COLLEGE OF MARIN

Academic Senate Meeting Minutes
Thursday, August 23, 2007
12:45 -2:00 pm
Student Service Building,
Conference Rooms A & B

Senators Present: Carol Adair, Yolanda Bellisimo, Michael Dougan, Ron Gaiz, Erika Harkins, Patrick Kelly, Arthur Lutz, Joe Mueller, Meg Pasquel, Radica Portello, Robert Kennedy, Ingrid Schreck, Blaze Woodlief, Derek Wilson

Senators Absent:  Sherrie Rollison

Approval of Agenda & Minutes    

Motion made to approve the agenda

• Motion adopted
  

Motion made to approve the minutes

• Motion adopted

Hoa-Long Tam spoke on behalf of the College of Marin Student Senate to report on the goals of the Student Senate. A written report was also submitted to be filed with the minutes.

Officers’ Reports

The President reported the following:

• A written report was submitted.
• Issue with AP courses and credits will be a future discussion item.
  
• The President asked the Senate for consent to invite the President of the Statewide Academic Senate in November and for consent to invite our representative Area B to visit our Senate in October.
  
• Joe Mueller invited the Senators to his property for a social event where we will not talk about Senate business. A Friday in September was suggested for the date.
  

The Vice President reported the following:

• The Bolinas Task Force has met over the summer and Joe Mueller gave a passioned presentation to the group. The group was positive about the direction. A tour will be given on Sat. with Bob Thompson. The community has been responsive to the program, but is reluctant to schedule classes and field trips and is reluctant to give commitments and donations until CoM shows more support for the facility. There is potential but we need the Board and Admin for support of the program in order for the project to continue.
  
• President White attended a meeting with the Bolinas task force and was positive about the progress. One option is to lease the property to a non-profit organization. The Task Force will likely recommend this  lease option with the assurance that CoM will have access to the facility and hat CoM will be part of the lease contract.
  
• After Joe's presentation, history lessons, and tours, the community perception has shifted and they are excited about the facility. As a result, the Admin and Board seem to be responsive.
  

The Treasurer reported the following:

• A written report was submitted.
• The treasurer expressed concern with the monthly bank services charges on the account and plans to contact the Bank about reversing these charges.
  

Standing Reports

Academic Standards Committee

• A written report was submitted.
  
• AP Issue. Last semester there were 5 new credits CoM was hoping to add but the Board must still approve these policies.  Most are going to the Board next Tuesday for approval.
• When a student transfers they must file a transfer agreement with the schools and the agreement is usually accepted.
• The problem is that UC and CSUs and other schools have no standard. But as long as CoM signs off on the transfer agreement other schools will accept the transfer--even if the scores are different for CoM and for other schools.
  
• An agenda item should be to establish criteria of which of these should be approved.
• Questions were raised regarding Econ mainly because Berkeley looks at core classes, Econ, English 150, etc. to make the decision. If a student's score does not match Berkeley's cut off score, the student may be in jeopardy of not being accepted.
• The Senate will ask the Board to table the discussion on the Econ classes until further questions are answered.
  

Community Education

• Community Ed is in the final phase of hiring a permanent director of Community Ed.
• 60 candidates for the position applied.
• The position will be filled by mid September

Action Items

Full-Time Hires: Role of Senate

• Percentage of full time teachers vs. part time teaching is extremely low
  
• Anthropology has no full time faculty; the building where the the rare collections are  housed is being moved due to modernization and no one is available to oversee this move. Further, the program is in jeopardy due to no full time faculty hired.
  
• There will soon be a rush to get full time hires when legislation goes through so CoM needs to fill these positions now.
• There is a problem with Article 16 in the contract. This needs to be revised. The senate cannot create a new policy because this issue is in the bargaining unit. The AS needs to present a plan to the Union, defining a list of criteria to make sure this is covered in the contract.
• There have been 18 retirements in the last 2 years and one hire in nursing. 14% of full-time faculty have retired and not been replaced.
• The Senate should be involved in the process but the union should be in charge of protections and work issues.
  
• The Senate gives consent to develop a plan that would be brought back from Senate for review.
  

Requests to Address the Senate on Non-Agenda Items

• No requests
  

Meeting adjourned at 2:03
Minutes submitted by Schreck