COLLEGE OF MARIN
ACADEMIC SENATE
Minutes: May 14, 2009
12:45 p.m. – 2:02 p.m.
Student Service Building, Conference Rooms A & B
Senators Present: : Michael Dougan, Radica Portello, Ron Gaiz, Yolanda Bellisimo,
Erika Harkins, Blaze Woodlief, Meg Pasqual, Derek Wilson, Erik Dunmire, Patrick
Kelly, Robert Kennedy Joe Mueller, Sara McKinnon
Senators Absent: Arthur Lutz, JoEtta Scott
Guests Rinetta Early, Kathryn Freschi
I. Approval and Adoption of the Agenda. Approved
II. Reading and Approval of the Minutes of May 7, 2009. Approved as amended.
III. Officers’ Reports:
President (Yolanda Bellisimo): Written (attached).
A letter was received from Nick Chang regarding the issue of merged English and
basic skills labs. The gist is that no decision has been made, continued research and
talk is anticipated. Senator Pasqual said a meeting on that issue had been
scheduled for later in the day. Senator Gaiz observed that Mr. Chang’s letter
doesn’t address the Academic Senate’s concern, which is that the decision was
made outside of the program review process.
IV. Committee Reports
Curriculum (Derek Wilson): Today the committee will review a list of courses that
will be deleted (not deactivated) because the descriptions are out of date. The
department chairs have no problem with that. The committee will look at courses
that are 20 years old (or older) this time; the next batch will address courses 10
years old and older. Letters on these courses will go out to relevant individuals by
the end of the semester.
If faculty members don’t want the 20-year-old courses deleted, they must update
the course outline and get that to the committee by September 15 or, for the 10year-old courses, by December 1.
Academic Standards (Rinetta Early): The committee met with Sara Oser and Diana
Verdugo regarding their proposal to lower TOFL scores. We asked them to bring
data supporting their plan. They did not, other than to say that other colleges are
doing it. They contacted five community colleges and found that the average
minimum TOFL score for admission is 460 (and the highest is 510). Ours is 500.
The committee felt that lowering the scores would lead to a quick enrollment
increase. This could require a district commitment to hire more staff in areas like
admissions and records and credit counseling. The committee asked for something
in writing to be delivered at the beginning of the next semester.
The committee felt that students with scores below 500, if admitted, should be
required to take our intensive English program for one semester, and then be
retested to see if their scores had improved. The program can take up to 60
students; it currently has 18 F1 students (who pay $2,500 per semester).
Budget (Derek Wilson): The dispute between the committee and budget director Al
Harrison continues: He sent out a letter that didn’t address motions we made, we
sent him an email that the memo should only address that motion. Mr. Harrison
then replied.
In an example of “manna from heaven,” an additional $100,000 for instructional
equipment appeared from somewhere. Mr. Harrison also suggested that the
committee might be able to get some money from the bond funds, even though
they couldn’t do that last year.
Concerns have arisen over whether the library will have enough money for its basic
needs.
President White has been supporting Mr. Harrison’s actions. She said the committee
isn’t supposed to look at nondiscretionary funds.
Senator Bellisimo said she thinks new marching orders came from the board of
trustees after its last closed session.
V. Consent Agenda:
a) To Ratify Senate Election Results President Bellisimo said Senator Arthur Lutz,
who is absent today, did participate in counting the results and signed off on them.
Since then he has asked to have his name removed because he felt that there were
some possible improprieties in the balloting. All Senate members present consented
to its ratification.
These are the results:
Full-time: John Sutherland, 76; Laurie Ordin, 77; Michael Ransom, 70; Robert
Kennedy, 87 (elected); Joe Mueller, 103 (elected); Michael Dougan, 94 (elected);
Derek Wilson, 97 (elected)
Yolanda Bellisimo, 107 (elected)
Non-credit: Erika Harkins, 106 (elected)
Part-Time: Deborah Graham, 48; Christine Li, 9; Michele Martinisi, 19; Kaitlyn
Gallagher, 2; Paul Costello, 7; Meg Pasquel, 76 (elected)
b) Appointments to Professional Development Committee: Radica Portello was
appointed by consent.
VI. Action Items:
a) To Send the MOU on Program Review to the Administration: Senator
Bellisimo said the MOU has not been looked at by the administration or
anybody else other than the Senate and those who wrote it. The Senate
agreed to add language requiring the administration to provide all required
information to the Program Review Committee. With that amendment, the
motion was passed.
b) To Approve BP 4030 Academic Freedom: Passed with minor language
revisions.
c) To Approve 4.01 CCC GE AP List: Rinetta Early said emails have been sent to
various department chairs who will need to include their classes in this AP
list; she hasn’t heard back from any of them except John Sutherland, who
agreed but said he would like to first ask his department. The motion was
postponed until the first meeting in the fall semester.
VII. Discussion
a) Suggested Changes for Credit by Exam in 6 Modern Language Disciplines
(Freschi/Portello): We are already doing assessment testing in math and
English, but we need to have a better system, ideally online, that permits
students to test to their appropriate level, especially in Spanish. An online
advisory placement test for foreign languages has been developed by the
Perpetual Technology Group, using a system originated at Brigham Young
University. Many colleges are using it, including San Francisco City College, and
users are uniformly pleased with the results. It would require payment of a
start-up and license fee of $750 and $250, respectively, plus a per-test fee of
around $10. Several individuals are meeting tomorrow to explore whether this is
a feasible alternative for College of Marin.
b) Cheaper Text Books (Portello): Students have revealed that they use
several excellent Web sites to purchase less expansive texts. Other cost-cutting
schemes are also available. City College, for example, has a book loan program.
In the ensuing discussion, it was stated that we can’t put links on our
college Web site because it might be a violation of our contract with the campus
bookstore. Senator McKinnon said teachers can include this information in their
on-line syllabi, however.
Senator Mueller said he doesn’t like the idea that the school is bound
contractually to Barnes and Noble, the corporate owners of our book store. He
suggested that we look at the contract to learn what might be possible in terms
of helping students acquire cheaper texts. Senator Pasquel said the contract
might be a problem, particularly if we do anything that results in a depletion of
bookstore customers. “Barnes and Noble has rights here,” she said. Senator
Dunmire said it might be risky for faculty members to direct students to
particular alternative sources, because they might get cheated and then place
the blame on us. We should be careful.
AND: In off-agenda activity, the Academic Senate presented its president, Yolanda
Bellisimo, with a card, a declaration and a bouquet of flowers in appreciation for the
amazing effort that she has put forward over the past two years to make our group
efforts so significant and successful.
IX: Adjournment: 1:47 PM
NOTE: A second meeting was convened at 1:48 p.m. to formally seat the newly elected
senators. Since these were all incumbents, no action was taken and the
meeting adjourned one minute later.
For questions or information concerning the Academic Senate minutes, please
contact: Michael Dougan, michael.dougan@marin.edu, X7336