Board of Trustees Report

Mission College

September 23, 2009

Planning and Student Success Committee

In a half-hour meeting, East presented its Mission statement, which is required for accreditation. Gary Colombo then detailed the steps planned to meet the two district recommendations that the City-side colleges received. One requires that we evaluate how well we're following the recently developed delineation of responsibilities between the district and the colleges. The "functional map" describes these roles, and it has been discussed during a number of Chancellor visits and at various other meetings, but it needs to be assessed for accuracy. The second requires us to evaluate our governance processes. A four-step process is planned to do this. Gary also discussed the process by which we will evaluate the current district strategic plan, looking ahead to the revision of the plan which needs to be done no later than 2010-11. He argues that that revision should be done earlier, given the significant economic and technological changes that have taken place in recent years.

Legislative Affairs Committee

The committee briefly reviewed its role and purpose. It then looked at possible legislation to support this year. There are five proposals dealing with the bond program, from "feed-in tariffs" (energy related) to "best value procurement." In addition, there is a proposal to make it easier to offer concurrent enrollment at K-12 schools. All are likely to receive Board support. Marvin Martinez updated the committee on the Obama community college initiative announced this summer, which has now been formulated in legislation (the "Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act"). The district could obtain some significant grants, possibly totaling $15 million a year. Some discussion followed as to the wisdom of pursuing a single district grant, as opposed to each college applying separately. The general view was that a district approach would be preferable, especially as this is clearly favored by Washington.

Finally, Yasmin Delahoussaye detailed the impasse in Sacramento over the future of the Student Aid Commission, with CCC's arguing for decentralization, in order to serve students better. As things stand, the SAC could be disbanded in January with nothing to take its place, though that seems unlikely.

Open Session

Mona Field asked for a moment of silence at the start in memory of Chris McCarthy, president of Napa College, who died earlier this week. McCarthy had worked at Harbor and Glendale Colleges at the start of his career and was deeply loved and respected by colleagues. At the end of the session a number of testimonials were given in his honor, including statements by Harbor faculty and by Kathleen Burke Kelly, now a VP at Trade, who knew McCarthy at Glendale.

Judith Valles briefly welcomed the Board to Mission. Earlier in the day there had been a presentation of recent activities and changes at Mission for the Board.

A dozen speakers followed, current and former Mission students for the most part, all concerned about the lack of a Chicano Studies Department. Many talked about the social and cultural value of Chicano Studies, given the large Latino enrollment at Mission (around 80%). Some spoke harshly about "a segment of faculty who refuse to accept Latinos," and "racism" on the part of the Senate and the union, with one threatening to go on a hunger strike, but most were more positive, citing the ways in which these courses had given them self-respect and how important it was that the history of their community be taught. Trini Rodriguez said she felt "disowned" getting her education in the 70's without access to Chicano Studies classes. Another older speaker, Joe Tucker, said the courses had made him a more effective union organizer. Over 800 students have signed a petition asking for a department.

The speakers left listeners confused as to exactly what the situation was at Mission, given that some of them referred to Chicano Studies degrees they had earned there in recent years. Judith Valles clarified that the program does grant degrees but is currently part of the Foreign Languages Department. The college, however, is seriously considering making it an independent department. Seven or eight classes are currently offered and enrollment is high.

There was no action taken in Closed Session that needed to be reported out.

Reports on the two morning committee meetings were given, both by Sylvia Scott-Hayes (see above).

Four more public speakers followed, this time about the budget for the Journalism Department at City. Rhonda Guest, the faculty advisor for City’s newspaper, the Collegian, claimed that the newspaper was being singled out for an exceptionally large cut (40%), due to retaliation by President Jamillah Moore for a complaint that the newspaper staff made to the state regarding alleged censorship. Guest was supported by a former student, as well as a current student, who claimed to have been humiliated by Moore at a town hall event. Ken Sherwood, Senate president at City, speaking on behalf of the absent Moore, sharply rejected the accusations, stating they were slanderous and "patently false." He said the funding cuts were not exceptional and that all departments are being equally affected. City is facing a very sizable deficit.

A resolution honoring retiring classified staff was passed. One of them, Marcus Rankins, worked 40 years at Trade! In addition, a resolution was passed honoring the EOPS program on its 40th anniversary. Its "historic and continued success" in realizing the vision of the state Master Plan for Higher Education was cited, and October was named EOPS Month in the district.

There was no report from the Chancellor.

The Consent Calendar was passed unanimously after four questions were answered. One dealt with the recent arrival of a group of Egyptian students studying at City. They are part of a new statewide program bringing Middle Eastern students to the CCC's. Another concerned the large number of contracts (56) that one firm had received for bond engineering projects. Larry Eisenberg stated that they were exceptionally qualified in a highly specialized field dealing with wastewater.

The final item concerned the authorization of a broker for bond program insurance. You may recall from the last report that the losing firm, AON, had appealed to the Board to not award the contract to Kaercher Campbell, as their bid was $600,000 higher than AON's ($2.4 million to $1.8 million). The Board tabled the item. This time Eisenberg presented a rationale as to why the Board should award Kaercher Campbell the contract, an argument that was not at all clear at the last meeting. He said that they would be able to negotiate considerably better agreements with various insurance firms than AON, thus saving the district far more money than the difference in their fees. However, no evidence was presented as to why this would be the case, and when the district’s own risk management consultant was asked about broker variation in this regard, he said that they were "all pretty comparable." Sylvia Scott-Hayes argued that the Board should support the recommendation of staff and urged a yes vote. Others seemed clearly troubled by the fee discrepancy. Miguel Santiago suggested the motion be tabled again. In the end, the Board voted 4-2-1 against awarding the contract to Kaercher Campbell. They then later voted 4-3 to award it instead to AON, at the lower fee. Field, Mercer, Santiago, and Park voted in the majority, Scott-Hayes, Candaele, and Pearlman in the minority.

Comment

If you’re wondering why I’m giving so much attention to this decision, it’s because it really was quite gripping listening to the opposing arguments. The end result, however, is embarrassing for the district, with the Board overruling the decision of staff, a decision which had been upheld by the Deputy Chancellor. I don’t know of another instance of this happening, certainly not in the last two years. It may also be indicative of a greater degree of criticism by the Board of facilities planning decisions, though it’s too soon to draw that conclusion.

David