President’s Message Next week, we will welcome important visitors to our campus: a 10-member site accreditation team. The team will be led by Dr. Marie Smith, former vice chancellor of instruction and technology with the Los Rios Community College District. For information about the team members, the positions they hold and their home colleges/districts, a team brochure can be accessed through CSM’s accreditation website: www.smccd.net/accounts/csmaccredit. Additional copies are available in division offices. Visiting team members will use our self study report as their primary tool in determining how well CSM meets the new accreditation standards, which were adopted in 2003. During the team’s three days on our campus, members will interview faculty, staff and administrators, visit classes, review a great deal of documentation, attend college meetings and hold Open Forums. These forums provide an opportunity for discussion of the content of the self study in an informal setting. Open Forums will take place on Tuesday, October 23, from 5 to 6 pm and on Wednesday, October 24, from 2 to 3pm; both meetings will take place in the Gallery Room in Building 5. On Thursday, October 25, at 1:30pm in the Choral Room, Dr. Smith will conduct an Exit Meeting at which she will provide a summary of the team’s findings. This meeting is open to the college community and I encourage you to attend. The Exit Meeting is not a question and answer session and the team will leave immediately following Dr. Smith’s comments. We will receive a more detailed report of recommendations that will be generated by the Accrediting Commission in early 2008. The accreditation visiting team members will be wearing name tags on blue CSM lanyards. As I stated in an earlier message, if you happen to meet them on campus or they come in to observe your class, please make them feel welcome.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning @ CSM
By Jean Mach, professor of English & SoTL Center coordinator

Good things come in threes at the SoTL Center this month: The selection of our first two CSM Scholars, a collaboration with our sister college, Cañada, and the second Talking about Teaching Forum.

The SoTL Center warmly congratulates the first two CSM Scholars: Michelle Brown and Lucia Olson.  Their projects will explore ways to improve and enrich students’ learning, focusing on this year’s topic:
• Preparing the Citizens of the Future: Classrooms that Develop a Sense of Civic Responsibility

While sharing that focus and collaborating on refining their methods, the two scholars will approach the idea of “Civic Responsibility” through very different disciplinary lenses.

		Michelle M. Brown Associate Professor, Broadcast & Electronic Media

Michelle will create a “CSM Media Ethics Forum . . . an online web forum that features actual documented cases involving media ethics.”  She explains that “each case study will pose a thought-provoking real world situation” encountered by media professionals.  The students might confront a dilemma such as this: “You are News Director at an NBC TV affiliate station. You are told by your station owner to ‘bury’ a negative story about the safety of a recalled General Electric microwave. Keep in mind, General Electric owns NBC, so they are your employer, but this is also a matter of public safety.”  In the Forum, students will respond to questions like the following:

1. What do you do? Explain why.
2. Is this issue legal, regulatory or ethical?”

Michelle will assess the students’ work through both quantitative and
qualitative measures and hopes to publish her study in professional journals
such as Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media and Media Ethics. 

		Lucia Olson Adjunct Instructor of English

In her English 100 class, Lucia plans to “use protest literature and American
protest history to demonstrate for students the power of language and writing in civic responsibility.” She explains that “coupling John Lewis’s memoir of the civil rights movement [Walking with the Wind] with American Protest Literature helps students grasp the history of protest and protest literature in America in a real and personal way.”

The students will be immersed in a rich cultural and political dialogue throughout the semester, culminating in giving “group presentations on one of the protests in American history–women’s suffrage, civil rights, Vietnam War protests, Stonewall’s GLBT activism, Native American activism, or labor rights disputes” as well as
writing “their own version of one of the manifestoes in [the text] American Protest Literature.” 

Lucia may use student portfolios, perhaps electronic, to assess the cumulative effects of the students’ engagement in a range of activities related to the role of protest literature in America’s democracy.  She will seek various public forums for them to present their work.

We happily anticipate presentations of these timely and important classroom research experiences in the SoTL Center during the coming year.

To make a good thing even better, these two scholars with be joined by a third, in a collaboration with our sister college, Cañada. The Cañada Scholar Program, also getting underway this fall, will share the same theme of “Civic Responsibility,” with a scholar to be chosen by the end of October. As an important goal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning is to break down barriers to public sharing of our professional work, this collaboration will benefit not only the Scholars but all faculty members of both colleges.  We plan to find ways to spotlight the projects of the three scholars, in our district and beyond, as they evolve.

And finally, please join us for the second Talking about Teaching Forum:

• Friday, Oct. 26, 2-3:30 p.m. in the SoTL Center, Bldg. 12-170
                                                                “ePortfolios for Scholarship@ CSM”
                                                                presenters:  Cheryl Gregory, Mike Burke, Jean Mach

This forum will present our ePortfolio work, recently featured in the Carnegie Foundation’s Open Knowledge News:           http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org.

All-College Meeting, 10/17 on CIPII

On Wednesday, October 17, from 2:15 to 3:45pm in 18-202, an All-College Meeting will be held about the latest developments in our Capital Improvement Program (CIPII). The specific intent of this meeting is to present information on the status of the design/build and renovation projects, discuss the next steps and get feedback from the campus community with respect to the process.

President’s Lecture Series Continues

On Tuesday, October 30, at 11:10 am in the CSM Theatre, the President’s Lecture Series: Diverse Voices in Writing will present author Caille Milner. Milner, who had her first book published at age 16, is the author of a memoir, the Golden Road: Notes on My Gentrification and coauthor of The Promise: How One Woman Made Good on Her Extraordinary Pact to Send a Classroom of First Graders to College.  She was named one of Columbia Journalism Review’s Ten Young Writers on the Rise, was the recipient of the Rona Jaffe Fiction Award and earned honors from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, the National Press Club, the Scripps-Howard Foundation and the Society for Professional Journalism. She is currently on the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle; she has also written for Newsweek, Essence and The Washington Post. Immediately following the lecture, a reception and book signing will take place in 1-115.

Chinese Delegation Visits College

A Chinese delegation of 20 college principals and presidents recently visited the college to learn about CSM’s occupational programs. During the visit, the group sat in on a nursing lecture about cultural differences in non-verbal communication and toured the cosmetology department, electronics lab and science building. Members of the delegation commented on how impressed they were with CSM and that they couldn’t believe how friendly everyone was to them. The visit was sponsored by Triway Enterprise, Inc., a company that provides executive training and professional visit programs designed for Chinese delegations in the United States.

Faculty Honored for Service

The college celebrated faculty and administrators with long-term service at the annual Ice Cream Social held earlier this month. Fifteen faculty members and two administrators were honored for 10, 20 and 30 years of service, respectively. This year’s honorees include Sharon Bartels, Paulette Callahan, Durella Combs, William Curley, Renee Herold, Marilyn Lawrence, Joe Mangan, Louise Pasternack, Darryl Stanford and Milton Williams for 10 years; Michael Johnson, Peter McKenna and Carol Wills for 20 years; and Mike Burke, Vance Kennedy, Steve Morehouse and Marsha Ramezane for 30 years.

In the Spotlight: New Interim Deans

The college welcomed three new interim deans, Felix Robles, Albert Naso and  Neil McCallum, to serve during the fall semester. They replaced newly appointed Vice President Susan Estes and retiring Deans Linda Avelar and Al Acena.

►Interim Dean of Language Arts Felix Robles
Mr. Robles brings extensive administrative and teaching experience. Most recently he served as the dean of the business, English, and language arts Division at Cabrillo College, and before that he served for a number of years as the division chair of the foreign languages and communications division. He has taught Spanish and French at the high school level and Spanish at Cabrillo College. One of his special areas of interest is Spanish for Spanish speakers. Mr. Robles holds an M.A. in Spanish and a B.A. in Spanish and French from San Jose State University and an Online Teaching Certificate from Cerro Coso College. We are welcoming Mr. Robles back to CSM because he attended College of San Mateo as a student.

►Interim Dean of Business/Creative Arts Albert Naso
Mr. Naso has served as the chairperson of the fine arts and communications division at Bakersfield College from 1991 to 1998. He was also professor of art and taught drawing, design, color, painting, graphics, and art history. Prior to his experience at Bakersfield College, Mr. Naso taught courses in the industrial design department of the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art in Newark, New Jersey. He holds an M.A. from New York University. Mr. Naso has enjoyed extensive travel in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, where he has made frequent visits to museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions.

►Interim Dean of Social Science Neil McCallum
Dr. McCallum has extensive administrative experience, most recently serving as a dean at El Camino College. Previously he served as interim dean of social science at Diablo Valley College and as vice president of instruction at Ohlone College and at Hartnell College. He has also held several other administrative positions as instructional dean. Dr. McCallum’s specific areas of interest include curriculum, program review, accreditation, evaluation, course outlines, and staff development. In addition, he taught psychology and served as a counselor at both Bakersfield College and American River College. Dr. McCallum holds an Ed.D. in the administration of higher education from the University of California, Berkeley; a B.A. and an M.A. in psychology and English from San Jose State; and an A.A. from Diablo Valley College.

Floristry Department Sponsors Nationally Recognized Floral Expert

On Monday, October 22, the Student Chapter of the American Institute of Floral Design Club will host a presentation by noted floral industry expert J.M. H. Schwanke. His presentation, “Fun with Flowers and J Through the Seasons,” will take place at 7 pm in the Staff Dining Room and is open to the entire campus community. For more information about the speaker, go to www.funwithj.com/biography.html.

CSM Spring Schedule to be Mailed, on Campus Next Week

The U.S. Postal Service will begin mailing CSM's Spring 2008 Schedule of Classes next week to more than 100,000 households in the College's service area. The following cities are included in that territory: Belmont, Burlingame, El Granada, Foster City, Half Moon Bay, Hillsborough, Millbrae, Montara, Moss Beach and San Mateo.

The spring schedule will be distributed on campus also next week, although it already appears on CSM's Web site through WebSMART (the online class registration system) and in a printable format. Also, copies will be available at public libraries and recreational centers in San Mateo County.

Accomplishments

Richard Lohmann, professor of photography, recently exhibited a collection of his work at the Ansel Adams Gallery and Aperture Gallery at the Mumm Napa Valley Winery.
Dean Drumheller, laboratory technician in the astronomy program, received the Astronomical Association of Northern California’s Special Award for outstanding and continuous support in distinguishing and fostering amateur astronomy at the association’s annual conference.
Before playing its first conference game against Foothill College this past weekend, CSM’s football team was ranked 11th in the country and in the top 5 in state and regional polls.

Proposal on Designated Smoking Areas Moves Forward

In Spring 2007, College Council agreed to make the current smoking policy more restrictive by establishing designated smoking zones. A shared governance subcommittee, comprised of representatives from faculty, classified staff, students and administration, and included smokers and non-smokers, was convened to develop a designated smoking area proposal. This proposal was presented to College Council this fall for consideration, and after significant review and discussion, Council has directed the subcommittee to continue to move forward in refining the proposal and implementing the policy. The proposal calls for seven designated, temporary smoking zones throughout campus.  A copy of the policy can be viewed at collegeofsanmateo.edu/csminternal/?url=resources/reference.html.

►World Language Week 2007, an on-campus celebration of languages and cultures takes place October 15-19.
The Classified Staff is hosting a Halloween party for the campus community on October 31. For more about these events and others, visit the CSM Calendar of Events.

If you have comments or suggestions about articles and issues you would like to see in the President’s eNewsletter, send email to: prezenews@smccd.edu.