessa Lazo
Discussion	• The committee sent out information about the guidelines for 2018 portfolios on September 6. Starting this year we will only accept digital portfolios. There will be a Google Docs and Google Sites workshop for faculty members in November. • Please remember that it is mandatory to administer the student surveys every semester; to include every required section in the syllabus; to complete the required number of faculty development hours; to test all skills (except for Latin); to keep multiple choice questions and translations to a minimum; and to use the textbooks adopted by the department. • Finally, we want to report that there is a college-wide committee working on improving the current faculty evaluation system. b. Adjunct Faculty Interview We interviewed a candidate for Korean, whom we did not hire. c. Assessment This semester we will be assessing 1411 reading comprehension (communication), 1412 speaking (via an oral interview), 2311 critical thinking (short answers based on a reading), and 2312 listening comprehension. More details will be given throughout the semester. d. Curriculum • Humanities 1301 Great Questions Seminar has been added to the FOLA degree plans as an optional substitute for EDUC 1100 Effective Learning: Strategies for College Success. • John McMinn-Reyna is considering the development of distance learning courses for French 1411 and 1412. e. Distance Learning Committee Nothing reported. f. Early College High School/Dual Enrollment • We continue to fine-tune communication with ECHS to avoid issues with improper placement of students, such as the need to convert Michael Hydak's ECHS section at HLC from native speakers to traditional after the first day of classes. • Hays High School canceled their section a couple of weeks before the fall term began. • New ECHS Sections requested this year include: o Two Eastside Memorial High sections at EVC o Two Lanier High School sections at NRG o Two Crockett High School sections at Crockett g. Eligibility List Nothing new to report. h. Faculty Problems Nothing new to report. i. Foreign Language Honor Society We are now accepting applications for Alpha Mu Gamma (the foreign language honor society). Applications are due by October. 17, 2018. Students who received an A in 1411 and are currently enrolled in 1412 qualify for Associate Membership. (The fee for Associate Membership has increased to $5.00 per semester). Any student who received 2 grades of A in 1411, 1412, and / or 2311 (and is currently enrolled in 2311 or 2312) qualifies for Full Membership. (The fee for Full Membership is $35.00 for lifetime membership.) j. New Faculty The hiring committee hired Fahim Idais for half-time Arabic and Kasina Entzi for half-time German. We welcome them both to their new positions. There were many excellent candidates for the half-time positions, including many of our current adjuncts. The decisions were very difficult and the committee would like to thank all applicants for their interest and time. Jan Emberson is mentoring Kasina, and Mariela Prato-Williams is mentoring Fahim. k. Outreach Jan Emberson had an information table at the Health Sciences Open House at the Eastview Campus in the spring to promote the Spanish for Healthcare courses. l. Professional Development • Vanessa Lazo facilitated an interesting panel discussion, Hybrid Classroom Panel in the Liberal Arts, on April 27th. On August 10th, John McMinn facilitated a workshop for French professors, Mindtap Workshop for French Faculty. • The General Assembly will take place this year at the Palmer Events Center on September 28th. Both the morning session and the afternoon workshops will be held there, and streaming video of the morning activities will be available. It's important to register online to have professional development credit awarded for attendance, and because there are limited seats. There are 800 seats, and, as of September 6th, 600 people had already registered! • Don't forget to complete the required Cyber Security Awareness Training before the deadline, and make sure your ADA Awareness Training and Sexual Harassment Prevention Training are up to date. m. Scheduling • Vanessa Lazo continues to work on program sequencing of all languages to make sure that days and times from fall classes have a counterpart in the spring to ease student planning. There continues to be a struggle for HLC and SAC campuses for classroom space. • San Gabriel Campus opened this year. FOLA had two Spanish courses on the schedule and neither one of them made. n. Spanish for Spanish Speakers Nothing new to report. o. Special Events The Special Events Committee would like give SPECIAL THANKS to the following FOLA faculty who contributed their time and energy to IntFest 2018: Vanessa, Rosa, Jan, Todd, Fahim, Bernadeta, Emi, Joe, Veronique, Talia, Stuart, Raha, and Mary. Without your enthusiasm and dedication, the festival's big success would not have been possible. YOU ALL ROCKED!!!. We are very honored to be your colleagues! p. Study Abroad • Jan Emberson will be the faculty lead for two programs next year: o 1st summer session - Span 2311 and 1300 - Costa Rica ($2400) o 2nd summer session - Span 2312 and 1300 - Argentina ($2600) This is the first time that our department has offered a Span 2312, or any study abroad program during the second summer session. Jan is offering class visits for promotion of these programs. • A new program with courses in Art Appreciation and German 1 in Vienna, Austria has been approved for the first summer session 2019. IP is working on a promotion brochure. • Todd Phillips has been and will be promoting Italian language classes for those students interested in the two programs in Italy (art history and culinary arts). q. Textbook Inventory • The Textbook Inventory List has been updated and Raha has completed the textbook orders for spring 2019. The following are the only changes to the Inventory List: o Chinese 1412 will now use both Part I and Part II of the Chinese textbooks. o French 1412 will use First Day Access (FDA) materials with the 7th edition of Horizons starting in the spring. (French 1411 will continue using FDA as well.) o Spanish 1411 Honors section for Medical Personnel will use a new adoption: ISBN 9780300180596 — An Introduction to Spanish for Health Care Workers: Communication and Culture, 4th edition, Yale University. • Textbook order deadlines will be earlier than usual due to FDA. The deadline for FDA orders is September 18, 2018, in order to have everything in place before spring registration begins on October 15, 2018. • Reminder: Spanish 1411/1412 ECHS sections use Vistas, 5th edition, but ECHS Native Speakers sections use Punto y Aparte.

Item # 0:	Approval of the minutes
Presenter	Vanessa Lazo Vanessa Lazo presented the minutes from the March 23, 2018 meeting. Action taken: The minutes were approved with no changes.
Discussion

Austin Community College
5930 Middle Fiskville Rd.
Austin, Texas 78752-4390
512.223.4ACC (4222)