CSM Basic Skills Initiative Committee
Meeting Minutes
11-20-08
Members Present:
James, Jon, Carole, Juanita, Harry, Brandon, Olena, Krystal
1. The minutes from the 9-18-08 meeting were approved.
2. James announced that Danita is on leave for the rest of the semester.
3. Carole suggested that we might want to organize a BSI spring 2009 flex day event.
She suggested that Eric Stepp-Bolling from Mt. San Antonio College would be an
interesting speaker. He has recently done some research on Brain-Based Learning.
Carole said she would find out the flex day dates, contact Eric for availability, and
estimate costs.
4. James informed the committee that he was meeting with the CSM Budget Committee
on Monday, 11-24-08 to discuss the importance of our committee’s request for a BSI
Coordinator position. His concerns were that due to the current budget crisis, CSM
might likely reduce the amount of release time they had previously agreed to.
Brandon and Krystal agreed to accompany James to the meeting. We will report on
the encounter at our next meeting.
5. James informed the committee that The CSM Governing Council had questions and
concerns about the proposed BSI Coordinator’s duties and responsibilities. The CSM
GC has recommended that the position be shared between three people. The BSIC’s
original idea was to prioritize a single coordinator position, but would consider a
shared duty model. We agreed to change the wording of the position announcement to
reflect that either model would be acceptable.
6. We agreed that we would have to re-announce the Coordinator position after the
CSM Budget Committee made a decision regarding their contribution to release time.
7. We agree that if we don’t hire someone or some people for the position, we would
argue that the current chairs should be given release time to continue their current
duties to meet state BSI obligations. Another possibility discussed was that one BSIC
co-chair could possibly share the duties if we hire a single applicant who was seeking
a 20% position.
8. In the event that the proposed BSI Coordinator position is not awarded the originally
agreed upon release time, the duties of the Coordinator might need to be prioritized
and scaled back. The BSIC discussed the duties and listed priorities. Olena suggested
that the BSI Coordinator should be a regular CSM Cabinet member.
CSM BSI Coordinator Responsibilities and Duties: (Prioritized)
Strand A:
 Convene diverse institutional stakeholders to establish clearly specified goals,
objectives, and student learning outcomes for developmental courses and
programs, and communicate them across the institution.
 Align academic and student support services to identified needs of developmental
students.
 Develop formal mentoring and orientation for new and continuing faculty
teaching techniques
 Research feasibility of a mandatory in-person orientation for basic skills students,
offered both day and evening.
 Institute First-Year Experience and summer bridge program.
 Participate in establishing Integrated Learning Center to provide tutorial support,
and expand supplemental instruction.
 Institute peer mentoring program for developmental students.
Strand B:
 Formalize a process for Counselors to communicate with instructors and
students in and outside of classes.
 Establish a Peer Mentoring Program.
 Find effective way to extract student placement score information.
Strand C:
 Clearly articulate college-wide developmental education goals (department,
division, college, EMP, SLOs).
 Formalize faculty training in basic skills and developmental education across
disciplines and vocational programs.
Strand D:
 Develop a higher degree of coordination between counseling services and
instructional basic skills departments.
 Provide workshops that are conducted by teachers of basic skills courses to
share best practices and curricular insights and strategies.
 Require mandatory interventions for students in academic jeopardy (i.e., midsemester conference with counselor, instructor, and student; failing course once
and/or twice triggers another meeting).
 Create special intensive courses for students who have failed the same basic
skills course twice (class would meet twice as long, and ideally, would have an
instructor and counselor).
 Expand and improve labs and services for developmental/basic skills
students—Math, English 800 Lab, Reading, ESL Lab.