Santa Monica College

Classified Senate

Meeting Minutes of March 10, 2004

Call to Order: 12:13pm.

  1. Officer’s Reports: a) Secretary – Approval of minutes. I) Marilyn Goodrich moved to accept February minutes. Yes – 15; No – 0; Abstentions – 1. II) Adam Philipson moved to approve January’s minutes. Seconded by Barbara Siegel. Yes – 16.

b) Treasurer – (Lee Peterson for Maria Bonin) Still nothing from Alex Siefert. No report in two months.

c) Vice President – Welcomed new Classifed Senate members. On Coordinating Council. Invited Tom Donner to our April meeting. It will be informational only regarding the bond passage and how it will effect us.

d) President – Accreditation visit. Team on campus from 3/22/04 – 3/25/04 in Library. Reception in B-111 for team members and leaders. Exit interview at 1pm on Thursday. Will give us a sense of direction for next six years and mid-term report. Visit is to validate college for six year accreditation. Keep realistic expectations. Won’t fire anyone. Senate has been asked to meet (Ana Jara and Adam) in Library on Thursday. Ana wants Senators to read the report put together by SMC, give input and forward back to either her or Adam.

Discussion: Barbara brought up BAE and campus support of it – no one has actually been polled on it.

Lee recommended that everyone read the report as well. Said it was very much a political document; a consensus product – different writers with their own point of view expressed in the report.

Bobby Ponce asked how many were passed out. Ana said 100 and that it’s on-line. Lee said there were also several copies in the Library and urged everyone to forward any comments and/or concerns.

Ana will point out how she feels about the report. She said that it was really watered down from the original version.

The audit report was brought up at the Board of Trustees Meeting. Ana asked if there were any volunteers to check it out.

Coordinating Council going through review of self-study with only one central committee; i.e. such as Budget Committee merging with them for overlap in recommendations with sub committees and all recommendations going to the top.

AB-1725 – Faculty needs to watch (perhaps match…can’t read my own writing) students. Penalty needs to be paid in three year payments. Recommended by Faculty member that staff needs to grow too.

Professional Development Committee – Has approximately $1600 ($200 per person per request) to be used for conferences.

Next Senate meeting is scheduled during Spring break on 4/14. Will anyone be gone? Should we postpone?

Barbara made the motion to show hands of who will be here. Jim Galligan seconds. Not many will be on campus. April 7th is proposed by Ana. Bobby moves to move meeting to that date. Jim seconds motion. Yes – 14; No – 0; Abstentions – 2. Meeting moved to 4/7/04.

No report yet on Christmas Tree sales from December on the lot at 14th & Pico.

Public Comments: Carl Gettleman: Academic Senate may be doing a vote of “no confidence” for the Board of Trustees and we should back them. Can we get rid of evaluation process – doesn’t serve a useful purpose. Pointless – fruitless effort. Move to defer to CSEA President.

Lee moves to go to item 7a on the Agenda – the approval of Beverly Redd-Walker as a new Senate member. Bobby seconds the motion. Vote taken. Yes - 16; N – 0; Abstentions – 0.

Action Items: a) Approval of Beverly Redd-Walker – by secret ballot vote.  Point of information: How many vacancies? 4. Point of Information – Adam: Beverly ran last time for the Senate – missed by a close amount of votes. Vote: Yes – 15; No – 1; Beverly is approved for the Senate.

b) Mission Statement/Guidelines – just a compass of what we’re into and would take on later. A discussion ensued.

Phil Hendricks thanked Adam for his time on the Mission Statement and then suggested an amendment to it in support of SB235 (in Ed Code). This bill insures that any time the District consults with Classified employees, CSEA would have to be there as well. Specifically directed at negotiable issues.

Adam disagreed, stating it wasn’t appropriate to add to the Mission Statement. It should be another statement – something different. Lee agreed with Adam. He opposes amending the statement also and feels it should be in another statement.

Carl mentioned that in theory, we should both have no opposition to each other. We should be together working for Classified rights.  He saw no problem with the Classified Senate saying we’re for anything that would help and putting maximum representation in the statement.

Martha Jimenez said she felt that if we did amend the statement, it would just keep growing and that SB235 shouldn’t be addressed in this forum. #7 in the statement already covers it.

More discussion with Barbara and Phil explaining how to work it into the Mission Statement.  

Joanne Guercio called for a vote to close the debate on including language to amend #7 to add SB235.  Lee seconded the motion. Vote followed: Yes – 10; No – 5; Abstentions – 0. Debate closes. Vote on the adding of the language to the statement followed: Yes – 3; No – 9; Abstentions – 4. Motion does not pass.

Original motion: Lee moves to close discussion and accept guidelines as is for Senate. Bobby seconds. Vote: Yes – 12; No – 2; Abstentions – 2; Motion passes. Vote to accept guidelines for the Senate follows: Yes – 11; No – 1: Abstentions: 4 – Guidelines approved.

Ana moves to end the meeting. Jeannette Goolsby seconds the motion. Motion passes unanimously.

Adjournment: 1:05pm

Attendees: Linda Davis, Carol Evans, Jim Galligan, Carl Gettleman, Marilyn Goodrich, Jeanette Goolsby, Joanne Guercio, Phil Hendricks, Ana Jara, Martha Jimenez, Herb McNeely, Lee Peterson, Adam Philipson, Robert Ponce, Jackie Portal-Purdy, Beverly Redd-Walker, Barbara Siegel, Gayle Sosa, Giovanni Vela

Excused: Maria Bonin, Tom Carter, Bernie Rosenloecher, Alex Siefert, Mark Stemock, Amelia Trejo, Craig Walter.

Unexcused:

 Next Meeting: Wednesday, April 7, 2004, Noon, SC-251