On Feb. 18, the board of trustees held their February regular meeting with a last minute location change from the atrium in student life to SRC 2000. This board meeting marked a few major milestones for the board, from swearing in the seventh board member and finally fulfilling full quorum to sifting through legal documents and bills piling up since December.

First and foremost, the biggest occurrence of the night was swearing in David S. Olsen, a compliance analyst of ethics at BP and a commissioner of the Village of Downers Grove. Amidst critical review of his appointment from the Illinois Community College Board, Olsen confronted the issue in his inaugural speech.

“Some people describe my action and my appointment as the swing vote, or the fourth vote for a certain group,” said Olsen. “I do disagree with that. Characterize my vote as one of seven; doing my part to ensure the best ideas, the best practices and the most ethical and appropriate policies carry the day.”

This meeting also marks the beginning of the one year countdown until the Higher Learning Commission’s probationary period is put to the test. The HLC put the College of DuPage on probation in December, recognizing that the college has had problems with its financial leadership and consistent governance.

With that, Acting Interim President of COD Joseph Collins stated in his presidential report that the college has formed the accreditation task force. It consists of 12 members from the institution and will be guided by Vice President of Planning and Research and Analysis Jim Bente. The force’s job is to fix all of the issues posed by the HLC to bring the college back to a sanctioned status with the accreditation organization over the next year.

This past week also marks four months since the COD board of trustees fired former President Robert Breuder. The Presidential Search committee gave an update on their progress of choosing proper candidates. Out of the 385 applicants for the position, the team has been able to dwindle the list to 64. Consultants to the team have conducted phone interviews over the past week and reduced the group to 20 applicants. Starting next week, the consultants will perform off-campus interviews, to cut that list further to 12, then shortly after, to three. The final three candidates will be handed over to the board of trustees who will make the final decision.