“Communicate, communicate, communicate and then communicate some more.” Robert Jensen

PRESIDENT'S BLOG:

November 15, 2008

Last weekend a number of faculty from the VCCCD District attended the State Academic Senate Plenary Session in Los Angeles.  Robert Cabral was one of the representatives from Oxnard College.

At our last Academic Senate meeting the Senate resolved to create two committees to handle the business of recognizing the excellence among us and the noteworthy achievements of students.  They are the Faculty Recognition Award Selection Committee and the Student Scholarship Selection Committee.  It is now up to us to staff these committees with volunteers who will organize the selection and award process in their respective areas.  If you are willing to serve on either or both of these committees please communicate that to any one of the executive members of the Academic Senate (P. Scott Corbett, Robert Cabral, Mary Pinto-Casillas or Maria Parker) or your Academic Senate Representative.

The system has heard and listened to the recent resolution of the Academic Senate regarding the recent changes in the email system and the "all users" mailing list.  We at Oxnard College get to pilot the tools at the Luminus portal - MyVCCCD to support and sustain the free exchange of ideas between and among the faculty.  So all of you can be part of the continued advance of 21st century technology.  So we have set up a Group Studio Channel at the Luminus portal, MyVCCCD, for all Oxnard Faculty.  There any and all faculty (full or part-time) can post messages, send and receive announcements, share news, links and files, and generally engage in dialogues between and among a few or many of your colleagues.  It is hoped that if all the Oxnard College faculty join this Group, then it will offer a superior way of transmitting information and sharing ideas than the email system.

The first step is to login to MyVCCCD.  Attached to this message a is a document entitled:  "MyVCCCD Wizard" that can walk you through setting yourself up for login into and using MyVCCCD.  The best way to start the process is to login to Webstar and click on the link at the bottom of the first page entitled:  "Create MyVCCCD account now!".  Also attached is a very useful document entitled "MyVCCCD Benefits" that will briefly describe and explain the many tools and useful elements to the portal.  Towards the end of that document is a good discussion of Group Studio.

Once you login to MyVCCCD you should click on the "Groups" icon at the top right portion of the home page.  This will pop up a list of Groups that can be joined.  Then you should select a Group category - in this instance the category is "Academic".  Opening that, you should see the available group - "Oxnard Faculty".  If you select "Oxnard Faculty" and click through the sign up screens - you will be part of our larger communicative community.  After joining you will have to go to the "Work Life" tab and add the Group Activity Channel to your page.  That is illustrated in the accompanying documentation.  Then you can participate in all the group activities and communicate freely with any and all of your colleagues who have joined the group.  Again it is hoped that all faculty will join this group.

Also you will find attached the schedule for PEPC reviews next week.  In all probability the reviews will take place in OE4 but that is subject to verification.  There is no need for representatives from the Programs to be present at the time the reviews are being made.  Presently there is a little glitch with regards to the PEPC Website and if and when that gets worked out this schedule and other pertinent information will be posted.

Earlier this week we celebrated Veteran's Day.  Two of the many notable and noteworthy veterans within our midst are Hank Bouma and Tom O'neil.  But in many ways we are all veterans at Oxnard College and our shared experiences and common purposes bind us together.  May peace be the product of our associations.

ARCHIVES OF PREVIOUS BLOGS

Organizational Charts

Shared Governance Committees

Below you will find a number of new pages to establish a home for our Shared Governance Committees previously not represented in these pages and a continuation of some of the long-standing communication links. It is hoped that centralizing some of this information will make it more assessable and therefore broaden the range of communication that does and will take place amongst us.

Committees