minutes from 7/25 meeting

thanks to abigail for this -

these were her personal notes which i didn't edit...
she took these on the spot

and she sent this message...

"Next Wednesday, I will use a formal,
public-ready format to transcribe our discussion."

from abigail wick - interim secretary

In attendance were:
Janet Ector,
Karen C,
Pamela Tate-Roger,
Sarah Zesmer,
Jeremy Zimmer,
Nicole Henares,
Judith Davisdon,
Tara Leigh Wagner,
Elaine Brotherton,
Animal Prufrock,
Kirsten Brydum,
Alexander Friend,
Abigail Wick

Interim Independent Student Government Meeting:

• WASC looking for a student government
o Must create/implement a charter
o Call for open bookkeeping; financial oversight committee

• No WASC penalization will occur this fall.
o We are simply on probation right now—their next step is show-cause.
o The school won’t lose accredidation.
• Everybody enrolled right now will have a degree conferred upon them. We have a semester to get things rolling, while there is no change in status.
• Between WASC and the school, there is a requirement that current students are being served.
• If we are forced to transfer our credits, many won’t be accepted by other universities.

• Appoint a student representative to the Adjunct Council.

• Appoint a media representative:

o Jeremy Zimmer has agreed to take on this role.

• Form a charter sub-committee.

o All student councils have a charter, full of bylaws, statement of purpose, necessary for an official student government. WASC wants to see that we have a functioning student government. Rather than hierarchical roles, we develop organic functional roles. A council with duties, rather than titles. We should first confirm what the WASC requirements are for the council: must we have an official president. We can use semantics, calling somebody the president, but these are only reflective of our duties. Who assumes responsibility for what?

• UC Santa Cruz Council might be a model that dovetails with the NC spirit and ethos. Can we find a copy of their charter?

• Regular meetings at 10 a.m. on Wednesdays.
o Next Wednesday will be the charter meeting.
o We should review the charter, come next week with annotation and suggestions.

• Communication Networks:
o newcollegestudentcouncil.blogspot.com

o groups.yahoo.com/group/nc-students

o lists.riseup.next/takenewcollegeback (archives of past postings)

o stopsilence.net (includes WASC findings)

• What does WASC want? Can we get a copy of their findings? Why will they axe accredidation?
o Administration must be replaced in order for us to survive—these five just shuffle themselves around. There is a certain amount of money that the school is supposed to have—unauthorized purchase of hotel, $200,000 software and Roxy—depleted our account.

o Student council must have a seat on the Board of Trustees.

• The five core administrators have lovers and relatives on the Board of Trustees.
• There is also no student representative on this Board.
• None of this could have happened if this were a transparent environment.
• Why buy new buildings or new software without consent from others? This takes the money from our school.

• Job description issue

• What are WASC’s key points?
o Arbitrary grading
o Lack of student oversight and representation
o Suspect allocation of funding

• Student Council
o Long-term student voice, representation
o Student reps from each department should be appointed
o We need to reach out to heads of department:
o Nominate a representative from each cohort, a fully representational body

• Let WASC know what our recommendations are as a student body.
• Send this to them. WASC wants instant communication.
• Let faculty know that we have a media rep, that we’re willing to use our media rep, that we have a fully-functioning student government.

• Who will be our rep to the adjunct council (Animal ready and willing to fill this position)

• Core Faculty
• Adjunct Faculty
• Nascent independent alumni association
• Coalition: all the stakeholder groups enter into communication

• Animal Prufrock, elected temporary “Council Representative” of interim independent student council
• Jeremy Zimmer, elected temporary media representative
• Abigail Wick, elected temporary “secretary”

• Reported at coalition meeting:
• Interim independent student council has been formed
• Charter meeting will be radically inclusive, come next Wednesday


• Board of Trustees has hired three (who) as consultants. They are ticking off, one by one, all of the concerns by August 6. WASC insisted this be done by the faculty. Contract was signed yesterday. Greg Tanaka; Martin Ayala; Francisco Leite (former president of university in Brazil, total expert on financial matters; has no prior relationship with Martin or anybody else on board)

• They are student-centered. Ask that there be a student, faculty and staff member on Board of Trustees.

• Martin Hamilton will step down in a year. He wants to preside over the transition.

• Want there to be a full, professional, external search for president based on a committee comprised of students, faculty, staff. A job description will be formed by September or October, probably sent out to a professional search firm. This is what happens everywhere else, especially for top positions. We are hoping to guide the board to double their size, comprised of outside people.

• They will do development of operations, faculty governance, oversight.

• They are an objective, external board.

• Can student body appoint a liaison to this oversight group? Yes!

• The two academic vice presidents have stepped down.

• August 6; September 1; early December reports due to WASC.

• Faculty has been asked to nominate a few names to nominate two new vice-presidents; they will come from our own ranks. (Carolyn and Randall?)

• Coalition Meeting:

• We need a Human Resources person.

• We need job descriptions for the unoccupied vice presidential positions.

• There are no institutional channels for reporting grievances. (Illustrative of lack of organizational channels overall.)

• The current Board of Trustees (they don’t have a charter, but they have bylaws, which should be transparent)

• On Friday, when Greg sees WASC, he must tell them that the Board of Trustees is being replaced, should be filled with those who have financial expertise, so that the school can begin raising money to fill our depleted resources.

• Student, staff, faculty and alumni should be on Board of Trustees

• Why aren’t alumni giving to New College? Why isn’t there a formal alumni association, in which alumni have their own governance?

• External, professional search for a new president: this three-person team will set up this process.

• Faculty has huge task of creating reports for WASC. We can’t expect immediate results.

• Board of Trustees meeting last night: ten board members present out of twelve. Where are they listed?

• Lack of clear communication channels. Can Greg, Francisco, and Martin make a report every week about developments at the college that are accessible to everyone. The purpose of this document should be information sharing, it should have no stance, objective. “These are the latest developments,” without editorializing.

• Greg, Francisco, Martin—hired by Martin Hamilton—report directly to the Board of Trustees. They are setting up an operating committee. They will work with existing staff to implement better control mechanisms on spending.

• New College owns the buildings, presumably the trustees do, who have a fiduciary duty. Where are the Board of Trustees bylaws—where are they hidden?

• School operating at a loss because of all these unapproved expenses. Money for buildings sold should go to a reserve account. These three will make firm decisions to the Board.

• Greg has a six week contract. Martin has a three month contract. Hiring outside consultants has been a pattern when trouble with WASC crops up. Faculty, still, is skeptical of these outsiders. This is a healthy skepticism. Faculty have never been allowed to share power. This seems to them like another way to circumvent the possibility of power endowment to faculty. Such as asking faculty to be applicants for the vice-presidential positions—Adam Cornferd and Stephanie Vertail (of the law school). The three asked that the two current positions to be filled from within the faculty ranks. The faculty is waiting for a job description and they are going to name some names.