COLLEGE OF MARIN

Academic Senate Meeting Minutes

Thursday, February 1, 2007

12:45 -2:00 pm

Student Service Building,

Conference Rooms A & B

Senators Present: Yolanda Bellisimo, Barbara Bonander, Hank Fearnley, Theo Fung, Ron Gaiz, Deborah Graham, Erika Harkins, Patrick Kelly, Arthur Lutz, Radica Portello, David Rollison, Sheri Rollison, Ingrid Schreck, John Sutherland, Blaze Woodlief

Guests: Sara McKinnon, Bernie Blackman, Hoa Long Tam, Susan Andrien, Peggy Dodge, James Geraghty

Approval of Agenda & Minutes

Motion made to approve the agenda

• Motion adopted

Motion to approve the minutes

• Motion adopted as amended

Officers' Reports

The President reported the following:

• Carmel will meet President Bellisimo for an hour to get an estimate of hours needed for the work to organize the Senate Office. The estimate will be brought to the Senate for approval.
• The Program Review faculty meeting will be put on a future agenda.
• President Bellisimo submitted the complete list of courses that the college sends out to local high schools. The list included recommended classes for high school students. Senators should make sure that their department sees this list and that it gets reviewed by faculty. President Bellisimo recommends that faculty should make recommendations now because the new letter goes out in March. These list changes should be sent to VP Martinez and ccÕd to Pam Maize.
• The Senate should have a policy for the instructional rotation for courses. We need departments to give us rotation guidelines. We also do not have a procedures manual for the Senate, which should be started. For example, election protocols, criteria for instructional rotation, etc. should be documented.
• Concerns were raised to President Bellisimo about Senate participation in the Faculty Voice ListServ. Participation on a ListServ regarding Senate business may be a Brown Act violation. According to the First Amendment Coalition, a closed group in a discussion about issues that may come to a vote before the AS with a majority of Senators involved in the discussion is a Brown Act violation.
• At the joint meeting of IPC & Budget workgroups were created. One workgroup will create a timeline for program needs and scheduling of student courses. Another subcommittee is working on a budget calendar. In the process of program review influencing the budget, the expectation is that the planning of programs is done at the committee level. President White agreed that this was the premise of program review.

The Vice President reported the following:

• The VP will meet weekly with V-Anne regarding modernization planning.
• The VP also met with Data Advisory Group members who were divided into groups and assigned groups to work with to collect data.

The Treasurer reported the following:

• The AS dues are automatically paid for so the AS should not pay for that separately to avoid double-payment. The invoice for Ackerman will be paid soon.

Standing Reports

Curriculum Committee

• No report

Academic Standards Committee

* The committee approved that AP credit polic should come to the AS for final approval. Rinetta submitted the new policy for AP credit in Modern Languages. Senate consented to the new policy.

* The petition review committee was under the impression that the committee would revise the structure this semester, but the policies have been revised without the committeeÕs consent. The VP overruled the committeeÕs decision regarding unit limits. This ruling goes against the Board policy.

* President Bellisimo will follow up on this issue and explain that the committeeÕs decision was endorsed by the Senate.

Community Education

* The quarter started this week; enrollments are high for fee classes.

Technology Committee

* No report

Senator Sutherland requests that Bernie Blackman come to the Senate and report on the Banner implementation.

Facilities Committee

* The State requires an inventory report of facility hazards on camps so the committee is prioritizing the issues identified.

Modernization Committee

* no report

Budget Committee

* The committee is working on establishing a planning process to coordinate with budgeting.

* Planning must drive the budget process so efforts are focused on planning at this time.

o Budget issues will be put on the agenda as a discussion item

Action Items

Senator Harkins made the motion that the President, Vice President & Treasurer of the Academic Senate have the signatures on bank accounts and bankcards.

* Motion adopted

Senator Lutz requests an amendment to the motion that any transactions shall require the signature of the treasurer.

* Motion adopted

Senator Lutz recommends that these decisions be entered into the bylaws

* Motion adopted

Discussion Items

Testing Center Discussion

• A new policy for scheduling make-up tests was presented to the Senate and some concerns were raised about exclusion of faculty input. Susan Andrien explained that changes have been made as a result of faculty input.
• The current policy does not seem to be student friendly.

Senator Fearnley moves to suspend of the execution of this policy as the policy should be under the purview of the AS.

* This motion will be tabled until the next meeting.

Senate gave consent to reconvene the testing center taskforce. Senators Fearnley, Fung, and Bonander will advise this policy along with Walter Turner and Peter Kassebaum.

Senators consent that committee members will send committee reports to President Bellisimo via e-mail before each AS meeting to conserve time.

Meeting adjourned at 2:02 pm

Minutes submitted by Schreck