COLLEGE OF MARIN
ACADEMIC SENATE MEETING MINUTES
February 28, 2008
12:45 – 2:00
Student Service Building, Conference Rooms A & B
Senators Present: Carol Adair, Yolanda Bellisimo, Michael Dougan, Ron Gaiz, Erika Harkins, Patrick
Kelly, Robert Kennedy, Arthur Lutz, Sara McKinnon, Joe Mueller, Meg Pasquel, Radica Portello, Blaze
Woodlief, Derek Wilson
Senators Absent: Ingrid Schreck
Guests speaking: John Sutherland. George Hritz. Mike Brailoff, Jeannie Langingar. Sandy Douglass
I. Approval and Adoption of the Agenda. Wilson/Gaiz. Motion accepted
II. Reading and Approval of the Minutes of February 21, 2008. Dugan/Mueller. Motion
accepted with changes. Changes: “Senator Lutz opposes the awarding of the Golden
Bell award for the reasons identified”.
III. Officers’ Reports
President:

Radica Portello distributed announcements of College of Marin’s summer study abroad
program in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Carol Adair will assume the position of Academic Senate secretary for the rest of this
semester - Spring 2008. Senate consent

Basic Skills Initiative (BSI) Blaze Woodlief reported on the progress made by CoM’s Basic
Skills Initiative Committee. The BSI is a specially funded state initiative designed to give
aid to under-prepared students on community college campuses. The committee is
working on a set of recommendations that will include a cluster of support services
especially focused on the needs of under-prepared students and will be linked to the
entry-level courses.
Vice President: No report.
IV.
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Committee Reports:
Curriculum: 16 courses reviewed; 5 approved
Academic Standards: 6 policies must be reviews this week because they affect the
schedule and Banner. There are others which have later review dates. All policies can be
down-loaded from the web.
Community Education: No report.
Governance Committees: Sara McKinnon reported from the State Academic Senate Ad
Hoc Committee on Noncredit. Report attached.
V. Consent Agenda
VI. Action Items: Discontinuance Policy
 Yolanda Bellisimo: The Senate is looking at the College of Marin’s discontinuance policy
as part of the College’s efforts to update the Gold Book and because WASC has insisted that
the college have this policy written before its next visit. The policy statement under
discussion is brief and adheres to state law. Its purpose is to protect programs from arbitrary
discontinuance. The procedure, to be written later, must be carefully considered with full
faculty discussion. She requested consent to take a provisional policy statement to Board.
 Arthur Lutz. The last sentence, “ The Board of Trustees has the legal authority to make
the final decision regarding the discontinuance of a program.”, should be removed because it
conflicts with an earlier sentence. The College doesn’t need this policy because it is already
law. We should not accept such a policy without advice from the faculty at large. Senator
Lutz is not comfortable with making any decision now.
 Blaze Woodlief. WASC has demanded that we have a policy, and we are not in position of
bargaining with WASC. The policy simply states that we have or will have a procedure. Where
we must take time is in drafting the procedure which puts the policy in affect.
 John Sutherland: Sutherland read a petition signed by 40 faculty members demanding a
referendum or the whole faculty and demanding that the Senate not take action on the
Program Discontinuance Policy. (Petition attached.)
 Jeannie Langingar. Concerned with policy because it affects her department. Even though
the policy is a Title 5 requirement, this decision has been made too quickly. She asks the
Senate to slow down and get everyone on board.
 Mike Brailoff. This recommendation takes place in context when everything can be
decimated by Board. Before any policy is written, we have to know what harm as been done
to programs already. We can’t make a policy in context in adversarial relationship between
Board and credit faculty.
 George Hritz. Asked that the Senate slow down and get it done right or risk turning in
something inferior. The whole faculty hasn’t seen this policy yet.
 Patrick Kelly. Agreed that we are being forced by the WASC threat to do things quickly,
maybe too quickly. Also agreed that there is an adversarial relationship between the Board
and the faculty. There are problems. He gave an example from his own department where
numbers of students are up but the number of full-time faculty is down. However, the
language in this policy came from state law and doesn’t say anything about how the faculty
can then work to support programs. Once the policy is in place, we should write the
procedure with advice from the whole faculty. However, the policy is standard State policy
and WASC isn’t going to bend on that.
 Meg Pasquel and Derek Wilson both asked the petition presenters what actual harm they
saw in the policy. The petitioners indicated that the answer to that would come only from a
full-faculty meeting.
The Resolution was Tabled.
 Vice-president, Patrick Kelly will make sure each faculty member has either an electronic
copy of the policy or a copy in his/her box and will plan a full-faculty meeting to discuss
BP 4021: Program Revitalization and Discontinuance as soon as possible, probably Friday,
March 7 or 14.
VII. Discussion
College-wide Program Review: Robert Kennedy presented a four-page report on the kinds of
information easily available for setting priorities, allocating resources and tracking students. He
showed how the college’s success can be easily measured using clearing house information and
existing COM data. Robert’s report showed the numbers, demographics, math/English progress
and majors of those students identified as transfer. Anyone wishing a copy of the report can
contact Robert.
VIII. Public Requests to Address the Senate on Non-Agenda Items
 Sandy Douglass: Lack of communications from the Senate is causing problems. Faculty
members are not getting enough information from the Academic Senate. They are never
going to have trust until they stop feeling pushed.
 John Sutherland: He was snubbed by the Senate president last week. He tried to email
her to get on the agenda but got no response. If he had not found out about this
discontinuance policy, it might have gone to the board. He wants better communication.
IX. Adjournment: 2:00 PM
For questions or information concerning the Academic Senate Minutes, please contact Carol Adair:
carol.adair@marin.edu X7367