COLLEGE OF MARIN
ACADEMIC SENATE
MEETING MINUTES FOR March 19, 2009
Student Services Building, Conference Rooms A “& B
Senators Present: Yolanda Bellisimo, Michael Dougan, Ron Gaiz, Patrick
Kelly, Robert Kennedy, Arthur Lutz, Sara McKinnon, Joe Mueller, Meg
Pasquel, Blaze Woodlief, Derek Wilson, JoEtta Scott, Erik Dunmire, Erika
Harkins
Senators Absent: Radica Portello
Guests: Rinetta Early, Lilly O’Reilly
Minutes
I. Approval and Adoption of the Agenda. Approved as amended.
II. Reading and Approval of the Minutes of March 12, 2009. Approved as
amended.
III. Officers’ Reports
President (Bellisimo): A letter from Golden Bell Award recipient Deborah
Loft, declaring the award to be especially welcome, was read.
It has been determined in consultation with Sen. Gaiz that speakers from the
public can address an issue on the agenda before or after the Senate debate
on that issue. They will be limited to two minutes. Senators may briefly
respond to statements or questions posed by the public.
Vice President: No report.
IV. Committee Reports:
a) Curriculum Committee (McKinnon): The committee has been hashing
through repeatability issues, especially regarding courses in the fine and
performing arts categories. Performing arts wants students to be able to
repeat a transfer sequence class four times. There is evidence that this is
done in other colleges, is covered favorably by state law, and is generally
considered to be acceptable. Fine Arts is coming up with a slightly different
formula.
b) Community Education (Harkins): Again, the department is having
major problems with registration. The Admissions and Records Department is
losing their registration, sometimes forcing them to register again.
c) Governance Committees:
IPC (Bellisimo): The committee met yesterday and passed along
recommendations for equipment and supplies to the Budget Committee.
Members reviewed the computer science revitalization proposal, sending that
to the budget committee as well. Suggestions were made to the revitalization
team working on that, including a request for a time from for revising
courses. The committee wants evidence that courses are being offered at the
optimum time to attract students and that instructors have appropriate skills.
Also, the IPC will ask for a definition of the quantitative and qualitative
measure that will be used to indicate whether revitalization has been
successful. They request a report in one year on how these benchmarks have
been met.
Budget (Gaiz, Wilson): The committee is still looking for ways to access
the school budget on a large scale, in read-only mode in the computer
system.
V. Consent Agenda: No committee appointments.
VI: Action Items.
a) To Approve Letter to UPM Regarding UPM Newsletter
Misstatements:
Sen. Dougan said he had only intended to proceed with this motion if it
received unanimous support from other Senate members. He said it would
be unfair to send a letter representing an opinion of the board as a whole if
any member held a contrary opinion. It had become apparent during the
preceding week’s debate that Sen. Lutz would not vote in favor of this
motion. So Sen. Dougan withdrew the motion, and said he would write to
UPM as an individual Senator and union member.
b) To Approve a 3-Year Revitalization and Discontinuance Procedure
for Computer Science: Withdrawn. IPC will handle this.
c) To Approve Multiple and Overlapping Enrollments Procedure (AP 4226):
Passed.
d) To Approve Appeals Process for Cancelled Units and Send to IPC: Passed.
VI. Discussion
a) Procedure and Legal Requirements for Class Time Lost Due
to Construction (Wilson): This came up with the auto program
moved into a smaller swing space and the fire department shut
them down, forcing the cancellation of classes for a week. What is
the responsibility of instructors when something like that
happens? We need a process to deal with it.
Sen. Gaiz notes that classes also are routinely cancelled due to
power outages. He said the window, in Carnegie units, is 48 to 54
hours. If the number falls below 48, the class becomes
untransferrable.
Senators Bellisimo and Wilson said they would look into the Gold
Book and Title 5 requirements.
Guest Lillie O’Reilly, a student at IVC, said she had encountered a
similar problem when an instructor became ill and missed classes.
b) Meeting Six-Semester Completion Goal for Evening
Transfer Students (Kennedy): Sen. Kennedy presented a report
(attached) presenting an overview of how classes are scheduled.
He limited the research to a transfer students’ point of view, using
IGETC as a guide.
Sen. Kennedy said the problem was not as severe as he had
predicted, and the situation is improving with more 8 a.m. afternoon
classes on offer. But, he said, some causes for concern do pop out.
These include a need for attention to the 4 p.m. slot, the lack of
afternoon English courses, and scheduling issues that make it
difficult for students to take the next class in sequence.
Sen. Wilson said this research illustrates the importance of
examining things from the student perspective.
Sen. Scott said that any process considered as a solution should
include input from a representative of the counseling department.
Sen. Kelly said departments need to make rational, studentoriented schedules and ask teachers to fit into them with minor
adjustments, “rather than people just deciding when they want to
teach a class.”
The Senate embraced a suggestion from Sen. Scott that each
department meet to review these needs, deans bring the results of
those meetings to create an overview using Sen. Kennedy’s report as
a guide, then have schedulers in Janice Austin’s department create a
final overview using the Banner system. Sen. Wilson said the
curriculum committee is technically in charge of the master schedule,
but “we haven’t done it since I’ve been here.”
c) AP 4250 Probation (Bellisimo/Early): Moved to action items
for next week.
d) BP 4321 Grade Chance (Bellisimo/Early): Moved to action item
next week.
Adjournment: 2:00 PM
For questions or information concerning the Academic Senate minutes,
please contact: michael Dougan, Michael.dougan@marin.edu, X7336.