Los Angeles Mission College

Accreditation Steering Committee Meeting

November 9, 1999

Minutes

Present: Gerald Scheib, Mark Pracher, Yolanda Ramil, Dale Newman, Joanne Kalter-Flink, Eloise Cantrell, Gwen Walker, Edgardo Zayas, Margie Long, Ron Portillo, Rosemany Smith, Mike Reynolds, Doug McFerran, John Cantley, Dr. Daniel Castro

An overview was presented to the members summarizing progress to date including some re-organizing efforts. It was reported that all standards committees are currently having their first meetings at which the accreditation chair is making a presentation on assessment and the video on the self-study process from the commission is being viewed. A discussion of the Multi-College Pilot Program and its timetable was held.

Master calendar: The current proposed calendar for the pilot program was discussed. Suggestions from the steering committee for our response and commitment were solicited. Some felt the January deadline for descriptive summaries was unrealistic. Final decision on "milestones" and other deadlines was postponed until the next meeting of the steering committee.

It was agreed by consensus that Tuesday at 2 P.M. was a good permanent meeting time for the steering committee except for those Tuesdays on which other permanent committees meet. It was decided that the master calendar will be consulted and a series of meeting dates and times published. The chair announced that the steering committee has been expanded to include all standards co-chairs at his request. Other recommendations for membership were solicited.

The chair asked each member to submit language that could go towards a statement of purpose for the self-study at LAMC.

It was announced that Darlene Pacheco, a member of the Accreditation Commission, would be visiting the campus on November 18 for a working lunch. All members were asked to attend and to be ready with their questions. The paper by Ms. Pacheco on the "Climate of Evidence" was recommended. It is available on line at the LAMC accreditation web site.

A discussion was held on the need to coordinate standards with overlapping concerns. Standards 3 and 4 will meet together initially for this reason. Standards 8 and 9 also announced they will meet together at first.

It was announced that the process at LAMC may be managed using Microsoft Project, an on-line management tool. The accreditation office is investigating whether it is appropriate and a report on the advantages and disadvantages will be made at the next meeting. The chairs for Standards 3 and 4 announced they have already established a web site for their group at L.A.Mission.org. This site allows threaded discussion and other useful tools for managing the self-study.

The chair gave a presentation on the commission's new focus in the 1996 Handbook on assessment. The thrust of the presentation centered on the need for evidence of assessment and its use in making the institution improve.

The co-chairs of each standard were given a folder which contained the standard from the commission's guide, the previous self-study recommendations (and the mid-term report) along with several examples of self-studies by other colleges done under the new handbook. It was announced that all of these materials are also available on-line at the accreditation site on the mission web pages.

It was announced that either Roman Juarez, the accreditation assistant, or John Cantley, the chair, would attend all meetings of all standards to take notes and provide support. Mr. Juarez is currently accumulating all required documentation for the standards and will provide it to the co-chairs in paper form or make links to appropriate documents at the web site.