The Academic Senate approved the posting of an additional full-time faculty position, discussed division elections and participated in a strategic planning session at their special meeting on Wednesday, April 13.

City College’s governing body, which represents faculty and staff, voted unanimously to open recruitment for the third position for Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) in response to significant losses the program has recently experienced at their special meeting on Wednesday, April 13.

“This is a vote for a position, and a vote in support and confidence in a very important program,” Academic Senate President Raeanne Napoleon said.

According to the president, ADN is in a precarious state due to the recent passing of faculty member David Martinez, as well as a resignation in the fall and Director of Nursing Sarah Orr’s decision to resign from City College. The program had asked for three positions in their fall 2021 faculty proposal request.

Senator roles will be up for regular election across six divisions; English, educational support, health and human services, school of modern languages, English as a second language and sciences and technologies.

Calls for nominations went out Thursday, April 14 and will close Wednesday, April 20 at noon. Voting will open on Thursday, April 21 and run through Tuesday, April 26, according to Elections Coordinator Ruth Morales.

Russell Granger, the senator representing technologies, raised concern about what happens if there are no nominees or people asking to be a senator within a division.

“This is a reckoning as a faculty body we need to come to,” Napoleon said. “Why aren’t people stepping up for senate or another body and what are we doing with our non-instructional professional time…What are we doing as a faculty body when nobody is stepping up?”

The senate received a presentation from Gensler, a global architecture, design and planning firm. Pam Luster, the retiring president of San Diego Mesa College, and Deborah Shepley, an education leader and principal at Gensler, led the information and discussion item centered around strategic planning.

“What can be more difficult is reflecting about where the institution is in relation to its community [and] the students that it serves, so I am a believer because I’ve seen institutions do this level of work,” Luster said, addressing how bringing in consultants can be beneficial to the strategic planning process.

As part of the presentation, Luster and Shepley asked the senate “What will SBCC be like in 2025?” while discussing goals. Many responses highlighted issues regarding diversity, equity and inclusion.

“[I hope] our leadership at the top will reflect our community because I think that that is currently not the case,” Academic Senate Vice President Ana Garcia said. “I hope that our college as a whole will become more intentional about participating in our community outside of the college to really understand what our students and colleagues are living through — particularly those that are most marginalized.”

The Academic Senate will reconvene on Wednesday, April 20.

Correction: April 20, 2022:

An earlier version of this article quoted a misstatement  that Sarah Orr accepted a position at Westmont. The article has since been corrected.