COLLEGE OF MARIN
ACADEMIC SENATE MEETING MINUTES
FOR Oct. 29, 2009
12:45 p.m. – 2:05 p.m.
Student Service Building, Conference Rooms A & B
Senators Present: Yolanda Bellisimo, Michael Dougan, Joetta Scott, Ron Gaiz, Robert Kennedy,
Arthur Lutz, Sara McKinnon Meg Pasquel, Radica Portello, Derek Wilson, Blaze Woodlief, Meg
Pasquel
Senators Absent: Eric Dunmire, Joe Mueller, Erika Harkins
Guests: Rinetta Early, Patrick Kelly, Nathanial Parker, Chris Schultz
Minutes
I. Approval and Adoption of the Agenda: adopted
II. Reading and Approval of the Minutes of Oct. 8, 2009: approved
Reading and Approval of the Minutes of Oct. 22, 2009: approved
III. Officers’ Reports
President (Yolanda Bellisimo): Written. Attached.
IV. Committee Reports
Curriculum (Sara McKinnon): The issue of repeatability came up again. Krisie Kuhn from dance
has been working on getting her sequences articulated and accepted as transfers by various
places. The committee also discussec classes coming up for deletion if new course outlines don’t
come back soon. The deadline has been extended through the spring semester.
Community Educqtion (Erika Harkins): A new quarter started yesterday and it was a big mess
because of resistration issues with Banner and with the office. One teacher wound up with 45
people in her class, which is the maximum caqpacity. We spent half an hour before starting the
class attempting to straighten out what was going on. Communnity Education classes are still
being manually registered; they will go Banner in January.
Governance Committees (Yolanda Bellisimo): The IPC met and sent a charge for the new PRAC
committee to the College Council, which next meets on Nov. 12. Instructional equi9pment funds
that the IP{C prioritized last year have not been distributed. Nick Chang worked for three weeks
to shake that money loose from fiscal services. Now they’re going to start distributing
equpmkent funds for the 09/10 school year.
Student Access and Success (Joetta Scott): Committee met to discuss a template for all student
services to go through an evaluation. The previous dean of student services came to our last
meeting where we were reviewing templates. He had wanted his staff to work on it over the
summer. It’s not clear whether or not any work was done.
V: Consent Agenda: No items
VI: Action Items: None
VII. Discussion
a) Syllabus Template (Schultz & Portello): Last week Chris Schultz brought copies of a
template for us to discuss today. He clarified today that the function of the syllabus was to
appease WASC, to help students, to assist them in “online shopping” and to make it easier
for faculty members to make their templates.
Discussion then focused on the question of whether such a template should be
mandated by the Academic Senate, with a general consensus that it would be preferable to
use it as a “format example” that faculty could employ as they liked to assist students, but
also to provide protection for themselves.
Senator Kennedy suggested a standardized look and feel for syllabi across the board,
perhaps using the same color. Chris Schultz said that was the committee’s original intention,
to make it easy for the faculty to get something that could be quickly posted on-line and was
consistent.
It was agreed that whatever is adopted should be forwarded to the faculty with a cover
letter including quotes from and links to orders from WASC and Title 5 so everybody
understands why this is being done.
b) Deactivated Courses Update (Schultz): Classes older than 20 years have either been
replaced or deactivated. In many cases, they had been forgotten. The next round will consist
of a list of about 318 courses that are 10 years old or less. On Dec. 1 the Curriculum
Committee must hear from any faculty members or deans who intend to revise a course;
otherwise it will be deleted or deactivated (probably deleted). For those being revised, a firstround revision must be completed by May 1 or the course will be deactivated and not offered in
the spring semester.
A cover letter will emphasize the necessity of doing this in order to comply with UC
requirements and to be fair to our students.
C) Class Maximums Sidebar (Wilson): The UPM executive board made some changes in the plan
sent by the Academic Senate, deleting some language and inserting language to make the
Curriculum Committee’s determinations binding. Senator Wilson and other senators expressed
gratitude to UPM and approval of its alterations, which will go onto the Senate agenda next week
as an action item.
d) Update on SLOs and Program Review Time Line (McKinnon): Postponed
VIII: New Business: None
IX. Public Requests to Address the Senate on Non-Agenda Items: Patrick Kelly
reported that the process of revitalizing the computer science courses (through the formal
Revitalization and Discontinuance Policy adopted last year by the Academic Senate) will
continue into next fall. He said lots remains to do in streamlining the plan, which eventually
may lead to a certificate offering.
ADJOURNMENT: 2:05 p.m.
For questions or information concerning the Academic Senate minutes, please contact: Michael
Dougan: michael.dougan@marin.edu, X7336.