I received this from greg tanaka this morning.
Dear All:
I had promised to let you know on Monday mornings what transpired the previous week and what is forthcoming. Let me state the forthcoming part first, as it is critical and one of the very things you have all asked for. This coming Tuesday, July 31st, the New College Board of Trustees will be having a board meeting from 5 to 8pm somewhere to be announced (and most likely the biggest room available). The board has specifically set aside the first 30 minutes of this meeting for students to come and tell them whatever they would like and to ask questions. So this is an important step in opening up communications and at least one of you might tell them "thanks" so that this kind of thing will keep happening.
At this meeting, the Board will inform you personally of the outcome of a meeting of a contingent of New College representatives with the two top officers of WASC at the WASC headquarters in Alameda, CA on Friday last week. This was a superb, direct, face-to-face meeting and all parties learned a lot. Great clarity was achieved in understanding exactly what is expected of New College as it takes significant steps to restructure itself to retain full accreditation. One way to characterize this is to say that as one of the individuals attending this meeting, it seemed like a good sign that WASC was willing to take so much time (2 1/2 hours) to state each and every step the college and board must take to retain accreditation. A second positive sign was that one of the top officers offered to come to the New College campus later in August to meet face-to-face with students, faculty and staff. So everyone who is interested in saving the accreditation for New College will want to come and show support and participate in that August event.
One of the most important things WASC said was that all courses that students will take at New College this 2007-2008 academic year will be accredited and transferable. The rule is that courses are accredited up until such time that an accreditation is formally revoked, should it be revoked, and that a major decision like a revocation would not happen for an institution like New College until June, 2008 at the earliest. So all courses this year remain valid and accredited.
In addition, WASC extended the first deadline for data gathering by New College from August 6th to August 10th. This is very helpful to all faculty and staff working on those documents, and we are very grateful to WASC for that.
The rest of what occurred at this meeting will be addressed by the Board at its meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) at 5pm (at a place to be announced), so please come and bring others who are interested.
Respectfully reported,
Greg Tanaka (for the New College WASC Response Team of Dr. Martina Ayala, Dr. Francisco Leite, Professor Adam Cornford and Professor Stephanie Adraktas)
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3 comments:
Greg Tanaka tells us what he thinks the important points of the boards meeting with WASC were, but he doesn't reveal what transpired at the meeting. He offers his opinion of events without disclosing facts for our consideration. Personally, I'm not inclined to let someone else do my thinking and would prefer more transparency and accoountability from the present board, as it is reasonable to hold them responsible for putting the college in jeopardy in the first place. Unfortunately notice of tonights meeting came to late for me to attend. However, I believe it is incumbent upon the board to open up to the student body with hard facts about what has transpired in the past and what is currently going on behind closed doors. With reasonable access to the facts, I can form my own oppinions. If Mr. Tanaka is taking the time to access our blog, I suggest that he give us the facts and hold his oppinions to himself.
I'm hoping as many people as possible can show up for the meetiing at NC tomorrow.
At this point I think we are only getting the oppinions of Mr. Tanaka, without any disclosure of hard facts.
Let's show up and be a voice for the sstudent body...
This is the first time the board has announced a meeting in advance. Usually a notice is pinned up in a building on Valencia street a few minutes beforehand. You have the right to address the board. I suppose it would be polite to thank the board for its attempt to follow the law. Do you really need to be reminded of your manners?
After an ugly confrontation with Mr. Tanaka Wed. evening, I don't think he'll be inviting the alumni/ae to address the board anytime soon. We'll be there anyway. Keep up the great work, students.
Holly Harwood '05
http://stopsilence.net
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/savenewcollege
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