College Council Notes

North Seattle Community College

College Council

February 15, 2005

Call to Order

Jessica Crump, Council Chair, began the meeting at 3:00.

Attendance

Council Members: Farideh Faraz, Michael Shaw, Kurt Simmons, Kendall Harris, Matthew Davenhall, Jenny Mao, Kathy Soldat, Tom Braziunas, Miriam Aarons, Marie Paz, Jane Lister Rice, Jesscia Crump
Guests: Dorothy Dubia, Roy Flores, and Marci Myer

Member profile

Michael Shaw provided a short summary of his life and job pathway leading to North. This is his third year at North.

Approval of minutes

No minutes from previous meeting due to Jack Bautsch’s illness.

Role of the College Council

The entire meeting was devoted to a discussion of the role of the College Council, particularly with respect to the roles of the Budget Planning Committee and the Strategic Planning Committee.

During the wide-ranging discussion, various council members made these points:

How do funding decisions relate to the Strategic Plan, and in particular to benchmarks set through the strategic planning process? Right now there are no clear benchmarks and no clear connection between them and the budgeting process. Such connections are an important consideration for accreditation purposes.
What are the communication links among the three separate committees: Strategic Planning, College Council, and Budget Planning? No clear structures exist at the present time. Defining such connections would be a positive improvement.
In the past, budget decisions were based on those who made their budget needs known (the loudest voices), rather than priorities set through the strategic plan.
One conceptualization of the role of the three different committees is (1) the Strategic Planning Committee looks takes a broad view, not a specific one; (2) the College Council views the details and the smaller view and determines priorities; (3) the Budget Planning Committee develops principles for how budget decisions should be made.
One role for the College Council could be to provide the Budget Planning Group a sense of what is important to the college community. The College Council could identify what they saw as more important that should become college wide priorities.
In setting priorities, the College Council could work in a complementary fashion with the Strategic Planning Committee, translating “big picture” issues into “smaller, operational” issues/priorities, and then linking them to the budget development principles proposed by the Budget Planning Committee. That is, set priorities based on Strategic Planning priorities and Budget Planning principles.
A concern regarding the College Council’s current modus operandi are budget cuts that do not come before the council for its consideration. How should these be handled?
Without clearly defined mission-goals-objectives-benchmarks, we don’t have the “hard conversations” about budget priorities. Money becomes the driving factor rather than institutional mission and goals and what would add value to college operations.
What information should VPs present to the College Council during the budget deliberation process: Only requests for new money? Plans regarding cuts as well?
How do council members become sufficiently informed about the issues facing the areas they represent such that they (council members) can speak for the group they represent?
Who makes what types of decisions/recommendations about budget cuts: the College Council or the Budget Planning Group?
Are the “rules” about the budget planning process clear to the college community? Are the roles of the various committees clear? Could the College Council provide needed clarity and direction in this regard?
The role of the College Council seems to change as senior leadership changes. Different presidents have had different ideas regarding the role of the council. What are the expectations of our current president with respect to the council?
The College Council cannot adequately advise without input from both the Strategic Planning Committee and the Budget Planning Committee.
Perhaps the College Council has a broader role than that of budget planning. Perhaps it is a place for “true dialogue” about broad issues facing the college.
Advice given by the council in previous years has had an impact on decisions by the executive team.
Perhaps the College Council is the “meeting ground” between the broad goals of the strategic plan and the concrete realities notes by the Budget Planning Group. That is, the College Council develops recommendations for how to move toward strategic goals within limited budgets.
Right now there are no shared conversations among the three groups: College Council, Budget Planning, and Strategic Planning.
But we could define how we want these conversations/interfaces to work. For example: Take the Budget Planning Group principles, synthesize with Strategic Planning Group. Departments determine their plan. VPs present the plan, College Council evaluates against our model and makes recommendations. And the College Council addresses other issues.
In this model, the Budget Planning Committee are the “financial experts,” and the College Council’s job is to question and offer advice, working in the context of a fully developed strategic plan complete with measurable objectives and benchmarks.