minutes from 8/27/07

Minutes from 8/27/07
27 August 07 Student Council Meeting as written by Paméla Tate-Roger

In attendance were:
Michael Boyd, Law School
Sheila Norman, MA Humanitites and Leadership
Belinda Sifford (spelling?) Adjunct Faculity School of Law
Paméla Tate-Roger, MA Humanitites and Leadership
Sara Zesmer, Grad Psych (on leave)
Animal Prufrock, MFA?
-- Creative Inquiry

Facilitator: Animal Prufrock

Agenda:
1. Charter
2. Selection Committee Meeting

The group reviewed the New College of California Interim Student Council Charter draft
and after a general discussion and corrections to the draft, the motion was made to accept
the following Charter. The motion was made by S. Zemer, seconded by A. Prufrock and
unanimously accepted.

New College of California Interim Student Council Charter

(New College Of California Interim Student Council)?

Statement of Purpose?
?

The Student Council of New College of California shall serve as an organized creative body
through which the students of New College shall have a democratic voice and a vehicle for
developing school policies and their implementation. ?
?

The purpose of the New College of California Student Council is to provide a forum and a
basis for representing and organizing New College Students from all of the college's
academic and professional programs to participate in decision-making at the school in
order to insure that the college hold a dignified place in the community as a just,
sustainable, respectful, democratic and progressive institution for students, faculty, and
staff.?
?
?

Objectives and Functions:?

1. ?
The mission of the New College of California Student Council is to confer with, advise, and
communicate with the Administration, The Board of Trustees of New College of California
(Board Of Trustees), Core Faculty Council (FC) and Adjunct Faculty Government, and
Alumni/Alumnae as is appropriate, with regard to matters of interest to the Students and
other matters of school-wide importance.?

2.?
The New College Of California Interim Student Council will seek to advise the Board Of
Trustees and others on modifications of current school-wide policies and the development
of new school-wide policies of concern to the Students.?

3. ?
The New College Of California Interim Student Council will seek to represent the needs of
students by having 2 voting seats on the Board of Trustees as well as 2 representatives
sitting on all existing and newly formed committees.?
?

4. The New College of California Interim Student Council seeks to create a permanent
student lounge for the purpose of social and academic support, and to create community
at each campus.

II. ?
Organization: ?

1.?
The New College Of California Interim Student Council shall be comprised of all Students
from the Valencia Street, the East Bay, the North Bay and the Law School Facilities.
Members must be currently enrolled or students on leave from New College of California.?
?

2.?
The New College Of California Interim Student Council shall elect, by a simple majority of
members attending, a chair for the next will be chosen at the end of each meeting. The
chair will be a rotating position – although if necessary a person may chair 2 consecutive
meetings – but then must wait 2 meetings before being eligible to chair again.?

?
3.?
The New College Of California Interim Student Council may elect other representatives, as
necessary, in accordance with its bylaws.?

?
4.?
The New College Of California Interim Student Council shall record minutes of meetings
and make them publicly available to the entire New College Community, together with any
necessary exhibits or attachments on the New College Of California Interim Student
Council blogsite/website. ?
?

III. ?
Operations:?

1.?
The New College Of California Interim Student Council shall adopt its own bylaws. The
bylaws shall provide for regular stated meetings of the Council, which shall be held at
various locations to be determined until a permanent meeting space is assigned by New
College.

2.?
Decision making will be done by modified timed consensus – and then simple majority.?
?

3.?
Records of the activities of the New College Of California Interim Student Council shall be
kept and transmitted to the appropriate successor officers of the New College Of California
Interim Student Council.?
?

4.?
The New College Of California Interim Student Council shall adopt and operate in
accordance with the New College Policy on Rights, Grievances and Community Conduct.?
?

IV. ?
Ratification and Amendment of the Charter?

1.?
This Charter shall be presented by the Charter Formation Committee to attending Student
Council Members. The Charter shall become effective upon its ratification by a two-thirds
majority.

2.?
An amendment to the Charter may be introduced to the New College Of California Interim
Student Council by any member of the New College Of California Interim Student Council;
and approved by a simple majority (see III, point 3) of the attending membership of the
New College Of California Interim Student Council.?

?
3.?
The Charter shall become effective upon its ratification by a two-thirds majority.

Please see the attached minutes from the original transcription of the Search Committee
Minutes.


SEARCH COMMITTEE MINUTES OF AUGUST 27, 2007 MEETING

Present: Jane Swan (BOARD OF TRUSTEES), Sarah (Student on leave), Debbi Grenn (Faculty),
Animal Prufrock (Student), Debrina Madison (Dean), Linda James-Myers (Dean), Phillip
Knowlton (BOARD OF TRUSTEES), Milly Henry (Faculty), Pamela Tate-Roger (Student), Mitch
Hall (Dean), Jennie Lim (Faculty), Craig Rasmussen (Staff), Kathy Voutyras (Staff), Ernest
Brown (BOARD OF TRUSTEES), Dan Cassidy (Faculty)

Introductions were made to welcome and inform members who were not at the first
meeting.

Jane gave an overview of the discussion from the previous meeting (see last weeks
minutes)

New Business

Mitch Hall gave a presentation about the Registry for College and University Presidents
http://www.registry -online.org. This is a service which has a pool of potential presidents
who are available on an interim basis. The Registry defines interim as 1-12 months.

They have placed over 200 interim presidents; they have a pool of +/- 110 potential
candidates. The Registry investigates each candidate, checks references, verifies CV's, etc.

Once they receive a list of our expectations they forward us 6-8 "potential" candidates.
They look to us to narrow it down to 3 who then come for a formal interview process. All
potential candidates visit the school the same day and the Registry facilitates the interview
process. Salaries are negotiable, the school pays not benefits, but is charged a 33% "fee"
by the Registry.

Registry candidates are not allowed to apply for the permanent position. There is a 30 day
"escape" clause in the event the job is finished earlier than first determined.

The Registry wants an exclusive agreement if we use them, meaning we would not be able
to do other recruiting.

Motion: P. Knowlton moved that we evaluate the Registry, make a proposal to the Board of
Trustees, negotiate a salary range and validate the Registry's services.

Discussion

Concerns were raised about the demographics of the Registry's pool of applicants. Cost
was also a concern in light of the recent layoffs of staff and faculty. Whether the Registry
was a non-profit or for-profit entity was raised as a concern. Finding a candidate who is
able to facilitate the necessary changes, build coalitions and work within the school's
mission was identified as a priority.

Vote: Motion passed unanimously.

Action Item: Jane, Mitch & Sarah will approach the Registry for more information; a
demographics profile of potential candidates; references from other progressive schools
that have used their services; a range of salaries of Presidents placed in similar sized
schools; and any other information that we need to make an informed decision.

Motion: P. Knowlton moved that we pursue online advertising and PR opportunities.

Mitch gave an overview of his investigation into print/online advertising in traditional and
alternative academic venues.

Discussion

There was discussion about the time lag time and cost for placing advertisements if the
committee would conduct it's own search. Animal has experience in using online PR at low
cost and effort. The possibility that this effort could also be the first step in the search for
a permanent President was raised.

Concerns were raised that the response could be overwhelming and consume too much of
the committee's time. There was discussion about this also being a good way for better PR
for the school, a way to balance the discourse. The benefits and drawbacks of pursuing
Board of Trusteesh (Registry and our own) searches simultaneously were discussed. It was
pointed out that we would probably have to end our own search if we entered into an
agreement with the Registry. Sarah raised the possibility of negotiating a fee to the
Registry if we found a candidate outside their process.

Vote: Motion passed 12-2

Discussion: The committee discussed what would constitute a valid vote: consensus,
simple, or super majority. After some discussion and given the size of the committee there
was tacit agreement for a simple majority.

Action Item: Animal, Linda, Phillip & Kathy will prepare materials and investigate outlets
for our advertising/ PR campaign.

Miscellaneous:

1. Jane asked us to think about different subcommittees that may need to form and which
areas we would be interested in serving.

2. Animal to start a Yahoo group for the committee to facilitate the flow of information.

3. Proxies: The issue of sending a proxy if a member were going to miss a meeting was
raised. It was decided that those members who represent a particular group should have
that group choose the proxy. Other could arrange one on their own.

4. Meeting time: The current meeting time did not work for any Law School faculty or
Administration. We agreed to change the permanent meeting time to Monday at 1pm.
Given next Monday is Labor Day, that meeting was rescheduled to Wednesday 9/5 at
9:30am.

This discussion also explored some questions around the makeup of the committee. The
point was made that the professional schools were not represented among the Faculty
Council representatives, although the Deans from each School at New College were on the
committee. All seemed to appreciate the diversity of perspectives represented among the
group members, and were happy about student participation. It was also agreed that,
though mindful of the needs of particular constituencies, committee members should
represent the school in general. It was noted that given the size of the group, adding
members would make it more difficult to reach decisions. No actions were taken regarding
these issues.