COLLEGE OF MARIN

Academic Senate Meeting Minutes
Thursday, March 15, 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, Erika Harkins, Patrick Kelly, Arthur Lutz, Radica Portello, David Rollison, Ingrid Schreck, John Sutherland, Blaze Woodlief

Senators Absent:  Deborah Graham, Sheri Rollison

Approval of Agenda & Minutes    

Motion made to approve the agenda with the change that item F, treasurer position, be moved to Item C

• Motion adopted
  

Motion made to approve the minutes

• Motion adopted
  

Officers’ Reports

The President reported the following:

• A written report was submitted
• A Board of Trustees' report was submitted.
  

The Vice President reported the following:

• The VP met with the Swinerton lead person for IVC/Bolinas, Debra Matthau, regarding the Bolinas geological report. If Bolinas is to be used for 2000 hours per year or less and any structural renovation is less than 50% of the cost of the facility, we can move forward on renovation. It has been determined that the teaching lab estimate for structural upgrades is about $150 thousand which is much less than 50% of the cost of the property; the teaching lab is where most of the instruction takes place; the main building has been used only for restroom facilities and other tasks.  According to the architects, the main project will be to tie the roof and wall structures together to meet earthquake standards. If these upgrades are completed, the lab can be used for up to 2000 hours per year. The larger building is in such disrepair that it would most likely cost more than 50% of the cost of the property. According to state regulations, a trench must be dug and set back behind the property lines 50 feet on each side to analyze fault activity. One proposed trench would skirt the bottom of the hill and on along the road.  The main building renovations would most likely cost millions of dollars. Questions that remain are: Is the hourly limit set for each group--CoM, SF State, Sonoma, or other potential groups--or is the limit a total per year? Is the hourly requirement measured only if students are inside of the building? What about the work students perform outside on the property? If there is physical fault activity, what are the time requirements that would deem the location unacceptable? How far back are the faults measured, since in the Bay Area, most areas measure some kind of fault activity? If fault activity is found, would the facility be shut down? If so, this would seem absurd since almost every school in the Bay Area would be shut down if those were the standards.
  

Treasurer's Report

• No report. Treasurer was not present.
  

Standing Reports

Curriculum Committee

• A written report was submitted.
• New guidelines from the State regarding curriculum will be imposed. Cari Pogan will attend a future AS meeting to discuss the new English and Math graduation requirements.
  

Academic Standards Committee

• A written report was submitted.
• Two policy changes were recommended: AP credit Poly Sci 101, Econ 101 & 102; the Social Science Depart. has approved AP classes. AS consents to go ahead with the changes.
• The Committee is having difficulty with late registration; committee recommends that the policy be added to the schedule of classes as it reads in the Gold Book. AS consents to support this request.
  

Community Education

• A report outlining the end of term Fall Comparison was submitted. VP Martinez has distributed the end of term Fall Comparison Figures from fall 2004 -Fall 2006 and Senator Harkins shared these figures with the AS.
  

GRC

• Committee is currently revising the GRC handbook.
• GRC will be sending out a survey asking committees to evaluate effectiveness.

Educational Planning

• Committee members are needed since some faculty are on sabbatical and others had schedule changes.
  
• Committee has tried to meet but could not get a quorum together.
• President Bellisimo will recruit faculty who would like to join the committee and will ask AS for consent on committee composition in a future meeting.
  

Action Items
Determining Time frame for Program Review

• Senator Sutherland motioned that the AS take the position that any program review timeline be established jointly by all involved factions: departments, IPS, DAWG, etc.
• Motion adopted
  

Senators discussed the program review process. Senators discussed the need for an MOU regarding this process.

Discussion Items
Committee Appointment Procedure

• Changes were suggested to the Procedure Draft. 
• President Bellisimo will make the changes and the revised version will be voted on next week.
  
• Senators consented to vote to approve or disapprove the revised document next week.
  

Requests to Address the Senate on Non-Agenda Items

• No requests
  

Meeting adjourned at 2:03
Minutes submitted by Schreck