ECCTYC BOARD MEETING, OCTOBER 15-17, 2008

REPORT FROM TOM HURLEY, IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT

Since our last Board meeting, I have been engaged in a number of professional activities related to our work at Diablo Valley College:

1) I’ve just finished serving on the College’s Basic Skills Initiative Task Force; I was co-chair from August to October 2008. During its year of operation, the Task Force completed a self-study for the college related to basic skills practices and developed recommendations for continued activities in support of effective basic skills and developmental education. In Spring 2008, the Task Force created a mission statement for DVC’s basic skills efforts, and launched the Foundations for College Success (FCS) program, which will carry forward the Basic Skills Initiative at DVC. FCS will support the college community as it addresses one of the key components of the college mission: provision of basic skills and developmental education. Also in Spring 2008, the Task Force sent out the first call for proposals for basic skills projects to be funded; a total of eight projects were funded. By October 2008 the Basic Skills Task Force had recommended the establishment of a college-wide FCS committee, selected two co-coordinators to lead the committee and the college’s basic skills efforts. As the Task Force completes its work, it is about to send out the second request for proposals. At this point, our work will be taken over by the FCS Committee and its co-coordinators.

2) As part of the English Department’s commitment to making adjunct faculty part of our community, I have been co-chairing our Mentoring Committee. We have now published a Handbook for New Instructors that includes basic information about working at DVC and in our English and Journalism Departments.

3) I’m also part of a pilot program (“Integrated Reading and Writing”) that will combine developmental reading and writing instruction. With three other colleagues (including John Thomas, Region II co-director), we’ve have begun to teach a course grows out of current thinking about the reading-writing connection. Since DVC has long taught basic and developmental reading and writing as separate courses, this pilot represents a major experiment for us.