Jennifer Cosio walked into the Academic Senate meeting on Sept. 11 wanting to learn a few things about how San Diego City College is governed.

Before Cosio could finish introducing herself to the estimated 30 attendees during the allotted agenda time, the part-time Behavioral Sciences Department professor was already being recruited to join the advisory council.

Senate president Maria Jose Zeledon-Perez asked if she was an actively serving senator.

“I’m not,” Cosio responded, “but maybe you can recruit me.”

Since then, Cosio was appointed as a part-time faculty representative for her department by the Academic Senate, according to Zeledon-Perez.

The Academic Senate, made up of City College faculty and professors, is continuously seeking to fill its 33 membership representative seats.

It is one part of the broader participatory shared governance model under which City College operates.

According to City’s Campus Handbook, shared governance, typically seen in higher education, emphasizes transparency and inclusive decision-making processes among campus constituencies ranging from the Associated Students Government, the City College president and other College Governance Councils and Committees.

“This is my first meeting, I thought I could just sneak in,” Cosio said during her introduction. “I thought this was the best place to learn institutional knowledge, on shared governance (and) everything about City.”

All constituency bodies, which include the Academic Senate, feed into City’s biweekly College Council meeting as advisory councils where input on campus-related issues are reviewed and discussed.

Want to learn more about the College Council? Meetings are held every other Tuesday, 2:30-4:30 p.m., in room R-212 and broadcast on City College’s YouTube channel.

College Council then serves as the main policy body that forwards recommendations to the district and Board of Trustees, according to its page on the City College website.

“I recommend any new hire, if they want to join a committee, to start with this committee,” said Tania Mustafa, an acting academic senator and faculty in the business studies department, at the meeting. “This is how you get to know what everybody says, shared governance and to see people from different departments.”

At senate meetings, senators make recommendations with respect to academic and professional matters ranging from curriculum development, budget allocations and professional development.

It fosters a sense of ownership and empowerment among stakeholders, according to the college website. 

Every other week in the room MS-140 faculty are given a platform to voice their opinions and actively contribute to the college’s development and growth.

“(I attend) to bring it back to my colleagues,” said Paul Greer, exercise science professor and long-serving academic senator. “(I) share it with them … get their ideas and then perhaps even bring it back to the academic senate.”  

“I believe this is probably the most important department in the entire college, at least to the faculty, for the reasons already mentioned,” Greer added.

The next Academic Senate General Meeting is Sept. 25 from 2:30-4:30 p.m in room MS-140.